Advantages: Good rooms, helpful staff, free bus into town Disadvantages: Its a bus ride from town.
with plenty of space for sun loungers. Inside the hotel was a very good pool, sauna and hot tub.
Drinks and lunchtime food were good and reasonably priced and service was good.
The walk into Funchal along the promenade is a pleasant one although you wouldnt want to do it every day. The hotel has a regular free bus service to funchal and the bus was always there on time when we wanted to return.
Things to do in Funchal include the botanical gardens with a sledge ride down the hill afterwards. The sledge is a wicker basket which just slides down the steep road and is pushed and guided by two men in 'traditional' costume. This apparently was the idea of a Brit who couldnt face the walk back into town at the end of each day. They take a photo of you on the way down and stop halfway so you are faced with a long walk or an overly priced taxi ...
Advantages: Comfortable, clean hotel with lots of facilities close to Funchal Lido Disadvantages: A pull uphill to the door - but it is Madeira - everything is uphill!
Bearing in mind the price of this hotel, we were agreeably surprised by the quality. The room was clean and of a reasonable size with a lovely sea view and overlooking the swimming pool. The staff were friendly, especially the chambermaids!
The breakfast was good, with a good selection of food,although being self-service it was a bit of a scramble if you arrived at around 9am, when we all seem to want to eat our breakfasts!
The only problem is that the hotel is a sharp pull up from the road (as is most of Madeira) although those with cars or using taxis will have no problem arriving at the door. The walk into Funchal is very manageable by us two 69 year olds but we are fitter than some and enjoy levada walking. The levada near the hotel has 150 steps up to it! ...
Advantages: Informal, clean, decent food, right near the beach Disadvantages: Hideously expensive bar and wines
We stayed at the Pestana Bay "Aparthotel" four-star hotel in Funchal (the capital of Madeira) in August 2005 and I'm happy to recommend it to anyone reading this. It was clean, conveniently placed (i.e right near the beach and with a nearby bus stop for trips into town), not too formal or "stiff upper lip" and the breakfasts were pretty good.
COSTS:
We paid just over £500 each including flights, for a 2-week stay in August, which we thought was pretty good value given that it's not the cheapest of locations. This included buffet breakfast each morning.
The bar is expensive and probably best avoided if you need to watch the euros- we paid something like 10 euros for a Southern Comfort and coke, and a small bottle of beer. There are plenty of bars in Funchal where you can get the same drinks for under four euros, so I would advise ...
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