Sundy Praia – Principe Collection

We stayed at Sandy Praia over Christmas 2024. On the plus side the location and environment around Sunday is lovely. They have all the makings of an excellent secluded resort. Unfortunately the execution of the experience is far below par for this price and the difficulty encountered to get to this resort. I would suggest going to Belo Monte if you are going to Principle island. - We had confirmed prior to booking and arrival that we would have a quiet room. But we were allocated a room that was directly beside the pool and bar (Room 3). As it was Christmas there were no other rooms available and too bad for us. We couldn't really enjoy our space as we had people walking past our beach space every 5 minutes, could hear children screaming in the pool and the music from the bar into the evening. It completely ruined our hopes of a relaxing secluded holiday. This is totally unacceptable and not what you would expect from a properly managed property. - The staff are friendly and trying their best. However, what I can only assume is a lack of proper training, they fail to give you the service you would expect for a resort of this nature. English is an issue and simple requests go unanswered. Service is slow for all meals. You are made to wait for breakfast to start, tour guides are late and you are constantly in search of water. Very poor at this price point. - We booked massages and on the day they had disappeared from the diary so we were made to wait. When we did get massages they had screwed up someone else's booking who was knocking on the door throughout. Not very relaxing or professional. - As it was Christmas we paid a large supplement for our dinner on Christmas Eve. This was early our worst meal of the trip with dry steak, long wait times and limited drink options. Not what I expected for an extra 120 euros per person. So int he end, unfortunately our hopes of a relaxing holiday were dashed by poor communication by the manager Paolo, unmet expectations and lack of execution for even the simplest of tasks. We wouldn't go back.

This is a fantastically relaxing hotel, set on the waters edge of a pristine rain forest. The rooms are just gorgeous - large and luxurious. They are in fact tents but luxurious ones not unlike the sort of thing you get in an upmarket safari. The double bed is huge and they all have a large shower, separate toilet, 2 handbasins and a comfortable bath right by the window looking out into the rain forest. There's plenty of wardrobe space, a sitting area and a small fridge. The food is very good and the ingredients are mainly local, and organic where possible. The hotel can organise excursions, on the island and by small boat. But make no mistake, you are not going to a Maldives or Caribbean type resort. The island is a poor one, and the infrastructure is still quite basic outside of the Praia Sundy resort. But set against that, you will be visiting an island before it is overtaken by mass tourism. The one downside I found had nothing to do with the hotel. The rainy season started earlier that I expected and with rain, come mosquitos.