"What can we say?? An absolutely fabulous hotel.
An honest review! We travel ALOT and stay in 3, 4 and 5 star hotels mostly over Greece, Spain and Cyprus. So we have been completely honest with how we found Princess Taurito.
Check in was quick and efficient, no long queues and no hanging around unnecessary.
The staff were friendly, helpful and efficient, just what you want after a 4 hour flight.
We dropped off our bags and cases and went straight into dinner as it was about 8.30pm.
We thought it was a really lovely first impression of the place - the Lobby area is absolutely beautiful, the decor is just stunning, really well thought out to provide a calm and serene atmosphere.
The Main Restaurant - when we arrived was hot and busy, but not so busy that it was unsettling.
There was a lovely choice of food - huge variety and all delicious and freshly cooked.
One thing we did find a little annoying was that no one comes to take your drinks order. Think it's for gold upgrades only - but this wasn't explained. And something as simple as this, personally I think it should be for everyone! We even have this in 3* half board restaurants in Spain, usually.
After that first initial evening, I got around this by getting my drink of choice from Bar 1989 before going in - Self serve drinks in the main restaurant were available and were a selection of soft drinks, wine (red white and rose) and beer (San Miguel).
Cooking stations where chefs are preparing fresh meats and fish every meal time.
Lots of different types of fresh breads.
The salads and desserts are amazing.
I would say it was very catered to the English with lots of Spanish influence.
Mussels and shell on prawns were available which we love - but also plenty of fresh pizzas and chips every night. No nuggets in the main restaurant - but always available in the snack bar.
The snack bar - Bites - is something else for a snack bar too! It's more like a food court and it is lovely. (Make your own Burgers with lots of toppings, hot dogs, make your own toasties or ready made, salads, pastries, sandwiches, pizza, fries, desserts, ice cream...) We had lunch here quite a few times instead of going into lunch in the restaurant.
Our rooms - we were a party of 5 over 2 rooms.
One room - me and my hubby and our 17 year old daughter
Room 2 - my mum (70 years old) and my 24 year old nephew
Rooms were beautifully decorated and maintained. Comfortable and clean. The bathrooms are huge and the showers are lovely, warm and powerful.
I loved the complimentary toiletries especially the hair and body wash. It had such a lovely scent, it was like being at an expensive spa and it left my hair feeling lovely. Unfortunately they don't sell to individuals only to hotels in the Princess and Rui chain.
The balconies are all lovely and all rooms have sea views - which is a massive plus point for this hotel.
Bizarrely with the rooms - they gave my mum and my nephew the much bigger room with a double sofa bed and a kingsize bed
And we had a much smaller room that was clearly a twin room / 2 person room but for the 3 of us. So twin beds with a third bed squeezed in.
As well as the size difference in the room - ours was clearly a two person room and they squeezed three in, my mums was clearly a family room for 4 people with just 2 people in there!
We also just thought it bizarre that they gave the DOUBLE bed to a 70 year old and her 24 year old grandson... and gave us, the married couple, twin beds.
We didn't really have room for us - and our cases for a week, but we squeezed in and managed.
We were also given two of everything - Two cups - two chairs on the balcony... the third person was always made to feel a little awkward on a holiday we had all paid premium price for. Just something for the hotel to think about??
If you've set up the room for 3 people to stay; make sure you add a third cup, a third chair etc.
We were also only given one pillow per person!! I don't know anyone who sleeps with one pillow? We asked for more on the second night and these were delivered immediately. The staff honestly cannot do enough.
