"■ Half Board, 12 days, Junior Suite. Spectacular view from the double-balcony. Lots of storage space and hangers. Safe, bathrobe, slippers, iron, TV, teabags, coffee capsules. Beautiful room.
■ The spa is fabulous. Everything is there and the receptionist is a lovely man.
Lovely cleaning staff who do a good job. Most of the staff everywhere, restaurant, bars, reception, porters, cleaners etc are friendly.
■ If you're arriving by car, there is no camera, interphone or porter/doorman. And no information on your reservation. Ring the hotel to open the barrier. If no car, you'll have to push your suitcases yourself up the steep path to reception.
■ Valet parking 20€/day. Nowhere else to park close by. Can't return to your car for anything because you don't know where the car is parked. I asked to get something from the car, and was told that they’d get it for me because it was parked in the « staff » car park.
■ If no car, there's a shuttle that takes you to the town and back, 4 times a day. Miles of shops and restaurants. If you want to walk, you'll need 15/20 minutes to climb up the 1st part of the steep narrow hill being very careful of cars, coaches and vans. No pavement or railings and no lights at night. Must be fit to do this.
■ 3 pools and 2 bars but the rooftop pool costs 75€ to access. Never saw anyone up there.
■ Parasol and sun-beds on the beach, 9€/day/ person. Free around the pools.
■ Woven basket, 75€ and 2 beach towels, 85€ in the room, for purchase. Much too expensive for the quality.
Noisy and useless ventilation in the bathroom. Use the hairdryer to get rid of the condensation. The towel heater was always stone cold, even though the male receptionist told me it was automatically switched on 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening! Nobody ever came to check, in spite of me complaining twice.
No box of tissues nor toiletries (coton pads etc). The gel, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion etc were not quality products. No change of towels in the evening. After 6 days, (out of 12), I asked for clean bathrobes. One came with the belt hole missing.
No evening turndown (with a little chocolate).
No anti-slam device on the door, so always slamming shut unless the guests were considerate and closed the doors slowly themselves.
■ No complimentary water offered in the room or in the restaurant. Tap water has a disgusting taste. Don't ask for a 1 litre bottle of water to be brought to the room. I had to pay nearly 17€ for that on the (very late) night we arrived!
■ Always ask for the price of any drink because it's never given beforehand. Bar or restaurant.
■ The no-brand coffee capsules in the room gave me stomach ache, they're that bad. As is the tap water. The male receptionist will tell you that the coffee machine is to be used for heating water for tea. I did get a mini Russell Hobbs kettle though, English plug, plugged into a Spanish plug! Some tourist must have forgotten it. 2 Tiny coffee cups, 2 glass tumblers, no mugs nor spoon.
■ Breakfast. Lots of choice. 2 coffee machines and one person at the egg station. Be prepared for queues. Tomates, avocados, bacon ... all mediocre quality. Tasteless.
■ Dinner. 3 course meal. Never light on the stomach, stodgy, but you can ask for a salad, which is always lettuce, tomatoes and onions. Steak rather tough. Ask for oil and vinegar (both very cheap quality, their refined olive oil has no flavour whatsoever) because they forget most of the time. Depending on the amount of diners already present , (around 25 ) you'll be asked to wait, even if you arrive at 7pm, opening time. Capacity for 246 diners, don't know how they'd ever manage that. Dont arrive too late (9.30pm very latest), because you won't have much choice. Going to an outside restaurant at night means getting a taxi there and back. Too far and too dark to walk. The staff are hardworking and very nice, always busy, running around, perhaps because they were regularly short staffed. My husband loved the grilled tuna, that he had nearly every evening because everything else was really heavy on the stomach.
■ The huge majority of guests are (mostly nice) German tourists. Good for practicing your German.
■ No booklet in the room informing you about the hotel or tourism. I even had to ask for the price-list of drinks in the mini fridge.
■ The receptionist is nearly always occupied with guests. Patience.
■ We were unfortunate to have had very loud music playing (from a resort opposite?) during our 1st 2 nights, Friday and Saturday but the volume was lowered after midnight. The other nights there is music that you can hear from the balcony but not enough to prevent you from sleeping. No double-glazed windows or heavy curtains. The balcony's automatic light is switched on in the evening, and off at 11pm. You can't switch it on/off yourself.
■ We were equally unfortunate to hear someone's TV, every single evening, coming through the electrical wiring in the wall. Eerie at first and bothersome after 11pm.
■ Even before arriving here, I received numerous emails asking me to "choose your room". The location of your room, to be exact. The cost went from 250€ +++. Never witnessed that before from any 5* hotel. Paid upgrades yes, but never for the precise location of a Junior Suite, especially as they’re all facing the sea. We were above the arrivals area, 4th floor, and could hear people, cars, luggage, laughing, talking, etc all the time. Not a good location if you’re trying to sleep.
■ Conclusion: Good infrastructure and equipment that got the hotel the 5*. If the hotel were in walking distance to the restaurants in town, I would have opted out of half board, but it isn't. The view from the suite, the spa and the pools were all exceptional. But being asked to pay repeatedly for "extras" or else having to keep asking repeatedly for anything is really not 5*."
