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TripAdvisor provides an assessment of hotel quality based on more than 60 million reviews & opinions from real travellers. The traveller rating represents an average of individual ratings for this hotel.
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Accessibility Options
To make requests for specific accessibility needs, complete the “Special or Accessibility Requests” section of “Trip Preferences” when you book your hotel.
Property Amenities
Opened in 2001, the hotel comprises a restored village that was used by tuna fishers from 1881 until the tuna stopped arriving in 1972. Grounds include a museum displaying a scale model of the elaborate net system fishers used, boat and ship models, typical fishers' dress, and a video of tuna-fishing activity. The grounds also include the village's chapel, a tranquil retreat featuring a wood ceiling, delicate wrought-iron chandeliers, a stained glass window, and a lower wall clad in blue-and-white tiles.
There is a daily surcharge for access to the health club area, including the indoor pool, spa tub, steam room, and fitness room, which is equipped with weight machines and cardio machines. The health club also contains a massage room.
Complimentary children's activities are offered in summer both in the former village's schoolhouse and outdoors. A lobby computer provides a high-speed Internet connection (surcharge).
Rooms
The hotel offers 162 guestrooms in a series of one-story white and ochre buildings formerly occupied by tuna fishers and their families. All rooms include patios furnished with dining sets and fringed by flowering bushes. Decor and furnishings feature pale-yellow walls, white ceilings and crown molding, terra-cotta-tile floors, area rugs, rose-tone furniture, terra-cotta-and-gold fabrics, and two-chair dining sets. Tan-and-white-tile bathrooms contain marble vanities and shower/tub combinations. In-room safes are available for daily surcharges.
Room Amenities
Dining
A complimentary buffet breakfast is provided each morning in Salinas restaurant.
Salinas - Spacious dining room with terra-cotta-tile floor, dark-wood furniture, and table linens. Buffet dinner nightly. Sandwiches, salads, light meals for lunch.
Arraial - Candle-lit fine-dining restaurant located in former home of tuna-fishing-village chief and consisting of a series of intimate salons, some with river views. Original terra-cotta-and-cream tile floor. Dinner service nightly from à la carte menu of Portuguese classics, including tuna steaks.
Quatro Águas Bar - Bar/lounge with wood-burning fireplace, leather seating, televisions. Sandwiches, salads, light meals. Live music nightly.
Recreation
Shaped like a four-leaf clover, an outdoor swimming pool measuring roughly 26 meters (85 feet square) and a 3.5-meter (12-ft-square) children's pool provide warm-weather family recreation.
A health club (surcharge) features a 11.5-by-5.5-meter (38-by-18-ft) heated indoor pool and a four-person spa tub surrounded by cushioned deck chairs in a skylighted pavilion.
For a surcharge, a boat transports guests on a five-minute trip from a dock 100 meters (109 yards) from the hotel across a river (Rio Gilão) and an estuary (Ria Formosa) to Tavira Island, where they then walk a few hundred yards to the beach on the island's ocean side. In summer, independent operators offer watersports on the beach, including water skiing, kayaking, and windsurfing.
The hotel provides discounts at three golf courses, the nearest 2.5 km (1.5 mi) away and the farthest 10 km (6.25 mi).
The recreational activities listed below are available either on site or near the hotel; fees may apply.
Showing 1 - 10 results (of 45) · See more Hotel Vila Gale Albacora reviews
out of 45 reviews
“Brilliant hotel for a relaxing holiday.”
The Vila Gale Albacora hotel is situated out on a peninsula on the other side of the river estuary from Tavira. This hotel has been well maintained by the Vila Gale group. It's a very pleasant and restful location, highly recommended if you want peace and quiet, although the weekends can be a more lively. There is a free hotel bus service to their other hotel in Tavira which guests can use to visit the interesting old town of Tavira.
“Hotel Vila Gale Albacora is a great place to stay”
Hotel Vila Gale Albacora is a great place to stay
“bird watchers paradise”
excellent hotel with character,very good food both at breakfast & dinner. a very good choice for a winter holiday especially if you are a bird watcher.
“Quiet, Clean and nothing was too much trouble for staff.”
