Puerto Del Sol

I wanted to take my daughter on an All Inclusive Holiday but was afraid to go on my own, so luckily my friends had already booked their Holiday for 2 weeks at the Puerto Del Sol Hotel & said there was availability for a weeks Holiday All Inclusive at the same place & they didn't mind us being there at the same time.
Our apartment was really nice on the third floor & was very big for just the two of us, as they put my friends a family of five in a smaller apartment, on the ground floor with no gate to stop the younger child from escaping! Personally I think we should have swapped as they couldn’t have the patio doors open because of the security for the younger child.
The pools were of good size, 1 by the dinning room, which we didn’t use, a big pool, baby pool & family pool by the snack bar which was busy & fun to be around & then a paddling pool & deep pool which was allot quieter not far from the Reception.
The staff on the snack bar were a bit rude & you never got a smile from them! You had to get up quite early to get a sun lounger, before breakfast which was 8am.
The food wasn't that bad but allot of people seemed to dislike it but as for me I ate more & healthier food than I do at home! The staff were once again rude, as soon as you had finished your food or even just went back to get more, your plate was swiped from under your nose or taken when you weren’t there!
I think they heard & understood my comment as I said quite loudly "How rude" & after that they always asked me if I had finished & my daughter use to help by taking her plate to them. I think they should have had the snack bar open after dinner which ended at 8.30pm because there was no more food available after that.
The Entertainment wasn’t that bad & I thought at times quite humorous. Phoebe & Marion were always working more than the other Entertainment staff & they did do a good job. It was more for children from 8.30pm with they're version of a kids disco but they seemed to enjoy it.
Then they did bingo at 9.30pm & then either a show from the staff or something for involving adults on the stage. The bar staff seemed quite rude but then once you bought then a shot they became your friend & looked after you - they never seemed to get tips as most of the people staying there were All Inclusive.
It took about 5-10 mins to get to town, you could get the train from the Hotel which was nice & good to see the surrounding areas. I found it hard to find all the beaches, which are not long beaches but like alcoves & always busy. I found people quite rude when asking for help & directions & always were either the Spanish or the Germans.
Overall I really enjoyed my Holiday & the views from the dining room of the Marina were delightful to look at whilst having your food. We met some lovely people & some I would have liked to have chatted more to as we met them near the end of our holiday. The kids never seemed too got bored & always made new friends. Your holiday is what you make of it & I had a relaxing & fun time with my daughter & friends.

Myself, wife and the three kids (1,5 and 13) arrived back from Puerto del Sol last night after a ten night stay. There are some serious failings at this holiday village which others have mostly covered, I shall cover them again in a minute and may add some, but first, the things about this holiday village which made our holiday enjoyable.
The apartment we had was of a very large size, with a kitchen which was quite handy. The room also had very good air conditioning.
Right, that over, the things about this place which, had I not put my hand in my pocket and spent most of the time not there, would have ruined our holiday. The room was visited by a cleaner twice in ten days. We ran out of towels and toilet roll and had to resort to stealing from the maids trolleys.
The food in the restaurant is inedible, if not dangerous. Lunch is the night before dinner rehashed to disguise it and is often not labelled. I spotted the same pork cutlets reheated for three consecutive meals which became the last straw, the source of the family’s deli-belly had been found and we no longer would eat in the restaurant.
Food at the poolside bar is 10p cheap and nasty hotdogs and boiled burgers with bone in them. Some complained that it was school dinner food, I would expect prison food to be better. Staff at the poolside bar are slow and seem as though it is a major chore to serve you. That said, the other bars did have friendly staff.
The three pools are small for the amount of guests but are adequate. However they do not have any staff overseeing their use. There was an incidence where the pool in the gardens was taken over by a group of 14-18 year olds (and one or two of their Dads) who were climbing on out-of-bounds high wall and jumping in, making it dangerous for anyone else to use the pool.
A few people complained directly to these people but just received abuse back. I am not holding the hotel responsible for the anti-social chavtastics but when I slid off to reception to ask for a member of management to have a word I was met with shrugged shoulders.
If, like me, you booked through Medinland, cancel your holiday, or at least cancel your transfers. I was assured that the transfer would be max 16 passengers who would all be on the same flight as me and straight off the plane and on the way.
However we found ourselves sitting for over an hour and a half while the 52 seater bus waited for passengers from other flights. Transfer cost is £80. A taxi each way is only £50. Beware at the time of booking that Medinland will fly you by a budget airline, I was hoodwinked into thinking it would be a holiday operators airline we would be flying with then found that they had used my credit card number to complete a transaction on my behalf with Ryanair.
If that’s what I had wanted to do then I would have arranged it myself and saved myself their mark-up but I wanted a holiday supplied by an ABTA travel agent with full ABTA protection. That is not what I got. If the flight had been delayed overnight, then Medinland would have no obligation to supply accommodation. A very risky situation to be in with a family of five in the height of the holiday season.
Back to point of VFM and 3 stars. I have only ever stayed 3 stars yet never ever had a maid service and food quality so poor. This place is not offering 3 star services, I doubt it would be rated if checked recently. VFM? At £1600 for a family of five it was £400 dearer than last year in august when we went AI to Santa Ponsa. Shop around, check reviews, but most of all, don’t book here, not unless you can get a good room only deal.

