"A bit conflicted about this hotel. It is nice enough really - but just felt a bit, well, meh. Its in a decent location, without being especially close to the sea front, but that is only a few minutes walk away. It looks just fine from the street, more like a newish block of apartments rather than a hotel.
We had a room with what was described in the Jet2 blurb as a ‘garden view’. We were on the lower ground floor, tucked in next to the entrance stairway, with our own bit of artificially grassed garden backing onto the rain road, with no view of anything except a bit of sky, a hedge, railings, pedestrians and a cash machine which was actually sited in our bit of garden. It was ok where we were, a bit noisey during the day but not annoyingly so, what with everything that goes on, by the road, where the coaches and buses stop and the main entrance. But it was quiet enough at night, helped by being off the hotel’s interior beaten track. We were also lucky not to have anyone in the next door room that also adjoinded ‘our’ bit of garden, and we did have our own sun loungers and parasol. We were also fortunate not to have anyone occupying the room above until our last day; it was then full of lads, who were ok, except for flicking cigarette ash and fag-ends into our garden. We told reception, who led us to believe they gave then a bit of a b0ll0king.
The room was a decent size, but otherwise dissapointing. Sparsely and cheaply furnished, the bed was the usual two singles pushed together, but one of them wobbled alarmingly it was so badly constructed. I had to up-end it and screw the legs into it properly to prevent it collapsing. Don’t know how the cleaners couldn’t notice when making the bed. The tv was in the bedroom, so you could only watch it when in bed, it would’ve been much more sensible to have it in the otherwise pretty bare lounge area, which had nothing but a cheap two seat sofa, two small equally austere coffee tables and one stick back chair. There was plenty of cupboard space though. At least we had BBC1, ITV1, Ch 4 and Ch 5 on the tv, so plenty to watch in the evenings. The bathroom was also clean enough, but badly laid out, almost had to climb over the toilet to get at the shower which because of the way the plumbing had been designed was on the wrong wall to be sensible.
The other issue was how to get from our room to – well, anywhere else in the hotel. Although the dining room was on the same level as our accomodation, you had to go upstairs, along a corridor, out past an open air piazza area, and down again to get to it. The place is a rabbit warren of outside walkways and dis-connected areas. It took us most of the week to work out how to get from one part to another, there are three pools but we only found the third one, admittedly the children’s pool, on day 5. There is a rooftop bar, and we never did find out how to get at that.
The restaurant was nice enough, the food ok, no more than that. The best things on offer were the cakes. Breakfast could be hit or miss, mostly adequate, but the ‘bacon’ could be chewy one morning, like ceramic tiles the next. Otherwise the cooked fayre was scattered around the serving area. Plenty of fruit, yoghurts, fruit juices and so on. 6 coffee machines, and again, all apparently identical, but wildly variable in the quality of product obtained from each. At least they were reliable, but I will always suggest to hotels like this to offer jugs of coffee and milk to customers so that they can make their own. Several hotels do, and it is much preferable.
The staff were nice and friendly, the cleaners and room service staff did a good job.
Lastly – I thought we had booked ‘all inclusive’, but apparently not. We had to pay extra for use of the room safe, and extra for quite a lot of alcoholic drinks and some bar snacks, and to gain access to the elusive roof top bar. The only free lager available anywhere was that awful Amstel stuff, which is like drinking your own you-know-what. The last hotel we stayed in – in Morocco, oddly – all drinks were free, and they were very nice. There was also a special Italian restaurant which you could book once – and you had to pay extra for that too; and it was only open for three nights - but always seemed empty when it was. The point ?
Would I stay again ? No. It wasn’t bad, just not good enough to want to go back to it. There are far too many other hotels in the immediate area."
