I am as honest as I can be in my reviews. Obviously it’s only my opinion, but we are a hardworking couple who love to see travel although we are not too fussy, we expect a clean hotel room in working order and a good standard of food. So I will put my review in pros/cons.
Rooms:
PROS
Ice cold air con, large walk in shower, mini fridge filled daily. Two queen beds, made everyday. Room cleaned every day. Coffee maker and iron/ board in room.
CONS
Very tired decor, paint peeling off a bit here and there, bit mould in cupboards, toilet leaked a little bit, TV didn’t play well, a ceiling light coming out of ceiling, shower light bulb didn’t work.
We didn’t complain about these faults as they didn’t really have a major negative impact on our stay. Having said that I didn’t feel the £1650 each we payed was worth it for the room we had. I heard a few guests saying a few of the blocks had been updated, but never saw any.
Pool:
PROS
Huge pool and activities pool by the beach, quieter pool nearer reception/restaurants.
Bars near pools, waiters walking around taking drinks orders etc. BBQ next to main pool daily. Good entertainment if you wanted to join in, which I did most days and won a couple tee shirts too lol. Darts, archery, shooting, bingo, kayak racing, volleyball, water polo, beet pong etc, but they didn’t pressurise you to join in. Pools were cleaned constantly throughout the day and everyday!
CONS
As mentioned on here, one part of big pool needs re grouting or retiling. I cut my hand and toes on broken tiles. as did many other children and adults. First aid was given and photos taken, but not sure if anything will be done about it! Also because people insist on feeding the coatimundis/racoons around the pool they are now becoming a pest – literally getting onto sun loungers and getting into people’s bags for food etc. We saw them take stuff from mine and other bags, take people’s drinks from floor and if you tried to eat around pool they were all over you, around 20 at a time! Cute but annoying!
Food:
Buffet breakfast and lunch in JalHal next to beach/pool. We always found something to eat, good selection, nothing amazing but all nice.
Buffet breakfast/lunch/dinner near reception was much bigger, more choice and set up very nicely like a proper restaurant. Themed evenings got a bit samey, but always found some we liked.
We tried a few ‘A La Carte’ restaurants. We didn’t like Mexican, as very bland. Steak house, we loved it, went twice, good selection and our steaks were delicious. Italian, very nice and good selection, loved beef in red wine, it was a big fillet beef cooked well. Oriental, not quite same as were used to but on the most it was tasty. We didn’t try French or seafood. Good thing is you can book them everyday if wanted, we did this around 9/10 am daily at our concierge in our building.
Bars:
Black and White bar of evening was ok but very not, we watched a few shows, all ok but seen them on other holidays. Drinks ok, but ask for Smirnoff/ Bacardi if you want it, otherwise cheap stuff given. Lounge bar near Italian restaurant was nice, some live music/singers thru week, again hot but quite chilled. We thought drinks were ok, they made cocktails I asked for even if not on cocktail list.
Staff:
Made our holiday. Juan and Miriam in JalHal were great and so attentive. Pool guys/gardeners worked continuously. We were greeting with ‘Hola’ from all staff we meet around resort. If we needed dollar bills we asked waiters or bell boys. They always had plenty! We tipped a dollar per couple, per meal.