Firstly I have to just say that this holiday was incredibly cheap and very good value based on this fact alone.
Apartment was huge and we had plenty of room for 2 adults and 2 children. A maid came every second day and changed the towels and the sheets and generally cleaned up. There was a sign saying apartments would not be cleaned if left in a mess with clothes everywhere so perhaps this was the problem for some of the other reviewers.
We were very lucky because our apartment was on the ground floor right next to the swimming pool so we could hop over the balcony or keep an eye on the children from our balcony seats which was a bit of luck as it was impossible to get a pool side seat as people must have got up a 6 in the morning to put towels down on them even though some of them never turned up until gone midday! The temptation to sneak around the seats and chuck the towels into the pool was huge but we managed to resist it - just!
Seating was a problem throughout the hotel, the snack bar being the only exception. They really needed to get some more seats out for guests, especially in the outside bar areas.
We were perfectly happy with the food but don't leave it till almost closing time to eat as there was limited choice.
I found the staff very helpful. Some of the guests seemed to have left their manners behind them when they arrived which was a pity and their children followed the adults lead. The staff were often under pressure to provide multiples of drinks and food in the shortest possible time without a please or thank you in any language.
The evening entertainment was dire and didn’t start until 10.45 at least with a load of small overtired children running around causing havoc.
The hotel was in a beautiful position overlooking an amazing marina but if you wanted to get to beaches or the town you had to either go by taxi or the little train which stopped outside the hotel. Most of our money was spent in fares.
There were 5 beautiful beaches to explore and the town was quite busy and buzzy. If we were to return to the area I think I would chose a hotel slightly nearer to the town and beaches.

Nice big apartment, ask for a marina view, the view is amazing. The hotel is in a good location with beaches all around, although you could do with getting the local train that stops at each hotel.
The entertainment is better for small children and it could do with more activities in the day. However at least you are not pestered.
You do have to get up early for a sun bed, the food gets boring after a bit, but its clean, and in a lovely area, its also great value for money. I met a great group of people that were called the 'good time gang'.

