"We travelled as a family of 7 — 5 adults, a child aged 8 and a 15-month-old baby.
I’ll start with the positives. The reception and bar areas are clean and air-conditioned, and check-in was straightforward. Two of our rooms were ready on arrival, although we had to wait around two hours for the third room.
The food was good. We had breakfast and evening meals included and there was always something available that we could eat. You certainly won’t go hungry. The poolside snack bar was reasonably priced and the food was good quality. Most of the staff were lovely, although there were one or two who seemed as though they really didn’t want to be there.
Unfortunately, the negatives far outweighed the positives for us.
We were allocated rooms 129, 133 and 134, all together on the first floor. This was exactly what we had requested because we were travelling with small children and an adult with disabilities.
The rooms were extremely small and cramped and were not cleaned to an acceptable standard. The patio areas were filthy and appeared not to have been cleaned properly during our stay. We actually watched cleaners sweeping the balconies above us, with dirt and debris falling down onto our patio areas below.
The rooms certainly did not feel refurbished. They looked and felt like they had come straight out of the 1980s.
The bathrooms were adequate. The glass bathroom door didn’t bother us personally, although I can see it potentially being an issue for people travelling with friends rather than family.
The biggest issue was the air conditioning. It didn’t work at all in two of our rooms, while the air conditioning in the third room was so noisy that it couldn’t realistically be used overnight. We reported the problem and were told someone would take a look, but there was no noticeable improvement and we have serious doubts that anything was actually done.
Reception offered us alternative rooms on the 6th floor. This was completely unsuitable for our group. There were two small lifts, and with children, a baby and an adult with disabilities, moving to the 6th floor simply wasn’t practical. We therefore had no real option other than to remain in our allocated rooms and put up with temperatures of 90+ degrees without functioning air conditioning.
Considering we paid around £900 per person for the holiday, this was extremely disappointing.
Pool area
If you are travelling with children, don’t expect them to have much fun in the pool.
I completely understand rules around no diving or somersaults, but there were also restrictions on jumping into the pool, ball games and inflatables. At one point, our 8-year-old was jumping into the pool and the lifeguard came over and told him, “You can only jump in a few times.”
What exactly does “a few times” mean?
Our son must have apparently exceeded this undefined limit because the hotel manager then came over and told us the same thing — that he could only jump in a few times. We found the whole situation completely ridiculous.
What was particularly frustrating was that these rules did not appear to be enforced consistently. Spanish children seemed to be allowed to jump in and play without the same restrictions.
The lifeguard spent most of the time sitting on the raised platform and, in our experience, seemed more interested in counting how many times children jumped into the pool than actively monitoring the pool area and making sure it was clean and safe.
This became even more concerning when our 15-month-old slipped on something around the pool area that had apparently not been cleaned up. He fell and hit his head quite badly.
I asked the lifeguard whether he was the first aider and whether we could have some ice for the baby’s head. His response was, “Do you need a doctor?”
We found this response extremely unhelpful and concerning, particularly given that we were asking for basic first aid for a young child.
The positives outside the hotel
The area surrounding the hotel is lovely and the beach is absolutely stunning. There is plenty to do around the beach and we really enjoyed that aspect of the holiday.
Overall
Sadly, despite some positives — particularly the food, poolside snack bar, location and some of the staff — we found this to be a poor choice for a family holiday.
The small, dated rooms, cleanliness issues, lack of functioning air conditioning, inflexible approach to families using the pool and our experience following our baby’s fall left us extremely disappointed.
For the amount we paid, we expected a much higher standard.
We travelled as a family with young children and an adult with disabilities, and unfortunately this hotel did not meet our needs.
We would not return and, based on our experience, we would not recommend this hotel to families."
