We stayed with SAGA, having selected the hotel for its specific location and the surrounding area. Individualy addressed information was distributed on the coach and keys and further information were issued in reception, with a very warm welcome from Mary and Tony. Despite the lateness of the hour, an extensive buffet awaited us in the restaurant and when we went to our room, our luggage awaited. All very impressive.

Throughout our stay we found the variety and quality of the food to be excellent,especially the fish and salads, provided one selected the types of dish the Spanish do well and avoided the overcooked vegetable and incinerated chops which they prepare with the British in mind but never manage to get quite right. The range of wines and bar drinks available to all included guests are fine and we never felt tempted to branch out into the broader range available on the to be paid for lists.

The staff were universally friendly, especially to those who made the effort to speak a little Spanish and to use their names. We would certainly recommend long stay guests to learn and pracice a little Spanish as many of the staff only really speak English within their comfort zone of normally expected requests and situations.

The entertainment was generally very good. Diego is particularly talented and his team generally did very well under his direction, especially their comedy night and their "Cabaret" mime. We had three excellent flamenco nights and the jazz night was outstanding. The in house team worked with great enthusiasm to get people to participate in the many sporting and games activities and this was clearly very important for a number of sole travellers who needed this kind of involvement to break the ice.

The surrounding areas are truly beautiful with many walking opportunities amongst the pines, across the marshes and round the perimeter of the El Portil Lagoon.

We intend to return next year for four weeks and you can't really say better than that.

We stayed here for Christmas 2007 (see my review) and had a great time so we thought we would return this year for Christmas plus New Year. We arrived at the hotel later than expected on the evening of 20th December. We were very disappointed to find that the Saga Reps we had before - John, Sue and Kathy were not there. They absolutely made our Christmas the last time and worked extremely hard and joined in with us all.

We were greeted at the hotel entrance by our new Saga Reps, Tony and Mary, and told that a cold buffet had been left for us. Tony and Mary came into the restaurant to welcome us and very shortly left saying they would see us in the morning. We went up to our seaview room to find that it was partially flooded and I was paddling at the side of the bed. I went straight down to reception to report it and managed to speak to a person who was just leaving reception in a hurry. I was told that someone would be up to the room in a short while. There were no Saga reps around and we waited until after midnight, gave up and I crawled into bed from the bottom of the bed to avoid getting wet. We saw the Saga reps in the morning who were not unduly concerned as they said we were one of many whose rooms had been flooded. We managed to put towels infront of the sliding balcony windows but were flooded four times in all during our two week stay. Our last set of towels stayed there for three days!! The maintenance in this hotel is very poor with broken window panes making the corridors very cold, broken lights in the ladies loos near the bar which were never replaced in the two weeks we were there and there were constantly blue towels around the downstairs foyer to try and stop the water from coming in. It was a good job we had comfortable warm beds in our rooms as even they lacked heating at times.

Overall we thought that the standard of the hotel had gone down. The restaurant and bar staff were very friendly and gave us good service. We could always find a meal that we liked, particularly the fish, but the Christmas and New Year meals were very disappointing. We thought that the entertainment staff had been reduced from the last time we were there and although Diego and his wife worked extremely hard and were very talented we were not very impressed with the overall entertainmnent, particularly with not just a quiz on Boxing Day evening when for the English this should be a party night. The hotel now seems to cater more for the Spanish than the English and we were very outnumbered at the New Year's Eve party - we were not even given the opportunity to sing Auld Lang Syne!! Sometimes the Spaniards did not control their children, particularly in the bar area where one liked to have a quite drink and they were left to run around and make a nuisance of themselves.

It is a great shame that this hotel has deteriorated to the point where we do not want to return again. We did not have very good weather but the hotel is in such a beautiful destination and could be great again with the right management and Saga reps who we could see more of and who would join in the celebrations with us.

food poor,entertainment very poor except when the spanish book in at weekends ,british treated like 2nd class people,saga should be embarrssed to use this hotel,reps for saga have no impact when anyone complains,and many people did complain.overall hotel very poor all round

Great place to stay if there's a good deal on offer. Lovely location close to beach. Very dated town. The hotel is fine, but nothing special ... just lacks a certain something. No quiet bar to relax ... you'd have to put up with the 70's style entertainment - so we went out to a nearby bar instead. Room smelt of cigarettes, but was spacious. Good tv with uk channels.
Spa was closed, but they forgot to mention that on their website a few days earlier!! Not good.
Overall, ok ... not to be avoided, but I wouldn't recommend a lengthy stay.