Penina Hotel & Golf Resort

I like to have hot water kettle in room whick was missing

We’ve been coming to the Penina for the past 15 years, every few years and have always loved it so were concerned reading some of the recent reviews. Yes, she is looking a bit jaded in places but glad to see that some redecorating was going on and hope that this continues. But overall we thought she still looked okay. We love the dark wood and tiled floors, as that makes this hotel unique, and whilst some people may say the hotel needs modernising, I think that would take away all the charm and beauty of this hotel. Our room was perfect, it was clean, and serviced every day. Complimentary water each day would have been a nice touch and something that is standard in other 4-5 star hotels we have stayed in. WiFi was okay in our room and around the pool. Breakfast was fab as per usual! The staff were also excellent, although we felt there were less staff than in previous years. We were disappointed that two of the four restaurants were not open, especially as this was in July. We were told there was an issue with the air con in the Italian restaurant, and they had a visiting football team that had taken over the Sagres Restaurant daily, so we did wonder if this was more about lack of staff? Shame as we would have liked to visit the Italian, but we did visit the Grill and had a lovely meal there, and we ate in Alvor/Lagos for the other evenings which we would normally do anyway. Golf was great, we played 4 times on the Henry Cotton Course and did not play the Resort Course. The course was in good condition although they were hollow tining the greens which we were warned about. We were fine with this as it has to be done at some point to keep the course tip top. The guys in the pro shop were super helpful as always and moved our tee times around to suit us. Overall a great stay but she does need a little work and it will be interesting to see if the new owners invest in maintenance, upgrade and more staff - again, I cannot speak highly enough of the current staff who all work so hard! We will be back as it really is our happy place, but will probably give it a few years to see how things develop - we are keeping our fingers crossed!

We played the championship course on Saturday 1st November. We’ve played the course many times over the preceding 30 years so, having read numerous reviews slating the condition, we approached this one with trepidation. No, it’s not in the condition that it was when the European Tour regularly visited but it was by no means shabby. I would question the technique of those complaining about the bunkers - not a lot of sand but enough to control your shot quite easily. Greens had been spiked but rolled well at a reasonable pace and the fairways were also in good nick. We don’t stay in the hotel or play the Resort Course so I can’t pass comment on those. All in all a very enjoyable and good value visit so please don’t believe all you read - apart from this of course!!