Melia Tortuga Beach - All Inclusive

We enjoyed our stay Melia Toruga celebrating our birthdays in the good weather. The food and drinks were nice and a good selection. We ate in all the different restaurants at the hotel and the Italian restaurant was excellent. The rooms were cleaned daily. All the staff were friendly and helpful and I would like to say a big thank you to Flavia and Ricardo who served our drinks at the pool bar. Flavia was always happy and served our drinks with a big smile. The beach was beautiful and there was always plenty of beds on the beach and by the poolside. We visited Santa Maria which was worth a visit and we used the free bus from the hotel and got a taxi back for 5 euros. There was entertainment on the evening which was good. We will definitely be returning back to Cape Verde.

We spent a week in Tortugo in February 2025 as a family of 5 (3 boys 11, 14 and 16) After reading some reviews I was a bit worried about what we were in for but I needn’t have worried as we had a wonderful time :) Accommodation We stayed in a 3 bedroom 3 bathroom villa ideally situated in the middle of the resort with a sea view from our first floor terrace. It was extremely spacious and very clean. We had cleaning staff come in several times in the week to clean and change towels. All in all perfect for us. Pools There are two pool areas as well as a kids pool. We preferred the quiet pool which was very relaxing, and didn’t have too much trouble getting beds. Pools were a little cold but refreshing and we still went in and had fun. The other pool was a bit bigger and busier with a bar, music and a few activities going on. Beach The hotel is situated on a beautiful wide sandy beach and there were always sunbeds available here. There is a more sheltered area you can swim in but the waves were so big a lot of the time we were there it was unsafe to go in at all. It made for amazing views though. Food On our first day we went to the bar at 11am to book the al a carte restaurants. We got in all four of them no problem and enjoyed them all particularly the Italian which had one of the best lasagna I have had. The buffet was varied and plentiful. We ate breakfast here every day which was lovely and varied including cooked breakfasts, toast, croissants cereals and fresh omelettes cooked to order. We ate lunch at the cabana beach restaurant which was delicious and we could have three courses each day if we wanted as all inclusive guests. The cabana beach bar did lovely alcoholic and non alcoholic cocktails, prosecco and beers and it was a perfect spot to enjoy the sunset. Santa Maria is only a 5 minute drive in a taxi and there are a range of lovely restaurants there too if you want a change we loved cafe art in particular , gorgeous pizzas and very reasonable. Highly recommend the half day trip on the e bikes too. All in all a wonderful holiday and we would definitely return

On arrival we checked in at reception and paid to upgrade to the VIP package, at a cost of €50 for adults (3) and €30 for children (1), totalling €180 per day. See photo for listed benefits. We then booked the various restaurants etc for our weeklong holiday with Wagner (VIP manager). We were then given the key cards to our villa and shown on the map where our 4 bed beachfront villa was located and told our luggage would follow. On arriving at the villa, none of the key cards would open the front door, but we managed to gain access through a patio door that had been left unlocked. We then tried to use the phone in the room to contact reception, but this was not working. My husband went to the Cabana restaurant/bar to ask if they could call reception to inform them that our keys didn’t work. Abruptly, he was told NO you have to walk back up to reception to sort out!! Our bags arrived and we trudged back up to reception to get new key cards and inform them that the phone and tv’s in the villa also weren’t working. They were unable to immediately fix the keycards so we were given one normal metal door key, to use between the 4 of us. They also said that the phone in the room had not worked for some months and they would come and look at the tvs, which had no remote controls in the room. We then asked how we were meant to contact reception or order any 24hour room service from our room without a telephone and were told to WhatsApp Wagner or Heidy if we wanted anything!! This obviously turned out to be impractical as they would have days off and didn’t work 24hours. The villa was promoted as having a fully equipped kitchen. Yes there was a kettle,fridge, microwave etc, but not a single item of cutlery or crockery etc to use to even make a cup of tea, let alone a saucepan! The other items that were obviously missing from the villa were, bathrobes, bathroom amenities such as tissues, cotton buds, decent amount of toilet rolls, fans in 3 bedrooms as air conditioning only in master bed and lounge, table and chairs on the patio and to be honest it just seemed dirty and bare. We messaged Wagner, to request the missing items etc and problems with the villa but he had already gone home for the day, but he passed the messages onto to Heidy to resolve. We were tired from a full days travel and just went to signora sassi for dinner and thought we’d sort it out the next day as we weren’t getting much help from reception, who just stared at us blankly claiming they didn’t understand. In using the villa overnight, we realised just how filthy it was, with what we hope was insect blood on the walls, fungi growing in the showers, ticks and cockroaches in the bedrooms, mold growing on the disgustingly stained mattresses, grease stains on cushions and curtains, filthy floor, stained bedding and towels, we once again trudged up to reception and demanded to see the manager, Mr Luis Miguel Goncalves as our youngest daughter had also come out in a rash basica

