"We’re a family of four, with a five-year-old and a 4.5-month-old baby. I did a lot of research before booking this hotel and had read plenty of bad reviews. Against my better judgement, I decided to ignore them and thought, “How bad could it really be?” Well… we’re still here as I write this, but thankfully it’s our last day, and I genuinely cannot wait to get on that plane tomorrow!
Rooms
Our biggest issue started immediately. TUI had somehow booked us into a room that physically wasn’t big enough to fit a cot for our baby. We booked through a TUI store rather than online, so this wasn’t something we had arranged ourselves.
Neither TUI nor the hotel initially seemed particularly concerned and essentially expected our 4.5-month-old baby to sleep in a double bed, despite the obvious safety concerns around unsafe sleep and SIDS.
After going back and forth between reception and the TUI reps, we were eventually shown another room. Unfortunately, that room was dirty and we were told we couldn’t move into it until the following day anyway, so it still didn’t actually solve the problem.
Eventually, the hotel manager stepped in and, after paying nearly €300, we were given a larger room that could accommodate a cot. Lucky us, I suppose.
What makes this even more frustrating is that TUI have refused to refund the upgrade because apparently we “gladly accepted to pay for an upgrade”. No. We didn’t gladly pay for an upgrade — we paid because we didn’t want our baby sleeping in an unsafe situation. There is a huge difference. TUI have also said they spoke to the hotel regarding a refund for the room ‘upgrade’ and the hotel have basically told them we were just trying it on for a free upgrade, charming!
Our first room also had dirty sheets, which I find completely unacceptable for a supposed 4-star hotel. The walls are incredibly thin too, and you can hear almost every person walking down the corridor. This wasn’t a huge issue for us personally as we use white noise for our baby and we’re fairly heavy sleepers, but it’s definitely something to be aware of.
The phone in our room also didn’t appear to work, so if you needed anything from reception, you had to physically walk there and back.
Food
The food was, quite simply, awful.
We are absolutely not picky eaters, and I completely understand what to expect from an all-inclusive resort during the school holidays. We weren’t expecting the Ritz. However, the quality of the food here was genuinely shocking.
The meat was often grey, and a huge amount of the food was completely cold. I have never eaten so many cold scrambled eggs in my life! In the end, I basically lived off lukewarm chips for the week.
I genuinely feel like I’ve lost weight because I’ve barely eaten — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s certainly not what I expect from an all-inclusive holiday.
We even raised the food concerns with the manager, whose response was essentially to use a different restaurant if we weren’t happy. That really says it all.
Toilets
The toilets were another major disappointment. Many of the doors barely lock, most of the soap dispensers are broken, and the pool toilets in particular were absolutely filthy.
Entertainment
I genuinely cannot understand why the evening entertainment for a family/kids-focused hotel starts so late.
The mini disco doesn’t start until around 9:00/9:30pm, followed by what feels like an eternity of handing out certificates from the day, and then the actual shows apparently start around 10pm.
With a five-year-old and a 4.5-month-old, that simply isn’t realistic. Even with daytime naps, our children were never going to stay up that late, so we barely got to experience any of the evening entertainment.
Pools
The pools are genuinely brilliant and, in my opinion, are the only real positive thing about this hotel.
However, the pools and bars don’t open until 10am. If you finish breakfast at 8:30am, you’re then left with an hour and a half where there really isn’t much to do, especially with young children.
Staff
We didn’t personally have any major issues with the staff. Most were pleasant enough, although the service at the bars can be incredibly slow.
One thing we did notice was that certain guests seemed to receive a very different level of service, including drinks being brought directly to their sunbeds by one of the pool barmen. It was a little strange to watch, but ultimately not our biggest concern.
Illness & Hygiene
Thankfully, none of us became ill during our stay, which I was genuinely worried about after reading the reviews before coming.
However, I can absolutely understand why people have concerns. I lost count of the number of people I watched leave the toilets without washing their hands and then head straight to the buffet. After seeing that, I was more than happy to stick to my plate of chips!
Queues & Crowds
Yes, the hotel is extremely busy. I completely appreciate that it’s August and one of the busiest times of the year, and we expected queues and crowds.
However, for a hotel of this size, it simply doesn’t seem equipped to handle the number of guests. There are constant queues for food, drinks, ice cream and pretty much everything else.
It was frustrating, although this was something we expected. Unfortunately, it was just one of many issues rather than the main problem for us.
TUI
We have spoken to TUI about everything mentioned above, but unfortunately they don’t seem particularly interested now they have nearly £4,000 of our money.
Our complaint has essentially been dismissed, including the issue surrounding the room being unsuitable for our baby. That has been particularly disappointing and has completely changed my opinion of TUI.
If this is what they consider a 4-star hotel, I certainly won’t be rushing to book another TUI hotel in the future.
Overall
We found the hotel to be very ‘smokes and mirrors’ yeah the pictures of the pool look fantastic! But in reality the hotel is dated and downright dirty (see pics attached)
We absolutely would not return to this hotel and, based on our experience, we wouldn’t recommend it to others either.
I actually have a friend due to stay here next month, and I have actively encouraged her to change hotels after telling her about our experience.
We are genuinely not snobs. We knew we were travelling in August, we expected crowds, queues and a busy resort, and none of those things were unexpected. Our issue is that this hotel simply does not feel like a 4-star property, particularly when it comes to cleanliness, food, facilities and the way our concerns regarding our baby were handled.
If you’re reading this because you’ve seen the bad reviews and are wondering whether you should ignore them like we did, my advice would be: don’t.
I wish we had listened to the reviews and changed hotels before we came. It would have saved us a lot of stress, frustration and nearly €300 in additional costs.
Management and TUI may not seem particularly interested in our experience, so hopefully this review will at least help someone else make a more informed decision before spending their hard-earned money here.
For us, this was absolutely not a 4-star experience, and we definitely won’t be returning."
