Pine Cliffs Ocean Suites, Algarve

Our first few nights in Portugal were at the Pine Cliff Resort. Absolutely beautiful property on the ocean cliffs. The reviews mention the expense and unfriendly staff. On the first point - yes it is seriously expensive, that’s why the word luxury is in there. We used a boat load of Bonvoy points to stay, but definitely worth it. On the second point, we found the staff amazing and very friendly. We were travelling in off season, but staff were great. One negative point on this hotel is the O Pescadaro restaurant - ridiculously expensive (see my review on resto). Hotel is on a cliff, thus going to beach takes some planning. There is an elevator and a nice boardwalk. The trek is definitely worth it as the beach is fabulous and wide. Also a restaurant down there for lunch or just a couple of drinks on the deck.

The hotel has some of the most amazing and inspiring grounds you can find in Algarve. The views and sunsets are to die for, there is a huge playground, adventure park, kids club, football fields, and a nice sandy beach (a little hard to get to, but worth it). The rooms are of good size and well kept. Overall it is an amazing property. But there here are some things you absolutely must take into account before visiting this hotel. First of all, do not even think about visiting this place if you are not with your children, unless you don't mind having lots of kids all around you at all times. It is like you are in a school complex. The second thing you must know is that this place is crowded, we could not get reservations to many restaurants and kids club activities even for a few days ahead. The breakfast in the mornings were people stepping on each other. Not enough space at the beach so forget about getting a chair at the beach. Lastly there were serious service issues especially at the check in. The lady (who was very nice) said she was doing her first check-in, thought our connecting rooms were not connecting and tried to switch us to a suite type of room, told us to wait while the suite go cleaned (it was 5pm), than called us 20 minutes later to say our rooms were in fact connecting. Even I know to put a supervisor next to a person learning a job, or to tell her to ask for one if there is a problem at check in. So if you don't mind a Disney type beach experience with your family this place can work for you, otherwise looking for alternatives might be a better idea. At the end of the trip my kids in fact asked me to visit the hotel again.

We have been staying here since it first opened as the Sheraton Algarve Hotel. It was a wonderful hotel and rightfully deserved its Luxury Collection membership.For many years the status quo prevailed before it began to expand but it still retaned its origional charm despite changing from Sheraton to Starwood. Unfortunately under its new Marriott branding all that has been lost. It is now a sprawling mega family resort, and I am led to beleive about to become even larger with the addition of new accomodations. The main problem lies in that the facilities can no longer cope with the number of guests. This is most obvious at breakfast which is now bedlam due to numerous kids running around the buffet without any parental control. I feel sorry for the staff who have to work in these conditions. If you like kids or more specifically other peoples kids well this place is for you, but be warned it's expensive and the charge extra for everything. Sadly i won't be returning but I have many fond memories.

Lovely hotel, shame it left a bad taste in my mouth. Had a great stay, the hotel has everything you might want and is not cheap. Shame that they felt it necessary to have a whole set of extra charges all over the place. As an example the “free” in door pool forces you to wear a swimming cap that you can hire for €5! If you need to charge these little extras, add it to the room cost! Not impressed.

My wife and I are staying here for the final 5 nights of our vacation and our 38th anniversary. The resort, the staff and the accommodations are wonderful. I’m a lifetime Titanium member and this is one of the best Marriott’s resorts I’ve stayed in. For our anniversary they had wine in our room when we checked in, they had boxed lunches free of charge for our boat trip and when we came back today there was champagne and chocolate strawberries waiting for us. The restaurants are very good, the spa is wonderful and the beach access is great. We are planning on returning with our kids sometime in the future.