This place is dirty. They haven't changed my bed sheets in five days, but still made the bed with the dirty linen. I've asked three times today (twice to the manager) for clean sheets and every time got a smile and "yes yes" but my bed still has dirty linen and smelly pillows. Don't go if you value hygiene.

On arrival at Sal airport we met the TUI rep who tried to flag down our taxi who had decided to drive off. She did call another taxi for 8 people with only 7 seats and was made to put the youngest on a knee. On arrival we were told to go the bar and get ourselves a drink while we waited to check in. 5*??? The concierge took us to our 2 rooms and it was all downhill from there. The first room was covered in water, the aircon didn’t work (no aircon in twin room at all) and was leaking all over the floor, no tv, no hairdryer, no working phone. 4 attempts to fix and it was only a temporary fix. We were shown to the second room where the staff had to shoulder barge the door to let us in. Turns out the door handle was broken and only access was with a key. The place was dirty, staff rude & aggressive, soiled sheets, poorly maintained in all areas. If you can find a seat in the restaurant, good luck finding plates, cutlery cups, no table service, etc. Food was average and lacking choice, no ice cream in the whole result but the staff said we could purchase it at a cost from the beach I haven’t got the strength to list all the issues, but I can definitely say don’t waste your money! Stay at the In Palace instead which is incredible. Due to the obscene amount of issues during the first 6 days of our holiday we were moved to the Riu Palace which was amazing. Everything you would expect from a 5* resort & more.

Dirty and poorly maintained resort, advertised as a 5 star resort, however in its current condition it would struggle to be rated as a 3 star resort. I have selected 1 star as it is mis sold as a 5 star resort, also it is not made clear that Melia are acting as a broker letting out dwellings that are privately owned. The reception area had an awful smell like diarrhoea. The accommodation was not ready when we arrived so we were left waiting in the reception area. We were given one key card to use and had to request a second card, which did not work. The card was handed to us in a well used cardboard holder, which had been reused over and over again, had tipp-ex over the room numbers and was filthy. The accomodation was spacious, however it was filthy and in poor condition. The toilet, sink, bidet, bath and shower were all dirty and in poor condition. I didn't check to see if the hairdryer worked as it was so filthy that I would not wish to touch it The floors, bins, couch, TV remote control and the fridge were all filthy. Bed linen was marked, I could not bare to lift the linen up to see what was underneath! The safe did not work, housekeeping checked on this and it worked, however it seemed intermittent so I didn't want to risk putting valuables and important documents inside in case I could not open the safe to retrieve them. There was no bottled water in the accommodation, considering this resort is advertised as a five star all inclusive, I think that at the very least there should have been bottled water. The pool is not safe to use as it is not only dirty to a level I have never seen before but also because there are so many missing tiles and loose tiles sitting at the bottom of the pool. The sun loungers and chairs are all dirty and/or in poor condition. There were plates, glasses and cups left on tables around the pool with no sign of anyone clearing them away. The outdoor pool and beach showers were filthy, I didn't try them to see if they worked. The sun loungers and parasols on the beach were in a poor condition. The tables and chairs inside the Pasta Nostra eatery were stained and dirty. We got a glimpse inside what looked like a kitchen/food storage room at the beach grill and it did not look hygienic, it looked tired and dirty. When returning to our room we found that the one and only key card that we had, no longer worked, the green light to enter would flicker and turn red again. When returning to reception to complain, we were asked to provide our key card sit and wait for 20 minutes, whilst housekeeping were contacted. We were escorted back to our accommodation and the key card worked, I can only presume that the card had been changed, reactivated or that there was an intermittent fault with the door lock. We showed a hotel rep and housekeeping around pointing out all of the dirt and issues we found and were asked if we wanted to go for something to eat whilst they deep cleaned the accommodation, surely that should be done