Santa Barbara Eco-Beach Resort

This is a beautiful resort in a stunning location. The owners have done a wonderful job creating a resort that is set into the terrain in a very subtle way. The beach is absolutely breathtaking and the Beach Club and Surf School provide everything you need to enjoy your time at the seaside. The resorts staff are friendly, caring and accommodating and went above and beyond our expectations when our young daughter got sick on our first day there. I cannot compliment them enough for their efforts in making us feel safe and looked after. The breakfast buffet was hearty and full of Portuguese delicacies. The bar offered great cocktails with local ingredients and the food at the restaurant was amazing. We enjoyed beautifully prepared sushi and local fish as well as both white and red wines from the Azores and mainland. Where I feel this 5-star resort fell short was with the training and scheduling of staff and with the attention to detail and comfort in the rooms. There was a lot of waiting around for both checking in and making plans with the concierge due to lack of front desk staff. The lovely waiters did not appear to have sufficient knowledge of the menu and service was very slow. Our rooms were never ready before 16:00 in the afternoon and the cleaning staff was strapped for work. Surfaces were often sandy and dusty. We were told that we were the first to stay in our two bedroom resort villa and hopefully some details could be improved for future guests. For example, there was no place to hang wet towels to dry, no closet space for long dresses, the electrics had some teething problems and it took well over five minutes to get warm water in the shower. It appears that this resort has grown too fast, having added 30 new units that were just ready at the beginning of July, and thus struggles to keep up with the amount of guests now arriving. I hope that the owners recognise the issue and puts some measures in place so that their guests are comfortable and not wasting time waiting around. I would like to reiterate that the staff were wonderful and the facilities were outstanding. Sao Miguel is a place I will definitely return to and I would love to stay at the Santa Barbara Eco Beach Resort again when they have grown into their shoes.