In nearly all aspects, I am very happy to report that Sunsail provide a fantastic holiday.
Great for any sailing enthusiast, with unlimited access to the sea. If you aren’t experienced then great tuition in classes and one to ones are available.
We took out a yacht for the day and not having passed a day skipper course we hired a skipper (a member of Sunsail) £100 for the day, so we didn’t need to do anything technical, just had a go at steering and dropping anchor. It was the height of luxury choosing where to go, diving off the back for a dip in the sea, and dropping anchor in a bay and the restaurant owner sending a speed boat out to fetch us.
So we got an idea of the sailing experience without having to be qualified.
The kids clubs were excellent, available from early morning until 5pm, without a break, so you can pick and choose when to drop the little ones in. It was rather hot when we were visiting, and it ended up being kinder on the preschoolers to be in kids club all day with air conditioning, and come out after their high tea for a dip in the pool and a few hours fun with mum and dad before bed. Food for children is great, although if you have a child under one I would suggest bringing your own purees.
Baby sitting was available most nights, although you had to get in quick to book on arrival. Best to make the welcome meeting (albeit at 6:30am UK time on the first day of arrival!!!) to ensure you get some nights if that is what you are looking for. There is a night crèche which is great for wheeling the babies in their buggies or putting them to sleep in the travel cots, also video clubs for older ones. So whatever your needs for childcare, day time or evening, Sunsail had it covered.
The resort has been completely rebuilt, and being brand new there are teething problems. Still no spa, and no idea when that is going to be opened. As someone has previously stated there are a few wooden shaded tents on the roof outside of reception, and while not air conditioned it was nice to listen to the waves lapping as you have a massage. But there are no showers, or other indoor facilities that some treatments require, so only go with an expectation of massage, facial and nail painting. If Sunsail are reading, I would suggest treatments outside of the standard 9am – 5pm that are currently offered. Many keen sailors mentioned they fancied a massage after a long day sailing, but it wasn’t open, nor was it available on Saturdays, when many people were saying they wanted it. Both staff had a day off at the same time.
There are signs of a hurried finish to the resort. Pathways uneven, grouting on tiles slapped on. Doors not hung properly in many places and not managing to close them and locks not working on the toilet doors.
The problems with the room doors mentioned in previously aren’t due to it not being finished, it is just a high tech entry system, and I don’t think there is anything that can be done about it. The doors are operated by a card, and when inside the door locks itself automatically. The card then slots into a holder which powers the lights and air conditioning. When you want to exit you press a button and it unlocks the door. The problem is if a child knows where the button is they will be able to press it. Also if you go on to the balcony while the children are sleeping and close the door behind you to operate the air con then the door will automatically lock behind you. The tip here is to always have a card on you. You are given a card per person (even my one year old did.) So keep one card in the holder in the room at all times, and one with you at all times. We never showed our children where the button was to open the door, so there were no escape issues.
The resort is full of hills and steps. If you can’t cope with them then this is not the resort for you. I only encountered one room without a set of steps leading to the door, and that was a Family Suite 608, so a premium required. To access any of the rooms (sets of terraced rooms) you have to walk up steep slopes and then steps. Some rooms had four steps, others had 10 to 20. However, there are a couple of golfing buggies that can deliver you to your door (however not practical to wheel the pushchair on, so best just to expect a work out each day, and remember to take everything you need for the day down to the beach/pool so you don’t have to keep returning to the room)
Reception are one of the areas that really let the resort down. They never seem to have a clue, they are employed by the owners of the hotel (‘partners’ of Sunsail) they don’t all speak English with ease and when they do they aren’t particularly helpful or consistent. What is a shame is there doesn’t appear to be a customer service desk with a Sunsail representative always present. We are told Pete is by the information stand for Sunsail, but I still don’t know what Pete looks like. Worse still Sunsail sell the staff’s uniform as a souvenir for guests so at the end of the week you haven’t a clue who is a Sunsail employee and who is a guest.
The second biggest weakness, and for me the most stressful is leaving the resort at the end of the holiday. Three buses arrive to take you to the airport, but no member of staff helps you out of reception with bags or on to the coach, there is no coach allocation so it is a complete free for all. Ok for those who can leave one adult to do the luggage and one to save seats for the gang on the coach, but when you have families with young children struggling with buggies, luggage and non mobile children it is the most frustrating and stressful time of the holiday and undoes everything Sunsail have done to make it fun. A gaggle of staff arrive to wave goodbye, but no one helps hold a baby, collapse a buggy or help you on to the coach. By the time we had struggled through that experience all seats sitting together had gone and we ended up with two preschool children being split up on the coaches with our luggage on a separate coach! What then made me cross was when we arrived at the airport we discovered staff at the end of their contract were in a group at the back of our coach, they could easily have allowed us to sit together, but decided their need was greater than ours. Despite expressing our frustration at this bun fight no member of Sunsail were prepared to assist.
This brings me on to say a little about the staff. They are great at getting guests into the holiday spirit, join in drinking, chatting, eating with you at the table and showing you a good time out on the sea, but when it comes to organisation both on arrival and exit it is a complete shambles and someone needs to sort something out. All staff seem in their early 20s and there never seems to be one overall person in charge, such as a hotel manager, customer services on behalf of Sunsail.
Lastly, just a word of warning, the picture in the brochure of the rooms is just an artist’s impression, the sofa bed is no more than a large single (so don’t expect two adults or even teenagers to sleep comfortably) two preschoolers just about fit and it is rock solid. The tvs are tiny and fitted to the wall so you can’t see it when sitting on the sofa. PS - Try to avoid sleeping in an interconnecting room unless you are planning on occupying the other room, the walls are much thinner than the other rooms, and if you are unlucky to be next door to a family that don’t respect people’s sleep and come in at 2 am and have loud discussions with over excited children, you might just find you, or worse your children are woken!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
