We stayed here for a couple of nights and were pleasantly surprised with the hotel when we turned up. Only issue I had was checking in. I had booked this online whilst travelling I hadn't printed the reservation. They did not have our reservation on their system. I had to pay 5 Euro to log on to the hotel computer to email them my reservation confirmation. The pool was lovely and a lot of sun loungers. rooms were nice and clean too.

I thought the hotel was ok. It was exactly as described, but some of the reviews had really thought that it was fantastic, I wouldn't have said that. Don't get me wrong, it is a good hotel, but for the cost I thought it was quite expensive for what you got. Our room wasn't very big and definitely nothing special. Having said that, it was clean, the staff were friendly and helpful and breakfast was fine. I couldn’t really fault the hotel, just expected something a bit more special for the price. I would add that the hotel was mainly full of older couples or young families, so if you are a young couple...it’s not really the place to be. However Ericeira was beautiful and I would definitely return to the area. If you do go, try some surfing lessons, we used Na Onda surf school and they were fab.

The Vila Gale is impressive before you even reach the door. It's an imposing large hotel in a traditional Portuguese style with green tiled roof.As most of the previous reviews have said, the location and views are spectacular. It really is the diiference between a seaview and an ocean view.You can hear the waves and smell the sea air from the rooms and terraces.A front facing room is a must, the town is lovely but the view cannot beat that beachfront. We were there for 6 nights at the end of Jan and had the restaurant ( and evening guitarist ) to ourselves on a couple of nights.By the weekend the place was crowded with Portuguese families and couples.We even had to park on the road. The food was good and local restaurants also gave good value.Not a great choice of bars if you fancy a pre-dinner stroll though. Ericeira is a lovely town with a lot of old charm. Obviously a big surfing scene but the town hasn't overdone the surf related things and caters for everyone. Lots of lovely places to see in the area (Sintra, Mafra and Obidos especially) Reception staff couldn't have been more helpful. I broke a tooth on the first day and they made several phonecalls to local dentists for me,eventually securing an appointment with the receptionists own dentist in the next town. That's service.