Hotel Ocean Gardens

We stayed here for the last three nights of our five-night holiday in Madeira, choosing it for a quieter location outside central Funchal after spending our first couple of days in the city. We were in a room on the 5th floor of the newer block, which offered fantastic views of the sea and Funchal—definitely a highlight of our stay. The room itself was very clean, and this part of the hotel felt modern and well maintained. The free parking was also very convenient, especially as we had a hire car during this part of our trip. However, outside of this newer block, much of the hotel felt quite dated. Overall, something felt a bit off in terms of operations and upkeep. The rooftop areas and pool did not appear to be well maintained, and the hotel seemed understaffed. The room was also missing basic amenities such as tea and coffee making facilities, which was quite inconvenient and not what you would expect from a hotel of this category. Breakfast was quite limited, and even basic items such as omelettes were served cold. We also dined at the restaurant on our first night—while the food itself was good, the service was very slow, and the staff seemed stressed and disorganised. In summary, while this hotel works well if you are looking for a quieter base with great views and parking outside Funchal, it does not quite live up to a four-star standard, particularly in terms of service, amenities, and overall experience.

Arrived here a week ago. Upon entering our room we noticed that the air conditioning wasn’t working so we were moved a bit further up the corridor to a suite. The rooms were very clean & comfortable but there was no tea or coffee making facilities. We also had to ask at reception for a key to the safe. We had dinner a couple of nights in the restaurant but the service was really slow. We waited well over 30 minutes for 2 salads & 2 glasses of wine. The breakfast was ok, but very bland. The views from the hotel were amazing & the staff were very nice but I certainly wouldn’t rate it as a 4 star hotel. There was no TUI Rep either which would have been helpful. The hotel was a 15 minute drive from the airport & the drive into the centre of Funchal was around 10 minutes. We usually went by Uber. There is a regular bus service with a bus stop right outside the hotel but the hotel also runs a courtesy bus although this doesn’t run at the weekends. Disappointed that the hotel wasn’t quite what we expected but the main thing was that it was clean & comfortable.

This is a great hotel to stay in if you are looking for somewhere close to the airport/city. The views are amazing from all areas of the hotel and it’s clean! The rooms are practical for what you need and there is a supermarket about 5 minutes away in the car for everything you would need. They run a shuttle service through the week and there is also a local bus that stops outside the hotel. We used bolt to get in and out of the city and it was never more than €8 per trip. The pool bar was open every day although can be a bit pricey for what you are looking for at times. The pool area is always pretty quiet no rush for sunbeds as people are often out exploring. The pool did look a little dirty on some days more than others but we just avoided going in. We ate in the restaurant one night just for easiness. The service was incredibly slow even waiting for a glass of wine was about 15-20 minutes and trying to get the staffs attention was difficult but we didn’t mind as we weren’t in a rush to go anywhere. The food was ok. There are a couple of nice restaurants nearby the hotel as well but there are no pavements/safe roads around the hotel so you do have to rely on transport a lot of the time. We also had breakfast included everyday which was great and always restocked fresh throughout the time period it ran. Would definitely recommend staying in the hotel.

I would not recommend this place and I still struggle to understand how it’s a 4* star hotel. We were quite lucky as the hotel was nearly empty during our stay so we ended up having the pool and sauna all to ourselves which was nice. However, the bottom of the pool and the filters on the sides need a good cleaning as they were kind of disgusting. The bar on the terrace by the pool was always closed so that was extremely disappointing as we were hoping to have a few drinks by the pool.