"We had a great experience at this resort. The location is ideal—it's not far from the airport and it boasts some most beautiful views of the bay and Herceg Novi town.
The staff were friendly and attentive throughout our stay. We were particularly impressed with the level of cleanliness across the entire resort. The rooms, in particular, were modern and were cleaned efficiently on a daily basis, which was much appreciated.
A huge shoutout goes to the staff at the pool bar! The two Argentinian ladies and the Chilean waiter were brilliant, and we really enjoyed chatting with them
There were always plenty of sunloungers available—we really enjoyed sitting near the sea on the days we had sunshine only 2 out of 7!). There are also activities like boules and ping pong you can play on your own, plus animation team activities such as rifle shooting, archery, darts, and shuffleboard. Lido, Nikolas, and Omar were great fun! We also enjoyed Kayaking, which was great value at only €15 for one hour's rental.
The food in the buffet was for the majority lovely (see comments below re. towards end of our stay) and featured a wide variety of options, including meat, fish, pasta, pizzas, salad, and a great selection of bread, cheeses, and cold meats. The snack bar near the pool also looked great (we didn't eat there though) serving things like fries, burgers, waffles, and ice cream in the late afternoon.
There was a wide range of all-inclusive drinks. The wine was very drinkable, with the dry rosé and the prosecco being particularly nice. The lager was also good. We liked the convenience of having some of the drinks available as self-serve options.
As the weather wasn't so great on some of the days, we bought a day trip to Dubrovnik from the vendor in the hotel, and at €35 each for a return bus ticket, we thought this was reasonable and much cheaper than the package we were offered through Jet2. We also took the taxi boat over to Herceg Novi. While the €15 return ticket each felt a little steep, it was a fun experience. You could use the ticket numerous times over a day but we only did the one return trip as there wasn't much to do there.
The evenings were nice if not a bit nippy at the resort. We particularly enjoyed relaxing in the 'egg' seats in La Bahia Bar, just chilling and watching the occasional cruise ship sail past.
The evening entertainment—a mix of live music and DJs—was what you'd expect towards the end of the season, but it was perfectly fine for a relaxing holiday evening.
Unfortunately I do have to mention a small number of areas for improvement, mainly for management to take note of, so that they can take this hotel from a 4 star to even better in the future. Some of these can't be changed (i.e. steps, bugs going around) but I thought it would be worthwhile to mention for potential visitors to the hotel.
Maybe it's part of the iberostar brand, but having to pay 3,5 euros for the safe each day was new to us. We paid it as we wanted to keep our things safe but most hotels now offer this complimentary to guests so this felt a bit behind the times.
Being given 2 coffee pods to last you the whole week in your room felt a bit stingy- you had to pay 4 euros if you wanted 4 more of these. I would have preferred a kettle and unlimited instant sachets instead of a fancy coffee machine.
The resort has a lot of steps and hills, this was fine for us as we're young but I could imagine it would be difficult for older people or those with mobility issues. I slipped once on one of the steps to the buffet and cut my foot, but the restaurant staff were helpful in getting me napkins and plasters.
Towards the end of our trip, you could tell the kitchen was starting to re-use leftovers and make them into other dishes for the next service, i.e beef that was from dinner the night before being covered in sauce for lunch the next day to try and disguise/refresh it. I know this happens all over the place in all inclusives but it was really obvious here, which made us question how fresh some of the food was on our last few days. It was particularly noticeable when the white bread served on our last day had all the crusts cut off - presumably they'd gone a bit stale!
I'd be remiss to not mention the amount of people who were ill, including ourselves on our last day, at the resort. It came over me so quickly during our last breakfast that, embarrassingly, I was physically sick in the restaurant. This was pretty mortifying but I am sharing this because the staff could not have been nicer about it and did not make me feel embarrassed, especially the cleaner who after having to sort it all out, came to check if I was ok and needed anything. Really lovely. We heard from various people that they were also ill with vomiting, tummy aches etc.
As I was ill, we requested a late check out as I was in no fit state to leave the room for a few hours. After some difficulties in communication, this was sorted by reception who gave us the room until our transfer pickup at 4pm to allow me time to recover and rest.
My boyfriend then became ill at the airport, so I realised it probably wasn't something I'd eaten, but the virus/bug that we had heard was apparently sweeping the nearby village. We saw an environmental health officer in her white coat earlier in the week at the hotel so we presume this was to do with that. Not an ideal end to the holiday, but of course, you can get sick anywhere in the world so we don't blame the hotel itself. Although it has made us reconsider returning.
Overall, this resort offers comfort and relaxation in a beautiful setting. There were just a few little gripes that tainted things ever so slightly for us, but we still had a lovely and relaxing holiday, which is just what we needed."
