Unbelievably High Levels of Service from dedicated and enthused Staff. Gardner's, Housekeeping, Maintenance, Reception, Waiting...the list goes on. All sincerely friendly and helpful. Immaculate grounds, facilities and rooms. Perfect sea front location in Funchal. Unparalleled food choices particularly in the buffet restaurant. We have not experienced such customer focused service before. Guest relations Cecilia Jasmin's deserving of a special mention. Will we go again? Already booked to return in the New Year.

That it had to end was the only negative

The perfect base for exploring Madeira. The Residence Porto Mare – Porto Bay is an absolutely stunning place. We enjoyed every second of our stay. It was magical from start to finish. A warm and friendly welcome at reception. The reception staff were very kind to us, took our luggage to our room and helped us navigate the huge grounds. We had a studio room, spacious and very comfortable with good furniture. Large terrace with table and chairs, and in front of it a garden with sun loungers. The kitchen-studio was equipped with everything you need to prepare dinner. The beds are huge and the mattresses are very comfortable for a great night's sleep. The room is spotlessly clean, cleaned every day. A special mention goes to the housekeeper Zite Figueira. Her cheerful attitude and cheerful laughter made our stay even more enjoyable. We celebrated my wife's birthday in the Alfama a la carte restaurant. The food was excellent and the manager of the restaurant Paulo and his whole team made my wife's day unforgettable. The cake with candles and congratulations from the staff was great. The hotel staff also congratulated us with champagne in the room. We would like to thank everyone. It was a wonderful surprise. I must say that all the staff of the residence are very friendly, polite, diligent and helpful. The breakfast staff was always professional, despite being very busy. The breakfast in the Atlantida restaurant, "buffet", was very good. The quality of the food is excellent. Beautiful well-kept green area, beautiful gardens, great pools, jacuzzi, gym, "happy hour"! There are enough places on the sun loungers. Supermarket and shopping center next door. Lido nearby. Many restaurants and bars around Everything was perfect for our stay. We had a great time. Thank you!

The location is very good , the hotel and grounds superb and the staff very friendly and helpful. We enjoyed room 3260 in The Residence very much , and the swimming pools were good. I would like to especially thank Licia Ferrara for an extremely informative and excellent garden tour. Also your gardeners who do such a good job in maintaining the beautiful grounds.

When we arrived, we were given Room 3380. We immediately noticed it was very noisy, adjoining the road and opposite a bar playing loud music every night . We requested a change of room and were informed we could change to Room 3260 after four nights. We were very grateful to be transferred and our new room was all we could hope for.

Lots of pools Good buffet, although by the fourth day it became repetitive, but still lovely and a good choice of food even for those trying to eat healthily. Plenty of options for fussy kids too. Massive rooms with enormous and comfortable beds. Easy to get bus or taxi to Funchal. Relatively easy to find Sun loungers. A bit busier at weekend. Close to a ‘beach’ - area to jump off rocks into sea. And the lido which was cool. Big inflatable deck area, sadly not in use due to high winds. Diving boards into sea loved by our teenagers. Staff were very friendly. Seems relaxed - not like a large resort, even though it’s pretty big. Noise from singing acts didn’t bother us at all. We’re not normally cabaret fans but we had a great evening at the Elton John night 😂 In fact, we’ve never done a holiday like this as a family in a hotel and we wondered if it would all be a bit cheesy, but it was pretty classy all in all. Very clean everywhere. Customer service was good - we were let down at last moment and couldn’t have our booked rooms in the residence (I presume with it being a time share it can get overbooked - something to be aware of) but they gave us very nice large rooms in the main hotel and helped with half board to compensate for the loss of kitchen area. This really did make our holiday easier, as we’d booked kitchen rooms in the residence originally to self cater and save money. Useful shopping centre (small but decent supermarket) next door. Had a lovely mother and teen daughter massage. Spa ladies were lovely and massage was great, and I thought reasonably priced. Happy hour was nice. Again just very chill. Kids liked the mocktails.

Rooms were sea view but the balconies were set back a little in a large balcony. We looked over several balconies before getting to the sea view, but it was there when you got to it! It was lovely to sit outside. Try and avoid busy times at restaurant (they helpfully advertise these) so you can get a table outside or on veranda. Inside is fine but not as nice.

