"I felt compelled to write a thorough review having read many of the reviews on this site. I have just returned from my first visit to the Club Hotel Aguamarina - I went with 2 daughters and my parents. I make no apologies for the length of the review as I want to give an honest and candid perspective on the whole holiday
Context
Club Hotel Aguamarina is a 3 star hotel aimed at families. I stayed All Inclusive in a standard room with my 2 daughters in the final week before school started. It cost between 30% and 50% less than if I had booked to go to a 4-star hotel has I have done in previous years (e.g. Viva / Zafira / Holiday Village etc)
Overall
We had a fab week in a hotel that was clean, packed with facilities, blessed with great staff and located by one of the best beaches I’ve had the pleasure of visiting – pretty impressive for a 3 star hotel. I enjoyed the food and I loved having both cold and hot drinks available to self serve. (and special mention to the ice machine)
Food
Large buffet restaurants situated in both blocks; open for breakfast at 7:45am, lunch from 1pm to 3pm and Dinner at 7:15pm to 9:30pm.
Food is NOT ‘a la carte’ but I did not expect it to be. It is a typical buffet selection that you expect in a family hotel. The quality of the food is good – plenty of choice – reasonably well labelled and staff keep are constantly keeping it clean, tidy and topped up. At every meal, there was freshly cooked fish and meat options prepared by a chef.
Many polite, hard working and friendly staff are constantly keeping tables clear, clean and doing everything they can to make each meal enjoyable.
We arrived for each meal at opening time as small queues (up to 10 families / 5-10min) would form at peak times
Food is also available through the day – there is a burger bar and a pizza bar that offer a few selected options for All Inclusive guests and a wider menu that costs extra.
Staff
All the staff were very helpful and very friendly. I have no idea why some reviews have suggested otherwise.
Reception is always well staffed – speak multiple languages and could not have been more helpful.
Whether around the pool or in the restaurants or bars there seemed to always be someone collecting glasses and keeping the place clean
Entertainment staff all seemed great – bursting with enthusiasm and gave their all whether it was morning stretching, putting on a show or keeping the kids entertained
We had a lovely lady who serviced our room daily – seeing that we left for breakfast early she usually managed to clean our room and replace towels during that time. I left a 20 Euro tip as a small sign of my appreciation
Facilities
We enjoyed the Pool by B-Block. It is less than a 30 second walk to the waterslides, bar, toilets and has a pleasant surrounding with lovely Palm Trees.
The pool was relatively busy most days – but was not a problem. My daughter spent most of her holiday in the pool and I spend a lot of time with her, The waterslides are great and brilliantly staffed to ensure safety.
The Pools do not open until 9:30am – queues would form of up to 10 families at both gates to secure sunbeds for opening when the whistle goes. Sunbeds continued to be available though for the first 15-20 minutes. Whilst not impossible, they are then hard to acquire until later in the day. However, there are lots of chairs around the pool and nearby that can provide an alternative.
We enjoyed the crazy golf. There was also volleyball, a variety of sports courts for tennis and ball games and table tennis.
I used the gym on 2 occasions which was located on the 2nd floor of A block – it had a decent selection of cardio equipment + a few options for resistance training.
Entertainment
We did not use the kids clubs – but they seemed to offer lots of fun and games to kids
Daily Kids disco from 8:30pm til 9pm which was always well run
Lots of seating options in a pleasant open air setting for the evening entertainment – I enjoyed a Moulin Rouge night and Circus night. I found the Abba tribute night a bit lacklustre. I’d probably give the Entertainment from an adult’s perspective as a 6/10
Rooms
I stayed on the 2nd floor in B-Block. Rooms are on the smaller side – probably below average size. We had 3 single beds in our room. However it did not spoil the holiday in any way – plenty of drawers and wardrobe space meant we could keep the room tidy and the aircon was good. The hotel leaves a card in the slot so that the electric stays on when you are not in the room and means you can keep the room cool. Balcony was fine, decent TV and the bathroom was nice with a easy to use shower. The room was serviced daily and I felt confident and safe leaving phones / tablets charging in room.
My parents had a sea facing, ground floor room in A block with a nice garden area. The room was marginally bigger but still felt relatively compact and below average size. A great room, with epic views and access to the beach. (30 second stroll)
Beach
What can only be described as an idyllic beach is right on the doorstep of the hotel with direct access via the lift / stairs in Block A.
Crystal clear, calm water is a stunning bay. A nice mix of Spanish / English and other nationalities on the beach. Sunbeds with umbrella available for E20 per day and lots of pedalo and paddle boards available for rent. I purchased snorkel and masks from Decathlon ahead of the trip – this was a great idea as there are some great fish to see: lost of small shoals in the shallow water and some bigger shoals of beautiful fish were found nearer the rocks.
Other
Transfer time from airport was less approx. 20-25 minutes.
We had a great half day visit to the zoo – we booked a taxi from reception which was about £23 each way. The Zoo has lots of walk in areas to get up close to animals and we enjoyed feeding the Parakeets and holding snakes.
Menorca Airport is excellent – getting through security was easy peasy and the staff were very helpful. My mum is a very nervous traveller and has a number of hidden disabilities. She wore a sunflower lanyard (acquired at Gatwick) and staff quickly came to our support to help us navigate the airport.
Additional charges
I spent very little whilst away – but there are a few charges to be aware of
Outside of main meals – you may want to choose to buy items at the Burger Bar of a Food Shack nr the beach. Chips / Onion Rings / Cheesburger are free to AI guests – but everything else is chargeable.
Bar has lots of chargeable items – but most drinks are also available as part of AI for free. (This is normal at Europena AI resorts – premium drinks and cocktails are usually not included)
There was a very popular and funky caddy floss machine that was popular with kids and a popcorn machine – both costs about 2 Euros.
A number of arcade games, pool tables and air hockey costing 1 to 2 Euro
Sports equipment was free – but requires a returnable deposit which was usually about 5 Euro each
I rented pool towels for 1.5 Euro per day and a 10 Euro returnable deposit. These were available from reception, and you could change them daily.
Please do not get put off by the bad reviews. This is a good hotel offering outstanding VFM and the staff are great. I can only imagine that those who have given bad reviews live their life “Glass Half Empty” or had set unrealistic expectations. We did have a problem when checking in – initially my parents were not given the ground floor room they had booked. They were offered instead a room on the fifth floor that offered wonderful sea/beach views. However, this was swiftly resolved when they understood the importance of a ground floor room to my Mum who required the accessibility that a ground floor room offers
Three things I would suggest to management to make this hotel even better:
Open at least one of the pools earlier than 9:30pm. For those wanting an early morning swim of kids who can’t wait it would be great to have access from 7am.
A few of the buffet dishes would benefit from being kept hotter – fried eggs tended to cool quite quickly
The ice machines are great – but tended to slow down at peak times. Better ice machines or big ice bucket would have been great"
