Location: 10 mins taxi from airport, which means very quick transfers, it also means that lots of planes fly over the hotel so near that you imagine you could jump off the hotel roof and touch one. Some people expect that the noise will be annoying, but it really isn’t, it’s actually quite addictive to watch each one as it flies over. Don Toni is set at southern end of PDB, so about 10 mins walk from the main busy area, but only about 2 mins walk from Space club, which is awesome, and in all my visits has ever meant any problems with noise etc. Ibiza Town is about 10 mins in a taxi, or I prefer te walk myself, about 40 mins walk (if you are fairly fit) along the beach or road. Definitely worth a look, much more traditional than PDB, very interesting, some great designer shopping but also the old castle and lots of streets with great character. Oh yes, and the port too! Definitely visit Ibiza Town at least once daytime and once night time (when it is very different…)
Food: Buffet is excellent for a 3* in my opinion. Each lunch / dinner there are several different chef salads (and I don’t just mean 4 salad items chopped and put together, much more creativity and imagination than that, with some excellent sauces). Then you have the individual salad items, and most nights something special like cold shrimps, cold meat cuts, cheese night etc, to give a bit of variety. In the hot section, I would estimate there are perhaps 12 hot trays (?) each containing a hot meat or vegetable dish. So on a typical evening you might get here a fish dish, a couple of meat dishes (in sauce), 3 types of potatoes (always inc. chips), 3 types of veg, pasta with choice of 2 or 3 sauces, 2 or 3 items being cooked on a hot plate (eg. Pieces of steak, chicken, squid, fish etc with no sauce so you can do what you want with them!), then finally in the evening there is normally a meat being cut in front of you (roast beef etc) or a big paella. Is there anything I would add? Not realistically at a 3*…. Perhaps I’d personally like the flavours to be more ‘aggressive’, but I guess when catering for a largely British tourist, they have to keep it tame… Also, the paella used to have crab claws in it, those have gone in 2011, boo But generally food is top class for a 3* in my view.
My only negative on the eating front would be the guests themselves, for two reasons. Firstly the waste – it is a buffet, you can go back as many times as you wish, so why people feel the need to pile their plates so high, then leave most of the food, is beyond me. Secondly, whatever happened to spacial awareness? So many people in the restaurant spin around, push in, step backwards etc with no concept of other people using the restaurant at the same time. Please people, just think before you move! Lol
Entertainment: The biggest plus of this place, the ents team are fantastic on the whole. Over the last 4 years there have been different faces come and go (and come back again in some cases), but on the whole the shows are incredible for what they are. Some people complain, but I would love to know what those people want to see. The only thing you never get is actual singing, as that would be near impossible with the amount of dancing that they all do. My personal favourite is always Moulin Rouge, but there are plenty of others like Lion King, ABBA etc. However it is not all jus tthem, there is a good mix of audience-participation entertainment too. Yes this is pretty standard from one hotel to the next, but there is such a nice atmosphere in the this place and the Ents team are so friendly and funny that it’s better here imo. Only complaint is that each year there seems to be one male (different each year) who is worryingly obsessed with the opposite gender, wandering round the pool all day trying to get a date for the evening and offering girls a ‘trip to the quiet bit of beach’ etc etc, touching them up on stage at times (!), perhaps they deliberately recruit one like that to have a ‘ladies man’, but from what I’ve seen the ladies much prefer the ones who just get on with their work and aren’t so slimy! But no big deal.
Minor improvement: If they had a help-yourself fridge for water at the bars, or even a 5litre tap-operated self-service water machine, it would save a huge amount of queuing at the bar for us sensible people (lol) who drink mainly water during the day…
Generally I love this place, I always have 3 or 4 hols each year, and this is the only place I always come back to year after year. Great reasonably priced family-friendly hotel (though price has increased a lot in last 3 years and if it does so much more then I might reconsider).
PS: If anyone has any specific questions, please ask me - I've been here 10 times in 5 years, so hopefully I will be able to help! :)
- Hotel Don Toni
- Don Toni Ibiza
