A lovely all inclusive hotel/resort, set in beautifully kept gardens, along a sandy beach. Staff were all friendly and courteous and the hotel was spotlessly clean, with the exception of the beach. It was quite windy when we were there and although seaweed was raked and removed regularly there was quite a lot of plastic, drinking straws, drink stirrers, cigarette butts and old shoes on the beach, so it was advisable to wear beach shoes. There was not the same attention to detail given to beach cleaning as there was to the rest of the hotel, which was disappointing.
The basic rooms were of a good standard, with king size bed, jacuzzi bath and excellent air conditioning. Coffee and tea making facilities as well as a minibar were available in the rooms. We were allocated a 2nd floor corner room, in the quiet part of the resort which we prefer and even had a sea view. You could have swim up rooms at additional cost, but those staying on the lower floors seemed to get bitten with mosquitos, which didn't seem to affect us. More expensive 'cassita' rooms were also available.
The resort is renowned for food and has a variety of restaurants offering either a la carte or buffet style meals. All were excellent with the exception of the fondue restaurant which was not of the standard of the other restaurants. Those guests booked into the more expensive cassita rooms could book tables at the restaurants, but other guests had to turn up and wait for availability. This wasn't a problem even over the very busy Christmas period, the longest wait we had was 45 minutes and there was always a well stocked bar to wait in. Our favourite meals – my husband loved the beef carpaccio and filet mignon and I loved the lobster creme soup and the pan fried daily catch of the day. House wines were from Spain and always very good, more expensive wines were available for those willing to pay extra.
The resort is part of the Karisma group and is trying to improve its 'green' credentials and has over the last 2 years installed green houses where herbs, salad leaves, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and aubergine are grown for this hotel and other Karisma hotels. Tours are offered of the greenhouses and made for an interesting hour. The hotel also recycles water and is installing solar panels and energy efficient/green air conditioning units – all very commendable, but having a huge jacuzzi bath in every room sort of defeats some of the objectives.
This resort is for over 18's only and was of a very good standard. We really enjoyed our holiday taking time to relax and enjoy excellent food. Entertainment, spa facilities and trips were available but are not really of interest to us so were not reviewed. Guests were mainly from the UK, USA and Canada.