Sunmed Holidays

Travelled to Portugal with 3 other ladies about 4 years ago and it was arranged completely by SunMed

Air, car rental, villa in Algarve and then various pousadas ending for few days in Lisbon

Absolutely wonderful vacation. SunMed was great to work with.

My husband and I had,in February 2016, 2 weeks in Gran Canaria, a week in Madeira, and a week in the Azores, Ponta Delgado. The hotel/apartment in Gran Canaria was very nice, with all the amenities we needed. Clean, daily maid service, restaurant on-site, with many restaurants in the immediate area. Madeira we were in a hotel, also very nice, with sea views. As Madeira is mountainous, the beach was quite a hike down, and back. But that is the way Funchal, in fact the whole beautiful island, is. Ponta Delgado hotel/apartment was very nice, in a rural area, and extremely quiet, with few amenities in the area. Though a restaurant was in the hotel if you didn't feel like cooking. A car was included, and needed, as it was a bit off the beaten track. Our only complaint was that we were told the flight was very short, only 5-6 hours. True, to get to Ponta Delgado, our first stop, then you changed planes twice, to get to Gran Canaria, our first place where we stayed, which we hadn't realised. So in total the flight was well over 10 hours counting the stopovers. Exhausting when not expecting it.

Next time we will research better, and get our geography right.

Overall a lovely month, good hotels, all clean and well looked after. Will probably be asking SunMed to organize a trip this coming winter too.

Have used Sunmed Holidays for over 12 years, mostly for travel to Portugal and Spain. Have never had a bad experience on any trip. Representatives in Spain and Portugal were very helpful to give us information we needed. The staff in Toronto are excellent and very good at picking the right accommodation for us. We did a week touring the posadas and enjoyed every one of them. There was nothing we didn't like about our dealings with this company. Prices are better than other travel agents. They also have briefings in Toronto before you go so that you know what you are getting.

Dealt with Sunmed Holidays several times in the past several years. Had no

idea about the lovely Azores until we Island hopped. Also drove around a

big part of Portugal. This was achieved with the very well set out itinerary planned by Sunmed. Would definitely deal with them again.

Booked a trip with Rafael Lopes Sales Manager at Sunmed Holidays. We did our own research first, but thought it was a way better deal to book one of there packages. Have recommend them to many friends

Used Sunmed to plan and book a 2 week trip to Portugal. We stayed in many different hotels in cities and towns. Most of the accommodations were good and some were better than expected. However the hotel in the Algarve that was booked for us was a dump and filthy. It looked okay on the website, but a tour operator should have more knowledge about the hotel than what is on the website. As a result we couldn't stay there and had to find another hotel in the area. We checked out the day we arrived and cancelled the next three nights that were booked. The staff at the front desk could not process a refund for the cancelled nights, they indicated that we had to get it through our tour company. Based on the fact that you prepay and receive a voucher for your stay from Sunmed, when you cancel you can not get a refund. The contract you get from Sunmed indicates, no refunds. Any hotel that I have ever booked in any city just requires 24hr cancellation notice. I had no problem losing the cost of the first night, but thought the next 3 nights should be refunded.

Overall Sunmed had good knowledge and advice for planning a trip to Portugal. However, if you make your own arrangements and bookings I expect you can save money on the overall cost of the trip, and you can avoid the type of contract that will not give a refund for services that are cancelled.

We booked a 2 week trip to the Algarve through SunMed Vacations. I attended the free seminar that this travel agency regularly holds to sell their packages. The presenter was very knowledgeable but as soon as I booked the trip, he never replied to any email enquires and left all communications to other staff. I had a few questions that were not adequately answered, including where to pick up rental car. Auto Jardim is NOT at the airport, it is off-site. You have to take a shuttle to get there. That information would have been helpful, you would think the travel agency would give us this simple information. Also, our accommocations were not as promised. We stayed at Villas Barrocol in Pera and were told we were being "upgraded" to a villa with two bedrooms. We ended up in an apartment with no view at all, except for a parking lot from the bedroom. When we asked at reception if we could have our room changed, we were told all rooms were booked for long stays so there was nothing they could do for us. We were there for 2 weeks and made the best of it. The staff were wonderful at Villas Barrocol, the room clean and adequate but we were extremely disappointment to be promised one thing and got another. The customer service at SunMed holidays is sorely lacking, I would not recommend this agency to anyone.

My partner and I recently booked an all inclusive 17 day trip to Portugal through SunMed travel agency in Toronto. The advice I give to people who choose to use this agency get everything written in stone. Also investigate the car rental agencies and hotels they book you into. Our bad experiences began on our arrival at our hotel, VIP Diplomatico in Lisbon. SunMed lists this as a 4 Star hotel. Nothing could be further from the truth. The lobby looks OK but when you get to the rooms the only honest description to use is the place is a dump. As soon as you get off the elevator the smell of mould and mildew assails you like a blanket. The carpets are worn through and badly stained. The rooms are cramped and the bathroom fittings are stained and chipped. We used three rooms in this hotel and they were all bad. I would not even rate this hotel as a 1 Star. If you book a car with SunMed as part of a package ask for the name of the car rental agency. If it is AutoJardim or one of the local small agencies refuse it and insist for one of the well know agencies such as Hertz or Avis etc. AutoJardim left my partner and I stranded twice cancelling roadside assistance we had requested because the car they supplied us with was 6 years old with 125.000km on the clock and had front end issues that caused the steering to vibrate uncontrollably when traveling at highway speed. This caused us to lose a night at our hotel on The Algarve coast and extra cost for a B&B close to where we had the car trouble. On our return to Toronto my partner approached Mr Rafael Lopes of SunMed regarding some type of compensation for the misfortunes caused by his company, SunMed. She was verbally abused and basically told she could go to hell. A further issue with the car was although our itinerary specifically stated that all fees, taxes, insurance. and unlimited mileage were included the car rental company demanded a delivery and pickup fee. I refused to pay this but they charged it to my credit card anyway. That issue I have placed in the hands of my credit card company by launching a dispute process.

Just returned from a 1 month stay in the Algarve. Everything was as promised, and the price well, it was unbeleivable. Will be rebooking for next winters vacation.

Thank you Sunmed

I have been booking with Sunmed Holidays in Toronto for 15 years. A good company to deal with, when ever a problem has come up with airlines, car rentals or hotels Sunmed Holidys has been there to help fix and resolve the issue. You can totally trust this firm with your travel plans,

Dr. William harvey