A Family Holiday at Jupiter Hotel Albufeira: Our Honest Review

“It’s a well oiled machine.” That’s what Gerard said nearly every day during our stay at Jupiter Hotel Albufeira. And he was absolutely right.

I wanted to write this review because I love sharing our real experiences. What worked for us, what we loved, and the little things I wish someone had told me before we went. We hadn’t been away on a sunshine holiday with the kids since 2018, so this trip felt like a big one.

We booked it back in January through Buzz Off at Bumble and Bee and paid it off in instalments until just before we travelled. This post is not part of a partnership or advert. I’ll simply link the businesses mentioned so you can check them out for yourself.

There’s a lot to cover but I’ve broken it into bite-sized sections to keep it easy.

Getting There: Transfer from Airport to Hotel

When we landed, an air-conditioned coach was waiting for us. It took around 45 minutes to reach the hotel. Stress-free and so smooth. Ideal when travelling with kids.

First Impressions of Jupiter Hotel Albufeira

This five-star hotel is located about a 10-minute walk from the New Town and 10 minutes by taxi to the Old Town. It’s designed with families in mind and honestly, you don’t need to leave the hotel at all if you don’t want to. The rooms are spacious and modern and the shower was amazing.

Little tip about the lifts. It took me until day three to realise that when you press your floor number, the panel tells you exactly which lift to go to. Watch for the screen showing 1A, 1B, 1C and so on. Saves a lot of standing waiting at the wrong one.

They have thought of absolutely everything when it comes to family holidays.

The slides are the main attraction for kids. It feels like your own mini water park inside the resort. Friends of ours visited the nearby water parks during their trip and said their children couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel. That told us everything we needed to know. We decided to stay put and soak it all up.

Even I went on the slides. That says it all. We had so much fun.

They begged me so I did it. The best craic.

Safety and Peace of Mind

I thought I’d be more anxious about the kids running around the pools or using the slides on their own, but the entire place feels so safe. There are staff and pool attendants everywhere and they are incredibly alert and helpful.

There’s a first aid room with a medic on site all day. Thankfully we didn’t need it, but I did see a few families using it. Such a reassuring thing to have on-site.

There’s also a quiet pool which was brilliant when we wanted to take a break from the music and activity. We often moved there in the afternoons for some calm time.

When we arrived we got five tokens for towels and we were able to exchange them at the end of each day for fresh ones for the next day.

Something that I thought was just above and beyond - there was suncream dispensers dotted all around the pool areas. I kept telling my kids to top up at different times throughout the day. I couldn’t believe this was provided by the hotel. Obviously we had our own but great to have those as well.

This is Gerard at 9am at the quiet pool. He loved a morning swim.

Cleanliness

Without a doubt, this is the cleanest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. The staff never stopped. They were constantly cleaning the pool areas, power washing sun loungers, wiping down surfaces, clearing tables, and keeping rooms spotless.

Our room was lovely. Modern, clean and so spacious. There was five of us so the room was perfect. A double bed and a sofa double in one room and then a seperate big room with two single sofa beds. Lots of room for all the cases and piles of dirty washing. lol

Five stars from me for how clean it was. Absolute credit to the team.

Dining at the Hotel

The main restaurant is buffet-style and has everything you could ever want. There is no reason for anyone to go hungry at this hotel.

Breakfast was amazing. Fresh fruit, yoghurts, pastries, cereal, and a full continental spread. Even though it was busy, it never felt crowded and the food stations were always topped up. There’s also a lovely little kids’ section with pancakes and toppings, but my crew were straight over to the adult buffet. I had fruit, yoghurt and granola first then ham and cheese omelette and then a pastry and two coffees, seven mornings in a row. No regrets.

Lunch was brilliant too. A dream salad bar, fresh fish, chicken, pasta and more. It changes slightly every day. We were often still full from breakfast, so we’d grab a light lunch and bring it out to the pool. There are plastic plates and cutlery at the door, so make sure to pick those up. There’s a kids’ buffet with a lower table so little ones can help themselves.

