Alvor is a beautiful place and is highly recommended. However, it's fair to say that it was the town that made our holiday and not the hotel. Our apartment was very close to the hotel bar, from which entertainment boomed out until midnight each night. Our rooms were fine and were clean and spacious. The hotel was quite far from the town, a good 10 minute walk, though we did expect this. The main reason we wanted to express our disapproval was the way we were treated when checking out. Our checkout time was 12.00 and our bus left at 12.10 so we arrived to checkout at 11.50. In front of us were a clan of about 8 Portuguese tourists, who the woman chatted to for around 20 minutes while a queue built up behind us. We complained several times and were rudely ignored while the receptionist told the clan about good local restaurants and the location of the pools. Finally, when our bus driver came to find us at nearly 12.15, we were seen. Our checkout took 10 seconds. It was the worst I've been treated in a hotel. Ever. So go to Alvor (it's wonderful), even go to the Brisamar, but don't expect much from the service!