Pine Cliffs Residence, a Luxury Collection Resort, Algarve

We stayed in the Garden Residences and it was exceptional! The accommodation was massive. The staff are amazing. I’m not sure if it changes in high season (August onwards) but in July the shuttle (golf buggy’s or big card) can be called at any time to collect you to transport you to one side of the resort to the other. We often got them to collect us as we were near the kids football pitch (boys loved this ) which is right at the back of the resort. The washing machine and dryer were very fast (within an hour) so that was great. I washed every day (little things). My only gripe is that there was no rack to hang clothes. That is majorly needed as I don’t put all my clothes in the dryer (it did have a lot of settings for delicates etc though). So I ended up using the chairs on the balcony which was fine but not as ascetically pleasing. You don’t want to put damp swimwear or towels in the dryer either after a swim. The only other thing I would say is the cost of food on site is very very expensive but there are lots of places locally that do take away. We had breakfast in the apartment and at the golf club a couple of times and once at Zest as they were reasonable. We did do the buffet breakfast once but very expensive for 5 people at 35 euros . O’Grill in the evenings has a different themed food night each night (Mediterranean, seafood, bbq etc) and that was amazing. It’s approx 55-65 euros depending on the night but you have all the courses and it’s not your average buffet. Each night someone comes to your room to check if you need anything which is a nice touch. The beach has a few activities and my kids did the donut ring which was pulled by a boat. They enjoyed the zip lines which was good value at an hour for 30 or 35 euros. They also did the football camp which was 2 hours a day. They really enjoyed that. The Pools are great. The one near O’Grill was their regular haunt which was good for us as we could sit and have a coffee. Food and drinks can be served to the sun loungers too which is good. Luxury place and beautifully maintained. Would go back.

This review is based on my stay from June 2025 in a 3-bedroom residence as a family that included 3 couples. The Good - Beautiful setting - Ground meticulously maintained - Dramatic beach area Needs Significant Improvement - Maintenance - Housekeeping - Customer service & follow-up We arrived after a long trip from the US and a long drive from Lisbon to check into our villa only to realize that the villa that I booked almost a year in advance using almost 500,000 Bonvoy points also included a €1000 “upgrade fee” when I inquired about what the upgrade was nobody at the front desk could tell me because I already reserved the largest most expensive villa, but they assured me that they would check on it. Upon entering my villa, I noticed that there was a terrible smell in it, the air conditioning wasn’t cooling (which was probably causing the musty damp smell), and the Wi-Fi would not upgrade to the premium high-speed Wi-Fi that my Bonvoy gold standing provided. I immediately notified the front desk about these issues and was assured that they would be addressed. I continued to notify the front desk of these issues twice daily during my stay and they were never corrected, the temperature of my villa never went below 26 C (79 F) The multiple people that were sent to fix the air conditioning told me that it should cool down to 20 C (68 F), but they did not have the expertise to fix it and HVAC experts need to be called – that never happened. Because the air conditioning never worked, the smell never went away, even though they sent someone from housekeeping to mop the floor (not sure what that was supposed to accomplish). Additionally (except for the first night) nightly turndown service of the villa was never performed, despite me bringing the issue to their attention. All in all, this experience is not commensurate with a Bonvoy Luxury Collection Property and when I brought that to the management’s attention they agreed but did nothing to improve my experience. In summary, I communicated the above issues daily to the property, I wrote Bonvoy a letter expressing my dissatisfaction (during my stay) then followed up with the property’s contact point provided by Bonvoy, 3 times (during my stay, 1 week after check out & 2 weeks after checkout) and the responses I received were essentially: - Sorry you had these problems - Thank you for bringing it to our attention so that we can use it as a training opportunity for our staff - We agree that this level of service is not consistent with Bonvoy’s Luxury Collection properties (their highest level) - Be assured that they are looking into why I was charged an additional €1000 for an upgrade that doesn’t exist – note it is now more than a month after checkout and I’ve never gotten an answer to this - I was offered a “special confidential rate” (never quantified) to return to the property for them to provide me the experience I should’ve gotten the first time I understand that issues happen all the tim