My husband booked this Hotel for a special birthday treat (my 60th). Well he shouldn't have bothered. It was like a concrete jungle. If you weren't German or French they didn't seem to want to know. It was a costly mistake to go there, had we thought we could have changed Hotels after the first night. We never saw our holiday rep. once. A letter was put through our door with her 'phone number that if we wanted to speak to her WE had to contact her. No acceptable I'm afraid. My husband paid just under £2,000 for a week for both of us and it was a waste of money. NEVER NEVER shall be darken their door.

We booked this hotel for our Winter sunshine break, having previously visited the Sister Hotel, Jardines de Nivaria a couple of times before. Sadly, it does not compare.

We received a warm greeting and a welcome drink at the bar - always a nice touch. We were also upgraded from a standard room to a Sea View room, which was a good surprise. However, it wasn't until a day later when we had completely unpacked that we realised all the furniture scraping noise was because we were directly above the outside area of the main dining room/breakfast area.

Additionally, we had a noisy neighbour and because of very poor room sound insulation, could hear every word on the TV and the bizarre early morning ritual of our neighbour, starting with an alarm at 6.50am, followed by a half hour of coughing and spitting, talking to himself, followed by 20 minutes of singing!

On arrival, we did receive a bottle of water, 2 mini bottles of rioja red, some bananas and a tub of salted corn/nuts - a nice gesture.

We ate in the hotel buffet restaurant once - once was enough! We have to admit that we are foodies and buffet dinners are never our favourite, but the chaoticness was really unpleasant - it was like being in a canteen. Food was fine, but only fine - quantity rather than quality. Likewise, breakfast each day was very hectic. Waiters are very effiicent and very friendly, but as others have mentioned, literally whisk your plate away the second you put your knife and fork together!

Another very welcome surprise that the 2 'a la carte' restaurants are available on a half board booking (as we were) or on all inclusive for no extra cost (apart from drinks). Whilst the Spanish Restaurant, Burgos is trying, the food is still quite basic - one dish, pork with apple (the best we had) was reinvented the following week after a change of menu as beef with apple sauce..........beef with apple?????? Quite bizarre. However, service was always very good - extremely welcoming and professional.

The apertisers were quite odd - always cold, plates pre-prepared in the fridge. One was an icy-cold scallop, another a cold spinach wrap (yes, as in sandwich) in cold spinach sauce in the Spanish restaurant. The food in the Italian restaurant Verona was the most disappointing - the spaghetti was quite awful - literally 4 prawns, 2 mussels and one tomato maybe. We were very polite and the waiter was lovely and quite embarassed and without any prompting said did we want 'more flavour?' My husband's Tiramisu was totally frozen still - you could just about cut it with a knife!!

However, the plus points - the gardens and swimming pool are just gorgeous - really are a 5 out of 5. The upper aclimatised pool is a delight (by the pool bar/restaurant) and we swam every day when it was warm enough - it really was superb. The gardens, mature plants and palm trees are beautiful and can't be faulted, together with pretty stream areas, with mature koi carp.

As others have said, the immediate area outside the hotel is very 'down at heel' with a bus stop directly outside the hotel, covered in cigarette butts, dog excrement, broken tiles etc - not quite fitting for the attractive hotel. Just along from the bus stop is a supermarket which offers amazing value, a superb selection of wines at great prices. It just doesn't look very inviting from the outside!

We are surprised that other reviewers have complained about service - we found all the staff quite charming - we do find that if you treat others as you wish to be treated, then you often receive politeness. Another mention is how hard the breakfast chef works - cooking eggs, omlettes and boiled eggs and she does not stop......6 days of the week.

The drinks are reasonably priced, but are quite inferior to other places - how many 5 star hotels only offer one (basic) type of white wine by the glass?

The hotel is really geared towards the All-Inclusive guests and as such, lunchtime food choices are really limited and basic. The walk-way in front of the hotel is beautiful with stunning plants and landscaping - beyond that it is pretty grotty to be honest.

