그랜드 하우스 빌라 레알 데 산토 안토니오

What an incredible evening, Tiago back in the restaurant as head chef… WOW the culinary delights were amazing. If this man does not get his Michelin star then there is something very wrong with their system. Food was simply amazing, already booked to go back for our wedding anniversary. If you like fantastic food then this is a “must visit” place.

The hotel is in a beautiful old, renovated building across from the river. The décor is exquisite and matches perfectly with the Belle Epoque/Art Nouveau style of the building. The furniture artwork and textiles are very stylish giving the rooms a lovely ambience. The breakfasts were great and dinner is also available in the dining room. We did not eat there because the menu was limited. BUT Vila Real de Santo Antonio is a very small town with limited dining options and tourist attractions, unless you have a car and are prepared to drive to other towns in The Algarve or, into Spain. The hotel has a beach club but, not mentioned on the website, is that it is a 30-40min walk from the hotel. They will drive you there and pick you up, but this means you have to wait a little. The beach club has an unheated swimming pool with no direct access to the small beach nearby. To access you have to leave the club and walk a short distance to the beach. There is a restaurant and the food and service are good. The beach club is closed on Mondays. The main reason we would never return was the service did not match the standard of the rooms. Very little information was provided on checking in and there is no information folder in the room. On our second last day, we did find that the mobile phone located beside the bed had a wealth of information about towns and restaurants in the Algarve. It would have been helpful to have known about this when we checked in. There are no laundry bags in the room and no mini bar. There is a small fridge which contained a large bottle of water and this was replaced every second day. There were no tea and coffee facilities in the room nor in in the guest sitting rooms. Having been travelling for two weeks, we did some washing when we arrived and hung it in the bathroom. When we came back from the beach club we were asked to wait because the manager wanted to speak to us. She said and I quote “ We are Relais and Chateau, you are not allowed” to hang laundry in the bathroom. She then said they would do our washing free of charge. This was news to us. When we got back to the room the washing had been dried, ironed and hung in the wardrobe. On checking out, the receptionist apologised because the printer was not working and we would have to wait for our invoice whilst she fixed it. She then called the concierge and spoke to him in Portuguese. It was obvious that she was stalling and he was asked, indiscreetly, to go and check the room. Fair enough if there had been a mini bar but there wasn’t. We are frequent travellers and cannot remember this ever happening anywhere else. We felt like ‘criminals’.