"I'm not sure this resort warrants 5 stars - I'd say nearer 4. Overall a relaxed holiday but definitely not 5*.
Rooms: Our room on the ground floor with a garden view terrace (1113) was spacious, comfortable but very tired in its appearance & in need of refurbishment to bring It up to 5* standards. Stains on woodwork, walls & lampshade. Cheap thin & small towels. Cheap coffee sachets & cream pods, plus only water on arrival (not daily) - a coffee machine would be a nice touch. You will need to buy water from local shop & lug it back to hotel . Our fridge was a ridiculous size & noisy. Only fit for one bottle of water & a few cans of mini cokes. Pretty pointless really.
2 large cockroaches had made themselves at home one morning which was very alarming. They got my size 9 & were flushed away. Coincidentally the customer service guy rang the room & said in response to a complaint I have made about cockroaches the room has been deeper cleaned, new bedding etc but they couldn't find any. Very odd because I never complained?
Staff: Receptionist Kersti went above & beyond with guidance & assistance. Really friendly & a great front of house face for The Lopesan Group. She set out all that was on offer & gave us a much needed map to navigate our way around.
Many of the other staff were merely there, taking our money with no personal touch, chat or fun. Quite unfriendly.
Animations team: absolutely brilliant. Aqua at midday everyday. Pool cycling. Pilates. Yoga. Stretch - all professionally carried out with lots of fun. There's bingo, quiz, Spanish lessons too. Francesca & Carlos & the team weren't in your face with activities - they were available if you fancied joining in & were great fun. I did the sangria making/tasting & highly recommend doing the glass jewellery workshop. Download the Lopesan app - everything is on there activities, ents etc.
Pool areas: a sandy beach pool was an absolute unnecessary, messy, dirty affair sharp, gritty sand - most uncomfortable under foot. We found a peaceful, cleaner spot on an upper level with a nice pool. Too many sunbeds are crammed in all over the place making it difficult for 'sun chasers' like us to manoeuvre the beds. Beach pool was also noisy.
Towel exchange - open 1030-midday - pointless timings. It meant when you left the pool at the end of the day, you were laden with a wet towel - never experienced this before.
I've been to bigger resorts than this but this by far was the most confusing to navigate - odd levels, bad signage, - spent first few days wandering around aimlessly trying to find things!! Reception is impressive on arrival but a huge empty under used space.
Restaurants: the buffet restaurant (Plaza) was not the best - breakfast or evening meal. There's plenty of variety but all food was luke warm or cold. Literally stone cold eggs - quite disgusting. We tried to play it safe with something sizzling off the hotplate but this would then be accompanied with cold side dishes. Yuk. Also, for a five star establishment I would expect a cloth napkin at every meal. This was hit or miss. It was very 'cafeteria' rather than restaurant. Also there is absolutely no dress code at the buffet. We've stayed at 5* hotels before where dressing for dinner was expected - not here.
Day 10 & I got a painful upset stomach. I retired from the pool to my room feeling really poorly. The only thing I had eaten was 2 slices of bread & some luke warm bacon off the buffet. Make of that what you will.
We had the opportunity to visit the 2 other Lopesan hotels nearby for our evening buffet meal. Wow. Wow. Wow. Beautiful dining rooms with HOT food. This hotel is definitely the poor relative in comparison. If you get the chance to do this, you really must - however we were on a downer when we got back to our cold buffet!
Evening Ents: OK. A variety of acts to suit everyone's taste. Something every night starting at 9pm.
If you're a smoker or vaper you've totally dipped out at this hotel. There's a few designated areas - that's it. And no partaking on your balconies or terraces. Be warned!!!
Facilities lacking: no shop - if you fancy some crisps, snacks, choccie, water - you had to go to a local supermarket. The hotel reception bar was shut for the whole 2 weeks, as was the disco. Alot of wasted space in reception & under used because the bar was shut.
Outside the resort. Turn left onto the promenade for a selection of 'higher end' eateries. Keep walking past the lighthouse for more reasonably priced places. Turn right onto the promenade & you'll come to an odd looking 1990's building in the shape of a ship! In it's day it would have been beating. Today a few restaurants and bars remain, so if you want a peaceful eve looking out to sea - go here. We did sundowners at the upper level Sundown Bar then had dinner at a restaurant on the beach front. All reasonably priced & better than the cold hotel buffet.
Spa: had a head & foot treatment & a back massage - all were perfect. Included was 30 mins in an ocean facing spa pool. It was stunning laid on the sunbed looking out to sea. However It is falling apart & grubby. It needs a total refurb to bring It up to 5 stars. The jacuzzi element of the spa wasn't working & this was after we already moved spas cos the power jets weren't performing in another. It wasn't cheap so would have expected better.
We won't come back here & the price we paid didn't reflect 5 stars. I would recommend the other Lopesan hotels we visited. They looked a lot classier & the food was hot!!"