The staff are so kind especially Pedro and the residence, staff . A special mention for the luggage trolly gentlemen because they are the kindest lve met and housekeeping went the extra mile. My last week l spent elsewhere and on getting my cases ready for the plane discovered the straps which I use to secure my folded up walker for the plane hold were missing . I returned the evening before l left and asked if they had found them within minutes the were produced neatly wrapped in a polythene bag and l was told they kept all lost property for a year. Aren't they stars ? I often ate at ' the pool bar great service and good food and breakfast was amazing. So many choices, . You could have a different breakfast every day for a month!!!! Super stay thank you.

When l had to leave

The grounds and exterior are beautiful. The gardens and pools are perfectly maintained. The complex is close to many great restaurants outside the hotel within a few minutes. It was also easy to take the bus or taxi to the old town. You can even walk. There is a big supermarket on the side of the hotel plus many small grocery stores nearby. The food was very good in the restaurants so we did not cook. The breakfast at the hotel had a lot of selection.

The interior hallways and rooms are very outdated. There is a big contrast by how new the exterior of the hotel looks and how old the rooms are. But they are well maintained and comfortable.

Although the place is just a little worn out (mostly corridors), the overall appearance is still nice and this actually makes the place even more homely. It quite complex as there are three hotels combined together and share the garden/pool areas and at first quite complicated to move around (at one side you are on the first floor but on the garden side you are on the 4th floor :)). I really liked that the whole complex looked like a small (boutique) hotel with a really nice green gardens and pool areas. There are so many spots where you can relax and enjoy. Great breakfast and as we had half board - great dinner too. Liked that they had themed dinners daily - Portugese, Italian, seafood etc. Lots of high chairs for the little ones. Every night there was live music at two bars. As we were travelling with 3.5 and 1.5 there were quite a lot things to do - outdoor bigger playground and smaller next to one pool. Two kids pool outside - but the Eden Mar side is in a shade before noon. Also the biggest outdoor pool has a shallow entrance, so the kids can "play" there. Inside is a (heated? at least it felt so) pool which has a little wider stair entrance so we used this the most as the outdoor pools felt a little cold for the kids. Inside there's also a playroom but you have to ask the key from the spa reception.

The hotel/resort was lovely and was very well maintained. The grounds were spectacular. The property is a little 'dated' but not enough that it affected our stay. Check-in went smoothly. I did request a room that was facing the ocean and not the street which was accommodated and appreciated. We had a 1-bedroom and it was spacious and nicely appointed. The breakfast was wonderful - lots of choices including eggs cooked to order. We would definitely stay here again.

We used the spa for a facial and pedicure. We were surprised that we were not offered a drink (water or tea) at the conclusion of the services. I have definitely experienced better spas with friendlier staff. We noticed a sign offering a couples massage for $120 - which was advertised everywhere throughout the property. The woman working at the counter had no idea what I was talking about and showed me their brochure with much higher prices. She was annoyed when I pointed to the sign right outside the spa. When I asked if I could schedule the massage, she was blunt and said no, that they were busy for the next several days. I think she was just embarrassed, but it didn't leave a favorable impression on us. Therefore, would not recommend the spa. Nothing special.

Very comfortable apartment. Well equipped kitchen with oven, full stovetop, microwave and large fridge. Restaurants that we tried were really good (Alfama, Basilico, The Med). The breakfast buffet was amazing. Staff at breakfast and for cleaning the rooms provided great service. Lots of space outside, lovely gardens, plenty of sunbeds, amazing pool areas. Bus just outside of hotel made it easy to get around. Supermarket next door.

Very noisy until around 11pm in our room because of music in the bar I think. Not really possible to watch tv in the evenings because of that. Room service menu had limited options. Outdoor pool too cold to use even though we had hot weather. The indoor pool was great but some days also a bit on the cold side. No laundry facilities in apartment. Laundry services were on offer but very expensive - there is a laundromat across the road though that did a great job for us.

Great complex - well tended and looked after - great happy hour which was clearly very popular - the entire complex was spotless and is obviously well maintained - excellent breakfast with attentive friendly staff - didn't eat dinner so can't comment

It can be a difficult place to navigate about as it consists of three different buildings and inter-communication can be problematic until you find your way about - our appt was about as far away from breakfast as you could get and a tortuous route