Hilton Vilamoura

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Rua Torre D'agua, lote 4.11.1B
Vilamoura Quarteira, Portugal
+351 289 304000Website
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Hilton's fabulous five star in Vilamoura

April 6, 2009
Rated 5 of 5 by koshkha from Northampton, United Kingdom

The Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Golf Resort and Spa is an enigma of a hotel – inside it's a stylish five star resort; from the outside it looks like it was designed by Disney. It's not the type of place you'd usually go to for business - for one thing there's nothing around here with which to do business. The company I used to work for held its 2008 annual business meeting in Portugal last February and despite there being no possible logical business justification for the destination, 100 people were shipped off to Faro and on to the Hilton Vilamoura.

Vilamoura is roughly a 20-30 minute drive from Faro airport and the Hilton is on the outer edges of Vilamoura - a good mile or two from the Marina. From what I could make out, if you don't sail or don't play golf there's not a lot of reason to come here. Equally if you are younger than retirement age, you'll also be in a minority in February.

When we drew up outside I think we all suppressed a bit of a giggle. There are fairy-tale turrets and trimmings, bizarre arches and an overall sense that the building just doesn't look 'serious'. Walking into the lobby we were impressed. Stretching upwards for several storeys, it was spacious and light with plenty of cushion-laden sofas with a long check in counter down one side and some shops along the other side. Ahead of us were glass elevators through which we could see the waterfall and pools beyond. The check-in process was absurd. Considering that the hotel was fully briefed about what time everyone would arrive and how many people to expect, nothing was ready for us and just two people were dealing with the check-in.

~The Rooms~
The rooms are of a splendid standard. The outside of the hotel might look like a joke but the bedrooms are deadly serious, stylish and highly functional. All of the furnishings are in a light wood - and it really is wood, not just MDF or chipboard; this stuff is built to last and in a hotel that really matters. Nothing says 'down-market' louder than chipped particleboard.

The bathroom was so stylish I wanted to take it home with me. The room used glass walls around the bathroom which means - somewhat bizarrely - that if you wanted to lie in the bath and watch the TV (which is in the main part of the room) - you can do just that. And the sound is even piped into the bathroom for you. If you are of a more modest disposition don't worry - there are curtains that can be drawn around the glass walls. The toilet, bidet and shower are behind a separate frosted glass door - leaving the sink and bath area free. The sink was one of those retro porcelain sinks that stands on a marble topped wash stand. The marble used throughout the hotel was stunning. Sensibly they've stuck with stone-effect tiling on the floors which is largely non-slip but the wall tiles are top-grade marble.

Moving from the bathroom to the main part of the room there was a large wardrobe with a full sized iron and ironing board, plenty of hangers, a few drawers and a room safe. Beside the wardrobe was a case stand, then a dresser with the flat screen TV on top and the coffee and tea tray inside. The clever mini-bar somehow knows what you've had and sneaks off to tell the hotel so the goodies will appear on your bill automatically and then next to that there was a good sized work with a large mirror above which came in handy as the bathroom make-up mirror had a faulty light.

The bed was large and wonderfully comfortable bed with lots of pillows and a pleasant neutral coloured throw that matched the curtains. There were two bedside tables and a comfy armchair as well as a small coffee table. But for a Brit in February the nicest thing was to pull back the curtains, open the French doors and go out and sit on the balcony in the sunshine.

Someone put a lot of thought into this room and without exception all the colleagues I spoke with really liked their accommodation.

~Other Facilities~

I mentioned the spa already although I didn't use it. However, one of my German colleagues told me that for design, she'd put it in the top three of the many spas she has visited but she felt that the facilities were rather disappointing. There are apparently 6 different swimming pools on the site and I think I saw perhaps 4 of them but as I'm not an early riser, I didn't use any. It struck me that during high season the number of sun-beds would have been entirely inadequate in the pool area. There's also a golf course and apparently Vilamoura is considered to be "the golf capital of Portugal" (according to the hotel brochure). I saw one of the courses which was very green and had lots of trees - yep, that's utterly vague, isn't it. If you are into such things, there's also a 'golf simulator' but I hesitate to even imagine what simulated golf entails.

~Restaurants and Bars~

We ate in the Moscado restaurant for breakfast and lunch. I made it to breakfast only the once and the choice available was excellent. Our daily buffet lunches were outstanding and far surpassed the food at restaurants we visited outside the hotel in the evenings although the food for our gala dinner on the last night was absolutely awful. The Hilton can't really take the blame for that as I believe we gave them the recipes.

Lunch in the Moscado on our first day was poor. They clearly weren't expecting so many of us, the service was really slow and some of the portions were tiny. The main course Caesar salad for Euro14-16 (depending on whether there were prawns or chicken on top) was so tiny that people were left wondering where the rest of it was. By contrast, I had a large bowl of penne Napolitano for just €5 which stunned everyone. A main course for that price in a five star hotel seemed somehow entirely wrong. There are a couple of other restaurants on site although I suspect not all were open at this time of year.

The Rubi Bar is large and very pleasant. At one end of the room there's a stove-type fire that people seemed willing to fight to get near to in the evenings. I went to the bar just the once and there was a really good guitarist singing in the corner and there was plenty of space. Drinks prices were fair - the cocktails were all €8.50 and beers and wines were much cheaper. The other nice thing about the bar was that it opens onto a wide balcony with lots of outdoor seating.

~Toilets ~

Oh I know it's going to sound odd but the toilets throughout the hotel were beautiful and highly technical. When you walk in, the lights sense your presence and come on. The sinks are frosted glass with complicated on-off switches that we failed to tame. The only disappointment was that in the toilets in the basement, some of the doors didn't fit properly and the locks were very stiff.

~Conference facilities~

The thing that mattered most for us was whether this was a good conference venue. We had the main conference room in the basement (level -2) which was a perfect size for 100 delegates. The décor was nice with stunning light fittings on the ceiling and nice walnut-effect wall coverings. The temperature was never right - usually too cold rather than too hot - but I'm not sure if it's ever possible to please everyone. Outside the conference room there's a large concourse where we had coffees and snacks every day and this opens out onto the terrace outside. We had access to 6 different meeting rooms, all of which were nicely decorated and pleasant.

~Service~

One day I was standing on the terrace thinking about where to take a photograph from. As I reached into my bag to get my camera, a young waiter LEAPT through the fire doors brandishing a packet of matches for me. He had guessed I was looking in my bag for cigarettes and wanted to get to me before I had to look for a lighter. You've got to admire that sort of attention to detail.

~Summing Up~

For an off-season conference venue, this was a great choice. As a place to have a holiday it's probably great if that's the kind of holiday you want - golf, more golf and a bit of golf in between - but it's not for me. It's not a place I'd ever consider having a holiday but I enjoyed my time there a lot.

From journal Eating, Sleeping & Looking at Fish

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