Vila Gale Ampalius Resort Hotel

Good service, lovely room. Breakfast enjoyable.

We do stay here when we visit vilamoura, just had a lovely refurbished bar and dinning area. Very friendly staff in all areas. We had a seaview room on the ninth floor unfortunately all the lifts weren't working for few days so it did get busy in the remaining lift that was working. Dinning room gets busy at breakfast. We were going just after 9 and seemed ok then.

We have stayed at this hotel a number of times over the years and have always been satisfied.
The bar area and restaurant have recently had a makeover which has seen the bar move from one wall, into the centre of the bar area and both areas looking brighter and more modern.
More thought was needed regarding the positioning of the toasters in the restaurant as the dangling wires attached to an extension lead which is suspended in mid air off a table, is an accident waiting to happen.
The breakfast selection itself was also quite basic/clinical in its layout.
There are most things that most people would want but I can't put my finger on what is wrong, it just feels like items, or the selection of items that we have seen in other hotels was not avaliable here. I.e. raisins, dates, almonds were nowhere to be seen. Likewise there were days when no bananas were available/visible but that might be because the golf groups had taken them with them and they hadn't been replenished.
Similarly the evening meal buffet (which we only had once because first impressions matter) also felt disapointing and the way things were presented was not inviting. It just wasn't anything special.
There were options, but limited options. I.e. four basic desert options, and only one or two of each option which made it look sparse on our visit. No cakes or typical items you would expect on a hotel buffet.
The layout felt more like canteen than restaurant in my opinion. Which was a shame because the remodelled restaurant deserved more.

Those issues apart, the stay was pleasant enough and the staff at customer facing level were all very friendly and helpful.
The housekerpers, bar staff, cafe staff and reception team were all great.

Higher management however, were a different story. They never acknowledged guests even existed and always passed you by without looking up and none of them were ever seen smiling.
The hotel manager passed us on numerous occasions and obviously thought that she was too important to look in our direction let alone crack a smile or speak to us.
We found this very rude and unfriendly.

Situated right across from beach,you can hear the sea at night. Big hotel but the staff make you feel like you are special. Spotlessly clean,rooms done daily. Buffet style breakfast had everything you could require. In spite of power outage on our last day,the staff had it all under control . Highly recommend a visit tomSpa( has to be booked to avoid overcrowded)
Would definitely go back in a flash

Great hotel, great location right on the beautiful sandy beach . Usual amenities, proximity to local bars, pubs, restaurants in the marina & surrounding area. Friendly staff. Clean rooms

Returning home today New Year’s Eve 2025 & returning in May 2026 with friends to same hotel.

No complaints except no tea/coffee in the rooms

Rooms and location excellent. Only gripe the small kitchen wasn't very well equiped, no kettle!!
Easy reach to Vilamoura Marina and Quateira.

Just returned from pleasant five night stay, apart from the last night when there was a wedding in beach club attached to Tivoli hotel next door. Thumping noise went until 1.45am. So avoid room facing west. Apart from that, very pleasant stay.

This is absolutely the best hotel on the water in the entire Algavre coast!

We would of gave this property at best a 3 star if for not Fabio at the front desk. Without getting into all the details of our A/C stuck heating on heat. Anyways, Fabio profusely apoligized for the issue and immediately upgraded us to mini kitchen ocean front. Thus gesture and attention to details got the hotel a higher rating.

Please be aware while staying at this hotel without any warning they have started to do a lot of internal building work. Meaning a lot of the described facilities are no longer available to hotel guests staying from October 6th onwards. Also heavily used by groups of male golfers. This has impacted our stay in a very negative way. If had knowed in advance would have re booked at another hotel nearby.

The hotel is amazing the reception team especially Fabio excellent, the dining room staff exceptional ,food good facilities excellent . The hotel is literally a few steps to the beach
Close to the marina
Has a bus stop at the top of the road which has an excellent bus service to visit other towns Fargo etc
Also has a free shuttle bus to the next town Quatera which you can walk to along the beautiful promenade it’s a 15 min walk at the most depending on how fast you walk
The hotel I cannot fault
The problem is the golfers they come in large groups and basically take over the pool area and hotel
They also took over some bars in the Marina
It didn’t ruin our holiday as Portugual is fantastic and the weather was suburb
We spoke to some ladies who had been to the hotel for the past 7 years and said it hasn’t always been this bad and maybe it was because their usual hotel was shut at the time they came here
But that was the only thing that I would say was a negative for us
But like I said I could be different at another time .
Just a heads up

