Pine Cliffs Ocean Suites, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Algarve

Our family had an unbelievable 4 day summer stay at Pine Cliffs Ocean Suites in Portugal. It's our preferred destination when we visit the Algarve. The staff at reception were warm and friendly. We were surprisingly greeted with a presidential suite upgrade during our stay which is like the size of 4 to 5 standard suites at Pine Cliffs. It offered us incredible 180 degree views of the entire resort with a huge balcony. The bed mattress was comfortable and made it easy to get a good night sleep. However, the kitchen is smaller and doesn't offer a washing machine like the other rooms on the property. Also note there's a small market right across the resort which is a huge plus to buy groceries and make meals from the kitchen. As a Marriott Platinum Member, we enjoyed complimentary daily breakfast which offered a large buffet assortment of cold and hot options including ready to order omelets, fruit smoothies, and a large assortment of pastries like Pastel de Nata. If you have young children, daily breakfast is €15-20 per kid per day. Pine Cliffs resort offers a large variety of restaurants to enjoy lunch and dinner and we enjoyed their salads and burgers. Access to the beach is approximately 10-15 minutes by foot from the resort and was a nice way to relax each and every day at the beach. Although we did enjoy the on-site swimming pools. If you have kids, there's a playground on the property. In the end, we had a fantastic stay at Pine Cliffs Ocean Suites and we will definitely visit again.

We stayed for one week, as a family of three, in a spacious two bed Ocean Suite, which was modern, clean, spacious and bright. It also benefitted from a washing machine and a relatively comprehensive kitchenette, which was handy. Pine Cliffs is a great resort for families. It is in a beautiful setting and benefits from an excellent range of facilities and amenities, including a fantastic nine-hole golf course and with access to a fantastic beach. We ate in several of the restaurants during our stay. In my opinion, even though the food in the restaurants was good, the price for the food was high, though again not unexpected in this type of resort. All the staff we met in the reception, restaurants, golf club and concierge made you feel very welcome and were helpful and had a friendly attitude. I would highlight that this is a very busy resort, as you would expect in July. Minor gripes include being required to book some of the restaurants, in some cases days in advance. On the resort website, the Italian appeared to be fully booked all week, though we did manage to get in one evening by just turning up. I had e-mailed the concierge team around four days in advance of arriving, to book several restaurants but had not received a response. The reason given was that they had thousands of e-mails and the team didn't have the resources to be able to read and respond to them all in time. As a result, our restaurant reservations had not been made. It also felt petty to be charging €6 per person to play mini golf given the room rates. Overall, we had a positive stay at Pine Cliffs. It is a beautiful resort with lots to keep you entertained but it feels like it falls slightly short in terms of the luxury that is reflected in the pricing.

Fantastic property & great room! We stayed in a suite which had a fully stocked kitchen and lots of space. We were golfing in the area and the local course is in nice shape. It’s not much of a “deal” for staying on the property, 10€ off. They charge for balls in the range. It’s one of the reasons we decided to stay. I would not stay again for the golf but I would for the hotel service & beach.

The hotel itself is undeniably attractive, with modern facilities and a pleasant setting, but unfortunately our stay has been overshadowed by several avoidable frustrations. We had requested an early check-in for midday, which was confirmed in advance, yet on arrival we were left waiting until 7pm before finally being given access to our room. After a long journey, this was extremely inconvenient and set a poor tone for the trip. We were also not informed that all of the restaurants on site require advance reservations. By the time we discovered this, everything was fully booked, leaving us with very few dining options. For a hotel of this standard, clearer communication and better organisation should be a basic expectation. The overall impression is of a property that is trying to cater for more guests than it can realistically manage. While the hotel itself is very nice, the experience feels chaotic and disorganised. Staff are polite but clearly stretched, and important details are being overlooked. As a Marriott Gold card member, I really expected a far higher level of service and attention. For the price paid, and the brand reputation, this was simply not what I had anticipated.