First of all I will give you an idea about us, we have 2 kids 7 and 21 months, in the past few years we have been to Cyprus and have done it all ourselves, flights, car, private villa (just as cheap as a package) anyway, our 7 year was getting bored with that as there wasn’t much entertainment for her, and to be honest we were eating out every night but not tasting the food (you know what it’s like with young children?!!!)
So we decided to book somewhere that we have been avoiding all our adult life, you know the type of place – loads of kids, mini –disco, kids club, all-inclusive etc.
The Puerto del sol ticked all of those boxes so we booked it in January. Then we started to read the reviews, .not good! Well it was booked so we thought we would give it a go.
We arrived on the 23rd July, we had hired a car so can’t comment on the transfer. We were given a ground floor apartment as requested, we asked to be moved straight away as it was overlooking the pool table and reception bar (outside area), we were offered another apartment, but we refused because it had an open patio (the 21 month old would escape)
So we stayed put and discovered that the patio door wouldn’t lock, the light socket was hanging of the wall and the shower and tap were a dribble. Straight to reception again and saw Irene again who said it would be dealt with. By this point I was sure the bad reviews were right.
We decided to have a look around and returned after an hour, a second later a maintenance man arrived and fixed all of the above with a smile!!
So off to dinner, well what a surprise, ok it does sound like a staff canteen with all the noise, but we had expected to take one look and go to the nearest restaurant. No way, there were 4 hot dishes (moussaka, fish, beef stew and chicken) chips, hot pasta, green beans, and a variety of salads – pasta, seafood, pickles, all of the salad veg you could think of.
The only problem was that I had to try a bit of everything, so it didn’t all really go together! Over the next few days I got over my greed and stuck to things that went together eg: lamb casserole with mash and cauliflower. There wasn’t any typical kiddie food like nuggets etc, but our 7 year old found plenty to eat, especially the puddings!
If you wanted to be healthy there was plenty of choice of fresh fruit, pasta, cheeses and salads. Admittedly it is off-putting seeing it all layer out canteen style, but if you were presented any of the food in a restaurant all plated up, I don’t think you would complain.
Everything was hot, cooked well, fresh with no fat or gristle on the meat.
I honestly expected to eat out every night, but let’s just say the diet starts tomorrow!
Now on to breakfast – anything you want, cereal, toast (a bit of pain the queue for the machine), eggs (either boiled, scrambled or omelette depending on the day), bacon, sausages (not great but one day they had nice chipolatas), beans, hot tomatoes, croissants, cake, pan au chocolat (yum!), fresh rolls, fresh fruit, prunes, raisins.
Now the pool area, yes it was a bit dirty around the edges, but the pool is cleaned every day after 8.30pm when they put the chemicals in so you are not allowed to swim. I felt sorry for the guys as they had to clear up the mess left by the guests every day, there is no excuse as there are bins throughout the pool area. Some people just let their kids get chips, ice cream etc from the snack bar and then let them just leave it unfinished where they wanted to, even our 21 month old knows to put rubbish in the bin!
At 8.30pm the mini disco starts, its downstairs which is a bit daft as it’s for kids, but anyway it was all we wanted, really naff with the same songs and actions every night (I’m listening to the CD as I type!) Our 7 year old loved it. Yes it’s amateur, but at 7 you don’t care, you get to jump around with your mates that you met around the pool while Mum and Dad get to sit down and have a drink, well taking turns as one of us was chasing the baby most of the time! We didn’t sample the later entertainment so can’t comment on that.
Talking of drinks, I do think they are watered down, I drank vast quantities of white wine the first night and felt nothing, the second night I discovered that I could have sparkling wine, they had to open a bottle for that and I heard it pop, it was quite sweet and went down like lemonade and very moreish, but from the hangover the next day, it wasn’t watered down!!
The bar and restaurant staff are a little brusque, but after seeing how they are treated by the guests I can understand why. At the bar the drinks were just barked out as if the bar staff were invisible, no please, thank you etc. I found that an hola, por favour and gracias went along way (as well as the odd tip) People didn’t seem to realise that they are just like us – earning a crust, and if I had to deal with ignorant people all day I would be annoyed, also they work from morning till night, I saw the same staff at breakfast and at midnight!
The apartment are situated right next to a lovely marina, the wrong side so I’m told but we loved strolling down there in 5 minutes and feeding the big fish (mullet I believe)
On the practical side, we had fresh towels and the beds made 3 times, the apartment was clean on arrival, big wardrobe, space in the bedroom for a cot and our 7 year olds bed off the sofa, the TV had channel 5 so we had Milkshake for the kids in the morning and the Wright stuff for us – bonus! As usual there wasn’t a power point next to the dressing table and mirror, but one in the bathroom.
Overall I think it is a major bargain, even if it was just for self-catering, £1100 for all of us.(all-inclusive)
The only thing that lets it down it the few people who leave their litter around, the grounds are lovely with a lot of grass and trees, but I can’t believe people just leave their rubbish lying around.

The hotel was clean. the food was naff, if you were self catering, the food from the snack bar was presented to you better, than all inclusive, the main restaurant was ok, my partner had food poisoning on the fourth day of our holiday.
We went for a week and I would say that was long enough, not allot to see or do really, the cleaners came into apartment everyday for first three days, this was impressive clean towels everyday, come the fourth and fifth day never seen a cleaner or a clean towel then they reappeared on the sixth day.
Don't leave your towels on the sun loungers they might get nicked ours did, we asked in the snack bar if they had any towels handed in to them but they only speak English when it suits them, so we went to main reception who didn't want to know either, the receptionists comment was "can't help you I never seen anything”.
The swimming pool was sort of clean only seen men at pool twice in the week, they never washed the walk ways down it was dirty around the pool.
On our last day we had to vacate the room by 11.00am, we took the cases down to the travel room then returned to the apartment to get the swimming things to find the cleaners already in the room this was 11.05am.
They had thrown kids sandals swimming bands and sun lotions into the bin, so be careful not to go a second passed the deadline of leaving your room you never know what they will throw in the bin.
I can safely say I’ve been once never go back. Loads of Germans and Scottish.

Overall I would say I enjoyed my stay at these apartments. When we first arrived, we were a bit dismayed to find so many steps everywhere! We had a buggy with us and were constantly lugging it up and down these stairs until we found the slightly longer, but easier slopes!!
The room we stayed in was great because it was close to the pool on the ground floor, but this is a big complex with three separate pool areas, a dining hall across a road and the "Show Bar" outside and under the reception area where it was extremely hot (no aircon) and a bit smoky because there was nothing and nowhere for the smoke to go.
The evening entertainment consisted of 2 girls and 1 young guy doing their very best, but it was a bit like a sixth form review! However, they worked extremely hard and our kids loved them and that is what really mattered because we spent our time chatting to other adults.
The beds are comfortable and the aircon works well in the rooms, the fridge we had was a bit knackered but again, it worked.
As for the food, there was always something you could eat. Always a pasta dish, fish, and a meat choice. Loads of salad, always chips, brekkie was a bit ropey but lunch is good so you could have an early lunch and a late evening meal.
The one thing which I thought was not good was the fact the pool near the snack bar got very full of boisterous noisy people, lots of toys etc, and no life guard.
Like I said earlier, I did enjoy this holiday, the marina is something else, and you’ll go green with envy when you see some of the boats! Take a trip to the beach on the little train that goes around the kids love it.
The staff in the Spar shop down the bottom are rude so don't expect anything there! And you'll meet Hour the black lady from Sierra Leone who calls out "baby darling" to plait your hair (all the kids, even the boys had their hair plaited and you can expected to pay about 20euros for 1kid, and 35euros for two).

