Da Balaia Portugal

We had a lovely family holiday with our three kids - 10, 5 and 2. The Mini and Petit Club team were fabulous, our kids had a brilliant time. They were very well entertained and looked after. It was also really nice to see such a fun Teen Club - I can see the reviews here which matches what I saw too.

I feel the hotel is a little tired and showing its age. We became friendly with a family that actually left due to dissatisfaction with their room. Our room was renovated but we felt that they were quite small and fairly basic.

The activities were great overall but I didn't love the gym classes. The GO only conducted the classes in French despite knowing there were some basic French/English speakers. He did a body pump class with no music for 40 minutes and then put music on for the last 10 minutes. Very odd.

My main area of disappointment is the food. It is nowhere near as good as the Palmiye resort. There is only one restaurant and the food is quite repetitive. I felt the quality of the ingredients was not brilliant - the meat was always very tough and not pleasant. The range of food selection was not as good as Turkey. We went to the set menu restaurant one time and paid 90 euro for the T-Bone steak, which sadly was very bad. The waitress/manager refused to make any discount or compensation for the inedible meal.

We did have a fabulous holiday, once we got over the few areas of disappointment. I am not sure I would return to Da Balaia again unless it had a full renovation. I will definitely be back to Palmiye!

Especially the circus team was outstanding providing a unique experience for our son.

This was a beautiful place. The AC was anemic in the heat. The beach was good, the sea stunning. The wading pool was cold (nice) and the big pool warmer. In the summer when we were there, there was an abundance of young children. There are programs the keep them occupied, but not at mealtimes.

I would rate the rooms as excellent if they had better cooling. The location is not super accessible, but not worse than the Caribbean.