"We have just come back from a 7 day stay at Fergus font de se cala beach hotel and this is my honest review.
Location - excellent, just 100m from a lovely beach in a very picturesque cove, with a couple of bars and restaurants nearby (all are very good too), plus a couple of shops. The grounds themselves are a decent size and nicely kept There's not much around but for a 'quiet' holiday it ticks a lot of boxes.
The building itself is fine, pretty standard fare, nothing special or fancy but clean and perfectly acceptable.
Pool areas are all pretty good, we had no problem getting a sun lounger even well past 10am, but I would imagine it's more difficult the later it is. There's the odd broken parasol that needs replacing here and there but it's not too much of an issue.
Rooms - we had a room right next to the lift overlooking the main pool, which was very convenient for popping back for stuff. The room itself was clean, (though our bathroom bin hadn't been emptied on our arrival) reasonably spacious and had plenty of storage space. Not the most modern, some of the fixtures, fittings and air con controls were fairly old but overall the room was absolutely fine. The shower was superb, nice and powerful, and the beds were large, firm but comfortable. Air con did the job. No complaints here.
WiFi was excellent - superfast 300 plus in the room and over 80 in the bar an pool area. Easily enough for anyone's needs.
Staff were all absolutely fine, no problems at all.
We didn't go to any of the entertainment so can't comment on that.
Food was an extremely mixed bag. The main buffet, which we ate at on our first evening and the following morning for breakfast was utterly chaotic and we found a lot of the food wasn't even close to being warm let alone hot. The soft drinks dispenser frequently put out watery substance instead of coke and the coffee machines were hit and miss in the same way putting out a crappy flat back coffee instead of the cappuccino I'd ordered, even just finding a cup was difficult at times. The quality of the food itself was fine but these basics let it down. We also had lunch at the tex mex bar, which whilst more limited in choice was much more agreeable so we ended up having a light breakfast in the buffet (cereal etc) and then lunch there most days.
On my last day here at the buffet, a guy had been mopping the floor, had no 'wet floor' signs out and I slipped and went flying with a plate in my hand, fully hitting the floor. Hurt my wrist and hip slightly. Could have been a lot worse.
I think my biggest gripe is the amount of faffing around you have to do to just function here. We went all inclusive, so they issue you a wristband and drinks cards that you exchange for a drink in a poxy plastic cup and when you finish get the card back. On two occasions we left our cups on the table and then had to go to reception to get more cards - what's the point? You can't get a bottle of water either, just some dispensed into a cup again, and you have to use a card just to get that so you can't have water alongside your other drinks unless you pay - this is poor. You should have access to bottled water at all times somewhere hot like this, do you think I want to take cups of water up to my room and expect that to last all night and morning for my family? For all I know it's tap water that will upset our stomachs. Not good enough. I'm hardly asking for a bottle of champagne am I? Want a towel? Yet another card issued, my wallet felt like it had a deck of cards in it almost immediately - drinks, towels and room keys. What's the point of the all inclusive wristbands when you have to do all this admin just to get a drink? I understand they don't want glass around the pool, which is a perfectly sensible policy, but why should I sit at the bar and drink out of a beaker? It just gives off a low rent feel to the place. There are shelves full of assorted glasses behind the bar. Use them when people are drinking in the bar or simply adopt a policy of the bar staff asking where you are drinking - bar or pool area and then pour accordingly. I found myself repeatedly asking the bar staff to serve my drinks in a glass when not round the pool, even in the reception bar when it's clear I'm dressed to go out and the pool is closed - why?
The cocktail situation is also garbage. I went to the bar and asked for three different ones off their list only to be told they don't have them, the one I did get was just sugary crap out of a carton, again served in a miserable little beaker. Imagine actually paying for these drinks if you weren't all inclusive.
I was also slightly disappointed to see that the bar in reception was only open in the evening, which I thought was a bit poor. The ones in Turkey and other places are open all day, it's nice to have a change of scenery sometimes, but it's a minor niggle. However special mention to Rafa who remembered what we like to drink and often had them ready for us upon arrival.
Also none of the outdoor seated areas allowed smoking or vaping which was a bit odd and frustrating - the key word here being OUTDOOR.
It is also the only place like this that I have been to that doesn't have signs you can hang on your door that say either 'do not disturb' or 'please clean this room' - all too often we had cleaners knocking on our door when we were in bed or just getting up, or telling them to give us five minutes etc. Another small detail overlooked.
I have read elsewhere that this hotel's previous excellent reviews are from before Fergus took them over and I can see why. It's clear that this large company has come in and implemented lots of penny pinching and corner cutting and at times here, it really shows, and whilst it's wasn't enough to ruin our holiday - not by a long way, it's certainly enough for me to consider avoiding the Fergus brand in future.
I know this sounds like I'm giving this place a poor review - I'm really not, it's worth reiterating that none of these things ruined or spoilt our holiday in any way - they didn't, we still had a very nice time and this is still a decent resort in a lovely setting, but these basic mistakes and lack of attention to detail don't happen in the all inclusive resorts in Turkey and could and should be remedied quite easily and cheaply. Food and drink are the two major things that need to be good at a place like this. As a result I can only award 3 blobs. A few simple improvements and I'd easily award 4 or 5."
