Palmares Signature Apartments

These apartments didn't open till April and you could tell that they are still ironing out problems in their system. The apartment lacked thought in the layout; it looked very pretty on arrival but lacked any depth. There were no bedside tables (big issue when you take a glass of water to bed or use your phone as a clock!), there was no iron or ironing board and some of the windows should clearly have, at the very least, a curtain for privacy. Simple things like the cupboard with the pots was so high up that we had to stand on a chair to reach them and, of course, the biggest issue was that the air conditioning; this switches off when you use the washing machine, dishwasher or take a shower, and it takes hours to reset (the staff told us that the system installed can't cope with the Algarve weather and that it was designed for the north of Portugal, not the for the extreme heat in the Algarve) to resolve this issue they had to turn down the hot water temperature to luke warm...which was another trip to reception! The restaurant was also a bit of an issue; these apartment sit quite a distance from Lagos and certainly not within walking distance of a restaurant. They serve meals from a 'burger' van at night at the apartments and when we booked in for a meal at the hotel we were rushed through the meal to ensure we were finished before a party of 10 arrived; the problem was, however, my husband and I were the only other people in the whole restaurant and they clearly couldn't cope with 12 guests eating at once! There were other issues, quite a few, and although it was a pleasant stay, for the price it should have been a MUCH better experience or we should have been given a partial refund as we spent a considerable time at the reception desk trying to resolve all the problems. On a positive note, the staff were very helpful and pleasant to deal with.