If you’re heading here, I think you’re going to have a lovely time! We stayed here at the end of April / beginning of May 2011. This was our first visit to an all-inclusive, being previously more independent travellers, so I was a bit unsure whether it would suit us. I am now a firm convert!
This isn’t a particularly glitzy hotel, and it was built around 15 years ago so the newness has worn off. If you want Mayfair style gleaming chrome, this isn’t the place for you. Instead it’s a lovely balance between luxury and laid back style, the gardens are lush and mature and the niggles have been sorted out. Guest relations were very helpful and genuinely wanted to be made aware of any problems. Shortly after settling in to our room we were given a card to mark up anything that needed maintenance / attention, and they phoned us on our 2nd day to ask if everything was OK. Staff there are very proud of their hotel and its low rise style.
The room we were allocated first was a bit too close to the main street music for our 3 year old so we asked for something quieter and were very happy with what we got. Probably not as luxurious as some of the other hotels, but clean, bright and a good size, with a standard double and a single bed. There would have been plenty of room for a cot too. Bathroom fine, although shower not very powerful. No noise issues from the hotel next door (on the western side) either. The balconies are very small – that’s just the way the hotel has been built, but there are so many places around the hotel to sit it was never a problem for us.
What surprised us most was the quality of the food. Very good indeed! The main restaurant has salad and hot dishes inside (don’t ignore the casserole type stews and braised dishes, they have wonderful flavours) and outside on the terrace there are cooking stations where everything is done freshly. There was always something being done on the grill, and the rib of beef was some of the tastiest steak I’ve ever eaten. Fish night was wonderful too, sea bass, sea bream. On theme nights there was some sort of little taster treat in the foyer on the way in. Presentation was fabulous, deserts were great too, and lots of fresh fruit.
At lunch the Mangal restaurant serves a reduced selection of salad and hot food, but is less manic than the main one and has a lovely view. Also flatbreads from 11 onwards are delicious, and there is something hot there all afternoon. Another table service snack bar from 2:30 to 5:30 serves pizza and burgers. Only 3 a la cartes open when we were there. We tried the Turkish (Saffran) which was so good we went back on our last night, and we also went to Seasons (French / Italian).The Chinese was also open but we didn’t try that. No problem getting bookings, and there even seemed to be empty tables on all 3 occasions. The pier had been taken down (as had all of the others along the beach I walked along) so no fish restaurant this early ion the season. There are also fine dining and a barbecue restaurant with charge apparently although no idea of the charge and they weren’t pushed. Turkish coffee from the Turkish bar became a bit of a ritual for us, and the seating are outside was a lovely spot to watch the world go by.
We tried to work out how full the hotel was and struggled – the restaurant could seem quite busy, especially the evening it rained putting the uncovered terrace tables out of action, but there were spare poolside loungers, and never a problem getting a table in the bar either.
We tended to use the relax pool or beach so didn’t get involved in the animation. The evening shows were mostly good, 2 were a bit weak and 3 were really excellent. Again, I think they were just ramping up for the season, I think they said it was the season premier of the Lion King. The head of animation is really good at what he does and turned what could have been quite lame audience participation games into something very funny indeed. English is the main language, although there are also translations into German, French and Russian/Polish. There was live music in the evenings, and it was main stream enough to be enjoyed by everyone.
Shops on village street were nice to browse around, yes more expensive than you could get elsewhere but if you didn’t manage to leave the hotel and wanted to grab a bucket and spade set or a couple of gifts then they weren’t too extortionate.
We didn’t use the kids club, but the playground was enough to keep our 3 year old amused, and she loved the rides. The pools really seemed to warm up over the course of our stay and never felt crowded. The slides are a bit too fast for younger children though, and we preferred the mini ones in the kids area when the fountains were turned off over lunch time.
The only thing I’d change would be to open the gym earlier in the morning, I’d have liked to use it before breakfast.
Overall, really excellent value for money. We would definitely go back, although I’d probably like to try some others out first.
Room Tip: Anywhere away from the 'main street' is quiet.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
