The hotel san eloy has been previously quoted in other reviews on here as an old style butlins camp, personally I would say a poor mans butlins with an expensive view. On arriving we were amazed at how nice it looked (from the outside). Once we got to the outdoor reception we soon realised it was not going to be such a great holiday. We were giving our keys and told what number our apartment was, no offer to show us, we had to venture off to find ourself, the first woman we spoke to was very unhelpful and rather cheeky. We enquired about upgrading to All Inclusive as we were self catering and were told we would have to pay £39 per adult per day, and £15 per child, and this was a 14 day holiday which would have cost us over £2500 for 4 adults and 2 children. So that was our first shock. Next was the apartment, number 124, right next to the entrance, it was tiny, nothing like the pictures online, which have been edited to make everything look bigger than it was. The apartment has cracked walls, no air con, and infestations of ants. On our first night we had a power cut which was caused by a faulty cooker, on some appliances in the apartment there were bare live wires which never got fixed. We then ventured around the complex and were met by cracked paving slabs next to the pool areas, which cut our childrens feet, an onsite supermarket, which resembled a corner shop here in the UK, but with extremely expensive goods, over 150% more expensive than the goods from the supermarkets in Tossa town.
We tried to put things to the back of our head, but we couldnt, it was a holiday we had looked forward to for so long, and the things we were beginning to see about the complex really put us off. We aint in the apartment a few nights, and then spent most of the time eating out in Tossa De Mar, by getting into town you were either greeted by a friendly bus service and driver, couldnt fault this guy, he didnt speak english, but still in a way was very friendly if that makes sense, he even stopped in the middle of the road to give us a lift with shopping when we were nowhere near the bus stop, we often tipped this driver. The bus was 1 Euro for adults, and 50cents for children, and free if you were all inclusive. The bus was on every hour, and picked you up outside the Rivierra Nightclub in Tossa De Mar at 5 minutes past the hour. Which would have been much easier if it was every half hour, the other way was walking, along the main road, and down a cycle track which takes you through the woodland area and into the rear of the complex where you would wait for the bus. This walk would take you about 30-45 minutes depending on your walking speeds and the heat, it fairly drains you walking it in the heat.
I do reccommend you visit the Tossa De Mar town, it is beautiful, the castle is amazing, although when you get to the top of the castle there is a bar for cold drinks etc which is great on a very warm day but be prepared to pay almost 9 euros for 3 cans of coca cola.
The beach and other parts of the town are beautiful, although the sand is very rough and hurts your feet to walk on it, and if you wear goggles, or a mask and snorkle the fish you see swimming beside you is amazing. Tossa de Mar is a town that makes alot of revenue from tourism, the expensive prices show this, you very seldom see any locals out and about, its all holiday makers, not once did we see a group of youths loitering or anything like that. We did not even see any traffic lights which was surprising at the amount of traffic, it was all zebra crossings, and every single driver stopped to let you across. The town is just beautiful, and also has a kebab shop that sells the worlds most delicious donner kebabs, for this alone, we would return to Tossa de Mar ha ha.
Back to San Eloy....... The rooms were small but easy enough for a short holiday, there was no air conditioning, but you could hire a fan from the reception which cost about 50 euros per WEEK, including a 15 euro deposit. Our flat had an infestation of ants that ate some of our shopping and it had to be binned, not a good sign when your having to travel into Tossa, and then get a taxi back to the complex, the taxis cost in excess of between 9-12 euros depending on the time of day, the starting fare in the taxi meters was 7.60, which was rather steep considering your in the taxi for about 90 seconds. We alerted the reception about this and had a handyman come out and spray the cupboards, that was it, they still returned....
We had been staying there for about 5 days and had to request a change of towels, bedding etc so went to the reception and was told this should have been done every 2 days. After which we were bombarded with towels and clean sheets almost every day.
The entertainment for young kids was great, the team really strived to make the kids happy, and after a while made me feel obligated to get up and dance with them, videos of which will be going on youtube and making me the laughing stock of my friends ha ha, all in good fun though. There was a young blonde haired girl who worked on the site who was up first thing in the morning to play games with the kids, and there until last thing at night to dance with the kids after the night time entertainment was finished. It was really the entertainment team that fulfilled our holiday. The drinks at the bar were less desireable, with the glasses being filled 3/4 of the way with vodka, and about 10ml of coca cola, making it undrinkable, it was like this with all the drinks, it was also 3 euros for a small plastic cup of cheap fanta for the kids, and around 4 euros for a pint of san miguel. If you are going here please go all inclusive if you plan on having a few beers. The snacks available from the bar were burnt toasties, and uncooked chips, or re-cooked chips, for about 3 euros.
The pool onsite was smaller than in the pictures, still a good size, but smaller than the online images make it look, at times the water was excruciatingly freezing, and other times was bareable, the bottom of the pool could be doing with a painting though, as there were alot of cracks at your feet. The pool was fine for kids at the shallow end and the deep end was really deep, with me being 6ft 4, i struggled to touch the bottom, it must've been around 12ft deep. This was really the only attraction for kids, when the entrtainment team were not playing with them, the swing park onsite is for toddlers, there is a home made crazy golf game with about 4 holes, which cost around 5 euros to play EACH, there was a table tennis table outside our apartment which was a 5 euro deposit for the bats and ball, and about 3 euros to play, the tennis courts were 10 euros deposit for equipment and 10 euros per hour to play, bare in mind that you can pick up 2 tennis rackets, 4 tennis balls, 2 table tennis paddles and 4 ping pong balls in town all for under a tenner. They must be making a killing at this complex, which is apparently a low budget holiday complex. With us being there for 2 weeks we seen alot of people coming and going, alot of whim had kids in prams, buggies etc, and they were all being put on the top floor, this was totally out of order and this meant they had to carry kids and prams down very steep narrow stairs, and when they requested another room, they were met by a 70 euro charge for this. The management at the Hotel San Eloy obviously aren't stupid when it comes to making money off of holiday makers. Now I know this is a 2 star complex, and low budget but with the things we seen and experienced we were shocked at the cheek they had to charge the prices they charged, we have stayed in 5* hotels and complexes worldwide that have been cheaper than this place.
On our last 2 nights we decided to sample the food on site, we paid £10 per adult, and £6 per child, we got up to the buffet style restaurant, and were met by what looked like a delicious feast. We really enjoyed our food, the staff were even tucking in and having their dinner too. Always a good sign if you see the staff enjoying it. Although the restaurant closes about 9.30pm, we were shocked to see that we were the only people left and they were still putting out fresh food. We assumed there must have been alot of waste if there was nobody left to eat it. How wrong were we? Because on the second night of eating there we were shocked to see the same food had been recooked, and put back out for us, with a few new things added in, which resulted in all of us fighting over the bathroom for the rest of the night. Not a very good way to have your guests enjoy a holiday.
There were more negatives from this holiday than positives...... The kids loved it, and made some lifetime friends, would I return? Only for the sake of the kids to be honest, but there are 4 star hotels nearer the town centre that cost less than this complex, so I am unsure.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
