VOI Praia de Chaves Resort

Very good pool with fountain and a good view of the beach, good beach with the beach bar,medium rooms with the TV,good food with the big vibe, afternoon program for children and adults,pleasant service and the:tenis court,beach volleyball court,football court and night shows

After reading some of the more negative reviews I was apprehensive about our visit this was our first holiday without our children and wanted it to be special. So let’s start with the negatives Is it 5 star not really. The rooms are a bit dated clean but old and in need of an upgrade particularly the bathrooms still trying to work out how to keep the shower at the right temperature. Entertainment wasn’t necessarily to our taste but there were plenty of places to sit and chill and enjoy a drink. Yes the resort is very much geared towards and Italian market but that had very little impact on our experience in fact it was actually quite nice. Positives Staff were friendly and attentive. Not been to an all inclusive for a long time but ,the food was enough to suit all tastes and plenty of it. There is enough variety of drinks included, including cocktails I’m now rather partial to a Mojito they certainly don’t scrimp on the measures! The resort itself is lovely gardens are well maintained and the views are spectacular. The atmosphere was good very chilled, music around the pool was nice and not excessive. The entertainment team work their socks off we didn’t join in the activities but there was plenty of them if you wanted to. All in all I’d say don’t come here expecting a five star resort and you may be pleasantly surprised. For the price I was happy with with what we got and would definitely come back.

The staff are absolutely amazing...nothing too much trouble..food was so incredibly fresh and well presented could praise enough...the whole hotel was spotlessly clean and everyone was smiling and welcoming...the activities through the day were well arranged and executed to the highest standards...peaceful relaxing week away

Sadly this is a very basic hotel. I don’t know if it is typical of the island but the facilities, service, rooms, food are all around a 2star. There is a big pool and a big beach but that is about all there is positive. The rooms feel like a cheap eastern block room from 20-30 years ago. Hard wooden framed bed with old bedding. WiFi works at under 1mbps. Bathrooms are cracked and stained. Air con leaks. No mini bar, no kettle, no iron, no sofas, no luxury whatsoever. There is one buffet style main restaurant where the dishes are all empty within 30minutes. The food itself is very basic, limited choice and poor quality. I wish I could say the salad, hot dishes, deserts or in fact any of the choices were good but that simply is not the case. There is also a pool bar self service with some food but it is poor quality plastic burgers (no rolls), cheap soggy french fries, Margherita pizza bits and that’s about it. There is one other restaurant for extra fees with limited menu such as lasagne and still not very good. Drinks are mostly self service in worn plastic cups. A couple of bars will serve you the same thing again in plastic cups but there is no table service anywhere which is poor for a 4or5 star it claims to be. To put it in context I haven’t seen any hotel as bad as this in Egypt, The Canaries, Turkey etc. The staff are nice people but sadly most of them have no idea about customer service. It is a shame, this could be a nice hotel with a complete refurb, much better service and totally improved hospitality. Sadly I don’t believe this will ever happen.

