ANC Resort

We had a lovely stay at ANC. We spent 2 nights there after flying in from NYC. It was nice to have the pool, the terrace and be in walking distance to the beach (even though when we went there was too much seaweed to swim) most of the people at the front desk were very helpful. You can also walk to Caloura. These were all good things as we got acclimated from jet lag. Peaceful. One person in particular helped me with reservations and good details on our plans. The dinner was good and the breakfasts seem to be the usual fare, a good variety. We’d recommend staying here.

Really wonderful staff and stay. Weather was lovely mid-January and after a short run along the beautiful streets, I rewarded myself with a dip in the outdoor pool just past my patio. A couple of fabulous restaurants nearby - Adega Caloura and Bar Caloura. All the staff I met were friendly and helpful. I will return.

I just returned from a three night stay at this hotel with my girlfriend and our teenage daughter. We have been countless times in S. Miguel as we consider it such a pleasant and beautiful island. This time we opted for a hotel outside the main towns and in fact we managed to do just that. At the same time it is only 20 minutes away from the airport and 15 minutes away from Ponta Delgada or Ribeira Grande, the two main towns. We already visited the nine islands of the Azores archipelago and always get a rental car at the airport (exception at Corvo Island). If you are staying in this hotel, it is paramount that you do the same. As to the hotel itself, we booked it only four weeks in advance on high season, thus we had to pay the full rate of the stay at that moment. Upon check-in on room 206, we were given two identical cards without any distinctive element, one to open the door and the other to insert into the slot for lightening. That is odd, generally, hotels give two identical keys to open the door and one of them, if necessary can be left on the slot when we are out. We were assigned a spacious accommodation with living room, bedroom and bathroom. We did not have sea view and the living room had lots of glass walls overlooking the adjacent condo. All those glasses made it very hot on the sun shining days and we had to keep the AC on during the day. The décor of the room was unstylish and lacking attention to details. The bedroom had a big closet but no clothes rail or hangers. Besides that, one of the doors of the closet could not be opened fully, because it bumped into the shelves that are installed as bedside tables. The safe was old style, that is to say, it closes with a key that we had to ask for at the reception at no charge, along with a cumbersome key ring that we had to take with us whenever we were out of the room. The living room had a well equipped kitchen, that we did not use but it was constantly patrolled by half a dozen ants. We had bought previously some good looking fruits and had to fill a big dish with water and in the middle of it we put a small dish with our fruit so that the ants weren’t able to cross the water in order to get to fruit island. The bathroom was very spacious and pleasant looking even if the washbasin was more stylish than efficient. This room lacked tremendously of a place to put one´s belongings (toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, electrical razor and so on). Amazingly no one foresaw the installation of a shelf. The social areas of the hotel such as the lobby are, again, unstylish, corridors have shabby carpeting. The room where breakfast is served has a view to an outside wall and lacks natural lightening. Breakfast itself has a reasonable variety of items, but by no means is it worth 12 euro per person per day, that in our case we were asked to paid in advance, precisely at the same moment we made the reservation. There is a restaurant at the hotel, called Dragoeiro but it features mainly sushi. It is in

The room smelled like cigarette smoke. They couldn't change our room because the hotel “was full”. They refunded that first night and we agreed to stay at the hotel with the commitment that a thorough cleaning would be done the next day to remove any odors. The next day we realized that they had not done the supposed thorough cleaning that they had promised. In fact, the room had not even been cleaned. Again, I reported it to reception and all they did was change the sheets. They did not change the curtains that were dirty and smelled of cigarettes because "this 4-star hotel-resort does not have replacement curtains." I reported that the air conditioning was not working and could not be turned off, the next day they managed to turn it off but never bothered to fix it. The excuse was first that there was no technician during the weekend but during the week, they simply forgot about this issue. I also reported a light not working, they didn't fix it either. The dishwasher doesn't work well, you have to wash everything by hand. The WC was not clean, it had spots of poop. This hotel is not remotely 4 stars. It is dirty and there is no way they will properly clean the room. The qualities in general are terrible and it has all the shortcomings that you could find in any hostel. Awful experience.

Overall hotel met our needs. Room was very spacious, huge balcony and great views of the ocean. Would have liked to come when all the amenities were open (pool, bar, restaurant, spa). Hotel staff were friendly, when we didn't want to drive into town to eat the front desk agent ordered us pizza from a restaurant that delivered!