The only reason this hotel gets anything more than a TERRIBLE is its relatively close proximity to Lisbon, a sea view apartment, and the breakfast and the people working in the breakfast hall. Those behind the reception desk were most often arrogant (at times extremely) and most often seemed totally uninterested in genuinely helping out with simple questions. On the last day they totally screwed us by giving us wrong info about booking a cab to the airport from the hotel. We were lucky to get a taxi driver that did his utter best to get us there on time. We also took the option of paying the ?35 flat rate for that taxi to the airport from the hotel. That means of course that the hotel keeps a cut. As it turned out, the taxi ride, in pretty heavy Friday afternoon traffic, would have cost only about ?22. Rip off! The bar staff were OK to start with but it was pretty clear that they liked to clown around with people, take the piss a bit and generally just be funny guys. This was OK for the first day and just got so annoying that after a few days I just avoided them as much as possible. A tip for those guys: Don't patronize your customers, it is just annoying! And yes, finally we come to the area and it's surrounds. DON'T GO THERE! The place is like some sort of ghost town. It seems that they tried to create a sort of beachside holiday haven out of this area a number of years ago and have over developed. There are heaps of ugly apartment blocks that seem deserted. There are not any decent places to eat, stray dogs around and about, and it just generally feels really strange. We became extremely bored during the 2nd day of our stay and had it not been for Lisbon being relatively close, I would actually probably just give this place a TERRIBLE! That was a savior for us. We decided on the 3rd or 4th day of our stay that we would not go back there. I don't regret having gone there because it became such a farce that it is now not a bad story to tell. But do you really want to waist your time and money on such a story?

I have just come back from a wonderful holiday at the Hotel Costa da Caparica. The whole staff from the General Manager, the Receptionists,, the Bar men, the room cleaning ladies were all very friendly and so helpful. The location was fantastic with beautiful ocean views.