Apartamentos Turisticos Vitoria by Petit Hotels

We were in room 301, which had the best views and a very big balcony. It was a bit noisy from the air conditioners on the neighboring building. The staff are friendly, and there are various restaurants within walking distance. Underground parking in the neighboring building costs 6 euros per day.

The location is good, about a 10-minute drive to Funchal, with cafes, shops and restaurants within walking distance. There's a lovely café just outside called ‘Boutique Lido’ where we went every morning. The apartments were clean enough, and cleaners came twice during our stay. We liked being able to enjoy the rest of our holiday after I found sleeping tablets at a pharmacy, which thankfully helped me sleep despite the heat. Our main problem was that we booked through Love Holidays and the listing said the apartments had air-conditioning, but they didn't. I showed the screenshots to Dalia when we checked in; she said she'd pass them to management. I want to believe it was an honest mistake, but find it hard to believe nobody had mentioned it before. We were in room 202, a small apartment, and the bedroom's glass balcony doors were in direct sun all day. The room got several degrees hotter than outside. They found us a second fan, which made it just about bearable, but we couldn't sleep because of the heat. The listing also said there was a minimarket onsite, which isn't true. We raised that with Dalia too, but were told it meant shops were nearby, which obviously isn't the point of the description. The bathroom smelled bad, like sewage, probably because the pipes are old. There weren't enough sockets for fans, phones and hair appliances, which got frustrating. I wouldn't recommend staying here, as I think you can get better for your money in the area.

I wouldn't recommend it at all. The third floor, which is the most expensive apartment, was extremely noisy. There was loud music around 23 at night, the neighboring hotel's AC was very strong and ran 24 hours, and from evening until about 23 pm there was another sound, like an industrial machine running inside the building. You couldn't hear that on the ground floor, but it was unbearable on the upper floors.

It's a beautiful little studio in a secure, secluded place. I enjoyed my week there, and the city location is great, with lots of bars and restaurants and two supermarkets within walking distance. Johanna is lovely. If you're after a city break, it could be ideal, but I wouldn't stay longer than seven days. There were some letdowns. When we booked an apartment and paid extra, we ended up with a tiny studio and a tiny balcony, so the listing was deceiving and it wasn't as described. There was no air con, and leaving the doors open wasn't an option because of the traffic passing in the middle of the night. It was very noisy at night, and after 3pm there wasn't enough hot water for a hot shower. Some items listed in the inventory were missing. We didn't run into other people until the weekend, when some noisy lads arrived next door and banged doors, though that can happen anywhere.