Portobay Blue Ocean

Recent Reviews: 162

• User:Heather T

  Trip type: Friends getaway

  Fantastic hotel

  05 Jun 2026

  This is a beautiful hotel, with everything you want for a great stay. The rooms are clean & well presented. The staff are very courteous and pleasant, from the reception staff at check in to the cleaning and service staff in the restaurant. The whole place has a fresh, clean feel to it. The pool and spa are amazing. The food in the restaurant was good quality and tasty. The view from the hotel was stunning. Can’t rate this hotel highly enough. Only downside is, you get a complimentary bottle of water in the room on arrival, but you have to buy any additional bottles.

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• User:colinmary

  Trip type: Couples

  Highly recommended, we will return. Lovely staff. Lovely hotel. Lovely food.

  01 Jun 2026

  Really lovely 2 weeks, loved the hotel, loved Portugal. Our first stay here ( recommended by family) but already planning to return next year. From arrival to departure, we found all the staff to be very helpful and professional at every interaction. The hotel itself is clean and attractive throughout, the room and surroundings excellent. There are 3 pools, we mainly used the indoor pool, not busy, and out of the sun. All the meals had excellent food, ( buffet, but well and freshly cooked) and the desserts were lovely. All serving staff were brilliant, especial thanks to Eduardo, Anabel, Tina and Adilson who we saw most ( everyone was great) . Its the nicest food we’ve had in this type of hotel. Very quiet and relaxing throughout, our room backed on to the adult section. Room, showers, etc all very good. Nice interesting Wine tasting session in the hotel with Eduardo. Small town (sports bar) and supermarkets in few minutes easy walking distance. Nearby long sandy beach easy walking distance but a lot of steps down and up! Gardens are attractive and quiet, with a few local birds. We saw the managers around, and expressed our thanks to them on our final day. Evening music pretty good ( we are early birds!) . Highly recommended.

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• User:Stephanie W

  Trip type: Couples

  Poor Customer Service Overshadowed the Experience

  01 Jun 2026

  We recently stayed at PortoBay Blue Ocean and had a mixed experience.On the positive side, we received a warm welcome from Gabriela at check-in. She was very helpful and kindly arranged a room change for us after we explained that the first room allocated to us offered very little privacy on the terrace. We appreciated her professionalism and willingness to assist.Unfortunately, there were several aspects of our stay that were disappointing. The hotel simply does not seem to have enough sunbeds for the number of guests it accommodates. During our stay, all sunbeds were occupied, despite it only being the beginning of June. It is difficult to imagine how crowded it must become during peak season in July and August. This was particularly noticeable in the adults-only area, where the number of available sunbeds was very limited.We also observed what appeared to be inconsistent treatment of guests. In our experience, Portuguese guests seemed to receive less attention and friendliness than international tourists. A hotel of this standard should ensure that all guests are treated equally, regardless of nationality.Another disappointing incident occurred one evening when my partner went to the bar at 11:25 pm to get me some water, as I was feeling unwell. The bartender stated that the bar was closed and refused service. Moments later, an English man approached the bar asking for drinks and was attended to straight away, while my partner was completely ignored. This left a very negative impression and made us question whether all guests were being treated equally.We also experienced poor customer service at the pool bar. I ordered a sandwich that came with crisps. Due to the strong wind, the crisps blew off the plate and onto the floor as the waiter was serving the meal. Instead of offering to replace them, he simply told me to eat quickly before more blew away. Considering the prices charged at the hotel, a small gesture such as replacing the crisps would have demonstrated much better customer care.Overall, PortoBay Blue Ocean is, in our opinion, a highly overrated hotel. While some staff members, such as Gabriela, provided excellent service, we found the overall standard of hospitality—particularly in the bars and restaurants—to be disappointing. The hotel has potential, but improvements in customer service, fairness towards all guests, and guest facilities are needed to justify its reputation.

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• User:BucketoWater5959

  Trip type: Couples

  Currently average hotel that has plenty of potential

  27 May 2026

  Overall we enjoyed our stay at PortoBay Blue Ocean. The staff were friendly and helpful. The rooms and facilities were clean. Importantly we slept well and breakfast was decent. We spent most of our time by the pool or outside of the hotel so not much else to say.Rooms - You can hear everything happening upstairs, furniture being loudly dragged around and moved every morning by cleaners (not their fault!), not ideal! I’d recommend avoiding the ground floor like other reviewers have said. This has the potential to ruin your stay if you have terrible upstairs room guests.AC in rooms works well.Mini Fridge - it barely works, keeps your drinks only lukewarm in the rooms. Frustrating!Layout - the layout of the hotel is terrible. We had a room where we could see pool in front of us and yet it’s a 5mins walk! I ended up resorting to climbing over our ground floor balcony.Beach - this is not a beach side resort. You have to leave the hotel and make a long winding walk down many stairs to get to the beach. I think they should make this much clearer - it’s a pleasant beach nonetheless.Pool - Nice clean pools. Even during a quieter time in May it was difficult to get a sunbed. Parking - good availability of free parking.Restaurant &Bats - did not use for dinner. Did not use the bars either.Given 3 stars as we felt, despite enjoying our stay overall with little major complaints, the hotel doesn’t feel premium as it’s sold. And the noise disturbances from other rooms is just not acceptable in a premium hotel.

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• User:Mark L

  Trip type: Couples

  Positive Holiday experience Porto Bay Blue Ocean

  26 May 2026

  Lovely time here rooms were excellent and the facilities were too. If your into Tennis there are courts at the Blue Ocean hotel and its Sister hotel. I would strongly recommend the Coach Susan Evans for tennis coaching there are group free sessions and her individual 121 coaching was excellent, she explains simply and effectively how to improve your game with a lovely manner.