"I hope this review is helpful for anyone considering booking Zell by Melia.
I think we chose Zell because we'd stayed at Inside by Melia before in Barcelona, so we thought we knew what to expect.
I visited with my family in May and we genuinely had a lovely time, spending a lot of it by the outdoor pool or on Cala Giverola beach. The beach is beautiful - it's small and peaceful, with stunning views and the water is clear.
At the resort, there is an area for sun loungers which also has a small, round pool and a level below with sun loungers and a larger pool, and smaller round pool. No issues with finding free sun loungers and it wasn't over crowded at all. The hotel also provides towels every day for the pool/beach which we found useful. The pool and sun lounge area overlooks the beach. We easily got to the beach either by walking down or by using the funicular which was never busy and we never had to wait long for it.
The food was good - we used the breakfast and dinner buffets at the El Mercat restaurant, lots of different choices. Breakfast is served 8am - 11am and dinner is 7pm to 11pm. I thought 7pm was quite late for dinner (for me) but we made it work. There is a small coffee place on site which serves cookies, pastries, and toasties and a concept store which has very limited snacks in it, which are also expensive. There is a restaurant on the beach which we used on the first day - the food was nice but it was also expensive. The resort is quite 'out of the way' from Tossa so you can't just nip to the supermarket for food or get snacks. So we felt a bit limited, there.
The accommodation was modern and comfortable, beautiful views from the balcony. There was a phone in the room to contact the 'reception' (although there is no reception - I'll explain!) but the phone wasn't working. One day, the cleaners forgot to leave us towels which was easily sorted. The location was great for us - close to the beach area and close to the 'reception' area where the El Mercat buffet was.
From the hotel, you can get a shuttle bus to Tossa De Mar or you can get a boat from Cala Giverola - both need to be booked in advance. I'd recommend doing the boat trip - it was a great experience, but I got the impression they'd get over booked and people were left waiting. My recommendatin is to get to the pick up point early and queue to make sure you get your spot. Tossa is lovely, and I enjoyed walking around the Old Town and the views from Vila Vella and the light house. Lots of choices for restaurants. We chose Don Juan for tapas. We spent some time on Tossa beach which is bigger, busier but was still great. On our way to the light house was found another stunning small beach. On Thursdays there is a market in Tossa - it sells clothes, handbags, jewellery, towels/bedding, fresh produce. We enjoyed having a look round. The clothes were perfect for summer/beach wear in Spain. From Tossa beach you could get cruises to different places like Lloret De Mar and Barcelona.
One thing we didn't realise is how the hotel worked in terms of checking in. We arrived on a bus which was provided by Jet 2, at around 10.30 so it was pretty early and we didn't expect that we'd be able to check in to our room at that point so knew we'd have to wait around. The 'reception' area is huge but we didn't actually realise they don't have a reception. So we wandered around with another family who had also arrived, trying to figure out what to do. Eventually, we saw someone with the uniform on who explained there was no reception. They told us about the resort, stored our suitcases and said there'd be a room ready for us at 'around 3pm.' We went off to the beach, had food at the restaurant and came back at 3pm but didn't actually get a room until about quarter to 5. We'd have hoped to get a room earlier, because we'd caught an early flight that day and just wanted to get in and get settled. That was a slightly disappointing experience for us, but the staff were honestly really lovely and friendly, and super helpful. Nothing was too much trouble and we got used to the more relaxed way of doing things.
Not that there was an issue getting sun loungers, but on our third day we noticed that a few rows had been taped off which would have been a bit annoying had it been busier. There was also a 'food truck' at the pool which didn't ever open. There were QR codes on the loungers where you could scan to order a drink/food to your lounger but that service was never available when I tried.
Now I have experienced Zell, and know what to expect, I would definitely re-visit - but I'd come prepared with more snacks!"