To start with the positives.... the pool and surrounding gardens are lovely and well kept. If you are a cat lover then the feline residents are a joy to watch. There were plenty of sunbeds during my stay, and you could use those on the beach directly below the hotel at no extra cost. The hotel bar on the beach was handy for drinks and snacks when on the beach. The swim up pool gives a stunning view of the beach below and the surrounding coastline. Don't expect to be able to swim much as although the sea (and waves) look inviting for those that enjoy surfing and sea swimming, the prevailing winds and riptides preclude going in and the red flag was showing the whole 10 days there. The hotel is a short ride from the airport but not anywhere near anything else. You will need a car or taxi to the nearest town. I'd recommend taking a tour to see other parts of the island. The food offered in the main restaurant was varied, with a different theme each night and there was always a different fresh cooked pasta (including vegetarian) and fish on offer. Would recommend eggs for breakfast - fresh cooked omelettes were delicious. A water bottle is provided in your room which can easily be refilled at water stations dotted around the grounds. I only went to three of the theatre shows and one was dreadful so left half way through but would highly recommend the Cape Verde dancers who were brilliant - such energy displayed dancing solidly for over an hour! Shout out to Paulo, Lolly and the rest of the dancers (so sorry cannot remember all the names) for wonderful performances. Also enjoyed the aqua aerobics which took place most mornings so thank you to staff running these. Now the negatives..... the hotel has recently been taken over by VOI, an Italian company and this is the market that is clearly being aimed at. TUI has stopped using this hotel and with good reason. Everything is aimed at Italian guests - all announcements, shows, signs etc. Fine if you speak Italian but not otherwise. I did ask if there was a handout in English explaining the weekly activities and theatre shows but this was not available. Initially the animation staff did not speak to us (as they did to other guests) to invite us to the daily activities. This did not make me or my friends feel particularly welcome. To be fair, once our representative, who was staying with us in the hotel, had spoken to the manager staff attitudes did change and efforts were made to make us and other guests feel included but really if you are accepting international bookings from all over Europe you should not need to be told how to make everyone feel welcome. I had one meal in the a la carte restaurant which was not a pleasant dining experience and would not recommend paying extra for it. If you are allocated a room furthest from reception and dining areas (as I was) then expect a longish walk back and forth to your room. I paid extra for a partial sea view room which did give me a

We really enjoyed our stay here! The rooms are spacious and clean, the food was great at a good selection, the staff was really friendly and the entertainment team offered really impressive and good shows every night. The hotel is located just a 5 minute drive away from the airport and directly by the beach. We had a very peaceful stay here with loads of relaxation. I’ve read in reviews before that the walk to the dining area was really long for some guests - however our room was located close to the edge of the property yet we only had to walk about 2-3 mins to the dining area and swimming pool, so I wouldn’t say this was the case. Same goes for music by the pool, in comparison to other holidays we have been to there were loads of times there was none or quiet music playing, so I really wouldn’t say the music was in any way disturbing if you’re looking to relax by the pool. I think only thing to consider is that I would say this hotel is rather a good 4 star hotel than 5 stars. Due to flight cancellations we have been transferred to the Riu Touareg which is also classified as a 5 star hotel and you can see and feel a noticeable difference. However this doesn’t mean this is a bad hotel, for the money you pay this was a rather pleasant experience and I can recommend. If you look for that extra luxurious experience however, it might be wise to invest a bit more money during your hotel booking.

Excellent property, service and staff was exceptional. Food was decent. They had a lot of entertainment for guests, shopping for gifts and souvenirs was available. Pools were regularly cleaned, sunloungers were cleaned at the end of the day by staff too. The only issue we had was after multiple phone calls to the spa we were not able to book an appointment because they had no availability for 2 days. The lady on the phone could not understand us and asked us to come to the spa. When we checked in went straight to the spa and she had no availability till after we checked out and that was very disappointing, had we known during our initial phone call we would had got a treatment elsewhere as that was the last place we stayed before flying. Secondly, the coffee machines in the breakfast area were bad.

I loved this hotel - it’s well laid out, beautifully kept and our room was clean, spacious and very comfortable. The food in the restaurant and snack bars was all fantastic and the staff were amazing. Really friendly, polite and helpful. The entertainment team were great fun and worked hard every day and the team on the beach and by the pool in the bar and on reception were also wonderful. Pool and beach amazing. This is a fabulous hotel

Ok, so we’re still here so it might get better or we might just get used to it, but a) it’s not 5 stars by any stretch of the imagination and b) it’s not relaxing because it’s impossible to get away from the noise of the constant music which is played around the pool. There’s just nowhere to go which away from other people, their screaming children and the music…… Except the beach, which is utterly stunning but could do with the hotel providing more sun beds and much larger sunshades because it’s boiling! On the plus side, the food’s good, the weather is fab and of the 5 problems in 3 days that have happened in our room, they’ve all been fixed very quickly. Mind you, a real 5 star hotel wouldn’t have had a TV that didn’t work, a toilet that didn’t flush and bedside lights that didn’t work………..