"Location: 3/5
The hotel is located on the beach front with beautiful views of the sea & sunset. However, as many have mentioned, the hotel is very remote. Igrane is a €34 taxi return and Makarska €84 return. We went to Igrane twice and ate at Skif, which was a lovely change from the AI. Due to the remoteness of the hotel, the transfer was over 2 hours, which for some could be overwhelming.
Room: 4/5
The rooms are spotless and have all the amenities you need. We had a sea view room with sun loungers on the balcony and the views were great. Unfortunately, they charge extra for the minibar at €30, which is quite expensive considering you can fill it yourself from the local shop for €10. Considering this hotel is Tui Blue, I would have expected the minibar to be included with the room without the added cost.
Food & Drinks: 4/5
For me the food was sound, with some variation. However, as my wife is pregnant, she found the choices more limited. The pizza station is great. However, we found that we had better options and more choice at other European hotels that are a fraction of the cost of this hotel, so we were surprised at the number of repeated/similar dishes over the 10 night stay. In the restaurant, it felt as though they were short staffed, as waiters were cleaning tables and getting drinks. This meant so many tables remained unclean with dirty plates and therefore unusable. This was at no fault of the staff, who worked hard but seemed as though they couldn’t manage the workload.
Drinks were great. The beer and cocktails were nice and my wife enjoyed the mocktails. Again, an option of non alcoholic wine or prosecco would have been a nice extra to the menu.
Entertainment: 1/5
Poor. I’m not sure what the day ‘entertainment team’ offer. They play a music playlist twice a day, set up the odd pool sports game and play some sort of music bingo. We managed to entertain ourselves throughout the holiday, but if you’re in need of being entertained, or having varied options to have a laugh, I’d say it’s very limited.
The entertainment in the evening wasn’t much better. Regularly had singers that were hit and miss and that stopped about 10:30pm and then silence for the rest of the evening.
Staff: 4/5
The Tui reps Matt and David were very helpful and knowledgable about what’s on offer around the area. David particularly was supportive of my pregnant wife when we saw him around the hotel, often checking in with her and offering anything she may require.
The rest of the staff were friendly around the restaurants and bars. The lads in the pool bar, Mateo in particular, was always serving with a smile. The glass collector too was always up for a laugh.
Also, special mention to Laura in the Culinarium restaurant, who went above and beyond to make our meal special.
Overall: 4/5
A really frustrating rating. We enjoyed our holiday, but for the price, there is definitely much better value available around Europe. I think if TUI wish to make this one of their flagship hotels, where guests return, they have some work to do to improve having stayed in multiple Tui Blue hotels across Europe."
