Solar dos Cantos Botanic House & Garden

Such a disappointing experience. I booked this as part of our honeymoon trip (I'm so pleased we had another beautiful place booked onwards in the Azores after this hotel!), and it was undoubtedly the worst part of our holiday. Lowlights- *Unclear entrance, had to flag down a staff member inside to guide us. * No appropriate place to leave baggage on check-in before room was ready. * Completely ignored that this was a special occasion booking for us, paid close to £1500 for 4 nights, and I had to remind them on the second day, whereby to their credit they gave us some champagne without congratulations. *Unheated pool outside, in our previous place where we paid a quarter of the price they heated the pool! The Azores is known for 4 seasons in 1 day, and it was mainly cloudy, not nice to swim in cold water outside. The jacuzzi does not make up for this. * We were housed in another building not inside the main house where they take all the beautiful photos (obviously), so all the lovely lounges etc are in the other house which was not clear to us at all. Pretty characterless, basic entrance hall with a plastic door. Again in their credit, they did after 2 nights offer to move us rooms into the place with some potential character, but we decided to stay where we were because of the atmosphere of the hotel staff thus far. * Room didn't feel particularly private, there were shutters, but essentially from all aspects if they were open or partially open to let light in, people could have seen inside from the main building. * Dead flowers at the breakfast tables. * The articulation of the menu at breakfast 'hot stuff' on the menu that again I had to flag down a staff member for, and then because she was busy, the cleaner served us, in her uniform after we just saw her put the hoover away. Didn't seem hygienic to us at all. * Seemed understaffed, see above point, things unclear with whom was doing what. *We were told there was a menu in our room, we never found it, and there was no phone to call through anyway. *There were ants in our room. *Staff attitude, when I raised concerns after our toilet malfunctioned, I received an argumentative staff member, telling me how essentially I was wrong about being unhappy- which was really surprising to me. * Work going on in the day that was loud in the room next to ours, and work materials just left in the pokey corridor outside. * No semblance of a manager, communication was really bad, staff generally unfriendly and surly. I am surprised about the good reviews of this place, we're not pretentious or have high expectations, and have stayed in many places on our travels over the years. The marketing of this place and the cost of it insinuates high quality, and unfortunately that was not our experience. The hotel seemed soulless to us, unfriendly and unorganised. There are many better hotels, places to stay on local farms, pools and gardens to experience on Sao Miguel and also in Ponta Delgada. I would not recommend to stay here by any means, and I can only imagine that one might be pleased with a free breakfast if their company was paying for the accommodation on a business trip. Aside from that- avoid Highlights- a friendly resident cat! She (?) was very social, and enjoyed a tin of Portuguese sardines.

Very nice location! Very friendly staff. Very good breakfast, and the room was truly huge. We were very impressed by this beautiful hotel garden.

A beautiful estate. Elegant and simultaneously modern rooms. Nothing is missing. Spacious and very tasteful common areas. Very beautiful pool area in the midst of a botanical garden. The entire staff is very friendly and attentive. Secure large parking lot directly at the house with two charging stations. The city center of Ponta Delgada with restaurants and shops is within walking distance. However, there is also a small evening menu at the hotel. We would come back here at any time.

Beautiful location - we had a room with a view of the garden - this was an ancient Portuguese residence transformed into a hotel - great charm - a handwritten welcome note with a dedication - upon arrival, a guided tour of the house, the living room with the garden, the pool - the garden was already a botanical garden with the adjoining park - a wonder - superlative breakfast and the surprise since it was my birthday, a little cake with candles.

We were completely satisfied.Nice staff,nice and clean room,wonderful garden,rich breakfast