The Residence Porto Mare - PortoBay

The perfect base for exploring Madeira. The Residence Porto Mare – Porto Bay is an absolutely stunning place. We enjoyed every second of our stay. It was magical from start to finish. A warm and friendly welcome at reception. The reception staff were very kind to us, took our luggage to our room and helped us navigate the huge grounds. We had a studio room, spacious and very comfortable with good furniture. Large terrace with table and chairs, and in front of it a garden with sun loungers. The kitchen-studio was equipped with everything you need to prepare dinner. The beds are huge and the mattresses are very comfortable for a great night's sleep. The room is spotlessly clean, cleaned every day. A special mention goes to the housekeeper Zite Figueira. Her cheerful attitude and cheerful laughter made our stay even more enjoyable. We celebrated my wife's birthday in the Alfama a la carte restaurant. The food was excellent and the manager of the restaurant Paulo and his whole team made my wife's day unforgettable. The cake with candles and congratulations from the staff was great. The hotel staff also congratulated us with champagne in the room. We would like to thank everyone. It was a wonderful surprise. I must say that all the staff of the residence are very friendly, polite, diligent and helpful. The breakfast staff was always professional, despite being very busy. The breakfast in the Atlantida restaurant, "buffet", was very good. The quality of the food is excellent. Beautiful well-kept green area, beautiful gardens, great pools, jacuzzi, gym, "happy hour"! There are enough places on the sun loungers. Supermarket and shopping center next door. Lido nearby. Many restaurants and bars around Everything was perfect for our stay. We had a great time. Thank you!

Lots of pools Good buffet, although by the fourth day it became repetitive, but still lovely and a good choice of food even for those trying to eat healthily. Plenty of options for fussy kids too. Massive rooms with enormous and comfortable beds. Easy to get bus or taxi to Funchal. Relatively easy to find Sun loungers. A bit busier at weekend. Close to a ‘beach’ - area to jump off rocks into sea. And the lido which was cool. Big inflatable deck area, sadly not in use due to high winds. Diving boards into sea loved by our teenagers. Staff were very friendly. Seems relaxed - not like a large resort, even though it’s pretty big. Noise from singing acts didn’t bother us at all. We’re not normally cabaret fans but we had a great evening at the Elton John night 😂 In fact, we’ve never done a holiday like this as a family in a hotel and we wondered if it would all be a bit cheesy, but it was pretty classy all in all. Very clean everywhere. Customer service was good - we were let down at last moment and couldn’t have our booked rooms in the residence (I presume with it being a time share it can get overbooked - something to be aware of) but they gave us very nice large rooms in the main hotel and helped with half board to compensate for the loss of kitchen area. This really did make our holiday easier, as we’d booked kitchen rooms in the residence originally to self cater and save money. Useful shopping centre (small but decent supermarket) next door. Had a lovely mother and teen daughter massage. Spa ladies were lovely and massage was great, and I thought reasonably priced. Happy hour was nice. Again just very chill. Kids liked the mocktails.

The grounds and exterior are beautiful. The gardens and pools are perfectly maintained. The complex is close to many great restaurants outside the hotel within a few minutes. It was also easy to take the bus or taxi to the old town. You can even walk. There is a big supermarket on the side of the hotel plus many small grocery stores nearby. The food was very good in the restaurants so we did not cook. The breakfast at the hotel had a lot of selection.

Although the place is just a little worn out (mostly corridors), the overall appearance is still nice and this actually makes the place even more homely. It quite complex as there are three hotels combined together and share the garden/pool areas and at first quite complicated to move around (at one side you are on the first floor but on the garden side you are on the 4th floor :)). I really liked that the whole complex looked like a small (boutique) hotel with a really nice green gardens and pool areas. There are so many spots where you can relax and enjoy. Great breakfast and as we had half board - great dinner too. Liked that they had themed dinners daily - Portugese, Italian, seafood etc. Lots of high chairs for the little ones. Every night there was live music at two bars. As we were travelling with 3.5 and 1.5 there were quite a lot things to do - outdoor bigger playground and smaller next to one pool. Two kids pool outside - but the Eden Mar side is in a shade before noon. Also the biggest outdoor pool has a shallow entrance, so the kids can "play" there. Inside is a (heated? at least it felt so) pool which has a little wider stair entrance so we used this the most as the outdoor pools felt a little cold for the kids. Inside there's also a playroom but you have to ask the key from the spa reception.

Great complex - well tended and looked after - great happy hour which was clearly very popular - the entire complex was spotless and is obviously well maintained - excellent breakfast with attentive friendly staff - didn't eat dinner so can't comment