Royal Decameron Boa Vista

What People are saying

Relaxing break in the sun

Hairbear1on 23/10/2017 21:08

We travelled with another family for our first holiday to Boa Vista and had been excited for our annual trip together.........we were not disappointed.
Our rooms were ready on our arrival and we were pleasantly surprised at the size of them, with two balconies to choose from to enjoy the sea view. Although the rooms may need some updating they were fine and cleaned well daily.
The pool and surrounding area was clean, large and inviting and the children’s pool was re-lined whilst we were there. The entertainment staff were good and full of energy, lots of activities on offer to choose from.
The food was ok and though plenty of it, it became a little repetitive even for a week. The bar staff were good, the drinks were ok red/ white wine, beer, main spirits and cocktails, though the ones on the list were partly pre made.
The beach was lovely and the sea although rough at times was fun! There is a beach bar that you can walk to in about 20 minutes which was good and made a change.
The weather was hot and sunny and we had a good holiday.

Great!

Hazeydays77on 10/10/2017 17:40

I'd read reviews before I went that this was a predominantly French speaking hotel so that didn't come as a shock. I was very pleasantly surprised to find a good few staff who do speak English or were happy to help me try to improve my language skills.

My room was big with a separate area for a kitchen, sofa bed and small table. That said, there was no cutlery, crockery or kettle so couldn't actually function as a kitchen. The shower leaked on to the bathroom floor every time I used it and clearly others had experienced the same problem before me as the door was badly split and warped at the bottom. No noise disturbance from neighbouring rooms which is always important to me.

The food was plentiful and tasty. I was spoilt for choice at breakfast in particular. Tables were always cleared quickly which was good as the birds on the outside terrace were real opportunists. Flies were also a nuisance as were the cats, but if people insist on feeding them despite being told not to then they will not go away. The bar staff were great at remembering your drink and how you liked it served which helps to make you feel valued.

The animation team work really hard at this hotel constantly circulating around the main pool talking to people and trying to improve their English skills. The Lookea (French) part of the team are due to leave the hotel this month which might shift the focus slightly. There was a nice variety of activities during the day and it was nice to do a bit of dancing early evening before watching the professionals do it properly at the show later on.

The wifi is expensive if you buy it for an hour or two but I paid €15 for a week which although annoying because it should be free in this day and age, is far more economical than €7 for the hour.

Overall I enjoyed my holiday here more than I expected to and will return.

