I booked a week for my family at the Terramar Hotel at fairly short notice (about a month). I saw some very very mixed reviews, but I am from the school of ‘you get what you pay for’. Just to clarify, the Hotel was the Terramar in Calella, Costa Brava (C/ Diputacio 38 - 50, Calella 08370, Spain). I’ve put this as there seem to be two of similar names, but this is definitely the one.

The holiday was booked for 4 people, 2 adults and 2 kids (both aged just under 10). This is the first time I had booked a package holiday for my family and so ensured all transfers and baggage costs were paid for in advance! Well, to start with I’d have to say how gutted I was with the flight times. We got to the hotel around midnight and got back home around midnight so the kids were knackered!!

The flights were with Ryan Air who I regularly get 'cheesed' off with every time I fly with them. The transfers were with Resort Hopper and were perfectly executed coming from, and back to, the airport.

The hotel itself was, I’d say, a good 3 Star. Some places have reported it as a revamped 2 Star, or actually as a 4 Star. The reception area, lobby and bar area are all smart and tidy. The staff on the main desk were generally quite friendly and helpful and spoke ample English.

We had asked for a ‘family room’ and a ‘sea view’. I didn’t fancy putting the kids in a separate room to ours. I feared the worse on the room front as you never know, but I was very pleasantly surprised. We were on the first floor (102) (Only a small flight of stairs and the one lift is a bit slow) and had a corner room which meant a larger balcony.

The room itself was ideal really but did lack a few things! There was no air conditioning, so on the first couple of nights it was a case of getting used to the heat (no bugs though). There was also no fridge, which would have been handy for storing the water, lemonade and vodka). The TV in the room had 3 Spanish channels but I’d bought portable DVD players anyway. There was also a lacking of plug sockets. Space wise it was fine. The double (2 singles as per in Spain) and then 2 added separate singles fitted in with ample space for the kids to move about. Plus the wardrobe and bedside tables. And we got the sea view. We were also right above the pool area. The maids came everyday. You do have to pay for a key for the safe in your room, plus a 10 Euro deposit, but it was worth it. I advise buying some fans if you have kids. I’d bought two from the pound shop before hand and they did just fine.

The pool was very nice. Never over crowded but we did need covert operations to get loungers in the morning. Beings we were right above it we knew when it was open so just darted downstairs to plonk the towels out. Annoying yes, but everyone was doing it and we wanted the kids to have a good time. The pool was very shallow (5 feet deep at it’s deepest end) but always clean. There was a smaller one for the kids and a large jacuzzi area.

The dining area was ok. We went half board after seeing some of the food reviews but it wasn’t really that bad. Breakfasts had coco-pops, cornflakes and muesli. Plus eggs, bacon, sausage, rolls, juices etc. Simple and effective. In the evening there were always chips, but always something tasty too. Bolognaise pork fillets, beef (veal), calamari, etc…all along with nice puddings. The only real annoying point was that we had to pay for drinks for the evening meal even though we were half board, and the staff in the dining area did seem a little grumpy.

The town of Calella itself was lovely. Not overly commercialised but ample bars and cafes and tat shops. The streets were clean, although keep your eye out for mopeds through the thinner side streets. It felt very safe with the kids in tow and everyone was friendly. There are also plenty of cash machines. There was one very good English bar for football, called the Alcatraz, which I recommend if you want traditional English food and a great fry up…oh and football, on big screens, with Carling!

The beach was also nice and clean. Just a 3 minute walk from the hotel. The sand was a bit stoney so the buckets and spades were useless. The water was very clear and clean. The pedlo man was a bit of a grump though, too much sun I think!

We didn’t travel to Barca as we had been before and the journey may have been to much for the kids (hour on the train I think).

Coming back I was 'very' annoyed with Ryan Air who made us pay 8 Euro because one of our bags was 1Kg over the 15Kg limit. Now, yes, 8 Euro is not a lot, but my sons case was 9Kg (6Kg under the limit) so surely that compensated. Plus you couldn’t just pay the 8 Euro there, you had to queue up in an ever growing queue, of which I was in for about an hour, therefore missing Duty Free. There were a hell of a lot of 'annoyed' people I can tell you. Ryan Air, you are 'not very good'.

Anyway, back to the Terramar…generally I was very happy with the value for money and the quality of the hotel. The kids loved it and want to go back next year. We also agreed it was a nice place and may do a 10 or 14 dayer next year.

we booked this hotel as a last minute deal, the only board we could get was half board. i suppose my opinion of the hotel would be much better if i had'nt had any food there. the location is good, seconds from the beach and resteraunts/bars are close. the shops were a bit futher but not too bad. the hotel was clean and modern. the pool was small but nice, there were only a few loungers that were snapped up quickly in the morinings but as the beach was so close it didnt bother us. they cleaned every day but the time the cleaners came round varied from day to day which made it a bit difficult if you needed to go back to your room in the afternoon. the food was really poor. the dining room was very small compare to the size of the hotel, this meant you had to queue every day for each meal to get a table. the staff were horrible, had a really bad attitude towards British people and obviously didnt enjoy their jobs. the head waiter, who allocated the tables, always gave preference to the spanish guests as they always got tables to themselves while some nights we had to share tables with random people. the waitresses that cleaned the tables were very slow so by the time we were having dessert there were stacks of plates on our table to be cleaned. thank god there were chips and bolognaise sauce (no meat!) on every evening or i wouldnt have been able to eat anything except ice cream. the food was tasteless and of very poor quality. half the time we couldnt tell what it was because there were no lables and you really couldnt tell by looking at it! most of it tasted really bad. the salad bar only had about 4 things on it that didnt change from evening to evening. as they were bringing out new trays of food the chef would barge you out of the way and throw it on the counter! i suppose this hotel is ok as a base but be prepared to eat out as we did after the 3rd day! i certanly would have been annoyed if we had paid more than £350 for the holiday.

We stayed at the Terramar in Calella recently. It was fairly basic but OK.
However I have been looking at these reviews and realised that there seems to be some confusion between 2 hotels. As there appear to be 2 places called Calella, both having a Hotel Terramar.
Some reviews (the bad ones) are for the hotel we stayed at, in the Calella about one hour on the train from Barcelona.
The other reviews (the good ones) are for the other Hotel Terramar, which appears to be in a place called Llafranc, near Calella de Palufrugal, which is near Estartit, quite near the border with France.
The Calella near Barcelona is a typical 60s resort full of drab concrete hotels. The other Calella looks quite nice.

I used to go to this hotel every year until two years ago and I have excellent recollections of it.
It's set across from the beach and a lot of rooms have sea views. The hotel isn't particularly large, but it's a nice size. The suites are spacious and nice, but ordinary rooms for two/three/four are equally good. Myself and two female family members used to stay in an ordinary room and we all fit in there comfortably, it was lovely. A single room is nice as well. The rooms are good, decorated nicely and always have a clean, fresh smell about them.
The breakfast is delicious, particularly the scrambled eggs and the dinner is pleasant too. There are plenty of restaurants and bars in the area for those who like to explore the town a little more. The hotel also has its own bar serving drinks and cocktails.
It's not an amazing, majestic hotel but it's good and sweet. However, the only thing I would say is that the decoration and furnishment of the hotel is a little bit outdated, but I haven't been there for two years so maybe it's been re-vamped.
It was always a very enjoyable and comfortable stay though and I hope to go back again some day.