"Very Detailed Review
We chose Lagomandra Spa Hotel after reading many very positive reviews, and those reviews were one of the main reasons we decided to book this hotel. We paid more than €2,000 for 8 days, booked approximately one year in advance and using all the discounts available to us.
Unfortunately, our experience was very far from what we expected from a 4-star hotel.
There were some positive things, but there were also several issues that, in my opinion, should simply not exist in a 4-star hotel.
CHECK-IN AND FIRST IMPRESSION
Check-in was quick and the reception staff were friendly and explained everything to us.
We were given a parking card which, as we later discovered, only opened the barrier for the upper parking area. We were told to park in the lower parking area because the upper parking was almost always full. So, in our case, the card was practically useless.
We later asked for a card for the lower parking area, but we were not given one. Quite strange.
The staff helped us with our luggage and drove us to our room in a golf cart.
However, to get to our room, the golf cart crossed the national road over a double solid line, with our two children sitting in the back of an open golf cart.
The hotel itself looked clean and well maintained at first sight.
THE ROOM – DELUXE FAMILY ROOM ground floor
We were four people, so we booked and paid for a Deluxe Family room.
This was one of the most unusual hotel room configurations I have ever experienced.
We were given a room on the ground floor, overlooking the pool.
The entrance door to our room was also effectively the door opening directly onto the shared terrace/corridor used as the access area for other rooms too.
This was not a private balcony.
It was a long shared terrace/corridor where other guests constantly walked past and used the same area to enter their rooms.
So the entrance that was the terrace door also opened directly onto a common guest-access area.
Inside, the room was arranged almost like a railway carriage:
- the sofa bed was immediately at the entrance;
- then there was a dividing wall;
- behind it was the second sleeping area with the double bed;
- and the bathroom was at the very end.
The second sleeping area had no window at all.
The bathroom also had no window and no effective ventilation that we could identify. only a small palm size ventilator.
This meant that the second sleeping area and the bathroom had no direct natural ventilation.
From the moment we entered, we could feel the humidity in the room. After four people had showered one after another, the humidity became even worse. and lets not talk about how we felt at night suffocated and wet.
The feeling was honestly like being in a dark, humid tunnel.
The only way to get fresh air into the room was through the opening towards the shared corridor/terrace, meaning that you had to choose between having some fresh air and having people constantly walking and talking directly outside your room. there was an AC obviously but try staying wet in high humidity with a cold current blasting on you, with 2 kids...
THE BATHROOM
The bathroom was relatively spacious, but the shower arrangement was extremely impractical.
There was no shower enclosure. It was simply a ceiling-mounted shower located in a corner right next to the toilet.
When someone showered, water went practically everywhere: over the floor, around the toilet and throughout the bathroom.
With four people showering, despite trying to be careful, water eventually reached the bedroom area.
There was also visible mould around the lower part of the shower area.
The hairdryer was almost useless. It had such weak airflow that it was practically impossible to dry your hair properly.
Luckily, it was very hot outside and our hair dried quickly in the air. If you stay here, I recommend bringing your own hairdryer.
SOUNDPROOFING
The walls are extremely thin.
We could literally hear conversations from the neighbouring room.
The shared corridor/terrace in front of our room was also a major problem in the evenings. People were constantly walking past, talking loudly, laughing and shouting.
For a family with children who may want to sleep before 23:00, this is extremely annoying.
And because the only opening for ventilation was directly onto this shared corridor, you couldn't simply close the door and still have fresh air.
THE POOLS
Because we were staying in the upper hotel, we were told that we had access to both the upper pools and the pools located below the national road.
We only used the upper pools.
The pools look clean and pleasant.
However, during the 8 days we stayed there, we never personally saw them being cleaned even once.
There is a lifeguard post, but during the times we used the pools, we never actually saw a lifeguard actively supervising the children in the pool.
I am only describing what we personally observed and am not claiming that there was never a lifeguard present at any other time.
FOOD – THIS IS WHERE THE SERIOUS PROBLEMS STARTED
We had half board: breakfast and dinner.
Until this point, I could have considered many of the issues as matters of personal preference or expectations.
But the restaurant was, for us, a much more serious problem.
BREAKFAST
Breakfast was almost exactly the same every morning.
There were 4–5 types of croissants and pastries with jam or chocolate every day.
I personally recognised them as the same frozen products I have seen and bought at Lidl, and other supermarkets.
I am not saying that using frozen products is necessarily prohibited. However, for a 4-star hotel and considering the amount we paid, I expected considerably better quality and variety.
Boiled eggs, omelettes, fried eggs and bacon were available every morning.
The problem was that some products were reused from one day to the other.
The bacon seemed to be fried one day, reheated the next day and possibly again on subsequent days.
One morning we even found fried eggs with a very thick crust on top. They looked so obviously reheated that they appeared to be the eggs left over from the previous day.
During the last few days, I could barely find anything I wanted to eat apart from pancakes.
FRUIT
If you think you can simply take some fruit from breakfast for your child to eat later on the beach, don't count on it.
The fruit selection was extremely poor.
There were no bananas/apples or any whole fruit that you can save fir later during our stay.