For a change, we took advantage of the free shuttle-bus to the Sister hotel, Jardines de Nivaria one evening and it was just lovely, as we remembered, with quality drinks and cocktails (freshly prepared, not out of an already-mixed bottle).

I speak Spanish fairly well and several local people we spoke to outside the hotel had the opinon that the hotel didn't compare to the Jardines de Nivaria - this is absolutely the case.

One final comment - not once were we asked how our stay was, even by the reception check-out team when we left and for the first time ever by a resort hotel, we weren't asked for our feedback or a questionnaire. Maybe the hotel has become a little complacent? On this note, since our return we've recieved email feedback surveys from the travel company we booked with, our airport parking company and the hotel we stayed in prior to our departure flight from the UK but nothing from Roca Nivaria.

Unfortunately the hotel didn't quite deliver for us.

Our 4th visit to the Roca Nivaria in 4 years and the first time we have been at New Year. We had a fantastic time as ever, the kids enjoyed the miniclub - the girls in there were even better than before if thats possible! Our kids took part in a production of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" this time!
The staff as ever were amazing, Antonio, Alfonso, Ana Maria and Suzy at the pool bar, Francisco in the main lounge bar and all the other waiters and bar staff...
The food on New Years eve was outstanding - oysters, lobster, paellas.. and the entertainment with the fireworks was brilliant! New Years Day the party continued by poolside with entertainment for the kids and live cooking shows of pancakes and more paella! Plus freeflowing cava..
All in all a fantastic way to start 2012 in our favourite hotel.
Highly recommended for families with small children - see my other reviews.

Lovely family friendly hotel. Good value for our family as we wanted a 'separate' room for our children without having to pay for two rooms. We booked a junior suite but were upgraded to a superior suite after a mix up over our booking. They missed one of our children off the booking. That said they were quick to rectify this. The room we ended up in was fantastic. It was huge, certainly big enough for our two children to run around safely including the large balcony. The children slept in the large siting room area whilst we stayed in the master bedroom with easy additional access to the balcony. Most rooms have sea views - our room had both views of the pool and sea on the 6th floor with sun in the afternoons. It's not the prettiest hotel from the street. Yes you do have to pay to get access to the mini bar however you can just pay €10 for a water package which got you the 6 bottles of water on your first day which ensured that the fridge remained accessible for the remainder of the stay. So storage of milk for the little ones was possible.

The baby pool is lovely and warm though lacking any toys (other than those supplied by other guests). The sea water pool is also great and big enough to swim laps in. The fresh water pool is absolutely freezing thus hardly anyone swimming there though we did give it a go a couple of times. The beach is small with black sands but safe for children to play in - it has interesting access from the hotel complex.

The spa is small but has fantastic jets in the pool, different showers etc. I think most of the time it was quiet. We got free pass there with our room upgrade though I think I would of gladly pay the €15 entry fee.

The childrens club was great. Our four year old absolutely adored it and couldn't wait to spend all day there. Our 16 mth old wasn't so keen but we did manage to leave him there for a couple of hrs at a time occasionally. The best thing is that it's free and you can come and go as you please. It's very clean and well equipped. The staff are great. The evening mini disco was great although perhaps a little late for the little ones.

The only disappointing thing is the food. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of food but the quality is a bit hit and miss. Some days there were delicious meats and fish and on other days they were undercooked and bland. The pastry and pancakes were a bit bland and the fresh fruit choices were limited. Please note that they have a dress code in the restaurant - no shorts or flip flops in the evening. There is a play area for the children attached to the restaurant. However if you sit at tables with a view of the play area lighting and service was poor.

However overall it's a good hotel if you are travelling with young children. There is also a large free carpark under the hotel great if you have hired a car. Several guests had prolonged transfers from the airport (up to 2.5hrs). With a car it took 25mins.