Our room had a balcony and was facing the carpark, with a sidewise view of the sea. Quite noisy, particularly during the time the next door beach club was in full swing! It was functional, tired with no real stand outs. It was cleaned daily and well. Breakfast was adequate with good choice. The melon was particularly tasty. Staff were very attentive and kept the area clean and food was quickly replenished. Pool area was ok, as was the small pool bar which had a good array of drinks and friendly staff. The hotel has missed opportunities to make this a much better holiday experience, for example there is so much wasted space and tired furniture which could be better utilised. There’s not many nice outside areas to sit to have a drink and cake. It would absolutely benefit from a make over to bring it up to standard. It is clearly a hotel favoured by golfers on short golfing break with mates so in September there are few families and couples. Can’t comment on the evening entertainment and spa as we didn’t experience these. The main benefit that this hotel has is location, next to the beach and marina.

Arrived at 11am and really happy to find that our room was ready (despite check in being 4pm). We had room 623, a sea view with balcony.
Room fairly small and table and comfy chairs just got in the way a bit. Lovely bathroom and a great shower. We had a little kitchen area which was a nice surprise. We did request a kettle at check in which never arrived but we managed with the hotplate and using a pan to warm up water. Not much storage. Small wardrobe and only 3 tiny drawers. It was fine for us as we were only there for 4 nights. Big balcony and a view of the beach and marina.
Breakfast was lovely, lots of choice, nice coffee machines.
Pool areas are nice. Larger pool was a bit rowdy at times....entertainment team playing extremely loud music in the afternoons. The smaller pool was a lot more pleasant and quieter.
Towels provided for pool....big enough but not brilliant (not very soft!).
The hotel does attract a lot of mainly male golfers. No problems with this but some may not like it.
Only a 5 minute walk to the mmarina.Some lovely restaurants and reasonable prices. Lots of loud, busy Irish bars full of big groups of male golfers. Lots of karaoke, some live music. Nice enough but feels very 'British' and not somewhere i would rush back to. Woukd prefer somewhere more traditional and Portugese!

Vila gale AMPALIUS is a lovely hotel in the best location so close to the beach and the marina. The staff are all very helpful and friendly. The breakfast is good quality but not much variation but that's the norm abroad.
The rooms are spotless with fresh clean towels every day.
The only negative is the booming music from Puro beach club across the road it really spoilt our stay we could not relax on our balcony. I must say though after a few days we were asked if we would like to move to a quieter room but we didn't want to repack to change rooms for another few days.

Excellent clean and highly recommend

The pools being that there was plenty of room

If you are not Portuguese don't bother coming here. Staff are less than interested in providing any kind of service. Very poor

Booked two standard sea view rooms for a 7-night family holiday, half board. I was initially apprehensive about loud music and the evening meals, having read previous reviews, but my concerns were unfounded. We actually had a great experience. The hotel is a stones throw from a beautiful beach, where we hired sun loungers each day. Vilamoura Marina is short walk away and there are plenty of shops, restaurants and takeaways nearby. Uber is available and well served; we got around no problem and even had a late-night takeaway delivered to the hotel for a late arrival in our party. The rooms themselves looked a little tired and well used, but perfectly functional. There is a distinct lack of wall sockets for charging however, without unplugging other things. A leaky AC unit in one room was repaired almost immediately. I was a little disappointed to find the standard sea view rooms are located to the rear of the hotel, and while you can view the sea, it is more of a side sea view IMHO. We had no issues with noise from neighbouring properties, or from within the hotel itself. We particularly enjoyed the food options at breakfast and dinner. The choice was plentiful and beautifully presented, with many healthy options. If you and your children exist exclusively on a diet of burgers and chicken nuggets, the evening meals are probably not for you. The evening entertainment was impressive - we really enjoyed dining al fresco on these nights. The Brazilian night in particular was impressive and dashed our early night plans for a 5:30am departure!

It’s a busy hotel. The rooms take long to have ready on time. Line ups at the front desk, they should staff up on peak high season at least.

Hotel rooms were clean, staff very helpful,but not a lot of information in English, The down fall was the food, at night it was either cold or luke warm, and not a lot of choice, ate out a few nights.