Car not needed as trips were cheap and good. Car Hire from Hertz was horrendous and took 2 hours to deal with 3 people!! Hotel was in the middle of nowhere but well worth it as it was quiet,so very clean and the food every night was superb with many choices of starters and desserts. We must have chosen a quiet time of the season as the restaurant was rarely crowded and the service superb. The rooms were made up as requested and the cleaners were friendly and helpful. not much to do in the evenings so another time we would not go half board just B&B so that we could stay out somewhere else to eat where there is more life. It was not a problem for us to eat around 8 and then watch TV as the heat made us feel tired. My only complaint is due to being slightly disabled I would have preferred a few chairs around the pool instead of all sunbeds which I found difficult to get up and down from. Also the chairs in the bar were extremely low which again were difficult to use. Overall the Hotel is first class.
“Lovely relaxing and peaceful”
Highly recommended! Beautiful place that's a little bit different. Plenty of character. The a la carte restaurant and poolside snacks on site are great and reasonably priced for a hotel. The buffet breakfast is the best I've ever seen! The pool is always immaculate. This is the perfect place to sit back, relax and forget all your worries. The bus into town means you're not too cut off - even if you don't have a car. And the beach (accessible by ferry) is beautiful, quiet and very, very clean.
“Blinding honeymoon”
had a reaily relaxing and peaceful time. the hotel was nice clean and well looked after. the pool was great' there was a great range of food, and all tasted great. its a great hotel to stay in if you want a relaxing time and like sitting by the pool soaking up the sun. tavira was nice to look round and had plenty off places to eat.
“A relaxing holiday”
A good hotel for a relaxing get away from it holiday, although you may feel remote, as you are 2km from the town. A good pool to relax around in the sunshine. The hotel food was good with a choice of buffet or Al a carte restaurants. There were also goood rstaurants in tavira, easy to catch hotel bus into Town and and a taxi back. There was agood ix of nationalities staying at the hotel. The one thing that let teh hotel down was the housekeeping service. This could be improved, our room was not cleaned most days until the middle of the afternoon, which could be inconvenient.
“just perfect!”
I am glad that we spent the little extra to stay here instead of another hotel. It was just perfect! Set on the salt marshes it was peaceful, elegant and very relaxing. The buffet breakfast was superb and offered many choices for our 4 day stay in April. The staff at the vila gale were so friendly and very helpful when i asked to change to a no smoking room. The view was perfect looking out onto the river estuary with our own private patio. One BIG problem we faced was finding rh hotel!! signposts were confusing and mostly non existent so please research if possible, but once we found it we couldn't have been happier. May also say that we ate from the al la carte menu one evening and the food was superb, well worth by-passing the buffet for. tavira itself was also very pituresque and not as expensive as expected, food excellent and coffee even better! I hope you get a chance to enjoy Hotel Vila Gale Albacora as much as my partner and i did.
“Brilliant & relaxing holiday”
We stayed for a week here in September 2008. We had a great & relaxing time. There were people of all ages (many Spanish/Portuguese) inc. children but all were well behaved & certainly didn't disturb us. We did have a minor ant problem but we had read reviews on here before we went so took some ant spray with us which was enough to keep them away. The rooms were cleaned daily which also helped. The rooms were quite spacious with lots of space. The bathroom was large with bath/shower, sink, WC & bidet. We were lucky enough to get a sea view & all the rooms had a small private terrace area with table/chairs. The pool itself was large & clean with plenty of sunbeds for all the guests. Breakfast was included in our holiday & there was a vast choice (full English/continental/cereals/yoghurt/fruit/toast) We didn't eat in the restaurant for our evening meal as it seemed a little expensive & not really to our taste so preferred to eat at the pool side bar (before it closed at 5pm) or snacks from the main bar after 5pm. There was a boat to the main beach & a minibus to the main town (at set times) but we hired a car at the airport & found this easier as the hotel is a way from the town & could have been expensive in taxi fares. We explored the local area extensively including driving into Spain and the hotel was perfectly located for this. Overall we would definitely recommend this hotel particularly to couples for a relaxing break.
“Great location for a holiday”
We found the hotel to be excellent value for money, with good breakfast. We had the evening meal which was also good value for money with plenty of choice. The staff were friendly, polite and efficient and were happy to serve you. The hotel is set in a very beautiful location with wonderful views for the rooms with little balconies.
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Showing 1 - 10 results (of 45) · See more Hotel Vila Gale Albacora reviews
The preferred airport for Hotel Vila Gale Albacora is Faro (FAO-Faro Intl.) - 32.4 km / 20.1 mi.
Distances are calculated in a straight line from the property's location to the point of interest or airport and may not reflect actual travel distance.
Distances are displayed to the nearest 0.1 mile and kilometre.
