You Need To Stay At Hotel California Albuferia Old Town, Portugal – Full Review

Welcome to the Hotel California, such a lovely place. Such a lovely place. If you’re looking for a 4 star, an adults-only haven in the busy resort of Albufeira’s Old Town. Then this is it.

Visiting for a week through On The Beach, an online package holiday specialist. We headed to the Algarve’s party coast for some sun and sangria.

Hotel California is located parallel to the Main Street in the old town. A 2-minute walk to both the square and the beach area. So is in the most perfect central location. With a large convenience store under the hotel, a plethora of Irish, Karaoke and lively bars just out the front door.

New hotel in the Old Town

Newly opened for 2019, the hotel has been built in a collection of the oldest conglomerate buildings in the old town. Don’t let this fool you into thinking the decor is traditional Portuguese. With clean whitewash everywhere, opulent gold accessories and dreamy blues dancing throughout Hotel California are modern, sophisticated and chic. 

Split across two buildings connected by the gorgeous pool and relaxing pool bar the hotel is over 9 floors. The main entrance is directly onto the main strip. Secondly, the entrance on the 8th floor (the other side of the hotel) is partway up the steep bank. Which boasts smaller, more quaint restaurants and more traditional bars. It’s like two different holidays in one! Make sure you explore both of the areas to get a real feel for the town.

The hotel offers a large selection for breakfast on a morning. With fresh smoothies, fruit, yoghurt jars and a charcuterie board as well as a wide selection of pastries and preserves. Hotel California also serves a small fried breakfast with sausage, bacon, eggs, beans and tomatoes. This is served al fresco at the pool bar which is extremely pleasant. Playing chill out tracks as you recover from the previous evening.

After 10:30 am strikes the breakfast at the pool bar ends and day service begins. More upbeat music is played around the pool. With a full open bar and food menu, Hotel California really does pay attention to all of the small details.

Adults-only hotel

The pool area boasts plush white double beds which are positioned to get the sun all day. If you prefer to be away from the pool there is also a sun terrace, again with large white double beds.

The pool has been tiled with gorgeous ornate tiles and each morning the pool robot cleaned the pool floor with the pool maintenance guy cleaning the top surface and around the edges. It was always immaculate, however, it is situated between the two buildings so gets very little sunlight so therefore is a little cold. Who am I kidding? It was freezing. If you’re looking to swim frequently, the sea is certainly a warmer option.

There are a couple of different room types available at Hotel California from S, M, L, XL and of course the suites. All rooms are complete with Nespresso Machine, Fridge, Flat-screen tv and hairdryer.

Full bottles of Rituals shower gel and shampoo are provided in the waterfall showers. The room we were staying in (408) was all glass internal walls. With an open plan bathroom, with shower wetroom and a separate toilet. The shower was powerful and water was always hot, however, the glass screen wasn’t quite long enough which resulted in the floor ending up soaking and a little hazardous at times.

The bed, a super king, was roomy and extremely comfortable. With white linen and coordinating grey headboard and footer blanket, the aesthetics in Hotel California are subsequently incredibly on-trend. With a large canvas in each room and Scandi style light shades it makes for a totally Instagram-worthy shot.

Views from the balcony

Our balcony was a smaller size to others, however, was a great location as it looked over the Main Street. On an evening it was great for listening to the karaoke from the bars below without being amongst it all. If you’re concerned about the noise, earplugs are provided although as soon as the balcony door is shut the noise becomes minimal. Some balconies have beds similar to those at the pool for lounging on, however, the benefit of the layout of Hotel California means that the room we stayed in didn’t have any balcony joined on to ours which gave an element of privacy you don’t get in other hotels.

Conscious about the environment Hotel California actually reward you €5 to spend in the hotel daily for each day you don’t require maid service. This is in the form of a voucher and is so simple to use. They are committed to trying to use as little plastic as possible and even the hangers are cardboard. Kudos to Hotel California for this effort.

Vegan Spa

The Spa has recently opened and is both eco-friendly and vegan. Using only vegan products in treatment. Towels and gowns are provided, however, they do admit that if possible not using the gowns is better for the environment in terms of washing them. The spa, again with the blue theme which is followed throughout boasts Turkish Baths, private massage rooms and a large plunge pool with different jacuzzi jets for different areas of the body at different locations in the pool. It is so relaxing and chilled and comes highly recommended if staying at Hotel California.

The staff are all incredibly friendly in the hotel and are happy to help wherever they can. The team is small and ultimately this means they provide a more personal service as you consequently become familiar with the small team. 

Having seen other hotels around the town and what they have to offer, the style and attention to detail completely blow other hotels out of the water. As it is an adults-only hotel it also really appeals to us when looking for a sun hotel destination. So, I would genuinely recommend staying at Hotel California if you’re looking for a more sophisticated romantic, chilled stay in Albufeira Old Town.

On The Beach offer a complete package holiday including transfers – which again were great. We were only with 2 other couples with close drop-offs. Similarly, this was the case for our return transfer too. You can see more details about Hotel California and check On The Beach’s prices and availability here.

Have you visited Albufeira before? I’d love to know where you stayed in the comments below.