We had booked 5 days away as a little holiday just myself and my husband for our anniversary. Unfortunately, we were really disappointed with our experience at this hotel. We had read some negative reviews before we went and really wished we had taken them more seriously.
Before I go into the negative, a few things I would say. Staff were always friendly, the shared areas were clean and the grounds were really well kept. Lots of lovely areas to sit in. The atmosphere is also very relaxed - very very quiet though so depends on what you are looking for. Not a lot going on, but great for just chilling. Beach was lovely, although again sunbeds taken super early and no facilities on the beach so had to come back to hotel for anything you wanted. A few people selling goods but no one was too pushy.
Pools
As others have said, the sunbeds were pretty much taken by about 7am. We never bothered getting in early, and did always manage to find something but there were only 2 of us. Many beds lay empty with towels on most of the day. The towels have a strange rule that you can only get a dry towel before 1pm in the day. There were a few times we needed fresh towels, but they said no. Thought that was a strange rule! Many of the sunbeds were covered in bird poo and not cleaned at all while we were there. Large pillows you could use - again not cleaned. The two pools were nice, we never used the heated one. Although they didn't appear to be cleaned very regularly. I put my hands on the side to lift myself up and felt all the slime underneath; it was gross. Because people drink in the pool, by the end of the day, the water does look quite murky!
Food
Our biggest issue! The food offerings were very minimal. It advertises two places to eat lunch, an Italian and another restaurant. Both are essentially the same thing - the 'Italian' is a small hut outside the lunch restaurant which serves buffet style. Many items were repeated at the hut and inside. Only difference is you can get pizza at the little hut. (I will say the hut did make some crepes after about 3pm, which were pretty nice afternoon treat!) The evening a la carte restaurants are also advertised as having two - however, one is only open weekends, and one weekdays - so there is only ever one available. We were told when we arrived (Saturday) that they were all fully booked for the next 4 days and we could not book in. Pretty disappointing. We managed to get into one on our final evening (ironically, it was half empty when we went). The international a la carte was OK. In the same place where you have lunch, so all the buffet stands are still sitting out, and it doesn't really feel very a la carte. Also extremely warm, no aircon, and they do not turn the fans on. Our starters and puddings were just OK (husband couldn't eat the veal carpaccio, he said it was awful) - however, the beef for main was nice and server was lovely. However, we ate at 7pm, and were being asked to move by 8.10pm for the next sitting - not very relaxing and felt pushed out! Would not have gone again. The buffet food outside of this was very repetitive, both at lunch and dinner, bland and not a lot of choice. Meat was quite chewy on a few days, desserts all tasted the same (although looked beautiful). Overall just not a lot of flavour in anything. We found a piece of chewing gum in our rice one day - told someone - and they just disappeared, no apology, and they even left the rice out so more people were eating from it. So that really put us off as well, unfortunately. You can only get juice, wine or beer at dinner and lunch - and have to be served this. We sometimes sat for a while without being asked, or had one glass and never asked again. One our first night I had asked about another drink (as didn't know what they had of course) and the waiter said "this isn't a bar, wine or beer." Food was the real main issue for us - really underwhelming and not somewhere I would suggest based on this alone.
Bars/drinks
The bars were very lightly stocked - a handful of cocktails you could get (although none of these were made like proper cocktails, shaken etc, just everything poured into the glass, rarely mixed so everything just sat at the bottom). The bars also each made things differently, so cocktails slightly different depending on where you went. Lots of pre-mixed syrups for things which often were very very sweet and tasted fake. We found the main bar next to the lunch area to be the best. The drinks from the pool bar were not good (although meant to be the same as elsewhere) we found they never tasted good from there. Coffee and tea was good and bar staff friendly.
Rooms
Our room was big and beds comfortable, but stiflingly hot. The aircon turned on - but did absolutely nothing. Room was between 25 and 28 each night. For some this might be OK - for us it was too hot to sleep. There was a ceiling fan which helped a little but not much. We weren't able to open our windows as we looked out to the back of another hotel and was very noisy in the evenings and morning. Also lots of dust coming in. The strangest thing we found about the rooms is that they appeared to do maintenance while people were staying - for example - we came back from breakfast one day to find someone in our room, standing on the units (where our clothes were), painting our room. They had no protectors down, dust sheets or anything. We were then told to wait 10 minutes until he was finished. The walls were then wet, we had to be careful what we touched - and the room obviously then stunk of paint. Not exactly a great experience! Very, very odd to do this type of work while people are staying at the hotel - we weren't even sure why he was painting to be honest. There was a little fridge in the room which was never restocked during our five days. It also didn't actually keep anything cold. There is a little shower gel thing in the shower, never topped up at all while we were there, and no other toiletries provided. However, the cleaners were lovely and always left our room clean, new towels etc.
Shower room
On our last day, our flight was late in the evening so we were given a 'shower room' to tidy up before leaving. This room was absolutely filthy, paint everywhere, dust so thick you couldn't put your stuff down or it would get dirty. It stank. Nowhere to sit, no towels (had to call reception for those), lots of half empty bottles and items from previous people. Just obviously not cleaned at all. When I told reception they said "We know, that's why we give it as a shower room." We don't mind a simpler room for this - but it should be at least clean.
Facilities
In terms of the other facilities, there was 'entertainment' each evening - but very minimal and finished at around 10.30pm. During the day, there was aquarobics in the pool was which was always fun to watch, but then nothing else the rest of the day. They could do with even just playing some music as it is very very quiet (this didn't really bother us too much but useful for people to know). The shop is closed on a Sunday, so if you need something you will need to go out that day. The prices were more expensive in the shop (to be expected) and the lady that works there was constantly on her phone, barely even looked up when serving.
Spa
We had planned to use the spa, but due to all of the other issues, we didn't feel it would be worth it.
Overall
Overall, we kind of made the most of it as it was our limited time away - but it was just really unfortunate there were so many things which just made it a lesser experience. I was really surprised to hear some people say they'd been for multiple years - as we definitely would not return based on our experience. The staff were friendly, but I also wouldn't say anyone went above and beyond for us. Whenever we did mention something (chewing gum and dirty shower room), it was just dismissed. We weren't sure if it was because we were only there a few days?
Such a shame. But if you read through the other negative reviews, you will see the same patterns in those as well. I would look elsewhere.
GB