After reading many mixed reviews about this hotel, I finally decided to give it a chance.
The hotel in itself is needing a good renovation, the carpets are old and dirty and in the main resturant , the carpet is actually utterly disgusting.....the buffet served was okay for a day or two, then it was very much the same, theoretically they had theme buffets, but it tasted and looked all the same, a couple of things were good and tasty, but a good 90% was pretty bland...plentiful, but bland. The noise and loads of people was unbearable!!! There were other options...the best being the set menu (when you are with the gold card) at the beach resturant for dinner (was closed for lunch at the time...pity) it was really good and well served and presented, the atmospher was good, peacefull, but reservation was requiered.
The room we got was pretty good considering all the bad reviews, I have mostly good impressions....comfortable, clean and spacy....small balcony overlooking the gardens....and there was so much to do I did not spend too much time in the room anyway.
The staff all over the hotel were incredibaly pleasent, really friendly, but not over doing it. My children, aged 4 and 7 had an amazing time at the kids club and they had loads of REAL activities, not just TV and painting (as has happened before), from windsurf, kayak,tennis, minigolf, beach games and of course the neverending slides and pools kept the kids going happy for the whole day or just half day if you choose. The staff there were also very friendly, always smiling with lots of patience for all kids. The beach was nice, there was a part near the beach club that was always more full, but chairs were always available (I did go out of the main season, however....and still at the main resturante I found it to be much too full and noisy) and there were two more beaches each calmer than the one before, however futher away from the sporting facilities.
They had life guards all over always watching and correcting people, you had a very safe feeling. The activities, also for adults were good and always with good equipment and plenty of it...not the all included type where there is two sets and you never get there in time!!!
The staff go out of their way to please you and to fullfill all your requests.
About the meal cards....with good eating kids I think its worth to get the gold card, for all meals included, it is good value, but if the hotel was closer to the town maybe not, as other better dinning options might be available, but its quite far from the town and with my two kids I would not manage to go out in the evening without them falling asleep halfway!!! The main resturante was okay for breakfast and Lunch, but terrible for dinner, its freezing inside with the airconditioner on full blast, there is no nice spot, like an outside option or a semi-covered terrace, just one very large cantine style room with a disgusting carpet full of stains etc The noise level was unbearable at times....and it was off season for the first few days we were there....when the hotel filled up it was really unbearable
The other eating options were okay, but nothing to speak of, except the seaside resturant, that was very good, but choice limited for the goldcard holders, you can order other stuff and pay the difference, but we kept to the set menus. It was a pity it was closed at lunch time.
However, all in all it was a good deal for us, as we got to spend time alone with the children at the kids club and we kept seeing them around the beaches and hotel, all days they were there in the morning and sometimes they would stay all day untill five...We went round the island in a rented car, but found nothing special, I think a big hit is the diving...but we did not dive.
To have the kids so happy and looking so forward to the next day, left us really happy too as my 7 yaer old gets bored pretty quick and is difficult to entertain. Even if you keep the kids all day with you, you can do so many different thngs with them, all there in the hotel.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC