"We just returned home from a holiday at Atlantica Aeneas Resort. We travelled with a one-year-old, and we spent most of our days by the pool. We loved spending time in the shade near the baby pools (both the one by the main pool and the one in Splash park).
We were able to get sunbeds easily every day. However, one day someone had removed our towels, and other guests were using our sunbeds when we returned. We had left our towels on the sunbeds at around 9:30 a.m., and by 10:30 a.m. they were gone. There was a pile of towels on a nearby sunbed, and they were probably ours, but not to be sure we went to get new towels instead. That was a bit disappointing.
Smoking in the pool area bothered us. It is not ok for children to be exposed to cigarette smoke, especially near the baby pools.
We were initially given a room in the main building on the third floor. The toilet was leaking, and we could barely sleep at night because of the noise from the corridor. You could actually see light coming through the door even when it was closed, and we could hear people talking, children crying, and guests returning to their rooms late at night. I have never experienced this poor door insulation in a hotel before.
The main building was also quite filthy. I was surprised by how dirty the lifts and corridors were. The next morning, we spoke to reception about our concerns and were offered another room in Building B. The new room was much nicer and more modern, with a balcony overlooking the pool area. We loved the room and the privacy it offered—it felt like a completely different hotel. I would highly recommend requesting a room in any building other than the main building.
The only issue with the new room was that the air conditioning was not powerful enough. The room temperature stayed between 25°C and 26.5°C, which was too warm. We mentioned this at reception, and someone came to check the air conditioning. After that, the temperature dropped to around 25°C.
Every day we checked the children’s activity programme in the Blue app and attended some of the activities. On one occasion, we were looking forward to a music session in the Baby Lounge, but when we arrived there was nobody there. After waiting for a while, I found out that the session had been cancelled.
Most of the activities were free of charge, but every day there were paid play sessions costing between €22 and €28. For us, that seemed quite expensive, so we did not participate.
On most evenings, the children’s entertainment on the main stage started at 7:15 p.m. with a toddler session. Unfortunately, we only managed to attend once. The buffet opens at 6:30 p.m., so it is nearly impossible to finish dinner and arrive on time. That is probably why so few children attended—the timing was not ideal.
The Kids Disco was a real disappointment. The music and sound levels were far too loud. It was uncomfortable even for adults, and such loud noise can be harmful to babies and small children. I genuinely do not understand why the volume needed to be so high, as everyone would still have been able to hear perfectly well at a lower volume. In addition, the performers on stage were often shouting, and our child was frequently startled by the sudden loud noises. Because of this, we did not want to expose our child to the environment for long periods.
Overall, the food was good, and we were happy with the dining experience. However, the food in the children’s buffet was often fried or highly processed, which was disappointing.
The food at Taverna was decent, but we were first served all of the appetisers on the menu, which was far too much food for two people. It felt wasteful to leave so much uneaten. The main courses were also enormous. I honestly do not know who could finish that amount of food. The food itself was a little bland.
At Green & Grill, the food was very similar to what was available in the buffet, just served à la carte. My salmon was also rather bland, and our child was served the same fish fingers that were available in the buffet almost every day.
On our last evening, we were somewhat bothered by a group of guests who were extremely drunk and behaving unpredictably.
Overall, we had a good holiday and enjoyed ourselves. As mentioned earlier, changing rooms really improved our experience and made a significant difference to our holiday.
I recommend the hotel for families, but hope to see some improvement with the Entertainment for small children."
