Pestana Casino Park

Esther Hansen

I recently stayed at the Pestana Casino Park Hotel and had a very positive experience. The overall service truly deserves five stars — the staff were professional, attentive, and welcoming throughout my stay. The rooms are comfortable and clean, although they feel more like a solid four-star standard. Breakfast was excellent, with great variety and quality. I also loved the pool bar: the food was delicious and perfect for a relaxed stay. The cocktails, especially the mojitos prepared by Teresa, were outstanding. Her kindness and professionalism made the experience even more special. Overall, a wonderful stay that I would happily recommend.

Deborah Roberts

A perfect location with superb ambience. This hotel exceeded any expectations that I may have had. The location was perfect,as it is within walking distance to the town centre. Along the way, there are beautiful parks and rhe streets are very clean. The grounds of the hotel are beautiful, with lovely flowers and trees. To me, this was a tropical haven. Added to that, staff were very friendly and helpful. It was my birthday during my stay there and they added some lovely touches which will make this an ever memorable birthday, and stay at this hotel. It is my intention to return there with friends and family.

Verune

This hotel is huge and makes a very dominant impression at first glance. We enjoyed our stay overall, and the staff is extremely kind and helpful despite the number of people they have to deal with on a daily basis. We truly appreciate this and give the staff 5 stars. However, behind the scenes the hotel has several shortcomings. We are not picky guests and have traveled a lot, but what surprised us was that although the hotel meets the criteria for a 5-star rating, its systems feel outdated. The worst issue was the bathtub. It takes about two minutes to adjust the tap, and even then the temperature reacts with a delay, so several times we ended up being scalded or almost freezing. Another issue is the toilet — an old flushing system that uses a large amount of water but does not flush with enough force. That said, we believe that the rooms are undergoing renovations and that the hotel is trying to improve its overall quality. The food was varied, but it did not really impress us, as we felt the flavors were lacking. Our expectations were probably higher. The last issue is parking. We found it unreasonable that after renting a car, we had to pay €15 per day for parking. This felt excessive, and as students it was quite painful since we had not expected this extra cost :D. Surely there are better ways to manage parking so that only hotel guests can use it — for example, with room key cards or registration at the reception. This could definitely be handled better. Seeing cars parked overnight right in front of the entrance only made paying for parking feel even more frustrating. Otherwise, the hotel offers a wide range of services, and there are many activities and things to do, which we really appreciated.

David Haigh

Booked one night primarily due to it’s proximity to the cruise port. Happy to award 5 stars for the price paid. Can’t understand negative reviews - probably 5* hotel expectations. Furnishings are fine but not new ie no usb charger sockets. We liked it - great pools including lovely indoor pool (bit chilly late afternoon outdoors in January). Excellent breakfast (including proper orange juice and strong coffee) with lots of fruit and variety. Well organised for a large dining room. Surrounded by excellent restaurants and pubs. Only minor negative- my wife struggled with lack of plug sockets near the mirror.

Les Parnell

We have stayed at this hotel for nearly a month now. First of all we were given a side sea view from on the 2nd floor. For too small for us for a month long stay. Not even anywhere to store two suitcases. After talking to a couple of helpful ladies on reception we were moved to a sea view room on floor 4. This room is not a lot bigger but space is utilised a lot better, giving it more usable space, and certainly better for our needs. All guests are given virtually the same buffet breakfast for the whole stay but there is lots of choice and we've enjoyed it each day. The lifts, especially on reception level can cause a bit of a wait but not a major issue. The need updating as does the whole look of the approach to the hotel. Cars and minivans are often parked haphazardly outside of the reception doors which isn't good. A loading and unloading area should be found for these elsewhere. We've both made use of the heated indoor swimming pool each day. Beware that the indoor pool is totally unsupervised and there are often children jumping into the pool, just missing people who are swimming by. Maybe this is the norm in whatever country they come from, I don't know. My wife being a cold water / sea swimmer all year round in the UK has also used either the rooftop pool or the large outdoor pool every day too. She's also made use of the steam room and sauna. In all a good 4 star hotel in my opinion but way off being a 5 star hotel but this is reflected in the price. Rooms are dated and a lot of areas need a professional refurbishment. Great location just up the hill from the centre of Funchal. Close to the port and an easy flattish walk along to the Lido area and on to the Forum Madeira if required. Several buses run from both sides of the road across from the hotel which has been very handy for us. We've made use of these every day. The gardens of the hotel are very nice and also very well maintained. There are quite a lot of Germans staying in this hotel, but I've largely been able to ignore or avoid them so no real problem there. In all we've had another great holiday in Madeira and we're leaving knowing that all being well we'll return again soon, but maybe not to this hotel.