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Portugal Madeira Santa Cruz

Vila Gale Santa Cruz

Name: Vila Gale Santa Cruz, Portugal, Madeira, Santa Cruz | Thomas Cook
Address: Rua De Sao Fernando, S/N, Santa Cruz, 9100-157, Portugal
Telephone: 00351291529000
Price range: from £619.2 per person
Rating: 4

1494 reviews

Overview
Facilities
Location
Reviews

Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, Vila Gale Santa Cruz is a seafront hotel in Santa Cruz, on Madeira's south eastern coast. It's a short walk to the resort centre, with its restaurants, bars and cafes, along with souvenir shops and a farmers' market. The hotel has an outdoor swimming pool and a smaller pool for children. There's a variety of dining options, with two restaurants offering local and international food at various times throughout the day. You'll also find two bars, including one by the pool and another within the main building. Vila Gale Santa Cruz is set in gardens and has a whitewashed exterior, with cream balconies and matching roof tiles. The lobby has a high ceiling, floor-to-ceiling windows and a marble style floor, along with plenty of places to sit and relax. Bedrooms have bold feature walls, with artwork on display and patio doors leading onto a balcony. The hotel also has a gym and a heated indoor pool. At Vila Gale Santa Cruz, you can visit the spa, where you'll find a Turkish bath and sauna. If you're in need of pampering, you could also book a treatment, such as a massage, facial or manicure. In the evenings you can watch the family-friendly entertainment, which includes live music and a folk show. Children can attend the non-supervised kids' club, where they'll find colouring books, Lego and a TV. From the hotel, a short walk away is Praia de Santa Cruz, which is home to some of Madeira's best beaches.

Vila Gale Santa Cruz is 500m away from the centre of Madeira's second largest city, Santa Cruz. It's a stroll from the nearest restaurants, cafes and bars. It's also 200m from Praia de Santa Cruz, a sandy beach where you can swim in the shallow waters. Walk 900m and you'll find the local water park, with its slides, pools and lazy river, along with its toboggan runs. From the hotel, you're 8km from the mountainside village of Santo da Serra, with its traditional square, pavement cafes and old whitewashed church. If you like walking, you can explore the local trails and park. Santa da Serra Golf Club, which has a 27-hole course overlooking the sea and surrounding hills, is also 7,8km away. Further afield, it's 18km to Madeira's capital Funchal, where you can shop in the narrow cobbled streets. You could also wander around the boat-lined marina, swim in the saltwater lido complex or wander through the botanical gardens.

The buffet restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and offers Portuguese and Brazilian dishes, plus seafood. The a la carte restaurant is open for dinner and serves local and international cuisine. The pool bar is open during the day, while main bar is open each evening. Snacks are available between meals.

At Vila Gale Santa Cruz, you can play table tennis, attend a fitness class or swim in the pools. The hotel also offers kids' entertainment.

Each room at Vila Gale Santa Cruz has a satellite TV with a DVD player. They also come with Wi-Fi and air conditioning.

This hotel is popular! Rated very good by 1494 people on Tripadvisor

7 nights

Bed & Breakfast

from £619 pp

£1,238 total price

Facilities

Key facilities

Gym
Air-con
Outdoor pool
Wifi

Other

Gym
Sauna
Spa
Massage
Hot Tub
Steam bath
24 hr reception
Air-con
Bar
Car park
Cot
High chairs
Laundry
Lift
Medical service
Outdoor pool
Restaurant
Safe
Sun terrace
Wifi
Aerobics
Aqua fit
Poolside snack bar
Tennis

Location

Santa Cruz, Madeira, Portugal

Address: Rua De Sao Fernando, S/N, Santa Cruz, Portugal
Phone: 00351291529000

Reviews

Tripadvisor rating

Good

1494 reviews

Rooms

Sleep Quality

Service

Cleanliness

Value

Location

Travelers' choice award

Good Hotel

Feb 2023 | Avalon123

We enjoyed our stay at the Vila Gale Santa Cruz where we stayed on a bed and breakfast basis. The hotel was large, modern and very clean. Staff were helpful and friendly, if a little overworked seemingly due to staff shortages resulting in occasional queues. Breakfasts were buffet style. The queues at the egg cooking station and the domestic style toaster mentioned in the previous review were still there. However, the lady who made the fresh omelettes, pancakes and fried eggs did an excellent job, simultaneously cooking for several customers. We had an evening meal in the restaurant and several lunches and snacks in the bar. All were of a good standard. There was nightly entertainment in the bar and bar prices were reasonable. The hotel had a lovely view of the sea and our seaview room with balcony was large and had everything we needed. We would be happy to stay here again.

