Catalonia del Mar

"Booked through Jet2 and stayed half board as a couple at Catalonia del Mar. We had stayed in Cala Bona before but not at this hotel. We have both negatives and positives from our week here. Positives Our room. We had booked a Superior room with panoramic sea/harbour view and we weren’t disappointed. Situated on the fourth floor straight opposite the harbour the view was stunning, the large terrace had 2 sunbeds, a table and chairs and a coffee table and was spotlessly clean. The room was large and had a massive double bed which was firm and comfortable. There was plenty of wardrobe space and a free to use safe. Towels changed regularly and room cleaned. Aircon was spot on and the sea breeze through the patio doors was lovely. The staff, every one of the staff we met from reception, pool bar, pool lifeguard, bar staff , restaurant staff and cleaning staff were friendly, helpful and cheerful. Location, the hotel is at the quiet end of the pedestrianised promenade of Cala Bona so it is quiet all day and night but, there are lots of bars and restaurants very near the hotel. Negatives Not being an early morning towel on a sunbed couple we found that after our post breakfast walk it was difficult to find two sunbeds together with a parasol. The whole pool area seemed to be crammed together like sardines with no room to move sunbeds or parasols with the sun. Top marks to the lifeguard for doing his best. Restaurant. We found the service in the restaurant at both breakfast and dinner to be quite chaotic. People queueing for food and staff at the cooking station just ignoring them . It seemed obvious that there weren’t enough staff in that area of the restaurant. We ate out four nights because of this All in all we had a lovely holiday mostly due to having the room we had. Would we return to this hotel? Probably not."

"Me and my sister stayed here on a half board basis for 9 nights at the end of July into August. We were really nervous after seeing the bad reviews, however, we were pleasantly surprised as we luckily didn’t encounter any of the problems we read about! Check in was efficient and the staff were friendly. We had a room on the 4th floor with pool view and a large balcony and sunbeds. It was a lovely big room and bathroom, plenty of space and the bed was really comfy. The only downside to the room was how incredibly hot it got - as it was facing the pool, the sun was on our room from around 2pm until the sun set and when it was 30°C+ every day, it made the room really hot and the air con wasn’t really doing enough to combat it. We tried to keep it cool by keeping the curtains shut all day which did help a little but by the evening the temperature was really high in the room. I can understand there isn’t much the hotel can do as the temperatures and humidity were really high, but maybe some sort of canopy on the balcony would help to deflect some of the heat. We had also seen really bad reviews on the food but we had no problems at all. We absolutely loved the breakfast, I think it might’ve been one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in the hotel. The pastries and fresh pancakes were delicious and it’s lovely sitting out looking at the harbour. Again we enjoyed dinner, especially the desserts and my sister who is a pescatarian found something she could have most nights. All of the staff in the restaurant were so lovely, friendly and polite and our plates were cleared quickly. Gabi especially was really lovely. The only thing we would’ve liked would be free water or a water machine as it was €3 a bottle and we didn’t really want to pay for that along with another drink. Soft drinks were €3.30. Something else we were worried about as it was busy mid season was getting a sun bed, but we never had any problems getting one at all! In fact in most of the days, most of the beds up on the sun terrace were empty all day. The ones around the pool did get taken quicker but not early in the morning - there were still plenty of beds by mid morning. The pool is quite small, fine for cooling off but you wouldn’t really be able to swim properly in there if it was busy. Location was great, it was around a 30 minute walk to Cala Millor and close to lots of shops and rocky beach coves. It was soooo peaceful and lovely on a morning outside the hotel with amazing views of the sunrise. It’s all very flat along the front, which we found great for early morning runs. All in all we loved our stay and would definitely stay again (just maybe in a room at the front where the sun isn’t directly on it all afternoon 😅) a lot of the bad reviews didn’t resonate with us at all & we had a great time :)"

"Stunning views from the balcony. Clean and airy rooms. We only stayed Bed and Breakfast so can’t comment on other mealtimes but breakfast was wonderful. Huge amounts of choice, all fresh and delicious. The poolside was clean and inviting and the staff were always friendly. It was a perfect choice for my mum (Age 73 and myself 38) as a base to relax in over a short break."