Santa Barbara Eco Beach Resort

My wife and I just spent 3 nights here at the beginning of our Portugal trip and two things were apparent: first, we should have stayed twice as long, and second, we should have done it at the end of our trip as a peaceful chill-out. Those two things aside - AMAZING. Perfectly positioned in the middle of the north shore of the island, you can get to any sights quickly by car - hikes, beaches, whatever - and you need to be able to because the weather on Sao Miguel is very micro-climated and quick to change. The hotel and grounds are modern and spectacularly kept, positioned above a beautiful black sand beach. The restaurant had creative, delicious cuisine, and they were accommodating to every request, with incredible hand-crafted cocktails. Most important of all - the staff. Friendly, professional, and genuinely interested in making sure you saw the right sights, at the right time, and every suggestion they made to us was spot-on successful. If you are lucky enough to get to work with the concierge Bianca, you'll see Azorean hospitality at its finest, but the whole staff was wonderful. This is a great spot for a nature-based chill-out time, and if you have modern/contemporary tastes in food and architecture, then you have your winner here. Plan a stay here with confidence. We would go back anytime!

It’s pricey and worth every penny. The hotel is gorgeous and gives you that magical feel that you want being in the Azores. It’s overlooking the ocean and a short walk down to the beach. It’s well situated to explore the island, provides easy beach access, has a nice pool, a wonderful restaurant on site and a casual beach bar as well. Breakfast was included for us and it’s delicious. The resort is perfect and you almost don’t want to leave to go explore! And then the staff - the staff are truly amazing. Before we even arrived at the resort the staff had been extremely helpful. I emailed for restaurant suggestions a few weeks before our arrival and they made suggestions and made all my reservations within a few hours. Upon arrival the wonderful care and service continued. The staff will literally take care of everything for you. You get a phone upon arrival that allows you to text them. Every day they send you a suggested drive to explore the island and it’s better then a private guide - we had a private guide for two days and I promise the resorts suggestions were more fun and sent us to more unique places. Last minute we decided we wanted a car - I texted them via their phone in the evening and a car was waiting for me the next morning - at a cheaper price then I was finding online and requiring me to pick up/drop off. This is truly an incredible place to stay for both couples and families. The Azores are a special and magical place and this resort is the perfect home base.

Absolutely stunning, exceptional service, efficient and kind concierge, quiet, peaceful, zen-like experience. Incredible stay…enjoyed every moment including relaxing on our patio, taking a dip in our semi-private pool (which felt 100 percent private!) while taking in the unbelievable views, breakfast every morning, sipping on local wine or a cocktail on the main patio also with incredible views, sitting by their beautiful, tranquil pool…Santa Barbara has it all…including a magnificent black sand beach steps away. We are so glad we chose this hidden gem.

We had a delightful time here. The setting is spectacular, with gorgeous views of the water and coastline. Our room was beautiful and comfortable, also with views of the water. We would definitely stay here again.

This property was stunning and was so much more than we expected ! Our adult kids had the two bedroom villa amazing hot tub small kitchen huge rooms great deck and hubby and I had the one bedroom perfect hot tub great deck views are crazy beautiful…….breakfast was amazing they even packed up leftovers that we took on our hiking adventures daily and filled my water bottle with coffee! We had dinner three nights because it was so good!the beach bar is amazing and so cheap it’s on the property but owned by someone else …views from beach bar amazing…..you can walk the beach into riberia grande which is great town…and Tuka Tula great restaurant….i cant say enough about this property and the staff….i can’t wait to return! They had a rental car delivered to the hotel for us ….we had a private guide amazing ! The views are stunning 🥰