Hotel Baia Azul

We couldn't be more happier about our visit to Madeira. Everything inside and out the hotel Baia Azul is breathtakingly beautiful. We were staying for a week at the end of October, weather was very good. The hotel's location is perfect, as it has been built on a cliff-side with a view of the ocean, and sunbathing on the terrace made us feel like we're on a cruise. This hotel offered the best food we had ever eaten, room cleanliness and service was on point, pools were super enjoyable. Our room was very big and felt like an apartment. In comparison to other hotels we could've chosen, this is definitely top class.

First time visit to Madeira, having normally visited the canaries at this time of year (November) and really didn't know want to expect..... All I can say is that it was awesome. Booked a deluxe high floor sea view room via Jet2, absolute bargain at around £1200 b&b for 2 adults for 10 nights Brilliant hotel. Great location and views. Breakfast really good with wide choice. Immaculately clean everywhere. Easy 40 minute stroll into Central Funchal and port area. Staff superb. All very friendly and happy from the cleaners to the reception staff. Rui ("happy day / vitamin D") and Paulo at the pool bar couldn't do enough for you and made it a real pleasure visiting the pool area. Loads of sun beds available around the pool although they were not the most comfortable if you have a bad back! Small modern gym with top quality machines. TV in room has about 100 channels and I'd guess about 20 of them were English/American speaking, several of which showed English speaking Hollywood films (with Portuguese subtitles). Our TV was a modern flat screen but it wasn't a smart TV (which seemed strange?) but we were able to watch Netflix on it via an HDMI cable from our tablet. WiFi is free and fast throughout the entire hotel. Weather was superb throughout our stay. A top tip is to use the BBC's weather forecast for Funchal as several of the other apps and weather forecasts were nowhere near accurate (ie AccuWeather etc) as they would often say it was raining in Funchal when the sun was cracking the flags and the sky was blue!!! BBC seemed the only accurate forecast for the area. Literally hundreds of really good bars/restaurants everywhere near the hotel and on the walk into Funchal centre. Decent value a never had a had meal no matter where we went. You can find places that serve a pint of beer for around 3 euros, but generally I would say that drinks were similar/very slightly cheaper than in the UK. Forum shopping centre and excellent (very cheap) modern cinema within 5 minutes walk of the hotel (shows the latest Hollywood films in English with Portuguese subtitles). The local Madeiran people seemed genuinely warm and friendly and loved it when you tried a bit of Portuguese whilst speaking to them. They all seemed to like to try to help you with the correct way to pronounce phrases in Portuguese. Beautiful island, stunning in parts if you get out and about on trips etc... Overall I would very highly recommend this hotel as a brilliant, great value base to use when visiting Funchal - 5/5.

Overall this hotel is top class. Lovely views, good decor, spotlessly clean with friendly and helpful staff. My only small gripes would be that the shower periodically went scalding hot every now and then and also the WiFi in the room lost connection every couple of minutes and connection was slow when online. Would definitely stay again. Obrigado