"We recently stayed at Club Aguamarina for 10 days, the hotel looked lovely on arrival, the staff were friendly and we got checked in very quickly. Our room was ample for what it was needed for, a little on the smaller side but we only slept and got ready in there so was perfect. We also had a sea view room, which I would definitely recommend as the view was beautiful and was lovely to see first thing in the morning. The sunsets over the sea were also stunning, very picturesque! Although, we were on level -3 which was just under the restaurant level, so at night it’s very loud with staff putting tables and chairs back. This noise continued until at least 1am in the morning, which was very inconvenient for us as we had a sleeping baby.
The hotel has lots to do especially for children, we were a group of 11 with 6 adults and 5 children of different ages. There was something to do for each of them. The park was very good, the selection of pools to choose from as well as the splash park and waterslides. In the evening there’s also the bouncy castles and go-karts, there’s always something to do! We also enjoyed the foam party! The children loved the Aguanimals with Linky being a firm favourite! The location of the hotel is perfect too, the beach is stunning and a short walk, although the path down from the hotel has a permanent gate so we couldn’t get the pram down, I’d recommend walking along the wooden promenade outside of the hotel if you have prams.
As the week went on we definitely saw a lot of problems with the hotel. The restaurants were very busy and people were queueing to get in for food as well as inside the restaurant, we didn’t eat in there at least 6 times out of 10 days due to it being so busy and not able to get a table. The food was also repetitive and bland, we found it very difficult to eat in there most days as we got so bored of eating the same things. Not much variety at all! In my opinion it’s the worst all inclusive food I’ve ever had. The restaurant also opens at 7:15pm which I found quite late as mini disco starts at 8:15pm so everyone that has a child attending mini disco would be there at that time. The snack bar was okay, the children more or less lived off the food from there because the restaurant food wasn’t great for them! Although the pizza truck was the best place to eat in my opinion. Also the food isn’t labelled correctly or even labelled at all, I had ice cream which I thought was caramel and it turned out to be hazelnut, luckily I’m not allergic but this could cause a major problem if someone with a nut allergy was to try it.
The sun-bed wars in the morning was also very pathetic, people queuing at each gate ready for the 9:30am rush! It kind of ruined the holiday as it could be quite stressful. The lifeguard opens the gates and you have to wait for the whistle, then run to the sun-beds you require. Some mornings people looked like wild animals!! The pool areas were clean but people eating around the pool were too lazy to take their rubbish to bins which resulted in a gang of seagulls swarming the leftover food! The seagulls were also a huge problem for us as they linger constantly and there’s also a lot of poo over people and towels!!
The all inclusive drinks were okay, just basic spirits and lager on draught, no cocktails which was so disappointing as they are €9 each with mocktails being €8.20. The soft drinks are self-serve which is great but this also brings a problem with wasps, they are everywhere!
The toilets inside the hotel were a nightmare, 2 adult toilets and one child toilet which then caused a lot of queues for the women. The floor was always soaking and dirty in the days and I found they were never stocked up, always running out of hand towels and soap! The baby changing was also in the communal sink area which I found quite uncomfortable to use as it was so open and felt like I had no privacy to change my baby, so I never used it.
We also found that this hotel seemed to be some sort of school trip place, there were large groups of young children visiting, so it made the place seem really busy!
We stayed in block A and the lifts were an absolute nightmare!!! They are so slow, we were waiting ages for the lift to turn up as we had a pram, it would then take you to every other floor bar the one you actually want. They’re also very small and only have 2 lifts for 7 floors! We ended up carrying the baby and the pram down the stairs as we got so fed up of waiting.
We did have a lovely time as we just made the best of a bad situation, I do recommend eating out though for a break. We ate at the Chinese, Indian and the Backgammon, all were so nice!
All in all, we wouldn’t return unfortunately and 10 days was definitely too long at this hotel, it was kind of like Butlins in the sun."
