Vila Gale Mares Reviews

We travelled to Brazil with First Choice holidays. The Brazilian operation is new for this company and we expected some teething problems, however, there were plenty of problems which were not dealt with well.

First, the resort. It's a beautiful place - thoughtfully built, lovely surroundings, glorious white beach. However, much of what is promised in the brochure is not available. The so called all inclusive watersports amount to 1 hous snorkelling a day - in the pool because the sea is rough. This was not because of the time of year - the tidal approach to this beach would always have high waves. Many of the stated sports will never be available there, all year round, and even then you will have to pay.

The brochure says there are 3 restaurants plus an a la carte included - wrong. There is a beach barbeque style lunch as the only lunch option. THere is a large buffet for dinner - again the only option - unless you went to the a la carte where there was a 20% discount only. First Choice currently don't believe us about this despite us having the paperwork to prove it! Most of the food is heavily soaked in salt too so be prepared. Cheese salads became popular - the bread and salads are really very good.

Staff are lovely, but speak little English. I'd recommend a portuguese-english phrasebook. We had lots of little niggly problems (leaking shower, broekn air conditioning etc) but these were generally dealt with easily by the reception staff and hey - new resorts do have teething problems.

Overall it is a lovely place, but did not offer the high standard of all inclusive accomodation and experience that we have come to expect. If you are going - don't panic - you can still enjoy the holiday. I would however contact your travel operator and ask for formal written confirmation of what your all inclusive includes - then you could use the reply on holiday if the situation is still the same. Otherwise - no activities, little entertainment, boring food could all be a problem.