Hotels Near Buddy Bar in Santa Maria

Excellent hotel in central Santa Maria. We stayed one night on our way back to the UK. The hotel is on the main pedestrian street of Santa Maria, absolutely bang in the centre of everything. The staff were very welcoming and friendly. The room was clean and comfortable. The bathroom was lovely but it took a long time for the hot water to come through. The beds were comfortable. It was nice to have a balcony but with the number of people passing by on the street I felt like I was a mannequin in a shop window, so I didn't use it. There was air conditioning, which was a very nice thing to have on in the heat. Breakfast was included. They made us fresh omelettes, which were delicious. Also a good selection of fruit and a bit of chocolate cake. There was more on offer like bread and cheese and meats, but I don't eat much for breakfast. I didn't like the coffee from the machine, but it is probably just my personal taste. The staff were very nice about checking out and they even kept our luggage for a few hours before we went to the airport.

Have stayed before and gave in 4* Was bit disappointed this time Paid extra for pool view as last time was kept awake by Pirate disco. Were initially shown to top floor room directly opposite disco. We asked to be moved and were given a room by the pool. This smelt of damp and there was a large patch of mould on the wall. The toilet leaked water from the back. There was not hot water for the full week. The sunbeds were all reserved by 8am-luckily few guests knew about the upstairs terrace which was great. Breakfast was very good but chaotic constantly running out of everything. The evening meal was ok but service was terribly slow-the poor water was rushed off his feet doing everything. We ate out the other nights and there are loads of good restaurants in 2 mins walk Its basically a decent value hotel with great staff and a fab location 3mins from pier and beach--would I go again ?? --probably. If you want 5* you can probably get in an AI out of town --but you will miss so much.

Very nice small and friendly hotel. Everything looks clean and new. Calm and quiet. Very good breakfast. Near to everything. Only negative thing is that they allow smokers to smoke around the pool. Not very nice for us nonsmokers

The official rating of this hotel is 4 stars, and with a bit of cosmetic upgrading and better staffing in the kitchen, I could see it reaching that level (it seems like it may have once been a real 4 star). As it was, the room quality itself was more 3 star, and the outside area was 4 stars. We had a 'deluxe sea view' with no terrace. There was lots of rough paintwork and lack of maintenance on the small details in the rooms, but overall it was fine, with a huge comfy bed and a nice shower and a lovely view out the window. Unfortunately the entry was at the street side of the hotel which was our smoking area, and that view was just the dirt road and some houses. Overall we would stay here again as the room was fine, the staff were great, the pool area was amazing, nobody had any screaming kids (very quiet and peaceful, great for couples) and while the beach required stepping over rocks, it also had the best snorkeling area with the most fish. Another sandy beach with less fish and two beach bars is a 3 minute walk away, and the main ***** with the main beach is a 10 minute walk (that one is useless for snorkeling but great for swimming). Besides snorkeling, it's also a preferred spot for wind surfing. We happened to try the hotel restaurant on a really bad night apparently, we waited an hour for our seafood paella which was average quality but double the price of the ***** restaurants. However, according to the other patrons who did all inclusive, the service was usually much faster. and the food usually much better. We did also have burgers for lunch one day, and those were expensive but very nice. Breakfast was included in our stay and it had an extensive and delicious continental selection, plus hot eggs and bacon on order, always very fast. The staff were super attentive and completely on their game, absolutely fantastic service. We got a great deal on a package holiday with LoveHolidays, so for the price we were very happy and would definitely stay again.

The best hotel in the whole island of Sal, except for Riu, is Hilton. Unfortunately, there is no Riu at the time of booking, but Hilton is very new, the decoration is very beautiful, and the facilities in the room are very modern. The hotel swimming pool is very large, the beach is outside, the greening is very good, the photo is beautiful, but the room is a little far from the beach, only half of the sea view room.

Thanks to everybody at the hotel for a wonderful 10 days. really could not fault it - quite near the main town -nice friendly little Portuguese bar nearby - and shops - we had B+B which was perfect. good pool for adults and kids alike. No sunbed wars thankully :-) Santa Maria is certainly more vibrant than when we went 5 years ago - Highly recommend this hotel as a good base to explore.

The Funana overall is a great holiday experience but there was a few small areas for concern. We flew from Manchester to Sal on 3rd February, getting through the airport was pretty easy, when we arrived in at Sal airport my girlfriend (Slovakian) and I (UK national) had zero issues passing through security, the coach ride was about 30 mins, check in was done quickly and efficiently. We were given keys to room 6009, which was about a minutes walk to the pool, i managed to lose a key card in the first 10 minutes but the hotel were happy to provide a replacement (it was found as we packed to leave so no issues) The hotel is quite spread out with the main restaurant close to the reception, the communal areas are kept clean and are well maintained. There is the main restaurant and a snack one(which doubles up as bookable restaurant it was called the Mambana which is available from mid morning, We booked the following restaurants Mandalay Mambana Kulinarium (this was by far the best) All 3 were good but the Mandalay was a little bit disappointing compared to the others. The main restaurant has a wide variety of food to suit everyone, there were very few days when I felt like there wasn't anything i fancied.. the staff that worked in all the restaurants were pleasant to talk to and were very attentive (they need to be singled out for praise) Now back to the room, it was clean and tidy but there were cosmetic and maintenance issues with 6009 that do need to be resolved as for me it was frustrating, the shower tray had cracks in it so needs to be replaced, there was a bracket to stop the shower door opening outwards but this was poorly installed and you could see wear and tear issues with the curtains.. but the bed was so comfortable and the room naturally cool we never needed to use the ceiling fan. We did find that there were no blankets in the room and after excessive sun we felt cold at night, it took 2 requests and a visit to reception to fix this but its a minor issue. The main pools were sun traps perfectly placed for getting a decent tan, with a bar central to them both on two occasions the barside pool was closed because cretins don't know how to use a toilet but it was closed off and resolved overnight. Drinks were easily obtainable which a decent choice for everyone. The beach is about 5-10 mins walk from the hotel but wasn't never and issue as at the end there was a bar and sunbeds, no toilets though. I also used the spa for a massage and it was well priced and they were very professional. On the Friday night between the CABO Verde and Funana there is an area where they have either the Neon or White Party, we visited the White Party and it was very good, great atmosphere, good music and fun for all the family (I would highly recommend going) Santa Maria is about 30 minutes walk by road or about an hour on the beach, i preferred the beach route but each to their own, you do see people selling excursions or bits and pieces in the

Can’t complain! Was a good beautiful hotel with plenty of food and drinks for all guests! Very easy to get there from the airport and everyone speaks English if you don’t speak the native language or similar. Most requests are done via their handy app which is easy to navigate and all inclusive is true to the name! You only pay for anything extra such as treatments in the Spa or items from the shop located on site otherwise everything else is included in the cost of your stay! I would have preferred more options for the 24hr “snack/food option” but this was only used out of hours so not many times for me.

Positive points: clean equipped room, breakfast (buffet), minibus timetables for Santa Maria + Ponta Preta, proximity to the beaches, several swimming pools, Negative points: lack of nightlife and entertainment, the outdoor free sports area needs to be redone, + a very unpleasant receptionist who didn't want to hear anything (didn't want us to pay the amount of the tourist tax indicated on our reservation but good management of Trip customer service)