Golden Bahia de Tossa & Spa

"Upon arriving at the hotel, we were immediately impressed with the standard of the hotel and the quick check in process. We had read many reviews saying the food was excellent, and knowing the weather wasn’t expected to be very good, we had decided to upgrade from half board to all inclusive at a cost of almost 600€ and simply enjoy the facilities of the hotel when we couldn’t get out and about. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a waste of money as 3 days in to our break we found out that a large Alcoholics Anonymous conference had been booked for the remainder of our break. These people completely took over the hotel and were extremely rude, arrogant, loud and obnoxious and made the rest of the guests very uncomfortable with their behaviour. This included, but not limited to, smoking in non-smoking areas such as the entrance steps or outside patio, congregating in large groups and completely overshadowing the entertainment acts in the lobby and my most tense interaction was when I stood at the bar to order some drinks and was looked up and down in a disgusting manner by one of the female attendees who was stood next to me as I ordered 2 gin & tonics (she obviously didn’t realise my wife was stood slightly behind me and caught her doing it!). It was almost impossible to peruse the options in the restaurant for dinner as they would gather around the different sections and proceed to have full-blown conversations and stop anyone else getting near. They were really loud in the restaurant also and what should have been a nice relaxed atmosphere, soon turned into a shouting match as they tried to converse from one table to another! Positives - the room was lovely and was cleaned daily by Natalya (thank you!). The view over the pool was nice but was sometimes spoiled by people in other rooms smoking on their balconies (not allowed by the way!). The adults only roof terrace was lovely and relaxing, but could definitely benefit from a slightly larger pool so we could do some proper exercise up there. The hotel is only 10-15 minutes walk from the front and the Vila Vela and can be done comfortably by any able bodied person. The tourist train runs from outside of the hotel every 45mins, starting at 10am but we found it quite boring and we didn’t really get to see much of the resort. The free air con, safe and coffee machine & kettle were a nice touch, as were the hand soap / shower gel / conditioner. The water and ice stations dotted around the hotel were appreciated and allowed me to fill up my own thermos bottle. Overall, I don’t think I would return simply because we should have been told of this conference so we could make an informed decision as to whether we wanted to stay or not. Whilst I appreciate these conferences would create a lot of revenue for the hotel, was it really worth losing potential returnees who were there for a relaxing break?"

"Everything was perfect. Lovely hotel, great staff. Gorgeous, varied food. Comfortable rooms, good entertainment."

"Had a 2 week holiday at the Golden bahia. The staff at the hotel were friendly and helpful from reception, to restaurant and bar staff. A special mention to Maria, who cleaned our room every day and was friendly and polite. The maitre d in the restaurant was attentive to my wife, who is a coeliac and the restaurant had a separate dietary menu you could choose from, for dinner, which you could choose at breakfast. Also you could change to lunch, from dinner, if you informed the staff at breakfast time, which we thought was good as we like to go out and eat out in the evening on occasions. The entertainment was ok, some better than others, but may be due to being near the end of the season. The roof top area, with 2 plunge pools was great and the pool areas below were clean and there was plenty of sunbeds. The drinks prices were not too bad for a hotel 3.90 euro for a cruzcampo, 3.50 for cava. Spirits were dearer and dependent on which you had and quality, but measures were good. The only thing we had a problem with, was the lobby bar lunch menu, when my wife had chicken, fries and salad, but the fries contained gluten, which wasn't numbered on the menu, which caused a day or so of pain for my wife. We raised this through the rep and reception and the staff had a meeting to raise the issue."