Tivoli Ocean Park Reviews

We have just arrived back from the Hotel Tivoli Ocean Park in Funchal Madeira. The hotel service and breakfast was superb. We were celebrating our Silver Wedding and were upgraded to a Tower Suite room by Thomson. Each of the rooms were enormous, and the balcony was very spacious too. We can highly recommend this hotel with confidence. Yes they are building on either side, but it was no problem.

Funcal is a good area for exploring the island. We can heartily recommend the Italia restaraunt which has some very reasonable but excellent meals. Bear right outside the hotel, and turn right by the Yacht bar, carry on straight down and you will find it about half-way down the hill on the right.

This hotel is perfect for those that want to chill out and for those that need a base while they travel around the island during the day.

The hotel staff are very friendly and accommodating - the room service, cafe and restaurant facilities are all very good.

Make sure you explore the hotel on the first day - we only discovered the pool table the night we were leaving.

The facilities are fairly comprehensive - indoor and outdoor pools, loungers, sunshades, two gyms, indooor children's play area, jacuzzi, 2 saunas, turkish steam room, spa (the massages were very good), live music lounge, cafe and restaurant.

The breakfast buffet is excellent with lots of different things set out on different tables ranging from diet foods to fried food to madeiran specialities.

Although the hotel is about a 40 min walk from the centre of funchal, it's not a bad walk and taxis only cost about 5 euros. There are restaurants and shops around this hotel and there is a nice walk along a promenade that passes right in front of the hotel. There is a complementary bus that goes into funchal but it only goes at certain times from 9-5ish with a 2 hour break over lunchtime.

We found the best places to eat were:
O Jango - old town
La brasserie - just by Tivoli hotel promenade - looks very contemporary and is almost situated under the pool.
Taj Mahal - just near the casino area on the road that goes down to the avenida do mar road. THe staff are very friendly, very accommodating and the food is a welcome change to the repetitive Madeiran menus.
A bakery near the eden mar shopping centre - this place had all sorts of cakes and sweets and seemed popular with the locals.

Whale watching:
THis was one of my highlights and I really enjoyed the excursion. We used the Sea Pleasure catamaran although this trip takes longer and the boat is considerably slower than the Seaborn catamaran which was able to get much closer to the dolphins as it
was much quicker. Both of the boats offer some shade, a bar and some toilets - all required after a few hours on board. The trips offered by all the companies were about 25E.

Travel:
We hired a car which worked out at about £20 a day. Some of the roads around the island are quite narrow and steep but it's a good way to see the scenery. Other people did recommend using the local taxis which cost 45E for half day and 90E for a whole day. The taxi drivers seem quite knowledgable and are flexible with your needs.

Monte:
Definitely recommend catching the cable car up to Monte and coming down on the Toboggan - it's a bit on the pricey side but it's something you can't do elsewhere. The tropical gardens are also worth a wander round, although when we went it was deserted.

2nd visit to this hotel (see our main review in april 2005). Still impressed with hotel and island, although having now spent 2 weeks in total, feel we have 'done' sites and restaurants.

Updates to last visit
* Went on 2 levada walks with different walks companies - thoroughly recommended.
Knowledgable guides and nice to have transport to/from walk, rather than working out public transport times.
* New cable car recently opened to Jardim Botanico. Terrific views - far better than more established cable car.
* last time, felt restaurants in old town were OK but nothing special. Still feel same - this time, tried a couple of restaurants near hotel which were good.
Restaurant next door to hotel garden exit on promenade side (sorry forgotten name) was excellent and stylish. Nearby pizza parlour Papa offered good local ambience and vfm
* Monte Palace Gardens are as beautiful as ever - if you like gardens, don't miss.

We have just returned from a week at the Tivoli Ocean Park in Funchal. The hotel is very nice and clean but having previously stayed at the Tivoli Marinotel in Vilamoura we felt it wasn't quite as good as this one. The staff are very courteous and friendly and the buffet breakfasts are fantastic - something for everyone.

Funchal is perhaps more suited to slightly older people than us, although it was nice to feel young again! The general uniform of the holidaymakers there is a cagoule, good stout walking shoes and a stick with badges on. I felt quite out of place in my skirts and sandals and my feet seemed to attract a lot of attention! Even in the evening in the restaurants people were still wearing their walking clothes.

Tivoli Ocean Park is set in the lido area of Funchal about 30 minutes walk from Funchal centre. There are plenty of shops and restaurants nearby, thankfully no fish and chip shops. There's not a lot of choice for vegetarians unless you eat at the pizza/pasta places. Casa Italia does a lovely vegetable pizza big enough for two and very reasonably priced. The chinese restaurants Grand Asia and China Town are both very good also and very reasonable. There is plenty of choice everywhere for meat eaters, lots of variety.

There are three large supermarkets within walking distance also very cheap. Just a short walk up the road to the left of the hotel is a new shopping centre called Madeira Forum with some really nice shops including a Zara and Mango (all much cheaper than the UK).

The weather for late January was very mixed with some days of torrential rain and others quite hot and sunny. Even when it rained it was still quite warm.

I didn't have the footwear to go on any official walks but we did a lot of walking out and about which was very nice. There are lots of steps and steep hills everywhere so you need to be quite mobile.

All in all Madeira is a lovely place - we will probably go back in about 20 years time when we are old enough!

The Hotel was definately 5 star. It is beautiful. Staff were friendly

Madeira is a beautiful island, very hilly but if you take your time manageable by all ages.

It is peaceful and unspoilt.

I would certainly go back here again.

The flowers are wonderful and everything is spotlessly clean.

There are Levada walks for all ages and it is lovely being out in the countryside.

The views from the Mountains are spectacular and photo shots are amazing.