Hotel PortoBay Santa Maria

The hotel is right on the water. Its beautiful and clean. The pool and lounge area is clean and set up very well. Breakfast was wonderful. Everyone on staff was helpful and friendly. Excellent hotel!!

Fantastic location, close to old town restaurants and easy access to boardwalk, which gets you to the marina and beyond. Excellent service. Large breakfast offering. And in the summer months, enjoyable evening entertainment.

Would recommend this hotel with helpful friendly staff. Only reason for 4 stars was a little slow in buffet restaurant. Food very good for buffet, clean hotel and great location. Entertainment every evening in a relaxed atmosphere. Spa and pool are good as well.

We wouldn't hesitate to come back to the hotel, it is super-clean and tidy and the staff are all so polite and helpful, it's a wonderful place to stay! The location is excellent, 2 mins walk from the cable car, right next to the old town and lots of restaurants. Also only 20 mins or so from the airport, it's perfect! So why only 4 stars rather than 5? It's the poor quality of the evening meals which were not up to expectation for the high prices being charged. It felt like the hotel is up to date on everything else (and again I will say that everything else was stunning!), but the evening meals are like going back to the 1970's. For example, the Italian-themed dinner cost €34 per head (before drinks). We expected a high quality meal, but the only manned food station was a guy who roughly warmed the pasta for you for just 20-30 seconds before dumping it on your plate. Everything else was buffet style and this made it such a disappointment. It could have been presented so much better. The pasta sauces were in hot trays to spoon out yourself and the quality of these was not great, quite bland. The BBQ night was €38 per head. Again, high expectations (given the price!) were let down with just 1 chef cooking on 1 solitary BBQ, no nice presentation at all when you consider the price at just under €40 per head. So the evening food is, in our opinion, very expensive vs local restaurants and not as good quality either. Fix that and you have a totally perfect hotel!

Perfect location and facilities.

Location, staff and clean

Very pleasant overall experience 👍🙏

My wife and I had a great stay. Perfect location to everything in Funchal.

Lovely hotel, wonderful staff, delicious breakfast

This was our ninth visit to Hotel Porto Santa Maria and as usual it did not disappoint. The staff are so welcoming and friendly. As usual, nothing's ever to much for them and it's refreshing to see the same faces all around the hotel. We find it a peaceful haven. The cleanliness is excellent. We usually only have breakfast which is substantial and varied. Happy hour is a bonus and we enjoy working our way through the fab cocktail menu. Situated, towards the end of the promenade and in the old town, it's surrounded by many good restaurants, for those who don't want to take advantage of the dinner package provided by the hotel. It's also very convenient for the cable car, fruit and flower market and the cathedral. The pool area leads directly onto the prom and there is a raised area, for a leisurely lunch whilst watching the cruise ships berthing. The Porto Santa Maria also has an indoor pool, spa, where you can have a beauty treatment and a gym. WE cant wait to return, at the end of November, for the Christmas lights turn on!

Great location with view of cruise ship harbour, friendly and very helpful staff. Best of Funchal within walking distance. kitchenette facilities in studio room. Loved everything about it.

Loved the location,

I loved the location, close to the Botanical Garden cable car and numerous restaurants, the pool area is lovely too

Great hotel. Everything was excellent, Wonderful breakfast Very friendly staff and close to the city centre. Looking forward to a return visit in March.

Great location in the heart of Old Town. Super convenient. Very mixed experience with staff - some we just simply rude. Majority were unfriendly. It is also worth noting, we're in our mid 50's and we seemed to easily be the youngest guests there by a couple of decades! No disrespect intended but we literally felt we were staying in a senior care home. Adults only is great but this was on another level! The hotel is also very dated internally and they need to invest in bringing it in to C21st! We wouldnt stay again.

All well but heavy cigarette smoke and smell in the room from chimney neighbors. Looks like many Europeans are all chain smoker's! Staff apologized but the law is not in their favor - nor in favor of nonsmoking guests. At time we had to run the AC at full strength and keep the slider open. Other that - beautiful place, great service and great people!

Very mature clientele in this adult only property. Beautiful ocean front view from our room. Responsive front desk. Rooms were carpeted in main area. Breakfast buffet good selection with slight changes in offerings daily. Steps from the old town - more touristy area so depends what you like.

Fantastic hotel with friendly staff, spotlessly clean and right on the sea front

A great location. Spacious rooms. Disappointed that our seaview room had a wall instead of an iron balcony so could only see the sea if standing up. Should be sold as a partial seaview room and not charged at the full seaview rate. Lovely clean property.

All aspects of this hotel were fantastic from the friendly and accommodating staff in the restaurant, bar area , front desk and spa services. The hotel rooftop was excellent and enjoyed the special event of bubbles and sushi. The location was very convenient for walking to many attractions. Nice to have on site parking and the breakfast buffet that was exceptional. We enjoyed staying here and would highly recommend to others.