Not a 5 star resort but better than some guests want you to believe.
I was travelling with my partner, my daughter and son in law and my 2 grandchildren, so a fair variety in ages.
We were given 2 rooms in the main hotel, 2 doors apart which was great. We decided to switch rooms because the layout of one made more sense for the family of 4, even though a family room had been booked.
Main points
Food
Food overall was not great. I thought when reading previous reviews that people were being picky but unfortunately no. There was not a lot of variety but there was a lot of food. I appreciate it is hard dealing with many nationalities but we came to hate meal times. The main restaurant was very busy. Trying to get from your table to the food was made difficult because of buggies blocking the walkways. People don't queue, which is hard for us Brits as we expect this, we have to accept that this is not in everyone else's culture and deal with it. Chicken was generally dry and not the best and a lot of the salad options had no cards to say what they were making it hard for anyone with an allergy to try them. Most of us found something we liked and tended to stick to that, but that didn't make a great dining experience. Many other hotels would have theme nights which would add to the e percent but there was no such thing here. The street food area was OK but no variety so after a few times we had done it. The best food experience was at the beach, best food there. The restaurant at the kids pool was also ok.
Pools
I felt there was a lot of choice and the kids liked them all. I agree with the person who queried the main pool being mainly under sails. When you have a mixture in family ages, you also have a mixture in shade needs, so the pools with normal umbrellas worked the best for us. Whilst we liked the atmosphere of the big pool, we couldn't sunbathe easily. The policy of not reserving sunbeds is not enforced. I was sick of people reserving beds and not ever turning up. The best hotels I have stayed in, remove those towels after an hour. The actual pools were good, and the kids enjoyed them all.
Beach
Not good. The journey to the beach was not the best, very run down. My three year old grandson shouted out about there being a lot of garbage, which made some guests laugh. He wasn't wrong and as we all know, kids say it as it is. The beach shop was fine as we're the toilets. Again sails used which meant no real sunbathing. The beach itself is not a lot to write home about. Very muddy looking, no colour to the water other than brown. We stayed less than 2 hours before having something to eat in the restaurant, which was good and a change from all the other food we had experienced but I am guessing it doesn't change much. We didn't go to the beach a second time.
Entertainment
Again people reserved seats at the entertainment, why do you allow this. The entertainment was good at times. Not really my thing, but we all loved the bike show. The drinks at the bar there were not good, beer and fizzy juice was flat. I tended to not drink through any show we watched. One thing I feel is really bad is the amount t of money you try to get off people at night. Popcorn 5 Euros, I mean come on, it costs next to nothing to make. My daughter was charged 35 euros each for both boys to have a tattoo only to find they came off after 2 days. Absolutely no need to charge that amount. I know you will say these are independent vendors, but you are allowing them to extort money from your guests so people don't entertain the tattoo ladies!
Slides
These were very good, and although not open all the time, they were open enough to get some time with them.
Fair ground
I didn't go but my daughter took the boys and they enjoyed it.
Bars
My favourite was the lobby bar. The staff were very nice and at times really controlled the queue by insisting people queued for drinks. That made things a whole lot easier for everyone. Even getting cocktails at the wee cocktail bar was good. We only went to the late bar twice and that was good too.
The one bar we were not impressed with was the cocktail bar. This was an adults only bar and should ha e opened until midnight. The staff there just closed the bar when they felt like it which I think is ridiculous. If you state it is open until midnight then it should be open. One night it closed as early as 23.20. At the very least, the bar staff could have asked people if they wanted another drink, rather than just putting all the bottles away and refusing to serve people. I think that is just rude.
Last day
To keep the room on, my daughter was told it would cost 25 Euro an hour. As we were not leaving ing until about 7pm , that would have been 175 Euro. I am not sure how you can justify this. We therefore decided to use the spa to shower and change. There were lockers so valuables would be kept there. The downside was there were only 2 showers and 1 changing room. This was not a great experience. As it turned out, I used the staff changing room as the other one had been reserved by a person putting their belongings in there whilst they were in the shower.
Rooms
In general the rooms were good. Always cleaned every day. They are a bit dated but we just slept there so perfectly adequate. I am diabetic so I left a note I the fridge for coke zero and the fridge was restocked daily with diet juice
All in all we had a good family holiday but for the money we spent, I would not say it was value for money. You need to pay attention to the feedback you are receiving as a lot of people are saying the same things but nothing appears to change. I think you could make the hotel fabulous if you made just a few changes.
Regards
Alison