Vila Gale Albacora Eco-Resort Hotel

Recently returned from a wonderful 10 day stay at this hotel. 1.3miles from Tavira Old Town centre, 40 mins drive from Faro Airport. Location is accessed thru the lanes surrounding the salt pans. A car isn't necessary - we discovered Uber ! The hotel no longer has a shuttle bus into Tavira. An ideal stay for children with a pool, play area and easy access to the beach. Recommend an omelette at the buffet breakfast, cooked to order with cheese, mushrooms, whatever you choose. A la Carte dinners didn't change during the week. Friendly Reception staff speaking good English (and several other languages) and 'Shiva' their friendly resident Mouser was very evidently in charge (hope you like cats ! ). The on site Spa is a bonus. Good solid comfy beds, fridge and safe, Wifi in our room. No tea/coffee making facilities - pods can be ordered at Reception at one Euro each. A ferry from Tavira Old Town takes you to Tavira Island beach. Praia dos Tasos is a closer beach within walking distance of Albacora Hotel, just below Fort do Rato.

We recently had our wedding at this hotel, and unfortunately, our experience was very disappointing. Overall, we are extremely dissatisfied with how these matters were handled on such an important day. I truly regret having our wedding at this hotel, as it makes me very sad—weddings are memories that last a lifetime.

Beautiful natural place, very quiet and relaxing.
The hotel is so nice. The staff are so nice and helpful. The spa other than massages is all included.
If you go to the bar and the restaurant you'll enjoy the nice service, Miguel is so nice and helpful, you can really ask him what ever you want and he speaks a good English.

Lovely hotel very close to the beach. The food is very good if a bit of a noisy experience as the restaurant is huge and accommodates a lot of people. The evening meal staff worked really hard and were always double quick time in what they did.
The rooms are in blocks around the site so there is a bit of a walk to the restaurant and bar and if it was raining you would get wet for sure.

We loved it here..when we booked we did not realize it was a short distance out of town..so we had to take Ubers to do anything in Tavira but they are not expensive. The hotel is set up like a resort..so if you just want to stay put..chill and relax you can do that. We had not been to the Algarve before so we wanted to explore the town and the area a bit. Tavira Island is just a short ferry ride and it is definitely worth it. Lots of restaurants and great beaches. And Tavira is a nice town. The resort offers great food at reasonable prices. And the rooms are small but comfortable. Each one has it's own patio at back. Service was great.

My wife and myself spent a week at this hotel and had a very relaxing and enjoyable stay. We knew the hotel was isolated and that is what we liked so you might want to hire a car if you get bored of the surroundings. We loved the position and the lovely way they have restored this former fishing accommodation into a peaceful oasis. The rooms are not super luxurious however they are very comfortable with a lovely bathroom/shower and good aircon. We had an estuary view with a small quiet sunny patio and seating area. The food was absolutely fine with a good choice at breakfast and same for dinner. We always liked to eat outside however we were in a minority.
The pool looked fantastic although we prefer to swim in the sea and this is another reason why we loved it here. The hotel boat leaves from the pier and in 15 minutes takes you to an amazing long stretch of sandy beach. On this beach you do have different eateries a small supermarket and sun loungers. The only thing we would have preferred is a boat back to hotel about 5.30 or 6pm rather than 4.10 which was too early or the last boat at 6.40pm too late. Only a small issue and the gents on the boat were very friendly.
To summerize we would definitely return and found the experience to be very chilled and relaxing.
Simon and Dawn

Great location
Attractive historic buildings
Excellent pool and surroundings gardens very well maintained
Rooms dated but ok
BUT BUT BUT………
Staff disinterested in guests, no welcoming attitude apparent.
Biggest letdown is the food, avoid the half board option cheap ingredients poorly cooked, I have never had such a poor dinner buffet before.
Breakfast again poor and chaotic.
I would have happily paid more for half board in order to have a decent meal.

I would not recommend this hotel.
Maybe a focus on customer care and food quality could turn it around.

We had a few rough nights with dinner here but after speaking to the Manager, who listened and was helpful, the dinner arrangements improved. Staff are very helpful here.

Lovely location, very good layout, excellent pool. Most staff pleasant and helpful.
But, the meals are an awful awful experience. When you arrive, they insist that you stand in line to collect your room number (even though we were staying for 2 weeks) and the woman on the desk ignores you. After ignoring you for a period she will bring you to a table in a bad tempered angry manner.
The dining room is absolutely horrible. Noise +++, chaotic, standing in line again and again to get food, customers barging in, children running around grabbing food, so impolite and rude. Plates, chairs, children crashing around everywhere. Trying to order a drink from staff is impossible.
We wanted to sit outside on the terrace to get away from the noise, but the desk staff made an issue with this and would not light a candle. The food is good quality but the service at dinner is appalling. I liked some of the staff, who were pleasant and tried to help, but the dining experienced ruined this holiday. Avoid if you like a quiet relaxing dining experience.