Nice hotel but

Nov 2022 | grantcX5854UN

Nice hotel but just a few little things that would be so easy to sort out when lm on holiday it's all about relaxing so having to queue up for a fried egg not good also having to use soup bowls for tea and coffee because the cups didn't get replace quick enough and also one 4 slice toaster for the whole restaurant silly.This happend every day not a one off so easy to sort out. The only other thing that was silly the hotel has about 250 rooms and outside seating for about 50 people were using sun beds to sit on. Such a nice hotel with nice staff let down by bad management

Ignore the moaners - it ticks the boxes

Oct 2022 | David S

The Vila Gale Madeira is part of a Portuguese chain of hotels . It has a ‘Spanishy’ circa 1970s feel about it with cavernous rooms echoing because of marble floors. The bedrooms are a little dated as a consequence, but are nevertheless well-equipped with a shower over the bath and a balcony overlooking either the rear of the hotel or the central pool area. I am bewildered at some of the comments from TripAdvisor contributors. Some folk just rubbish a hotel if something negative happens on their trip that may be unconnected with the hotel and it then becomes an easy target. Pay the extra for a room with a sea view, to begin with (cost us £58). You can then see everything happening out to sea but also in the pool and in the big forecourt surrounding it. We found the room scrupulously clean, as are the public areas of the hotel, the restaurant, a la carte restaurant, indoor heated pool (bring a swim hat – mandatory), gym, steam rooms, sauna, spa treatment rooms, snack bar – yes, it is well-equipped and even has slides into the kids’ pool, trampoline, table tennis outside and pool tables in the bar. The wi-fi worked fine. We travelled in school half term, October, and the hotel was never more than half-full. It may be that the negative comments were made in high summer when doubtless the many Brits were up to their awful sun-lounger ‘reserving’ habit. We are worse, far worse, than the Germans for that. I would comment on an hotel for the way I found it and I felt that the Vila Gale was well managed, despite suffering the universal handicap of insufficient staff, just as all hospitality globally is finding at present. The staff are pleasant, friendly and efficient. We travelled with TUI – another organisation to come under fire recently for cancellations that may not have been its fault but rather that of the airports it used. Again, we comment on how we find it….TUI was well organised and efficient. We had an all inclusive basis for our week in Madeira. The restaurant was a buffet style, sadly; I hate them as people are so ill-mannered when they use them, but that is the result of the necessity to save on costs. Breakfast was plentiful and varied with an egg station that could have become slow if the restaurant was full. In the evenings there was a choice every time and it was not replicated in our week there; the cooking station being used for different meats and fish. Some nights the menu suited us better than on others but that is to be expected. Lunch was also available, but most people picked up sandwiches, burgers and snacks from the snack bar. The all inclusive included a limited range of alcohol, a daily cocktail, local beer (which was OK), and drinkable red, rose and white wine, plus some spirits and mixers. Quite adequate. Entertainment was staged in the bar on two or three nights, usually soloist, and of reasonable ability. Yes, the airport runway is in sight and planes track across in front of us going in to land. This was not that frequent and more entertaining than intrusive. The little village of Santa Cruz where the hotel is situated, is 100 metres along a pleasant tree-lined promenade, and has little cobbled streets, a few shops, a market and plenty of cafes where a café con leche is only €1.20. The beach is in fact comprised of large black ankle-turning pebbles, so is not really accessible. For what we paid, an all-inclusive package from TUI, the Vila Gale was an absolute bargain. We would look for it again next year. Tips: Upon checking in, choose the one night of the week that you are entitled to use the a la carte restaurant; choose which days you want to go to Funchal (20 minutes) on the hotel courtesy but (only a 16-seater) and book it. Taxis into the city are about €30 and the public bus stops everywhere so although only €5 return, it is an hour of a journey.