Pestana Carlton Madeira Hotel

Jeff Singer

The Pestana Carlton is a fantastic value in my opinion. Is it truly the height of luxury? No, but they also don't charge like it is. The pools and ocean access are great, the location is incredible, the staff was all welcoming and showed great hospitality, and the housekeeping was notably great. Some negatives that other reviewers have mentioned which I'll comment on from my own experience: Food - We wouldn't do half board again. The food was fine, but we felt the timing of it and options was limiting. Elevators - The resort is highly vertically laid out, the trip from our room to the sea required changing elevators 2 times. That said, we almost never waited for an elevator and this really wasn't a problem. Parking - There is free parking at the bottom of an incline. It isn't the easiest, but if you're aiming for easy driving you shouldn't be driving in Madeira, and I could see it filling up, though this never happened to us and there are affordable paid options nearby. Bedding, Linens, etc - Not the most comfortable bed we've ever stayed in, but everything was clean, and nothing that we saw was noticeably worn out. Rooms - Yes, there are some places where the rooms showed their age, however overall we felt we got great value for the money.

Wanda Prochazka

It was a great week. Great breakfast buffet, pools & room. Although I didn't have time to use the pools. My only question was I had booked a family room that was 650sft and definitely didn't get a room that big. But the room was big enough and had an ocean view so I didn't ask. I am curious though what the other room looked like. I'll just have to go back.

Fiona Morris

Great location for going into Funchal. Loads of great restaurants and bars nearby. You can swim in the sea from the hotel and hire kayaks. The hotel itself has three nice pools, loads of sunbeds and good sun all day. Cafes, bars and restaurants on site are also lovely. 3 ladies visiting for a 40th birthday.

Marcin Malinowski

After 2 weeks stay in July 2024 with family and friends I can rate the hotel as follows: The hotel's strong points: 1) Excellent location, right on the cost and in the same time just 10 minutes walk to the city centre. We had a family room with swimming pool/ see view in spite of we booked land view room so it was a very pleasant surprise. Hotel located between famous Reid's and luxury Savoy. 2) Fantastic swimming pools, one large excellent for all ages kids, but also one great for people who would like to just swim (rectangular shape). 3) A pier that allows you to descend into the ocean, despite the rocky coastline, you can swim in the ocean and do so without safety shoes. 4) The hotel is very clean and well-maintained, we constantly saw people in charge of cleanliness and maintenance of the greenery. Rooms cleaned every day. 5) No problem with sunbeds, they are enough of them so no matter what time you will arrive you will find some free. 6) Free parking, albeit parking there might be a challenge and might be full when you arrive in the evening, but still is available for free. The hotel's weak points: 1) Just average and monotonous breakfasts, this is particularly noticeable in the event of a longer stay. 2) Some rooms are older and require renovation, we had a family room and not everything works as it should, for example our shower cubicle. 3) No drinking water in the room, it's look a bit strange when you see people bring packs of water from a shop to a 5-star hotel. 4) During our whole 2 weeks stay, the lift between the lower and upper part of the hotel was broken. We used the staircase but I understand that for older people this can be a problem because it's a lot of floors to climb. 5) The bed linen was not changed in our room by 10 days of our stay and this was done only after we had requested in reception twice. 6) Poor animation, not something important for us, but compare to what we saw in other hotels this service was miles away. 7) Automatic tip charge when you buy ice cream in the bar. Rather funny thing as we couldn't understand why we need to pay 10% tip charge when we just buy ice cream which bring ourselves to the cash. This should be limited when waiter service is provided. Our over rating 4.5 because much more important for us were strong points mentioned above which hotel offered us.

Davey Adams

Fantastic experience at the Pestana Carlton. Clean, fresh and despite it's age still feels very classy. Staff are super friendly and helpful and all speak very good English, the view from the junior suite is simply superb. Well worth the upgrade. Competitively priced food and drinks and excellent breakfast. Thank you for the stay.