Hotel Curral das Freiras dengan Gim

Our experience of the hotel was enhanced by our meal in the restaurant, which I have reviewed separately. My favourite thing about the room was the enclosed balcony. It was like having a private yoga studio in the sky. (Fellow yogis note, the floor was slippery.) I also enjoyed the spectacular view from the Sauna, which at the time was free because it was not working optimally. (So do ask!) It was good enough for me, but it took over an hour to heat up. The Pool looked too small and shallow to actually swim in, but mostly it was unusable as it was colder than the sea. I don’t know if this was usual. Breakfast was fairly similar to ones we had at other Madeira hotels, but this place had the tastiest selection of fresh bread rolls and very good garlicky mushrooms. The room was clean. We liked the 3-section recycling bin in the room. Others mentioned lack of plugs for phones. Erm... we knew about that but were surprised to find that there were not enough plugs for the room items. The Kettle and TV had to share a wall outlet. They really should consider supplying an extension lead, which could be given out and collected at check-in, just as they (bizarrely) do with the TV remote control. We did start off on a rather bad note. At check in, we were downright ignored. One receptionist was settling a dispute with another guest, but both members of staff deliberately avoided any sort of eye contact with us. I don't normally notice this sort of thing, but it was rude and infuriating and lasted some time. A simple nod would have sufficed. I’ll put this down to a bad day for the first member of staff, who later was helpful. After a long wait for no discernible reason, the other receptionist demanded payment before we had even seen the room, for which we had paid in advance. We've stayed at many places who use multiple booking sites. Sometimes you pay on arrival, sometimes beforehand, and we understand that the hotel needs to know. However, there are ways of asking that don't come across as offensive and like one is trying to get away with something. Not everyone is out to steal the remote control. Make sure you bring proof of payment if you’ve paid in advance, as we had. The hotel is lucky that they have out of this world views.