Santa Barbara Eco-Beach Resort

The Eco vibe is great. Access to the beach is very convenient. Rooms are very nice and the bed is amazing.

The restaurant menu was disappointing. Everything on it is grease, with any clean/fit option (missed that since it’s a Eco Resort). It seems like the chef intentions are beyond his possibilities. At the check-in, they give you a phone so you can talk to the front desk at any moment for any inquiries. They don’t reply, or reply late (5hours later) or they reply something some other guest request. Good initiative, very poor result.

Comfy beds, great design, comfortable and convenient. Most of the staff was also great (shout out to Tiago, he did a great job at checking us in). The overall place was very quiet which was helped by the road being partly closed (a few reviews mentioned the noise which was not an issue at all during our stay).

A couple of the staff members didn't do a great job, one of the ladies at breakfast kept forgetting stuff or messing up our order, and my partner tried to get a massage but ended up never happening because no one could reach the masseuse.

I loved the sleek design. The setting just above the half mile long walking beach was beautiful. We enjoyed the spaciousness of Retreat 2 and the private hot tub. Because the late September weather was extremely changeable we didn't swim in the cool but very beautiful pool, but when the sun shone we enjoyed views from various chaise lounge. Breakfasts were terrific and dinner was mostly very good.

Little things like door locks worked intermittently. The warm and oft-times charming staff made some mildly jarring mistakes. Given that it's billed as an "eco resort" I wonder why the architect made little provision for cross ventilation. When we tried to sleep with the glass doors slid open we got bug bites, but closed we required air conditioning.

Beautiful location and most of the staff was incredible! When we expressed any concerns, the team would go above and beyond trying to ensure we were completely satisfied. Food was incredible and the shower was awesome!! They provide a cell phone when you check in which you can use to message staff and for navigation around island which was an extremely nice touch!

I had expected ocean views but the rooms are all facing a city, with partial ocean views to the left. Some rooms have much better ocean views than others which I wasn’t expecting - when we did raise this concern, the staff was quick to help make things right but I did feel photos upon booking were a bit misleading. Additionally, there was a miscommunication amongst staff on some of the services we booked - for example I booked a massage for my husband and request only a female masseuse but we showed up and he had a male masseuse. For me, I didn’t mind the make vs female but he was extremely uncomfortable and would have just not booked if he had the information up front.

What an amazing 7 days. The location was a great base to explore the island, the room was fantastic and all the staff were friendly and attentive. A special thank you to Jessica and Sara who always served breakfast with a smile. Claudia for welcoming us each morning. Tiago for such a warm welcome to the resort giving us all the information we could need and Vitor and Raquel for being fantastic and so helpful with recommendations and any of our needs. Would highly recommend Santa Barbara Eco-Beach to anyone wanting to explore the Azores whilst being hosted by such a fantastic team.

All the facilities are amazing. The kindness of all the team, impressive. Raquel on the reception very smily and kind, the villa completely comfortable and all the resort with extraordinary services, views and location. The wellness area with very good equipment. And thanks for being eco in your foundation and also for allowing our pet Harry to enjoy with us. Our experience as a family was simply awesome. We really thank all the team to make it real!.

Only a very small suggestion is to control a bit the temperature of the wellness area because in hot days might be also too high inside for a good gym work.

Beautiful and equipped room, wonderful attentive staff

Staying here in a season when you can't count on the weather to enjoy the pool and beach access feels like a waste. The property is gorgeous but honestly all of São Miguel is. This is a relatively isolated location where if you don't want to have dinner at the resort's restaurant every day you have to drive, and if you don't get to enjoy the resort's facilities then I recommend you stay somewhere else.

Everything starting with: -the unparalleled location -the beach at the resort -quiet and relaxing accommodation (we had the room with the private pool) -hearing the ocean in the evening from our patio -the restaurant vibe and the food -the cool beach bar This was our 2nd stay at this resort after we spent out honeymoon here back in 2018. Overall we found the place better than the 1st time. This says a lot as we loved it the 1st time around as well.

Didn't particularly like the cocktails. They were ok, but not awesome. Also I would prefer a more simple restaurant menu. The food was great, but I am more for a simple fish based meal especially vs a complex dish.

- All staff are incredible, special shout out to Tiago, Claudia, Raquel and Vitor, who were all amazing - I loved that we were given a separate mobile phone for the period of our stay which we used to contact the staff for any queries we had, from booking a taxi to ordering a room service and getting any recommendations on places to visit around the island, which completely removed the admin bit from our lives during our stay. Wish I had this magic phone in my life outside of this resort!! - The villa we stayed at was beautiful and beds extremely comfortable, hot tub was a lovely addition - Small thoughtful touches like welcome drinks on arrival and a birthday cake and Prosecco for my partner’s birthday - The resort itself is in a beautiful location and the views were breathtaking both from the main building and our villa - Location is great and we could easily get to both east and west parts of the island without much trouble - Breakfast was perfect and we enjoyed having a lot of choice, we also enjoyed the restaurant a few times for dinner during our stay and the food was delicious

Only that we had to leave!

The location overall is astonishing. Two steps from the beach, you can hear and smell the Ocean basically everywhere in the property, many spots with different views available for relax and or sunbathing ...wonderful! Breakfast is provided in a lot of variety of food, salt and sweet, from scrambled eggs to pancakes. Also, I strongly advise to try dinner too and have a smoking gin tonic (made with local Gin, you'll see) for drink. Employees are amazing, from the waiters in the restaurant, through reception personnel, till maidens service and others: friendly, professional, always with a smile and caring you are having the best experience possible. High level of hygiene and very clean (room, pools, etc etc)

There's no bidet and shower is not "man friendly", for those who care. Watching TV, jumping from channel to another, jumped into a Russian TV and its show full of Z and putin propaganda: disturbing to me, asked they take action immediately, no reply so far. Fresh fruit granola with yogurt could contain more than just a bunch of blackberries...