Pedras Da Rainha

Having visited the western Algarve a number of times, for this trip we decided to head east and stay in the Tavira area. We came across Pedras da Rainha on several websites and although some reviews were mixed, it sounded nice. It is sitiuated in a good location about 10 minutes from the main motorway and in the village of Cabanas - about a 5-10 minute walk to the main promenade. We arrived early afternoon and fortunately our accommodation was ready. The guy at reception was friendly and welcoming and gave us directions on how to find our apartment - good job we had a rental car otherwise it would have been quite a trek with our luggage. We hired a wifi router from reception - well worth it!. The accommodation we had was a two bedroom apartment on the edge of the site. It was rustic and comfortable and quiet. About a 4-5 minute walk back to the pool area, bar and reception. We were booked in for bed and breakfast - breakfast was average but enough for us. A nice touch was the complimentary bottle of wine in our apartment on my wife's birthday - thank you. The site overall is pleasant, but as other reviewers had said, it looks a bit tired in places and could do with a little attention. Reception were helpful in organising some food on our last morning as we needed to leave before breakfast was served. Overall a comfortable stay - recommended if you want a quieter and more authentic part of the Algarve.

Pedras da Rainha is well located with lovely well kept grounds, a supermarket and chest on site. The staff are all really helpful and pleasant, especially at reception. The studio in which we stayed was extremely well equipped. It was spotlessly clean and had everything you could want for a studio for two people. However the studio in which we stayed was so dark that if you closed the front door you had to have the light on all of the time. Apart from extremely early in the morning our balcony never saw the sun. As we had, not surprisingly, gone on holiday for the sun, we asked if we could be moved but was told the complex was fully booked. However the apartments around us were all empty and remained so for the duration of our one weeks holiday. There are lots of positives about Pedras da Rainha but we wouldn’t go back.

Friendly, if regimented, check in. Hired wi-fi router on the second day, €20 deposit, and €1.00 per day. All but one of the staff were friendly - perhaps she would be better suited behind the scenes rather than at breakfast. Breakfast quality was good. The bar was good, and so were the staff. Our studio was located up some very steep, short tread steps, I was scared going up and scared coming down from our accommodation. The bathroom stank, there was no ventilation, and it shared a wall with the bathroom of the studio immediately behind us. Pathways cracked, broken, and potentially dangerous. We couldn't work out when the cleaners would turn up or what they were supposed to do, I cleaned up myself as they were so inconsistent. When the cleaners did show up, it was for three minutes, three times in a week. Overall, this outdated accommodation could be lovely if someone spent some money on painting the buildings, mending the pathways, and assigning the cleaners to do a better job.

3 stars and still, No pooltowles, no hairdryer, no wifi in your house. To few sunbeds, and the policy and rules are not inforced, regarding the sunbeds. Some left there towels over night, and they didn’t do anything about it. In 2024, the standart of the houses, are just too poor. The beds are leftovers from 1970, too hard and uncomfy, to lay on for a whole week. No hairdryers, witch is a problem, when you travel with 2 ladies. And no wifi, is a huge problem with 2 teenagers. You can rent a router, for €1 euro a day and €10 euroes in diposit. The tennis court, makes alot noice, and the balls tens too land in our garden, and people, just runs in and out of your rented place, wirhout asking or appolgies. There no signs on the grounds, so you have too navigate after the sun and stars, and the ground is very bumby and uneven, so taking your luggage, back and forht is a bit of a challenge.

This is generally well-managed, but could be so much better with a few improvements. We stayed for 10 nights in a 2-bedroom villa. The villa was generally clean, though quite dated. The reception staff were very friendly and very willing to help with any problems, except that there shouldn't have been problems! There was one restaurant / bar staff, who never smiled and and was always grumpy The bathroom smelled of sewage most of the time, which was very unpleasant. The beds weren't great, and were so short my feet hung over the end (I'm not very tall). While the rooms and bathroom were cleaned 5 days a week, I don't think they changed the bed linen. The internet is only available by renting a Wifi router from reception (€1/day), but they don't have many -- we asked for one when we made the initial booking and we got the last one. But the internet was pretty slow, I was often switching it off and using my phone. Clientele is very international, with most guests (I think) Portuguese - there were Germans, French and Dutch and Irish, and a few Brits. The pool is nice, but in the afternoons, and especially at weekends it got very crowded, with lots of non-guests driving up with their cars. The hotel sometimes checked our guest cards to make sure we were guests, but not very often, and it seems the wider town took advantage of that -- I told the reception we didn't appreciate our hotel being used as a municipal pool. The sun umbrellas can't be moved, and are pretty small, so lots of people moved the chairs to be under the shade of the trees. Breakfast was fine, but only open 8:30-10:30, so if you have an excursion with an early pickup, you will miss out. The evening buffet was also fine, though the restaurant was devoid of atmosphere, and sometimes had weird music (like a loud DJ playing house music at 8:00PM when it was mostly families!) The local Cabanas town is very nice with some nice restaurants, and there was a Fisherman festival on at the time. The beach was easy to get to with the dedicated boat service, and is a great beach, but only one bathroom, which isn't very much for such a well-used beach. The beach restaurant fills up fast (I couldn't get food there), and the beach chair rental is expensive (€23 for 2 chairs and a parasol), but if you bring your own sandwiches, it's fine. Tavira town was a €9 Uber ride away, and also very pretty, with lots of evening music festivals on. If the hotel refurbished the rooms to a more modern standard with better beds, fixed the sewage issues, put bigger sun umbrellas round the pool, had better security to restrict the pool for guests only, and put proper Wifi in, this would be a lovely place, but unfortunately, this fell a bit short of that.