Montebelo Aguieira Lake Resort & Spa

Beautiful spot. The service in the dining room is a little slow but I think it may be the Portuguese way: when we arrive in the dining room and they seat you at the table, they do not offer a drink right away, not water or wine, you have to wait 5-10 minutes. It’s quite disconcerting for me as a Canadian as we like to be served a drink, even water, when we sit down. Also the lighting in the dining room is more befitting a big department store than a dining room. We asked to turn the lights down, which they did in our area. But there was a couple with a baby in a stroller under the bright lights. The food was excellent. I couldn’t get a massage appointment, they were all booked up although there was hardly anyone at the resort. The pool area is gorgeous. We did rent a kayak for anhour. We kayak often, have our own kayaks but this one was a little heavy, harder to manipulate as were the oars.

We travelled as a family of 4 for our Summer holidays. The Hotel conditions, in general, are good, but the “5th star was lost” somewhere. To make it clear and objective: - Really nice pools, amazing area, fantastic views, good apartments, nice friendliness of staff. - The food, mainly at lunch, is, to state it softly, poor. When you are in a 5-star hotel you expect a level of service, food variety and quality to be even across all amenities, but this is not definetely the case. Even understanding that lunch is served in the pool restaurant, therefore it’s supposed to be “lighter”, to have canned food (mushrooms, peaches, ...) served and so few options in the buffet (poor salads and variety of side dishes) is really disappointing. - The dinner buffet was better than lunch, but still has some of the same problems. In a region with such amazing ingredients, it’s a shame that some of the dishes (mainly the sides) lacked a proper cook to put it together. On the positive side, all the deserts (quantity and variety) was at a 5-star level in all dinner meals. - The hotel states that it has a Kids Club: this is a joke, except if you consider a 3x3m room with literally one book and one pretend-to-be plastic phone and some baby chairs will entertain anyone (definitely not a 1-year old nor a 5-year old). - Security: in general, the Hotel is very safe and your kids can play around without major problems.

The low cost build and fit out, not to mention the tired state of the accommodation and linen renders the hotel sub 3 star. The breakfast quality is similar. As a kids resort or water sports training facility it is great for the uncaring on quality.

Very good experience. Excelent breakfast. Excelent program of intertainment, mostly to kids. Good location and good view. Bad things: we didn' t have water in the apartment during 2h in the lunch times, for 2 days what was bad when you have kids and will lunch in the apartment. The in door pool and jacuzi was out of service during 3 days.