There’s also a separate pizza and chip counter in the restaurant. The kids loved grabbing their own and bringing it poolside. Some days we didn’t even go in for lunch. That wee station kept everyone happy.

Dinner was buffet-style again with a different theme each night. There were a few evenings we didn’t fancy what was on offer, so we went into the Old Town for dinner. It’s a lovely spot with lots of restaurants, but I’d recommend going early because it gets really busy later on.

My best advice to get the most from your all-inclusive package is to pick one main dish each night. We got a bit carried away trying a bit of everything and ended up sickening ourselves. Some people we spoke to ate in the restaurant every night and absolutely loved it.

There are two other restaurants on site that you must book on arrival. We only went to one of them which was The Brazilian restaurant. You need to like meat if you are going to this one as they come to your table with every type of meat you can imagine. My brother loved this restaurant when he was at the hotel but too much of different things doesn't appeal to me. Again my advice is to maybe just choose one meat and stick to that.

All drinks were included in our package, which was great. The kids could help themselves and didn’t need to ask. Gerard and I toasted our wedding anniversary with a little G and T at 11 in the morning. Living the dream.

16yr Anniversary drinks - where have the years went?

There’s also a snack bar beside the slides where you can grab drinks, crisps, baguettes, salads, and ice cream to take away. On a few days, we ate there and skipped the main restaurant completely.

Entertainment and Activities

This was a massive highlight for us.

The nightly shows were incredible. Full-on productions with costumes, lighting, and music. Tess and I were completely hooked on the musical performances while the boys played football, bounced on the inflatables, or raced around on the go-karts.

Keep an eye on the main screen in reception and the monitors in the lifts to see what’s happening each evening.

Picture doesn't do it justice.

There’s also entertainment throughout the day around the pool. The foam party and water balloon fight were massive hits with our gang.

My boys spent many mornings in the games room playing pool with their new friends. It was 2 Euro for a game and we gave them a few euros each morning from 9am-10.30am and they would also go there in the late afternoon when they had had enough time in the sun. They loved that little bit of independence.

The Spa

There is a spa on site but I didn’t use it. Some of the people from our flight had treatments and they only had good things to say.

Final Thoughts

I said to Gerard that it feels like the hotel team has thought of every possible situation a family might face. There wasn’t a single thing I could fault.

I got curious when I was there about how they manage it all so well. When I did some research online it turns out the hotel is owned by the Pereira family, who launched Jupiter Hotel Group in 2013. Their first hotel was Hotel Jupiter in Portimão. They’ve built something really special and you would know there is a passionate family behind it.

I even tried to line up an interview for the podcast while we were there, but the timings didn’t work out. The one question I would have asked is: How do you keep everything running so smoothly and maintain such high standards with such a big team? From a business point of view, I found it really inspiring.

Now we’re home and I’m trying to get back into a routine and stop dreaming about chocolate muffins for breakfast and 11am gin and tonics.

You could hire those fancy beds behind me or just take a regular lounger with umbrella.

If you’ve stayed at Jupiter Hotel Albufeira and have tips or suggestions I haven’t mentioned, send me a message on social media @diggmama on Instagram and Facebook. I’d love to add your thoughts to make this a really useful guide/resource for other families.

Obrigada por ler

Caroline x

Digg Followers who have also stayed at the hotel have shared these extra details and I am sharing with permission:

• There is a baby room on the ground floor with changing facilities and an area to warm bottles. Very handy at night when they needed to warm milk for their toddler. They just took milk from the fridge and popped it in the microwave. There was also yoghurts and fruit pouches in the baby room too.

• “The hotel packs you a massive picnic if you’re leaving the hotel, you simply give them your order before 8pm the night before you plan to leave the hotel, collect on the way out in the morning. It was beautiful, we took it with us as we took a trip to the zoo marine which is a great day out. There is no extra charge for this.

  Also there’s a bus which brings you down and up to the beach free of charge.”