All provided free of charge in rooms:
Pool towels
Safe
Fridge
Remote control for the tv
Tea and coffee making facilities
We have always had to pay extra for these services in 4* hotels in Spain and Greece. But have had them included in 5* hotels. So this was impressive of the Princess Taurito 4*
Real positives:
*Lots and lots of fresh fruit
*Food was always fresh and there was always a massive variety
*You could have a full cheese board every night from the buffet if you wanted to
*Lovely soft drinks
*All inclusive Lager is really good quality and is San Miguel
*Hot chocolate is delicious
*Proper "English breakfast tea" available - not just Spanish black tea that we are used to having in other hotels
*Help yourself drinks stations dotted around the hotel
*Lots of lovely seating areas to chill and relax
*The 1989 bar is beautiful
*The reception staff can't do enough for you - they booked 8 seater taxis for us and arranged wheelchair hire for my mum.
*The free transfer to Puerto de Mogan is wonderful.
*Beautiful views from the well kept gardens - we loved watching the sunset behind Puerto Mogan
*All staff were efficient and polite
*Beautifully clean hotel
*All Inclusive white and red wines were lovely - the rose was of the dark variety not pale rose.
*Pink and original cava was lovely
*Snack bar was amazing
*Good timetable of entertainment day and night - we were all adults, so we didn't check out the family/children entertainment, but it was perfect for adults. We took part in rifle shooting, archery, darts, bingo, basketball in the pool - and watched the evening shows. Wonderful!
*Massive bathrooms
*Lush shower - powerful and hot
*Shampoo and body wash was
Amazing - "the power of natural zen herbal cosmetics spain" lovely smell and my hair has never been so soft!
A bit annoying that there wasn't any conditioner though - but the little shop in the hotel sells lovely hair masks and conditioner and prices are reasonable
We weren't due to fly until 7pm so we were getting picked up at 3.15pm. Check out isn't until 12 noon, so we were able to have breakfast, sunbathe by the pool for a few hours. Then check out. We then had lunch and booked their complimentary shower room so we could freshen up, shower, change etc before we got picked up for our flight. The shower room is beautiful & a perfect way to end a lovely holiday. Felt very luxurious and get the holiday feeling going for us until we literally stepped out of the hotel.
*In my opinion the All inclusive Premixed cocktails were not good
I'm not sure if Gold customers got proper ones made in front of you, but silver guests had pre mixed.
We even had "real" ones at the LIVVO Costa Taurito on a previous holiday which is a 4* in the same area, but overall a much lesser hotel than this appears ... but their cocktails were definitely (unfortunately) better!
All the spirits are already there - so it can't be due to cost, it must be to cut down on time to make them... but unfortunately it cuts down on the experience too.
The only real negatives to us were:
*The room situation, especially ours, we were crammed in, in the three room.
*We had let TUI AND the hotel know before we arrived that we would prefer rooms close together or next to each other and they actioned this request no problems. But we also let them know that it was a holiday to celebrate my mum's special 70th birthday - but this request was ignored. There was nothing special waiting in the room on arrival / no acknowledgment at all of the request... we didn't expect this for free, but no package was sent to us to peruse and select a cake, or a welcome bottle of wine etc.
Instead we celebrated it ourselves in a restaurant in Puerto Mogan. But we have celebrated all of our family's big birthdays abroad and always had a big fuss made... my hubby's 40th was in Greece and the hotel sent him a big ice cream cake and bottle of fizz to the room free of charge, welcome fruit platter on arrival.. I had the same in Malta for my 40th... I just felt a bit embarrassed that my mum had nothing.
We could have chased this up with Reception, but one email prior to arriving should have been enough to be honest and we didn't want to make a fuss.
*The all inclusive cocktails were a negative for me, unfortunately.
But I enjoyed boozy hot chocolates, some white wine and some cava instead.
We don't understand why it hasn't been organised to put on a small boat trip from the hotel to Puerto de Mogan.
This could be a chargeable service and we think this would make a fortune. It would offer an amazing special service for guests. You can literally see Puerto de Mogan from the hotel gardens... but have to go all the way to Puerto Rico and back to get there.
We had a lovely week at Princess Taurito and wish we had booked 2 weeks instead of one.
Thank you everyone at Princess Taurito for an amazing stay.
We will definitely be back!"