Elba Carlota Beach & Golf Resort

"Firstly, we would come back. Positives - •gym is well equipped. •Staff are friendly. •pool bar is nice, good location, good drinks. •beds made and towels changed daily. •beds are super comfy. •the hotel has a lovely little shop, but it does close for 4 hours in the middle of the day. •the hotel is lovely and well looked after albeit some areas needs some TLC! . •the heated pool was lovely, I think if it wasn’t for the heated pool we wouldn’t have gone in the pool on a couple of the cooler days so it did make our holiday to an extent. •reception friendly and on the ball. Always happy and willing to help. •we arrived 4 hours later then we should have! (12:30am) and hotel put a small dinner on for us which was a lovely touch. •Youssef, a waiter in the dining room. Incredible with the kids, made dinner times so much fun and went above and beyond to help. Honestly a real honey. Real credit to the hotel. Amazing!! •the little beach outside the hotel, perfectly enclosed with rocks, no big waves, sandy, sunbeds and umbrellas. •lovely little shopping centre and spar approx 5 minute walk from hotel. •good entertainment round pool. •we emailed the hotel prior to arrival to request rooms near family also travelling and cots etc, communication was timely and so helpful (within hours), they did manage to facilitate our requests. If you can, requests room such as 121-128, perfect Location!! •reception are fantastic and so helpful! •we had a foam party and water carpet, at the same time, it was defo the best day at the pool. It was SO MUCH fun! •just outside the restaurant is a large screen television that gives you a timetable of activities which was helpful. •Pepe made the holiday for the kids, they were so excited everyday he came out around the pool. •reception booking taxi’s is so helpful! •professional photographer being available in the evenings and around the pool was a lovely touch, although a bit pricey! Down sides- •staffing seems to be an issue. Only one bar open at all times, during the day only the pool bar is open, in the evening only the lobby bar often resulting in huge queues and overwhelmed staff. Restaurant also highlighted a lack of staff leaving no drinks orders being taken at some lunch visits and tables upon tables Empty but covered in used plates. •TLC needed in a few places like pool area and around hotel, missing tiles at the pool, holes in the ceiling of the stairway, children’s play park needing painting etc. •pool snack bar isn’t great. Sweating sandwiches left out all day. Cake left out, uncovered all day, flies everywhere. Very unappetising, none of us ate from the pool bar all week. •Meal times are carnage and food doesn’t get Replenished quick enough so a lot empty and queuing. Dread to think what peak times would be like. High amounts of oil used and food always luke warm. Though a lot on offer. •partner had a bad stomach lasting 3 days. •dinner starting at 18:30 when you have younger kids isn’t ideal. •sun lounges were being reserved around 6am! •cocktail list is tiny for a 4*, I’ve been to others and there’s been 8-10 cocktails available. •we went to reception on a couple of occasions for pool towels and they were never available until late afternoon, so felt a wasted offer. •would suggest hand sanitiser being available at restaurant entrance for people arriving due to how many people touch utensils etc and them not appearing to be changed the whole meal services. •we did have to ask for a decent room clean midweek. Floor was filthy, two bath towels, sheets needed changing, bathroom could use a wipe down, no drinking glasses replenished from the night we arrived. Tho, they did arrive first thing the next morning and our room was impeccable and you could actually smell bleach but unfortunately sheets not changed and our used glasses never got replaced. •some of the staff in the restaurant/bar are absolutely miserable. Don’t smile and roll their eyes, making you feel completely in their way and a problem. Theres one guy in particular, No name on his badge, walks round chewing gum, never smiles, real ‘can’t be bothered attitude’. •we were a party of 8 and the dining room would not let you move tables to accommodate and you were only allowed to sit in an area pre-made for tables of 8 that felt like sitting in a greenhouse, it was so hot!!! To do - •oasis wildlife park is good :) •Caleta de fuste market (tues and sat) •visit the harbour, evenings at sunset are lovely. •Acua Parc, Correlajo."

"nice big resort with shopping centre next door positive variety of alcohol (whisky) staff - friendly and working hard location - very close to airport negative lobby bar closed untill 16.30 (in daytime is open only snack pool bar with one barman) so if the hotel is fully booked is pretty bad queue there entertainment team 4/10 no ashtrays around pool and tables resort have 3 bars and two of them mainly closed after 23pm finish your all inclusive drinks !!! no welcome drink on arrival no details about pool towels and wifi when we arrived breakfast started at 8am hotel try charge you everywhere ( special sunbeds are for 5 euros per day) drink after 23pm or safe in room tips get taxi to closest town or visit nice shopping centre next door where is huge spar shop"

"Back from a 7 day stay here, wish we could’ve extended it! No allergies between us so are probably less fussy with eating and found the food great. Plenty for all of us, often finding ourselves in the spot of wanting to try too many things. We generally had breakfast and dinner in the restaurant, but had lunch in the pool snack bar which always had enough to tide us over. The free Italian night we also found really nice. Pool bar queue times were minimal I thought. The most we had to wait was when they had to grab clean cups. And the drinks were great, a solid range to choose from. Staff always smiling and chatty whether you tip or not! Cleaners did a perfectly good job, again always smiling. No issues with the room or towels etc. The room itself was quite spacious, and I’ll miss sitting on the balcony first thing with a coffee watching the World Cup highlights from the previous night. Showing my age 😂 Pools were great. We did rotate through them all during our stay. The only issue was the odd spell with flies, that apparently have started biting this year. Not painful but you felt the sods have a nibble. Only seemed to have this around the kids pool though. Sunbeds weren’t a big issue. A few days I would go out in the morning around 7.30am and a lot of spots were already claimed, but still plenty left to choose from, including umbrellas. A couple of days we didn’t go to the pools until later in the day and still managed to get a couple of beds to setup camp on. Not sure if this would be worse in school hols though. I imagine the on site shop makes half its profits selling pegs. The animation team were fantastic, and all seem to be loving their job. Our little one loved to see them dancing away, absolutely loved Pepe. We also managed to catch a few of the shows - the lion king and movies night. I’m not usually one for these types of shows but even managed to enjoy them myself. The crowd loved it. The beach is worth a mention, it’s gorgeous and so close by. The sunbeds and umbrellas were €4 each so worth bearing in mind if having a day at it. While out the back of the hotel, if you go left you’ll head towards the harbour - maybe 20-30 minutes walk. Seems to be a few water activities that way which we didn’t gear up for, but you can see plenty of crabs, the seals etc, and we’d say the electric scooters are a solid shout. If you go right from the back of the hotel you’ll find a little pond/stream absolutely full of fish. Worth the 5-10 mins walk for the kids to see. Our little one turned 4 during our stay and after breakfast on her birthday we came back to our room to find a little sweets platter (and a bottle of wine 😂) left for her with a birthday card. Completely unexpected and a super nice touch. A few other room notes - The pressure in the showers was fantastic. The beds are very comfortable, can’t say we had a bad nights sleep. The black out curtains did the job. Had enough coffee facilities to enjoy for the whole week. I didn’t have to, but imagine you could get more supplies from reception. Made use of the water stations, mostly refilling a bottle for overnight. I assume all rooms have a fridge so can keep a bottle or 2 in there as well. As someone who generally holidays at 3* resorts, I definitely see the step up to 4*. Would absolutely return here again, loved it."