Steigenberger Alcazar

"Overall disappointing. Staff work hard and are friendly but too many issues and issues with continuity in service, cross contamination with nuts with a nut allergy member of family ( apart from the head chef at the buffet on the evening whonwas very good). Not being able to have some bottles of water for a trip out as they are ' green' but yet serve mostly plastic glasses through the day and thousands of plastic straws of which there were hundreds on Tuesday morning strewn across the grass at the beach after an event the night before!! Too many small issues to go into but the hotel needs to up its game as there is too much competition around and better hotels . The buildings are five star but the overall experience does fall short and so we would find it hard to recommend or return. "

"Outstanding from checking in to sadly checking out, the staff are first class especially the to Abduls at the adults pool, and the bar staff and waiters in the lobby bar, you'll remember me by whitewine 60/40 😀 will be returning soon xxxxx"

"An amazing family holiday at a beautiful hotel, our honest 4/5 review We have just returned from a 12 night stay at Steigenberger Alcazar as a family of four with our 17 year old and 7 year old. We had an amazing, relaxing and much needed family holiday. The hotel is beautiful, the grounds are immaculate and it has a real luxury feel. We stayed in Family Pool View room 1217, which was spacious and in a perfect location for us. If returning in the hotter months, I would personally request a lower floor, as three flights of stairs several times a day with all the pool gear in the August heat was a lot! Food Food was one of the biggest highlights and overall some of the best we’ve experienced at an all inclusive hotel. The main buffet had a great choice and variety, although breakfast and lunch could become very busy and chaotic. Limoni and Hama were exceptional, genuinely some of the best food I’ve eaten in a hotel. Santorini unfortunately wasn’t for us and was disappointing by comparison. We also preferred the main buffet for lunch over the beach bars, where we found the choices quite limited. A special mention has to go to Anwar, one of the lunchtime buffet chefs, who went completely out of his way to help when there were several foods I couldn’t eat and prepared meals specially for me. Amazing staff There were some outstanding members of staff who really made our holiday. Milad and Mahmoud at Limoni and Saled at Hama gave us genuine 5 star service. They were incredibly attentive without being intrusive and always seemed to know what we needed before we asked. Milad and Saled would even recognise us at breakfast and lunch and make sure we were looked after when we weren’t sitting in their sections. Mostafa at the Top Pool was fantastic too. Despite being incredibly busy, he worked so hard and always checked that our whole family had drinks. Hany, the Director of Food & Beverage, was also brilliant and my husband was able to contact him throughout our stay regarding our à la carte experiences. Guest Services were another positive and regularly checked in with us and helped with any requests. Pool and beach We spent most of our holiday at the Top Pool, which was lovely and suited our family perfectly. On the famous “no sunbed wars”, I’d say yes and no. There was no crazy early morning rush, but if you want a good shaded position at the Top Pool, in our experience you need to be there before around 9am. The poolside service was probably one of the areas that could be improved. Despite spending almost every day there for 12 days, we had virtually no interaction with the lifeguards. We saw some lovely additional touches being provided around the pool, such as cold towels and sunglasses being cleaned, but we didn’t personally experience these. It certainly didn’t stop us enjoying the pool, which we loved. The beach was probably the one area that didn’t work as well for our family. The end of the pier was red or yellow flagged for much of our stay, so unfortunately we didn’t get the family snorkelling we’d hoped for and it wasn’t somewhere we felt comfortable taking our 7 year old. Obviously the hotel can’t control the sea conditions, but it’s worth knowing if easy family snorkelling is important to you. The cabanas were lovely with good service, although when we spent a normal afternoon on the beach we didn’t experience any drinks service. We also struggled to get a genuinely cold beer from Amoura beach bar and sometimes went back to the main bar. Our overall experience There is genuinely so much this hotel gets right. The surroundings are beautiful, the food can be exceptional and we met some fantastic people who gave us genuine 5 star service. The reason I’ve given 4 rather than 5 isn’t because we didn’t love our holiday, because we absolutely did. It’s simply that for the premium price, there were some inconsistencies in service and a few of the smaller touches we have experienced at other luxury 5 star hotels weren’t always there. We also read before travelling that August could be quieter because of the heat. That definitely wasn’t our experience. The hotel was very busy and at times felt close to capacity, although this didn’t stop us having a fantastic holiday. Interestingly, our experience got better and better as the 12 days progressed and we came home having had an amazing family holiday. The Alcazar is a beautiful hotel with exceptional food in places and some wonderful staff who are an absolute credit to it. With a few small tweaks and greater consistency, I honestly think it could be pretty much perfect. Would we return? Absolutely, for the right price. A fantastic family holiday, lots of amazing memories and a very well deserved 4/5 from us."