Stomach bug on the 4th day, unclean pool area room cleaned twice in 9 days.
Kids club lost kids, entertainment wouldn’t pass x factor. Loads of steps to far from resort centre & beach trains a rip off. Stayed at better 2 star hotels.
Good points, cheap taxi marina was nice but our hotel was rubbish you had to get up at 6.30am to get the best sun beds and wild dogs often came to have a drink the pool water.

Every year we book a cheap deal through Teletext and have never had a bad holiday but this is the worst we have ever had.
The hotel looked run down when we arrived but clean. Our room was fine but we had to ask 3 days in a row for the room to be cleaned and for clean towels.
The two major bad points of this holiday were the food and the kids club.
The food was really bad and 2 out of 4 of our party went down with sickness for 3 days of the holiday.
Secondly - do not put your kids in the kids club! We left our 5 year old with them only to spot her an hour later wandering round the main pool (she can’t swim) on her own!
Also the entertainment was really poor and in a windowless, non-air conditioned, basement room full of smokers. Overall do not go here unless you really have to.

I have just returned from the Puerto Del Sol, Cala D'or, and Majorca with my partner, mum, sister and my daughter and was extremely disappointed with the place.
My 5 year old attended the kids club on the last day, as we were busy the rest of the time. I dropped her off with two reps and my name and room number was taken and I was asked to return to the same point to collect at 4.45pm. However, at 4.15pm I walked down to get drinks from the bar and was shocked to find she wasn't there!
I was angry and complained to the hotel management who I must say were extremely kind and helpful about the whole situation. The reps did come and find me to apologise but it was really too late for that. I would warn anyone to keep a watchful eye on their children when leaving them at the kids club.
Then there was the food. I have been too many all inclusive and none have been excellent but that is what I would expect so I was aware that the food may not be great.
It was way below average, and my daughter and sister were both sick and quite ill for a day or so of the holiday. They would take away the food the minute dinner was finished and turn off the drink machines even before dinner had finished.
When you asked questions about the food (which was hardly ever clearly labelled) you were just greeted with rude and unfriendly staff, who basically new nothing about the food they were giving you. I wouldn't touch the scrambled eggs or most of the sausages they put out, as they looked totally inedible. After the sickness it put me off!
The entertainment was in a stuffy horrible social club type bar downstairs. It consisted of the mini disco which was good for the kids and our highlight of the night was bingo, although the microphone didn't seem to work and everyone complained they couldn't hear a word the girl was saying.
After this there was some sort of show or an audience participation game and I have to say the looks on everyone’s faces was a picture. Gobsmacked! It was unbearable and embarrassing to watch the shows they were trying to put on, although I felt quite sorry for them because they obviously don't have much to work with.
After a few nights my partner refused to sit in there after the bingo and we would sit upstairs in the bar instead which has few tables outside for you to sit considering we were on holiday in a hot place, who wants to sit inside?
Next was the trek to the bar. We chose the pool nearest to our room, as we had to get towels on beds at 7.30am in the morning to even stand a chance.
Unfortunately there was just one bar serving drinks and we had to walk to the other pool to get drinks, hard when you need to carry 5 drinks and a kid’s ice cream! They definitely need more bars! It's not really all inclusive either, as the food stopped after dinner at 8.30pm s if you didn't make it to dinner...tough!
My mum's room wasn't cleaned for 5 days and they had to go and ask 3 times for a maid to come and clean it. Ours was cleaned once in the whole week also and we had to just help ourselves to towels from the bags left at the bottom of the stairs and the toilet rolls were hardly ever replaced in the poolside toilets... very poor.
Finally....on the plus side the apartments are lovely and well done out with a kitchen etc which was an added bonus for All Inclusive and our party thought that it would have worked brilliantly as apartments, all inclusive unfortunately it did not work at all!!
If you've already booked then I would recommend visiting the TEX MEX restaurant on the marina. We couldn't stand the food anymore and this was a lovely change, our best night there!
If you want a cheap all inclusive which is great for kids and adults alike, I would recommend the Cala Romani in Callas De Majorca for less than the Puerto Del Sol, you get a whole lot more!