There were occasionally a few oranges butchered, and if they were gone, they were not replaced in due time.
There were also some apricots sitting in a bowl which appeared to remain there day after day, probably because nobody wanted them.
The overall selection of fresh fruit was extremely limited.
For a 4-star hotel, I find this unacceptable.
DINNER
Drinks are charged separately.
A 1-litre bottle of water costs €3.
At the same time, in the shop next to reception, six 1.5-litre bottles of water cost €4.
For children, the food selection consisted mainly of the same things every evening: fish fingers, Margherita pizza and pasta with either Bolognese or Neapolitan sauce.
The fish fingers / chicken nuggets were, again, frozen products that I recognised from Lidl.
The pizza and pasta sauces were practically identical every evening.
THE PASTA SAUCES AND THE HEALTH PROBLEMS IN OUR FAMILY
This is something I want to explain carefully because I cannot medically prove the cause.
During our stay, both children and my husband developed vomiting and gastroenteritis-like symptoms.
I cannot medically prove that the hotel food caused these symptoms, and I do not want to present a suspicion as a proven fact.
However, what raised serious concerns for us was that the same pasta sauces appeared to be served from one day to the next, without looking freshly prepared, and some salads and other preparations also appeared to be prepared in advance and reused.
I personally strongly suspect that the digestive problems may have been connected to food consumed at the hotel.
Again, this is our suspicion, not something I can medically prove.
What is important is that we did not eat in other restaurants during this period, and different members of our family became ill at different times during the stay.
We have stayed in hotels in Turkey and Egypt several times, and our children have never experienced this type of problem during those holidays.
This experience therefore raised serious concerns for us about how certain foods were prepared, stored and reused.
For a 4-star hotel, I consider this a very serious issue.
OTHER DINNER FOOD
Every evening there were approximately 2–3 meat dishes and 4–5 side dishes, plus salads, pickles and sauces.
In our opinion, around half of these were actually enjoyable or of acceptable quality.
The better desserts were not always replenished once they were finished.
If you arrived later for dinner, you simply got whatever was left.
The bread was always dry.
It looked and tasted like frozen bread that had been sliced a day or more earlier.
Fresh rolls appeared only occasionally, roughly every couple of days.
Overall, the food was far below the level of hotels we have stayed at in Turkey and Egypt, including 3- and 4-star hotels.
For a hotel advertised and classified as 4-star, I consider this unacceptable.
HOTEL GROUNDS AND CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES
There are some genuinely good things here.
The hotel has a gym, table tennis, a children's playground, gaming machines, a small football pitch and a basketball court.
There were also evening activities for children, including mini-disco and face painting.
For children, this part of the hotel was actually quite nice.
The evening activities usually finished around 23:00, which was reasonable.
The problem was that if you happened to have noisy neighbours, the poor soundproofing made sleeping difficult.
TIPS / GRATUITIES
Another thing that surprised us was the huge number of tip boxes throughout the hotel.
We noticed tip boxes at:
- the reception,
- the bar;
- the gym;
- the children's playground;
- face painting;
- children's activities.
THE BEACH
The beach is one of the positive aspects of the resort.
Sunbeds cost:
€15 for the first two rows
€12 for the remaining rows
We never paid for sunbeds.
There is space next to the sunbeds where you can put your own towel and umbrella for free, including in the first row near the sea.
For us, this was perfectly fine because the children preferred playing by the water or sitting under the umbrella.
There is a toilet and shower on the beach, as well as a bar, fast food and restaurant.
The entrance into the sea is quite steep.
And an important point:
THIS IS NOT A SANDY BEACH.
The beach consists of very small pebbles.
It is, however, a Blue Flag beach.
Lunch can be purchased at the beach restaurant or fast-food area.
HOUSEKEEPING
The reception staff were friendly, but we had an issue with housekeeping.
Twice we had the DO NOT DISTURB sign on our door, yet the cleaning staff knocked insistently and wanted to enter.
In a hotel where there are many families with babies and young children, I consider it basic professionalism to respect a Do Not Disturb sign at 14-15.00. o clock when
A child may be sleeping.
Or guests may simply not want to be disturbed.
For me, repeatedly knocking despite the sign was unprofessional.
FINAL CONCLUSION
We read many excellent reviews about this hotel and those reviews were one of the reasons we chose to book it.
Unfortunately, our experience was very different.
There are positive things: friendly reception staff, a nice beach, pleasant pools, children's activities and a decent range of facilities.
But for us, these positives did not compensate for the problems with the room, lack of ventilation, humidity and mould, unusual room configuration, poor soundproofing, food quality and variety, and the digestive problems experienced by several members of our family during the stay.
We paid more than €2,000 for 8 days, booked approximately one year in advance and using all available discounts.
For that price, we expected a completely different level of accommodation and service.
In my opinion, this hotel is a maximum 3-star experience and certainly does not feel like a 4-star hotel.
Our rating: ⭐⭐ 2 stars, with a lot of indulgence.
We would not return and, based on our experience, I would not recommend this hotel to a family expecting the standards and service normally associated with a 4-star hotel."
