RR Club Amarilis

We had everything we needed in the fully equipped kitchen, and the place was clean and well kept. It's close to the beach and restaurants, but still quiet enough to relax. Highly recommend staying here in Praia da Rocha.

We'd watched the hotel's YouTube video and were looking forward to a few days here, but what we found was nothing like we expected. This was the biggest catfish of a hotel we've stayed in. We were allowed into the room an hour early, then hit by a smell of bleach mixed with sewage. The room felt like a time capsule, very dated, as if it hadn't been updated in 20 years. I've seen better two star hotels in Blackpool. The bed was tiny, the furniture old and tired, the bath had mould around the edges and a big rust mark on the bottom, and the sink was badly stained. The paint was worn out too. I have photos if needed. We went down for lunch and found a very small food area. Again, I have photos. There was hardly any choice and no variety, and almost nothing for children. I'm glad we didn't bring ours. What little we put on our plates was cold, salty or tasteless. We were demoralised and still hungry. We went back upstairs to change for the pool and the room smelled strongly of sewage again, so we opened the windows and door and went out. The pool area was reasonably nice and sunny all day, but that was about the only pleasant part. The small shallow pool had dead bugs in it and wasn't cleaned during our stay. The snack bar only served ice cream from 3:30 to 5:30. We went for a hot snack at 3:30, but the hotdog or burger choices were stone cold. That happened every day. The music was also on a loop, with the same playlist all the time. Dinner at 7 p.m. was cold again, with very little choice, and the food was salty or tasteless. Breakfast was exactly the same. After dinner we went back to our room, and I contacted Jet2 on WhatsApp. They called the next morning. I asked to move hotels, but was told it would take 48 hours to find somewhere else. I was offered another room, and told the manager would be informed about the food not being hot or up to standard. I met her at 2 p.m. that day, and she showed me a more modern, redecorated room. It had only a slight sewage smell, so I accepted it. But when I took my partner up, the smell was worse than in the first room. By then I didn't want to keep complaining. Later I noticed the bathroom floor was flooded underneath, with water seeping through the seams and even outside the room. I mentioned this to the front desk staff before we went out for a meal, since we couldn't eat dinner there two days running and wanted a proper hot meal. We ate out at least once every day to get a decent meal. We shouldn't have needed to on an all inclusive package. It cost us €150 over three days. The bed was very hard, so my wife slept on the sofa bed. She has fibromyalgia and is disabled, and struggles a lot. I spoke to the rep a second time and asked him to see the floor and smell for himself. I believe he did. At night there was nowhere much to relax, since the pool area closed at 7:30 and only the cafe area stayed open, with high stools and no entertainment at all. It felt like we were forced to go out and spend money at a bar to find entertainment. I'm so annoyed I spent £900 on such a shambles of a holiday. Portugal is a lovely place, but my memories are of this very poor hotel, not of being in Portugal. I was on the phone with my rep much of the time. Even after my complaints were passed on to the hotel, nothing changed.

The staff and Portuguese people were so friendly, helpful and lovely. The food was really good, and better than what I've had at some 4 star plus places I've stayed. The kids did struggle a bit to find things to eat, though. Our room was dated but big and spacious. It felt like the holiday gave us everything it promised, and it was definitely good value. What an amazing week away.

As we were leaving room 612 at 10:15 this morning, a cleaner swore at us and slammed the door behind us while we were walking down the hall. We had all our luggage with us and had left the door open, figuring she'd just go in and clean. The slam was the loudest I've ever heard and really startled us. When we turned around, she was staring at us. A completely disrespectful and unprofessional way to end our stay. Wouldn't recommend.