Very nice hotel with a terraced cottages & garden layout. Cottages have usual layout of bathroom with walk-in shower and bedroom with 2 large beds, desk and chairs and outside patio area with table and chairs. Cottage floors are traditional hard ceramic tiles and room has efficient air conn unit and rooms were servced daily. Outside, the cottages have rambling flowers and cobbled-stoned walkways with well managed lawns and gardens full of flowers. A number of historical buildings remain onsite and are open and very interesting. Pool is clean and a good size (1.25m deep) with plenty of space for loungers there is also a shaded cafe/bar serving drinks and lunches. Main restaurant is very pleaeant with plenty of choice and variety, while the main bar is a nice relaxed room with excellent, experienced bar staff. All staff were very happy and helpful, cleanliness of all areas was excellent. The hotel is in an isolated coastal location away from all other facilities with secluded coastal beach walks and amazing variety of birds and salt lagoons. We were aware of this before visiting and a taxi to/from Tavira was only €8, while many guests had bicycles to tour the local villages but a car may be suitable if you intend to visit the town frequently or travel the wider area . One warning - due to the lovely wetlands around this coastal area, at night-time there are mosquitos outside in large numbers and we were bitten many times before buying anti-mosquito spray to repel them and treatment for bites, so suggest you come prepared .. or restrict your time outside after dark

We had a fantastic time. Friendly staff and timely room service. Beautiful grounds to walk around in and a lovely little playground within for our 1.5 yo to play in. Breakfast was great and amenities excellent. The private hotel boat to to the beach is very handy also.

The spa amenities were excellent.

The hotel is huge and caters to groups which I usually dislike. And it is outside of the lovely town of Tavira. But if you have a car, go golfing or birdwatching it is a great option. Ask for a room far from reception to avoid the commotion. The rooms are simple but nice. The hotel used to be the quarters for the tuna fishermen at the beginning the 20th century. There is a nice chapel and museum explaining the history, not to be missed.

Our family love this hotel. My brother got married here and as a family we come back at the same time every year because we always have such a lovely time.
The location is beautiful, the staff are great and the entertainment is incredible. The entertainment team in particular really make our trip every year. Shout out to Tanya, Mariana, Claudia, Rodrigo and everyone else on the team. The effort that goes into the evening shows is insane and we always have such a laugh taking part in the competitions to win a cocktail.
I have a 20 month old toddler and the outdoor toddler pool was great for him as well as the little soft play and colouring in tables inside the school.
There's a play park and mini football pitch as well for kids to play in.
They also have a lovely in door swimming pool, sauna,steam room and jacuzzi which is free to use throughout the day, and massages.
A boat goes directly from the hotel's private pier to Tavira Island regularly through the day which has a lovely sandy beach and lots of fish restaurants
If you want a chilled, hassle free and fun holiday this is definitely the place to go.
We will be back!

The property was clean, the layout of the property was a little bit like a prison camp with blocks of accommodation very unimaginative the room was dark and you couldn’t have the blinds or curtains open because everyone would be able to see in beside the fact, there was no view just another block we did ask if we could move, but they said they didn’t have anything. Not our sort of place and wouldn’t return .

Be aware that this is not a desirable location for couples or adults looking for a peaceful place to stay. It clearly caters to families and should be advertised as such. Children were running around (literally) unsupervised while parents relaxed at the pool, bar or dining areas from morning until after 11pm.

The condition and cleanliness of the hotel was poor. The shower did not drain resulting in deep standing water while using it and had mold and mildew, and the bedroom floor was sandy/dirty upon arrival.

Parking was extremely limited and we and many others were parked in areas squeezed into corners and other non-designated parking areas (we saw a car that was hit because of this).

Last and probably most importantly, our experience was that front desk/concierge staff were not helpful or friendly when we arrived, when we brought the shower issue to their attention, and when we checked out.

Maybe we could feel better about the experience as a whole if it was an inexpensive stay, but ironically we stayed at many other hotels on our trip that were less expensive and absolutely amazing. I should add that we are not complainers or high maintenance and make efforts to be friendly and go with the flow so it took a lot to write a very honest review that hopefully might help someone else make a different decision about where they stay.

Very poor service in patio restaurant, some guests waiting up to two hours for food. Did not seem to care about complaint. In the past we have always enjoyed lunch here, though service always slow if more than a few guests. Disappointing there was a lack of concern that we cancelled order after a long wait

We stayed here for 4 days as a big group of 3 families with ages ranging from 8-70! Our room was perfectly comfortable, and surprisingly good power shower! The breakfast was great, drinks very good and extremely reasonably priced. Dinner could have been better, but there was a food range and for the price, really can't complain! Pool is one of the coldest I've experienced, but very beautiful and the children loved the slides. There were plenty of loungers and even at 9 or 10 you could easily find plenty. Without a doubt, what made our stay was Rodrigo and the other animation team members, they are simply amazing! We never like to use kids clubs, as I don't feel comfort leaving my children with strangers, but Rodrigo would come every day and entertain them, play football with them and they absolutely adored him! The rest of the team also, were just so much fun and a joy to be around. We did tbe dolphin spotting trip from the hotel with very low expectations and were so happy that we had an amazing experience! The crew were excellent and we got to spend a wonderful morning surrounded by dolphins which we will never forget! The only negative was that we got eaten alive daily by mosquitos due to the location, but it felt worth it! Take plenty of mozzy spray!

The wild site on the lagoon is unique

Suited our purposes perfectly. The spa and regular free ferry service to the beach and bus into Tavira were an unexpected bonus.