We stayed at Pine Cliffs Ocean Suites for an extended family trip, with some of our stay booked through a tour operator and the rest booked directly with the hotel. The resort itself is beautifully maintained, with excellent amenities. The Ocean Suites offered spacious rooms and thoughtful extras like a coffee machine, water filter, and a well-equipped kitchen in the one-bedroom suites. Unfortunately, the overall experience was let down by poor customer service and a clear lack of staff training. While the staff generally meant well, the service—from pre-arrival interactions to check-in, concierge, and restaurant staff—was consistently below expectations for a 5-star resort, especially one associated with the Marriott brand. Prior to arrival, emails went unanswered, and our requests for activity bookings were not confirmed. Our dealings with the concierge were especially frustrating. Despite it being peak season, the front desk and concierge staff often seemed overwhelmed and unhelpful when asked even basic questions. Check-in was chaotic. Staff couldn’t manage something as simple as placing different credit cards on the multiple rooms we had booked. A €5,000 charge was mistakenly applied to one card with no clear explanation—though it was eventually reversed, the incident was unsettling. We had also pre-booked and paid for a private airport transfer for part of our group, which simply didn’t show up. Again, no explanation was offered. A further unexplained €495 hold appeared on our card, supposedly for "resort fees"—which we had previously confirmed we wouldn't have to pay for. There was little to no communication about how the resort worked. At check-in, we were handed a map and that was the extent of the orientation. No details were given about what events were happening that week, pool options, family activities, or restaurant highlights. With kids in our group, we expected some guidance—at the very least, a summary of the kids’ club program. As a result, trying to find information about even the most basic things—such as where breakfast was served, how the shuttle system worked, daily activities, or kids’ club offerings—was like pulling teeth. Signage around the resort was often unclear, outdated, or incomplete. The resort app didn’t function properly and the website lacked up-to-date info. While we knew check-in was at 4pm, our rooms weren’t ready until nearly 4:30pm. There was no offer to use the facilities while we waited, and once in the room, we found the sofa bed unmade with no sheets provided, and the sheets on the main bed were stained. These issues were fixed after a call, but it was disappointing to have to chase them at a 5-star resort. The buffet breakfast was good, but again, poorly explained. No one told us how it worked, and things like ordering proper coffee were only discovered by watching others. Staff were often confused by basic requests like tea or bottled water—items that are usually standard at similar resorts.

From the moment of check-in, when we were met by staff who acted as though they were doing us a favour by letting us into our apartment for which we’d paid 600 GBP a night, to the moment of check-out where no one would come to help with our bags knowing we had a baby and we had to wait 30 mins to check out, we had a really poor experience. Check-in and check-out process: Slow and the staff act like they’ve come out of the Devil wears Prada movie, they were haughty and whispered the whole time. They all seemed confused about where various facilities were and just take the map and follow the guide. We arrived at 3pm and they made us wait outside with the baby until 4, similarly refused any request for late checkout even though I expected better as a Marriott Gold Elite member. Honestly rubbish experience for a five star. Breakfast: Not sure if the hotel has a better one but the one for ocean suites was like a motel breakfast, the only saving grace being the usher who was a nice lady. Guest services: No one answered the phone 9 out of 10 times we called, either for amenities or housekeeping. Once we asked for an extra dishwasher tablet and the lady at guest services refused to give us one saying we should’ve received the one tablet at check-in and should somehow have managed with one dishwasher cycle wash during our entire 4 day stay. I explained that we had baby bottles to wash and she said that doesn’t matter given their policy and then shockingly just hung up. I don’t think I’ve ever been this shocked and upset at a staff behaviour in my entire life. Food: Avoid eating at any restaurant inside the resort, they’re all expensive which would’ve been fine but of such poor quality given the price. Everyone was just going outside to eat, what a shame given you’re paying for a resort experience. Children’s play area: This was really sad, it was a playground outside which basically was always empty given its super hot and sunny during the summer. I tried accessing the airconditioned play area indoors but the staff didn’t even let me in, speaking to me by the door saying I need to book a play session where I’d need to leave my baby with their staff. I said sure, when can I do that, and she went oh they’re all booked for the next 3 days. I asked if I could just play with my little one in the completely empty area in front of me and pay a fee for doing so, and she refused without being able to explain why. I left with a sad little one who’d made the trek in the sun hoping to get some play time. For the amount I paid, this is honestly the worst hotel experience I’ve had in my life. We had just come from the W Algarve and it was a million times better in comparison. Just avoid this place.