"This hotel is NOT a place you go for a romantic couples holiday away. If you’re below 30 and like us have high standards, I’d recommend looking at an alternative. It is NOT a four star venue. More like a 2-3 star at a push.
Food/Drinks: The main buffet during our stay was extremely crowded, and the two “restaurants” on site are just buffets. We had tried both “restaurants” during our stay, and like the food in the main buffet, it was bang on average. While you could always find something to eat, it was by no means gourmet, and we did leave the grounds 3 nights of our stay as we were bored of pizza, pasta, fish, and rubber- like chicken. The desserts were plentiful but majority were damp, and the breakfasts were very very poor, we also left one of the mornings for breakfast as the pastries are stale, the coffee was terrible/from a machine and the hot options were diabolical. All the cereals were off brand/ stale. As for the drinks, expect all cocktails to be machine made (not terrible but had we’d known it would be near €2k to drink from a vending machine, we definitely would’ve looked elsewhere). There was Prosecco on offer, radler, spirits and I believe 1 other beer. Zero ciders available, which was very disappointing. The in-between buffet options were served from a little window buffet, and they were fine, you could get chips, burgers, chicken nuggets, cheese sauce, nachos and some cheese. We are big foodies, and having tried all of what was on offer, we would rate this 4/10.
Hotel amenties: The hotel is essentially two hotels connected by a carpeted bridge. The main hotel is where all the buffets and entertainment is, and has two pools, two bars and a lot of sun beds. There are a few oddballs who got up at 5am for a sunbed, but you could just as well find one at 10am which was grand. Only 1 pool in the main venue was heated, and still was freezing. The other was freezing cold. It didn’t bother us though as we prefer the colder plunge. The other hotel pools have one heated, and it’s a much quieter area, with a covered food stall “flamboyan” serving the same food as the main hotel, again nothing special. The spa was okay. It’s just 3 rooms for massages. We visited twice, and would say it’s a 5/10. The hotel itself is in parts needing some TLC. When it rains, there was a lot of flooding in parts. And both myself and my partner fell on the tiles after a light rain, as there is no grips around the hotel on the tiles. One bit of rain and it’s a death trap. The beds are comfortable, but they were two singles, so not great for a romantic night away. There’s only AC, and we were absolutely freezing night 1 and slept in hoodies. You can also hear into rooms, so we could hear the noise from the entertainment until about 11 and our neighbours quite loudly. The showers were very nice and powerful, and the TVs are mostly German, but we got Comedy Central and MTV to work in English. The rooms are fine, and the curtains blocked out the (little) sun which we got in our room, so it was fine. The curtains did have mould, and we had to get the remote replaced as it didn’t work, but it was ok for the most part. When it rains, there is absolutely nothing to do in this hotel. And why they don’t utilise their indoor venue space for movies during the day is beyond me. There’s no indoor pool, sauna, hot tub, nothing,
Service: during our stay we couldn’t fault the quick turnaround of the cleaning staff, and the app allowed us to order cleaning once we left for the pool each day. The entertainment staff are excellent, and really put on a full show/try to get all involved. They really carry this hotel, as unfortunately our experience at the front desk with the staff had been terrible on each visit. We booked tennis and went to collect our rackets to be greeted by an extremely rude man who was not impressed to be serving guest. He told us best to go look at the courts first to see if they can be used, cause it was raining the day before, which is a bizarre way to speak to guests. Another time, a staff member picked up all of my food from the buffet, and started trying to move me to another seat, telling me it was closed, when there were guests all around me eating. When checking out, we asked could a taxi be called, and again were greeted as if we were asking a lot of reception, and when we were leaving, just received a look, no “goodbye, thanks for staying”, which really added to our sense that this place does not care for their guests.
Location: if you’re looking to be central to the action, get your walking shoes on cause the hotel is a good 35+ minute walk to PDC new town. We initially thought we were closer, but learned very quickly it was very isolated. Had the hotel of been better, we wouldn’t have minded, but €5-€7 up and back did get annoying as we were paying to go find food which we thought we’d get from the hotel.
Overall, this isn’t the four star experience we’re use to, and while the hotel has a lot of return visitors, we as a couple wouldn’t return as it’s just not up to the standards which have been set for us with other hotels in PDC."
