VOI Vila do Farol Resort♡

Room for improvement

6.0

The transfer and the check-in was good, fast and with a nice little welcome drink. Our ”bungalow” was more like a cabin among chained cabins and it had the structural integrity somewhere between a wonky garden shed and a tent. That made the rooms noise-sensitivity go through the roof. Not only can you hear your neighbor cough and fart, you can actually FEEL your neighbor correcting his pillow against his beds headboard through the wall onto your headboard. There was a really nice patio in front of the ”bungalow”. The bed was ok, the AC was good and most importantly, the room was always very clean. An interesting quirk was that you lock your room with a key from the inside and outside and you only get one key. So, when I decided to sleep in while my wife and daughter went for an early morning walk on the beach, they locked the door from the outside i.e locking me in when they left. This ment that I had to climb out the window like a catburglar to get to the patio. The hotel turned out to be an Italian province. Everyone and everything here is Italian. The guests, the food, the music, the hosts. Everything here is made to replicate Italy. I like Italy but I didn’t go to Cabo Verde to experience Italian food and music. It would be nice with some local elements. The food is probably as good as it gets in an all inclusive hotel. Pretty good variation and there’s always something you like even for me as a picky eater. There are no sauces whatsoever. I would have liked a bearnaise sauce, a red wine sauce or some barbecue sauce. And for the love of god, season the food! At least make a station with spices. The only spices available are a salt shaker on every table, some ground pepper and chiliflakes in bowls by the pasta. The pool area was really nice. There were enough chairs and places to get shade. I think all pools feels like going through a hole in the ice but this pool was perfect for me. There are steps in it so you can get in gradually. Perfect! And the pool isn’t cold, it’s just me being a wuss. But, the pool area is never quiet. If the Italian hosts aren’t shouting into the microphone of the PA-system, there’s Italian music playing. Once a day, the Bravo hosts did a little dance by the pool. They looked as if they might have been a little tired of doing the same dance every day for god knows how long except for Eduardo. He went all in, every day. I think it was the highlight of his day. His energy was contagious. The snack bar by the pool is more like the leftover bar. Cold fries and whatever is left from the breakfast. Didn’t look nice at all. Very worn down and wonky. The pool bar is ok. A bit understaffed sometimes but ok. They should get some new glasses though. The ones they have are pretty worn out. The lobby bar is the best one. A nice place to sit and sometimes there’s no music! Here you can sit in peace and quiet and play cards and enjoy the view. The local beer is really nice. The gin and tonic is by far the best drink. In the lobby bar you sometimes get your drink in a chilled glass but mostly in plastic glasses. All bars give you your drinks to go in a soggy paper cup. It feels like drinking out of an envelope after a while. If you leave the hotel to explore the surroundings, beware of the hustlers. Hustlers are smooth and everywhere. They come up to you and say something like ”- Hello Mr. You stay at Vila do farol yes?”. When you say yes they say that they work at the hotel cleaning the pool or garden or whatever. I don’t know if they really work at the hotel but they do know that you’re staying at the hotel. Then they say that you have to visit their mom’s shop. DO NOT go with them! Support the local economy by shopping in a supermarcado or something instead. Most of the hotel staff are, well, not exactly rude but they sure aren’t happy to see you either. When we checked out, the guy behind the counter said ”- You must pay tourist tax! €35.”. Ok ,fine. After I paid he gave me a receipt, didn’t say a word just walked away. Maybe a ”- I hope you had a nice stay.” or ”- Come again.” would have been nice? Not all staff are like that. Fatima in the bar was nice. All the cleaning staff were amazing. They don’t just clean the rooms and the hotel, they clean the outdoors too! They sweep and mop every boardwalk and they do it smiling. Tip your cleaning lady.

Pleasant bungalow vacation😊

8.0

Pleasant place. Nice pool area. Close to/on the beach. Huge good bed!🤩 Clean and nice staff. As Norwegians we didnt understand alot, because EVERYTHING is in French or Italian.😅 But we loved not meeting our neighbours.😋 Nice drinks/wine and good food. Great fish🤩 All in all worth what we payed for all inclusive. 💖

Was amazing

10.0

Was amazing stay with my family and with mainly my kids. People were really friendly and helpful. Once we will return. During our stay we used the service of MAX - full name SUPER MAX - the really nice an friendly guy that you can met on the beach and the trip with his colleague next day was really good.

Guest review

10.0

very good hotel , staff very friendly just miss coffee in the room

Guest review

10.0

Excellent customer service. Food choices were amazing. Cleanliness was great. The property itself is dated, well maintained but dated for sure.

Disappointed 😞

6.0

Let me start with the fact that I just read all the reviews over the years and it is concerning to read that nothing has changed at least over the past 6 years, I am not sure if it makes sense to write a review here. I wish I would have read the reviews on this website before coming here. This is not a 4 star hotel in my opinion. It is perfectly fine to promote this hotel to Italian speaking people, but it is not ok to write in your description that main languages in this hotel are ENGLISH, Italian, Portuguese.. this is simply not true. I arrived in the night and checked in at the reception, his English was not good, but we could understand each other. However, he told me my bungalow number and I had to find it myself with a map in my hand, nobody helped me with the luggage (2 suit cases), disappointment #1. The room as you can read is old, but it was clean, good job on that. I though ok, maybe that's how it is here but no the following week a lot of Italians arrived and were greeted with cocktails and their suit cases were brought to their rooms, which made me feel left out, because I do not speak Italian? Ok I though, whatever. When I figured out that all the animation during the day and night is also in Italian only, I was very sad, I personally travel a lot and LOVE shows and since I travel alone, I prefer to stay at the hotel in the night and this was a HUGE disappointment #2 for me. When I went to the pool, no staff member spoke to me, like they did with all Italian speaking people and you feel discriminated. At a later point of my stay one young girl from the animation team came up to me and spoke English, I was happy and she told me that this is unfortunate she understands the frustration and there are many bad reviews about it. Well guess what? 2 days later, I hear them announcing the activities in Italian and English. So it is possible, but you just decided not to before? I understand that the majority is Italian, but you still have guests from other countries and each guest should be treated equally, if this is not possible, just simply do not promote it for any other speaking people out there. As also mentioned by others, it is really ridiculous to ask the guests to pay 2 euros for 1.5 l water in an all inclusive hotel, you can refill the little bottles you have but this water is disgusting unfortunately. Positive things: the food is great, I enjoyed the meals a lot, lots of choices. There were SOME staff members who actually smiled and sayed hello, like at the lobby bar. The beach is amazing. What I would have prefered to have umbrellas and more shadow. There is one big spot with sun beds underneath, thats all the shadow you get and if you come in the afternoon good luck getting one. Air conditioning is great in the room. Could use more of it in the main restaurant. To summarize, I regret that I have booked 10 days and paid so much money to just be left out in this hotel. After speaking to some locals about the hotels we were told that apparently people say the same things about this hotel for years and I guess my own fault not to read all the reviews before coming here. I think this hotel could have its charm with fixing some of the issues and renovate, Maybe than it's worth the 4 stars. However, the island is very nice and you should book a tour when visiting.