I have just returned as a party of 6 from a fantastic hot and windy 2 weeks in Cape Verde staying in the Garopa hotel, All my scores are marked as a 5 as this was a great hotel and there was no fault or moan from our party.

I would like to point out the importance of using a very high factor during your stay all the time. While walking on the beach the wind is blowing but the sun is burning the skin on your back.

Also take some insect spray as there is no shops to purchase this from, also hairspray for the ladies ( and men ) as the shop does not sell this.

Food fantastic!! Rooms cleaned daily and maids very nice.Hotel staff friendly and always like to talk and are very helpfull.

entertainment is fab I would like to be as fit as the Animation team they do know how to put on a good show.

We stayed at the club hotel garopa in April this year. The flight was excellent but when we arrived in Sal we had to queue outside the airport for over an hour before getting into the terminal (we had obtained our visas in the UK). When we got outside the airport and met the reps, we then had to queue for over half an hour to get on mini buses to reach the hotel. Couldn't fault the cleanliness of the hotel or the friendliness of the staff. The evenings were cold, needed a jacket and the wind some days was gale force bringing sand storms. Was very unhappy about the building work near the hotel, very unpleasant to sit on the balcony during the day. Complained to Thomsons on our return but received quite a strongly worded letter back, will not travel with Thomsons again! Reps next to useless, my husband had a dreadful chest infection and they were no use at all. Because of the strong winds, eating in the pool side bar at lunch time, the food all had to be covered with cling film because everything was getting smothered in sand. Would not go to Cape Verdi again.

The Hotel Garupa is part of the Rui Hotel Group so we were hoping that the standards were up to the 5 stars that they suggested were available. Unfortunately the standards were sadly lacking however dont complain because the assistant manager will try and throw you out of the hotel!

After 3 days not being able to have coffee at breakfast time due to no available cups the assistant manager asked me to leave the hotel because he did not like me asking him what the problem was. (apparently 2300 guests but only 1600 cups) Luckily the holiday rep told him not to overact to a request for a cup. Very rude little man who has delusions of grandeur for the hotel and more so himself.

We have just returned from 2 weeks at the Riu Garopa hotel, I had mixed feelings from reading previous reports prior to going. Here are mine, Hotel good, location bad, hotel is encircled by a security fence and the only access to the beach is by a gate at the bottom of the Funana hotel, Garopa guests have a long walk to reach it. The sea, decidedly dangerous, strong undertow when trying to get back onto the beach and it shelves, no obvious beach guards. Plenty of sunbeds on long windy beach, no mattresses. Speciality restuarants nothing special, but ok for a change, no problem booking them. Beware the drinks, measures are very generous, small is not in their vocabulary, but there was not many obvious drink related problems. Pool area can get overcrowded and not enough mattresses for everyone, towel brigade not too bad. Entertainment was always late starting and was very loud and depending where your accomodation is early nights were out. Guests were multi national with arrivals nearly every day which meant some were arring in their rooms all hours of the night. Seating in main bar and reception as reported before, not enough prior to the start of dinner. Staff friendly if not treated as servants. Food was repetitious, but quite good, and as are most hotels after two weeks, but you could vary what and where you ate. No obvious tummy problems seen. Trips to town has to be by taxi, paths hit and miss, roads were covered in oily type spillage you have to scrape your shoe soles afterwards. hardly worth the effort, beach a long and dusty walk. Reps were not very good didn't know what the staff tipping system was, a basic bit of knowledge I thought, and you only saw them sitting at their desk during duty hours, never came around the hotel to ask how things were, never got involved with their guests at all, one lady injured her leg and it took two days for them to get to see her. We like many other guests thought they were on a good jolly, they said they had 12 years rep experience between them, but I don't know where. Sun creams there are expensive, take plenty. There really is nowhere to go of an evening outside of the hotel, so if you want to eat and drink for England, this is the place to be. Would not recommend for young children, and teenagers. Definately 4 star not five, cats allowed to roam around lunchtime dinning areas. incidentaly if you want soft loo paper take your own, theirs is poundland paper.

Hotel was clean, food was good, staff were friendly. It was definetly a 5star hotel. There were four of us (22,26,40,48) and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. i wouldnt recommend for a fun packed holiday but was fab for a relaxing week away. The Garopa and Funana are the same hotel - ther is no division and we were allowed to eat and drink in both hotels - we didnt know which was which for the first day or so! Only real disappointment was the eve entertianment, was absolutly abismal - for the standard of hotel we expected decent eve entertainment! It was very insulting, it was that bad. Take Euros - they are accepted everywhere. Buy ciggys on plane - loads cheaper, hotel and resort 200 marlboroughs (only ones they did) - 30euros (

We stayed in the Funana in June 2007 and the Garupa in December 2007. Only 5 hours from the UK and Carribean style holiday. The staff at the hotel treat you very well and the main restaurants are fantastic, the red wine and beer are very drinkable (unable to coment on white or rose). If anything the speciality restaurants are restrictive because the main ones are so good. The rooms are cleaned to a high standard and the domestic supervisors check the rooms every day. There is a cooling breeze so be careful to use high factor sun protection. Animation team make a good go of it, plenty to do if you want or you can easily ignore them. If you are in the Garupa remember that the Funana main restaurant is open at lunch time if you want a proper meal, nothing wrong with the pool restaurants if you want fast food and don't want to stray far from the beach/pool. There are always plenty of sun beds around the pools or on the beach but if you want your pick get there before 10am, one day the staff removed all towels from unoccupied sunbeds at 10am (result!). To be honest there is nothing to do outside the hotel of note, Santa Maria is tiny and there are a lot of people trying to get you to their stalls to buy local products.Internet conections are slow and mobile phone calls cost a bomb, perfect if you need to disconnect from work.......