Search Your Penalva de Alva Hotels

Aqua Village Health Resort & SPA absolutely poor exprience from a never-to-be-guest. Yesterday 14th May 2022, after driving for no less than 2 hours, my wife and I arrived at what looked to be a fine establishment. We entered the parking and having seen no signage indicating where to park, decided to stop next to the reception where we were greeted by a friendly concierge and were told how to complete check in. We had made our reservation roughly 3 weeks prior for my wife’s birthday and had very high expectations from what is advertised to be a 5* resort. On the way from the car to the reception, I had pointed out the 32C heat to the concierge - being from South Africa as well as being well traveled, I had experienced far higher temperatures elsewhere, but it was pretty hot. We were asked to provide our identity documents and while those were being processed we were taken through a map of the resort and had the facilities explained by another front desk attendant. This is where things took a turn for the worst, having been told that this SPA had no SPA for the weekend! It was almost like the way in which you would greet a stranger in passing. This was obviously less than ideal given our expectation and sheer excitement up to that point. No SPA we asked? The response being that these facilities were undergoing maintenance, that there was some issue and as a result the SPA would remain closed for the duration of the weekend. We were also told that we could use the pool, however this does not benefit from the thermal water which the area is well known for. At no loss for words, we asked how this matter would be resolved as right then, although we were less interested in staying the weekend, we were exhausted and in dire need of freshening up. I should mention as well that at no point up to this moment, were we offered even a glass of water. I am fortunate enough to have stayed at several 5* establishments prior to this and so had some expectation of the level of service, which was clearly amis. We were asked to wait while the front desk attendant contacts the manager. I’m not quite sure how long this took but it felt like an eternity. I would guess about 15-20 minutes later we were told that the resort will do nothing to rectify the situation. I should say that we had also pointed out the fact that since 2PM on the day [it was around 5PM at the time], the staff were well aware that the SPA was going to remain closed for another 2 days, and still for some reason did not think to contact us letting us know. There was no notice of maintenance on their website and in none of the correspondence received from the resort to date, was it mentioned that maintenance would be carried out to the SPA during our intended stay. Upon asking if we could speak to the manager, again we were asked to wait as this person was not on site at the time. In the meantime as if by magic ice cold water appeared and we had finally been offered something refreshing. As we

Excellent 6-day stay. The receptionists are always available and careful, with good suggestions to walk and visit the region, with good suggestions of restaurants nearby. The 2 rooms are always clean and well-trained, every day. The pool area and jacuzzi with excellent conditions. A week of holiday that is in good memory for the whole family. They deserve more stars than the 2 stars that have.

The location of this hotel is very remote, more than 70 kilometers from the University of Coimbra, driving more than an hour. Don't decide if you don't have a car. The scenery on the road is still good. The hotel was converted from a monastery. In a very remote town, the hotel has a swimming pool and a vineyard. Breakfast is still OK. After the check-in, the front desk can help arrange dinner. The service staff took us on a tour of the hotel and there was a small church inside. The overall is good, it is far.