Hotel Boa Vista Star all-inclusive
Boa
Vista on Praia de Chaves beach
Direct flights from Gatwick on Thursdays, Manchester on Mondays
This hotel is a new one built on top of a low cliff looking down
on the beach at Chaves, probably the best accessible beach on Boa
Vista. he management has tried hard to get everything up and running
in under two years. Most things work although the Cape Verdean staff
have obvious difficulty in understanding the rapid and idiomatic
Spanish of the mentor team that has been brought in for a few months
to train them.
It is built with ranks of box-like bungalows raked up a hillside
so that all will have sea views. It is the first of the Canaries
based Star Group hotels in the Cape Verdes. It seems more friendly
and more human than the RIU factory just along the beach. Most early
tourists are French , not Parisien chic - but modest people from
the Provinces who are quiet and polite.
Small and friendlier than the Riu with a Spanish ambience
With only 200 bedrooms, which will take time to fill up, nothing
is too crowded and you do not have to wait or get barged on the
way to the buffet. The rooms are a bit small but most people will
sit out on the little terraces, some of which have a view of the
sea. You can sit there or around the pool and bar areas where for
the moment there is plenty of room.
The very wide and long beach forms lagoons when the weather becomes
rough. Mosquitoes can breed here, so that it is a pity that the
hotel has not fitted mosquito netting - an oversight that perhaps
will be rectified.
Food is plentiful with quite a Mediterranean flavour including
olives and cheese and a big choice of olive oils. Sopme food is
cooked on the spot which removes some of the rushed and crushed
feeling that one can get with all-inclusives. Tghe group which belongs
to Thomas Cook. mnow a German company owns a cruise liner which
visits Boa Vista. it make use of the freezer storage on this liner
to import all sorts of Spanish meats and fish, which you will not
find in otjer Cape Verdean hotels.
As an all-inclusive everything is free once you have paid but that
you must wear a wrist band. The drinks offer includes some very
nice Fino sherry from jerez and a passable if unknown Scotch whisky.
Wine is variable with the white better than the red, which is the
same as supplied to the Riu - and which vinos will probably not
want to drink.
The background taped music can become a bit too loud. In the evenings
there are dancers or musicians, some from the Cape verdes and some
from Spain. They wear exotic costumes and are very enthusiastic
dancers. So are many of the Cape Verdean staff who stand at the
side and start moving rhythmically to the music. The disc jockey
is a Belgian who worked at the Rius on Sal and he has brought most
of his entertainment team with him. He speaks a lot of Eiropean
languages quite well but when he does his spiel on the mike they
tend to run into one another and you become lost.
Otherwise there is not that much to do, apart from lying on the
superb beach or swimming in the large and warm pool. Excursions
are offerred to the North or South of the island or across to the
island of Sal Rei, but Boa Vista has less to show that most other
Cape Verde islands, as so much iof it is desert sand.
Few people were drinking much perhaps because both the beer and
wine were pretty basic. But the other drinks on offer at the bar
were of good quality and must have been expensive given the import
duties.
The staff both Spanish and Cape Verdean are uniformly friendly
although they are likely to address English visitors in another
language at first. Opened in late November 2009. it should by now
have opened up the missing buts such as the second restautrant and
ironed out some of the wrinkles. The deputy manager, actually a
Portuguese although he speaks perfect Spanish nd good English ,
works hard and is ever available for those who encouter problems.
Prices at around £466 per week are very attractive for early
bookers and will surely rise as it fills up..
B from Lancs did not like the Spanish mentors or the food.
"The Spanish staff behaves badly towards the local staff, who
are actualy the most polite and nice people. Anytime there was a
problem the Spanish management seemed to blame everything on the
locals who they were training. We had major issues with the hotel
and staff right from arrival: we paid for something we did not get
and they did not deliver. The food was very much holiday camp style;,
if you like pizza ,chips and bland pasta you will be happy, but
if you have more refined taste you are likely to be disappointed."
C from Ireland liked the beach and the architecture but not the
service or food.
"We got a taxi from the airport to the hotel and it was obvious
immediately that the hotel was not finished. The lobby was bare,
the staff were disorganised and Spanish staff were training the
local staff and sometimes being unnecessarily abrupt with the local
staff. The first thing we noticed was that you have to pay €7 to
use the hotel room safe and must contact reception. One of the Spanish
staff from Spain got out a pack of batteries. We switched on thre
TV but it didn't work and a workman couldn't fix it. Lunch was mediocre
buffet food and as the the food is not used fast when the hotel
is empty it gets dry and lukewarm. The "gym" was two bikes in a
basement. The sea at Praia de Chaves is quite rough and not always
suitavble for swimming. Dinner was better than lunch but after a
few days I was tired of old pizza, old french fries, old pasta...
the roast meats were good though as were the seafood salads. Praia
de Chaves is beautiful and the hotel complex itself was really attractive.
"
| Room Type |
May/June/July |
August |
| Prices per person |
7nights |
14nights |
7nights |
14nights |
| Seaview Room AI pp |
£537 |
£1075 |
£690 |
£1380 |
| Third Person sharing room 40% extra - Infant free |
