Sheraton Pine Cliffs and Pine Cliff Residence, Albufeira, Portugal [Master Thread]
 

I serached the board but found nothing on this hotel, Does somebody visited this hotel?, Comments?

I am planning a trip there at the end of March and the hotel seems interesting.

The Sheraton in the Algarve is absolutely beautiful. I stayed there in October last year and was more than impressed. The location is brilliant, right on the cliffs overlooking the beach, there is a 9 hole golf course and numerous bars and restaurants to indulge in. I can really recommend staying at this hotel.

Thanks for the comments
My trip is now confirmed and I hope to enjoy this hotel plus the nice spring weather there...

By the way, welcome to this board BMG. I hope you will enjoy it.

I concur. My wife an I stayed there in Sept. '99 for a week.

It's an amazing place.

They have a private beach with a restaurant on it. Towels, Lounge Chairs, and warm water to boot.

The rooms are spacious, and many of them have ocean views.

There are a few swimming pools on the property, a golf course, and quite a few places to eat as well. Indoor or outdoor dining, and even a game room for the kids.

If you have a chance, the town of Monchique is very interesting. It's about an hour from the hotel.

Have a great trip!

Going there mid May on a 5-day award stay with Mrs Viking and two children aged 7&9.
They've confirmed a 2 br. suite in the "Residence" section, anyone stayed there, or in any of the Penthouse suites (Looking for an upgrade)?
How's the kids area?

I stayed at The Sheraton Algarve last December for 2 nights. It is a very nice property and I would return, but it is not perfect.

Good:

• I was upgraded to what is probably the best platinum upgradeable room in the hotel. Only one of about 3 rooms that can actually see the beach (that is the sand).
• I stayed right after a Phillips conference left. The day before my arrival the hotel was fully booked. During my stay… perhaps 10 rooms were occupied. It was all mine!
• My room was a two floor suite with two balconies and very nice views.
• The grounds are very pretty with quality landscaping and lots of water features (the newer condo section is not landscaped as nicely).
• My platinum amenity was an immense bowl full of fruit.
• Staff were very friendly and helpful
• Nice grocery store across the street from the hotel to buy munchies and beer/wine and hence avoid massive hotel markup.
• Room service price includes tax, service and delivery. Don’t see that very often.
• Decent breakfast buffet included in the rate (very reasonable rates off season).

Bad:

• Posts in older threads (that may be gone by now) mentioned that on season the place is swarming with kids. In that case my room with the great view would have been very noisy. The front desk person that showed me the room even mentioned that it was a problem in the summer.
• The rooms are not my idea of luxury. Nice marble bathroom, but the furniture is pretty low end with truly bizarre nightstand lights. Also, all of the bulbs are fluorescent which I personally do not like.
• If you don’t have a car you are kind of stuck at the resort… not necessarily a bad thing.

Bumping my request of April the 11th. Award stay for 5 nights, paid for 2 nights, hopefully the weather'll be in our favour, although it doesn'æt look like the beach is open at that time of the year.

Definetely a positive experience!
 

Just back from a week's stay, and I must say rather impressed.
The resort itself is on an approx. 100-150 acre area with own security at the gate, lots of fountains and townhouses as well as apartments scattered unobtrusively. Lots of green lush areas and never seemed overcrowded although booked to capacity some of the days.

We (Mr&Mrs Viking and the two aspiring Vikingettes at age 7&9) were on combined 5 night award stay (58,000pts) in a 2BR Golf suite + nights paid booking at 300Euro a night in a regular apartment (2 BR, but supposedly of a lower standard and subideal location right by the resort gate).

I had phoned ahead regarding an upgrade, none was promised, but they'd look into it.
Upon arrival my Plat.status was immediately recognised and I was offered an amenity choice (Huge bowl of fruit with a bottle of standard red wine), and the good news that we had been upgraded to a Penthouse suite :D
You can see a copy of the suites layout when searching at www.pinecliffs.com
but suffice to say at approx. 1,400sq.feet it was mmore than adequate with 3BR, 3 full baths, 4 terraces/balconies, deckchairs, full kitchen, bathrobes for everyone, nice amenities, although not brand name.
Beautiful view of the 1st tee and last green gave us breakfast and afternoon entertainment.
We were offered a complimentary glass of champagne with exotic fruit drinks for the kids while looking out on the sunset one evening of our stay.

Great junior club for the kids with a multitude of activities. Good beach, but in general the area is rather windy.
Standard fare in the restaurants, rather high priced.
One evening we had booked an Italian buffet for the entire family, alas they had to inform us that they had allocated the entire restaurant to a large corporate party and immediately (Thanks to assistant manager Vera) offered us a complimentary dinner in another restaurant. Nicely handled!
When the time approached for our switch to a regular apartment the entire resort was fully booked, and they were less than optimistic regaring any upgrades, however the same day they managed to find a 3BR golf suite (retailing at 900EURO/night) in the neighbouring house, did all the translocating for us including the stuff in the fridge, superb!

High quality beautician and massage services.

All in all: Woul highly recommend it, and definetely go back, but recommend a car for the entire stay (Got a Mercedes C200 for Euro 300 for the entire week through Avis, upgraded from Vectra class).

I went two summers ago -- excellent beach, excellent views, pretty good rooms.

been there this May...
 

... and will never go again, if you're under 35 and have no kids this is one of the most boring places on the planet... great resort for oldies and families :o

All in all good.
 

All in all I enjoyed the hotel. I found the staff great. The beaches are beautifull. You have to keep in mind that you're paying for location. You're paying for the golf course and the beach. The rooms themselves are not impressive. Mine had some ants in it, but I'm giving the benefit of the doubt that this is expected beach side. Also, there was no spa; which is strange for a golf resort. It definately is more geared towards old people and families. It's a good place if you're trying to get away from the town (which is a pretty wild beach town). If you're young, you'll want to stay somewhere else, as the regular beaches are nude, and there are tons of bars in town; where as in the pine cliffs resort it's secluded to its self and the tourists keep their clothes on. The restaurant was lame because you needed reservations there even though it never looked full, and the food was pricey. It was, however, very good food. This is definately a nice place to stay, GREAT if you love golf and the beach; but it was not what I expected from a 5 star hotel.

Sheraton Pine Cliffs and Pine Cliff Residence, Portugal [Master Thread]
 

«The resort stands proudly on a cliff-top surrounded by pine trees and overlooks miles of unspoiled beaches edging the clear, blue sea.»

No SPG Participation...

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www.visitalgarve.pt

This is no different than almost every other Starwood property that is more than a couple months away from opening day. It's possible that this property won't participate, but it's more likely that an SPG agreement hasn't been settled and/or category number just hasn't been assigned yet.

The description quoted above is not unique. This property is simply an apartment-style variation of the Cat4 LC Sheraton Algarve that's already open within the Pine Cliffs resort.

See also... http://www.pinecliffs.com/ where a vacation ownership sales pitch is offered for a 3-night package in a 2-bedroom suite for 291 Euro. Unfortunately, no details are provided about who qualifies for this offer. (IOW, can U.S. visitors get this offer? Or is this maybe limited to UK residents?)

Been a few years. Any recent updates? Thinking about heading there next month.

Thanks