Caterblock
Google
My overall experience at the Tivoli Alvor Hotel was excellent; it was the first time I have visited Portugal and the 10 day visit exceeded my expectations. (Late May-Early June)
The pools were great; with 4 pools; 1 being a large adult only (16+) pool which was where we spent a lot of our time. Said pool was mostly clean and cleaned regularly. The other pools often had volleyball games and entertainment for kids
There were a good choice of restaurants at the hotel; The main one Essenze is open until 10:30am for breakfast, and also serves lunch and dinner. However, we found throughout our stay that most food was cold, and eggs often badly cooked making it much less enjoyable and off-putting.
I have coeliac disease and am allergic to Gluten, after telling the staff this, all staff were greatly helpful and offered to have chips, pasta and chicken cooked separately for me to be able to eat. Rodrigo and Sophia were greatly helpful, along with Paula, Danio and Nicole. At the hotel you are able to book an Italian restaurant, and a roastic restaurant, which you can book every day alternatively if necessary. The Steak in the roastic restaurant was marvellous. The pizzas at the Italian restaurant were also excellent, and were possible gluten free.
Other than these, there was a barbecue area open midday which served good meats, furthermore there were two bars open throughout the day; a busy one with regular entrants a quieter one open until 10pm. The staff at this bar in particular were great, very hard working and welcoming, especially the man who worked nights at the salty bar.
The rest of the staff throughout the hotel were incredibly welcoming. The maid cleaned thoroughly. We spent extra to get a larger room, which was spacious with a good view and good bedding, along with necessary utilities. When arriving, staff took out suitcases to our room.
The surrounding area is in a really good location, with the hotel providing free hourly mini train rides down to Alvor, with a substantial number of shops and great restaurants which we visited multiple times. The beach is about 600m away, easily accessible by a private bridge and path, shared by the Pestana hotel. The coast is excellent, not overly busy, with a couple food shops/restaurants. Two drawbacks of the location of the hotel are it being in full view of the tall Pestana hotel, which affects the view, and secondly the lack of supermarkets close, meaning we often had to ask for milk and sugar from the bar, (which they were more than happy to provide) to make tea etc.
Overall, our stay was excellent, staff were lovely, lots of activities and a great location, and the only problem was the food being often cold which I hope could be looked at and resolved.
I would recommend the hotel again, if you decide to visit then definitely take a boat trip to the Bengail caves; they are stunning. The slide and splash water park is outstanding and massive. Ubers in portugal are cheap, so travelling is easy.
