A difficult review to write because I didn’t choose this hotel or the resort, husband and I were invited to join friends. We didn’t enjoy our holiday but I will be as fair as possible.
Hotel is in a good location. Ten minutes from a small and overcrowded beach (this was end Sept), plenty of shops and bars outside, including 4 branches of Spar. Turn right outside the hotel, keep walking and eventually you’ll reach the harbour which is a most attractive area with loads of restaurants.
Hotel is spread out over several buildings and accommodation is in three of them. Although we had a linked booking with friends, we were in different buildings. The accommodation blocks can be reached by going outside OR BY TUNNELS FROM RECEPTION. Reception gave us a map, am including a copy of it with my photos, together with vague instructions, we had a room in building 3 and because we hadn’t understood the instructions and couldn’t make any sense of the map (also we’d been up since 4am),it took 3 lifts and a chambermaid to find our room. The dotted red lines on the map indicate the tunnels!
We’d asked for a room with afternoon sun and although it certainly faced the right way, it was so shaded with trees that we needed the light on in the afternoon! Beds and pillows had mattress and pillow protectors. Mysteriously made up with duvet covers but no duvets. It was cold at night and we used the blankets from the wardrobe but felt they could have done with a wash! I slept badly but husband and friends found the beds comfy. Paid €14 for the safe for the week but it’s an irritating one with a key! So you lock up your valuables then one of you has to carry the key!
There are no tea/coffee facilities. We knew this because I’d checked with the travel agent so we took a cup boiler, a couple of old cups, which we left behind, plus tea/coffee. As said above there are 4 Spar branches so you can get milk easily. Empty fridge which is useful. Large bottle of fizzy water on arrival.
Bathroom has good size towels, bath sheets. Useless hairdryer. If you have more than half an inch of hair and/or remotely interested in how you look, pack your own, otherwise you might as well get someone to stand and blow on your head! A few toiletries, tissues, soap, combined shampoo/shower gel.
The food is not very good and the four of us were in agreement over this. The hotel caters chiefly for the German market but I think even they were surprised on the morning when cold cooked brussel sprouts and cold cooked carrots were served! They hadn’t been been on the menu the night before so must been been specially cooked. Initial inspection does look impressive but there’s a lot of the same stuff. There’s breakfast bacon, the cheap streaky stuff, and fried eggs. No mushrooms, cooked tomatoes, baked beans (except one day) or potato cakes. Pancakes though and omelettes made to order. Limited fresh fruit and some really nasty orange juice. Breads and rolls. However, waiter found me some hot chocolate when I asked if it was available. Very nice gesture and I had to drink it though it was tepid!
Evening meal. No vegetables which is odd. The cold meats which were served and unwanted at breakfast were not there! Shame. Various meat and fish being cooked but generally tough and poor quality. Always a paella but would have been good to have someone serving it to stop people removing all the good bits! Various salads, some a little odd, at least to the English palate. Desserts generally highly coloured mousses, jellies, various ice creams. Selection of cheese, can’t comment really as i hate cheese, no crackers though.
Normally we’d have a good breakfast, buy drinks and cake or some sort of fruit tart mid afternoon then have dinner but this year we ended up buying lunch every day. We bought some of our lunches in the bar by the pool and they were extremely good and the staff are very friendly.
There are three beautiful pools, very clean, stylish, loads of chairs, loungers, canopy beds and in every one the water was FREEZING! A nice pool is a big part of my holiday so this was a huge disappointment.
There’s crazy golf, table tennis and a spa. You need rubber flip flops for the spa and to register your room number at reception so your room key will let you in.
Now....the room key! Ggrrrrr. Everywhere we’ve stayed before, when we’ve bought drinks, food anything in the hotel shop, we’ve signed for it AND BEEN GIVEN A COPY OF THE RECEIPT. Bella Playa doesn’t do this so you need to keep a note of what you’ve spent. When we got the bar bill the night before we left, it took husband ages to reconcile the receipts with the print out because they weren’t dated and were more or less illegible! However, although we weren’t told, we did discover that you can actually pay as you go along.
Evening entertainment! Three evenings of music. One was very good and we really enjoyed it. The other two sent us flying!
The staff are extremely good in all area, reception, bars and room was cleaned very efficiently while we were having breakfast. Put the sign on the door to let the staff know they can go in. In general the staff speak some English but not a lot. Friend asked for Prosecco in the restaurant and got a glass of red wine! Tried again the next night and got a Pepsi! It’s worth learning a few words of Spanish, being able to say your room number is a big help when ordering drinks. Google it and learn it!
Another thing. There are ground floor rooms and a lot of these are on the main road! Also there are some semi basement rooms, their terraces could be seen from the restaurant, not much of a view. Check very carefully before booking one of these.
Wheelchair access to all areas BUT last few days, sudden influx of guests and dining room was packed to bursting point, no wheelchairs would have got in there.
Do I recommend? No, sorry I don’t. The food was a major issue.
Would I go back? No, not even if was free.
