"So I think most people would see this hotel as a 4 star and if viewed that way, I'm not sure you'll see the negatives that others have.
We went during the Easter Holidays and I’m told the hotel was full. With that in mind, we had a good holiday with minor negatives but all in all, a good week.
Good bits:
- magnetic all inclusive band works as your door key/towel card/generally ID for the hotel or if you want to purchase extra things like the Ice Creams or drink upgrades = nice concept.
- Cleanliness in general was very good with well kept areas/grounds/rooms.
- Great effort goes in to entertaining adults and children
- Room banner with drinks/chocolates for a birthday celebration
Not so good bits:
- Pools were relatively cool
- Queue's at busy times
- Buffet quality wasn't amazing (no one was poorly though)
- Cooking stations were disappointing at the buffet with the same tongues used for raw pork, raw chicken and again once it had all be cooked. Likewise, I had one omelette on day 2 and chose not have one again. Fresh poached eggs were available instead.
Other items of note:
The queue's for the restaurant were noticeable at busy periods - we chose to generally eat breakfast around 0800-0830 and never queued but when we left the queues were visible, likewise we tended to have dinner around 1830 and the didn't have to wait. That said, as the hotel was full - I guess you'd expect some queueing and staff generally worked hard to clear the queue's as efficiently as possible.
We booked directly with Bahia, so I'm not sure if you'd get the same access with Tui/Jet2 or anyone else - however, we were able to, and I'd recommend if given the chance, to use the app before we travelled which meant we could book 2 x evening shows (we booked Carnival and Toy Circus) and the Restaurants (Asian and Italian) before we travelled. The Italian was better than the Asian, especially for our children (Age 6 and 4) compared with the Italian.
The sunbed situation was frustrating. It was apparent that there was generally enough sunbeds for everyone - but if you wanted one poolside, especially with our young kids, so you could keep an eye on them - then you had to be up early. We didn't bother, so we'd typically arrive around 9am, sit further back from the pool and just spend the whole time in it instead. Disappointing that some days, people didn't arrive by the pool until mid-afternoon. The hotel don't manage the process at all.
Our experience with hotel staff was generally good. We had an issue where our tv didn't receive signal for the UK channels - which reception tried to fix. We managed to get picture but no sound, but I don't think they came back to fix the sound - if they did, then I guess it couldn't be fixed. It wasn't a huge issue as we weren't there to watch tv - `Wifi was generally good for devices if needed. I heard one or two reports in the bar about the reception team not being great with customers - but our experience was fine.
We rented a car for our time there and you can pay for parking under the hotel, park in a free gravel 'hotel' car park, or park on the streets around. Didn't have any problems parking for our stay in the free options though.
Self service soft drinks/beer/water/juice across the hotel was useful. Bit of a shame, with the kid/family theme that the only place you could get milkshakes was at the lobby bar (although they were very nice). Likewise, I saw numerous reviews being negative about the ice cream situation... The free ice creams are tasty enough and we spent about €30 on nicer ice creams throughout the week - if you take the hotel for what it is, it's not really a big deal.
Entertainment was good for kids/adults throughout. We never used the kids clubs but there was quite large participation in them. Day time activities were good and the kids playrooms looked good with things like a big Scalextric track €10 a go ran by a third party guy - it was a different addition to keep the kids interested and something different if you wanted it. The evening shows were generally very good and professionally done - more adult themed than 5 year old themed though. Evening music in the lobby bar was nicely done with varieties of musicians and singers performing. Sports bar was good for live events with different games on different tv's at the same time giving some good variety.
Location is generally quiet outside of the hotel. Airport Taxi costs €18 each way and there are a few bus routes out of town, so there are options. Nearest Pharmacy is a 10 minute walk and nearest supermarket is 5 mins in a taxi if required. There's a paved promenade walk to take you down to the local fishing village or up to the local Marina if you wanted to get out the hotel.
All in all, we'd return if the package was right and we had a nice holiday but probably wouldn't miss it if we didn't visit again."