Really relaxing holiday

Jeanette Con 09/10/2017 15:36

Just returned from a really relaxing 2 weeks holiday. Room was not ready when we arrived but was asked to come back a little later, so we got ourselves a drink in the lobby bar. You do have to pay 20 euros each for hotel tax (never was informed by our travel company about this). We had paid for a sea view and wanted a high floor. Originally they gave us 636 as it was right next to the sea but these rooms are ground floors which we did not want. Receptionist changed our room with no problem and our room was 815 which was a first floor with a lovely view of the sea and surrounding areas.
The bed was enormous and plenty of storage space. There was a kitchen area with microwave and sink (no kettle but we brought our own). There was two balconies one in the kitchen area and one in the bedroom. The one in the bedroom was more private but the chairs and table was placed on the kitchen area ( we changed it round as there is a low partitioning wall that overlooked next the room). We did pay for a safe and had have man out twice as we could not work it (28 euros for the 2 weeks) Yes the room needs some tlc the bathroom tap was falling off, shower flooded every time you had a shower, door frame was falling off but it was clean. There are shower gels on the wall but didn't use as we brought our own. The maid cleaned the room every day with fresh towels and bedding.
The beach is fantastic miles and miles of sand. We did walk to the beach bar on the right but it is a difficult walk due the really soft sand that you sink in to and there is a really slope when walking near the sea.
Always sun beds on the beach but some people are naughty and put towels down really early in the morning especially the front sun beds and turned up late morning or afternoon to sit on them. The sea is amazing the first few days we could swim in the sea and even a yellow flag by the life guards but after that the waves were enormous. They do need life guards as the currents are so strong and some people were going to far out. We just had fun in the shallows to cool off.
We did go to the quiet pool one day which we did enjoy, not many sun beds there though. We did go in the pool but when we arrived there was on influx of crickets that were landing in the pool which was a bit off putting. After a few days though there wasn't many at all must have been the breeding season!
We did go to the main pool one day but it was too noisy for us and the animation team were going around every 5 minutes it seemed wanting to talk to you even though you were reading or sleeping, so we did go again, not our thing. Mostly we went to the beach. They are in the process of relining the pools ( which did need doing to be honest as they were lifting up)
The breakfasts and lunch in buffet restaurant were lovely and so much choice. Eggs, bacon, crepes, omelette you name and same at lunch. Dinner was much the same as lunch but at dinner there did seem to have more seafood on which personally I am not a fan of but there was always something to eat. Drinks were lovely and cocktails. You never had to wait long to get a drink and the bar staff were excellent. We used the beach bar in the afternoons not much choice as there is in the buffet restaurant but always had pizzas, burgers, chips, chicken, fish etc. The staff there were excellent and knew what we were having before we did! Yes the flies were annoying but they did there best to keep them off the food with nets over the food. There were many cats in the restaurants and the hotel does tell you not to feed them but still people do and then moan when they do not go away.
It is geared up towards the French and not many of the staff spoke good English. There were a mixture of different nationalities such as Germans, Dutch, Czechs, Belgiums etc. There are not many British but we preferred this kind of hotel where there is a mixture of nationalities.
Cannot comment on the entertainment as we never went but if you do not want to be pestered by the animation I do suggest you go to dinner around 9 as they do pester you while you are having food which we found really annoying.
All in all this holiday was really relaxing and yes in some parts the hotel and rooms are looking tired but they are in process of improving the hotel.

Picturesque

JASON Ron 02/10/2017 22:27

If you can speak French this is the perfect hotel,as this hotel doesn’t really cater for English people. The hotel staff are warm polite and friendly, reception staff a bit rude the male hotel reception manager and a tall woman receptionist. Apart from that the rest of the staff are warm and friendly and cannot do enough for you. We had apartment on the beach front. 1min walk. you can see and hear the waves. The beach is like no other, long sandy sand dunes. You can walk for 2 hours each way left to right and still not reach the end. It’s like being in the desert but not so remote. The beach is not packed so you can spread out on the deck chairs provided as long as you get up at 6am. That is when people I witnessed started putting towels on chairs.The weather a long with the sea is lovely picturesque. You have a nice large swimming pool which is always cleaned as well as the hotel and rooms daily. The only fault I had was the cats and flys. When dining I counted 9 cats roaming around without a care in the world of course begging. You are told not to feed them as they are fead by kitchen staff daily. The flys where a pain when eating sometimes, but the later the staff realised it was a problem with guests and put candles around that seem to do the trick. We went on most of the trips and activities and would recommend all of them. ESP quad biking for 4 hours. During the night you have the animation team that do shows most nights in the theatre on the grounds. Like I said German, French is the spoken word during the entertainment dropping English in a few times. Ideal relaxing holiday if you just want to chill out as the views are breathtaking. I would go again as the hotel beach the whole experience was a one I cannot forget.

quiet hotel

Christine Son 02/10/2017 15:38

just returned yesterday. On the whole a nice holiday, I will start with the negatives very expensive trips and overated if you would like to go on the catamaran I suggest contacting giggling ghekos before travelling and book with Richard, had a lovely morning, fishing and snorkelling.
Another negative it is not very friendly towards people with walking difficulties, lots of steps and a long walk down to the beach.
On the plus side very clean and food was plentiful and lots of choice.
Animation team friendly but not pushy, had some lovely chats with Yadell (sorry if I have spelt that wrong).
Another downside was 1 of the main pools was emptied for 1 week due to relining, but was not informed of this prior to them doing it. Shop on site is expensive but then again it is an island and everything has to be fetched in.
Red flag up nearly everyday on the beach due the the waves and currents.
We caught a taxi every other day to a gorgeous beach bar called Perola, very secluded and not expensive and on a few occasions even managed to see green turtles.
Nice relaxing holiday
Would I go back? yes but in a few years