Riviera Hotel

4 readers found this review helpful

We had been on a holiday in April to Tenerife so we were looking for a cheap second one week holiday and as Spain was offering the cheapest deals I booked to go to the Riviera Hotel at Sanata Susanna. It was all done through On the Beach Holidays and I would never have heard of this hotel or resort otherwise. We normally go self catering and after having booked the holiday I tried everything in my power to change the hotel because the hotel rooms have no kitchenette or fridge but without success. We flew with Ryan Air from Luton to Gerona Airport, which is just twenty four miles from the resort. The flight went to plan and so too did the transfer. We were last out of the terminal building but someone was waiting for us and our coach took us to the hotel. From the fist moment of seeing this hotel, I was impressed and it was much nicer than a lot of the negative criticism of this forum. The rooms are small, certainly too small for a family of four. They call them family rooms but are just doubles with some of the furniture taken out and another two single beds being added. The breakfast was great and so too was the evening meal but it is worth getting down early and getting towards the head of the queue for the best tables and food. The hotel has two pools (one being very small for young children) and the other one can be deep in the deep end and there are no life guards so beware if you have young children swimming unsupervised. There is an open air market on a Tuesday morning and it can be reached by coming out of the hotel and turning right towards the railway station of Santa Susanna some one quarter of a mile away. There is also an open air market in Malgrat del Mar on Thursdays. I recommend a boat ride on the Blue Eye boat going to Tossa. Do not get off at Tossa de Mar but stay on one stop and alight at the old town of Tossa. It looks nothing much from the boat but the views from the castle are amazing and the back streets of this little town are very nice indeed. Come out of the hotel and turn left. Walk down towards Malgrat del Mar and there is a small travel office where an Austrian woman works. She will sell you tickets and the children go for free if they are six or under. If you buy at the hotel or on the beach you will pay for the whole party so beware. About seventy per cent of the Riviera's holiday makers are from Eastern Europe with Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and the British making up the rest. You will not speak to them and they will not speak to you. The Russians only speak Russian with Russians and unless you are from Amsterdam a Dutchman will not entertain you either but after all, this is a great budget holiday and it will be whatever you want to make of it for yourself. There are two lifts, both very small so it might be quicker to use the stairs at busy times. There is a hotel next door called the Sant Hardi and it is full of young holiday makers. At night they could be quite noisy shouting out in the middle of the night. We closed our patio door and turned the air conditioning on and it seemed to work well. The rooms are indeed small but the weather was great so we only slept in the rooms, otherwise we were out all day and evening time too. The walks in the evening were the best part of the day were very nice. If you want, you can take the train to Barcelona, which is seventy one miles away or one hour seven minutes by train. I can not say anything about Barcelona as we did not have time to go there. It might be worth learning Spanish as English is a bit limited in town as well as in the hotel. On the whole, I would rate the Riviera Hotel as an excellent clean five star Scandinavian style hostel, no more, no less. If you are a solicitor from Weybridge taking your wife on a fortieth wedding anniversary, this may not be for you but if you are a smoking Mirror reading plumbers mate from Bolton, what more could you ask for? Sun, sun and yet more sun as well as Ryan Air. If you fly in to Gerona Airport it will be Ryan Air-there is no choice so beware of that unless you want to fly in to Barcelona and accept the longer transfer time, which that involves. Remember that there is no kettle or fridge in the rooms but you can, like me, invest in a cool box, which works on the mains. I ordered it on line and it cost me £70. Very well worth the investment too. People mention the beach. The beach was nice and clean though the sand was not the best softest that I have experienced in the World but compared to Turkey where the water is always freezing and the beach is just hard sharp rock this was paradise.

2 readers found this review helpful

Myself, my sister and partners stayed at hotel riviera for 7 nights, we thought it was worth the money seeing as it was a budget price we paid.
We read all reviews about the hotel and the place itself and we really thought we made a mistake not reading them before we booked it, so to be honest we were not looking forward to our holiday!!
We arrived at the hotel and the reception staff were very friendly, everyone there looked happy, the hotel itself looked fine.
We requested pool view and two rooms near each other, we got both which was great.
The rooms were cleaned every day, towels changed every day and bedding twice a week.
The pool was lovely, but there wernt many sunbeds unless you got up and down the pool by 9.00am to put your towels on the sunbeds!!
The bar staff in the bar by the reception were so kind and friendly. They always remembered are drinks!! You could sit outside and watch the entertainment of the hotel next door as nothing really went on in the riviera.
The food was ok not great but what do you expect for the price.
The beach was nice which is just under the subway to the other side.
There were a few bars with entertainment but mainly hotels which you can go into and watch. Our favourite bar we went to was The Ship its just opposite the hotel under the subway, it is english run and they have quizzes, games and karoke every night, the staff were so friendly, and the prices of drink were good.
There were a few night clubs but they dont get busy till bout 1am and when we went in them thay wernt that great, we prefered the bars, but thats just us.
Overall our stay was great, the weather was great and i would definately stay at hotel riviera again, and i havent got a bad word to say about it.

Just got back from a 6 night stay at the Riviera Hotel. I had booked the holiday without seeing the reviews but decided to look at the reviews before we went. I am pleased to say that the negative comments were not upheld by my experiences.
Checking into the hotel was simple and the staff were friendly and polite. The hotel is extremely clean. The cleaning staff are up early every morning cleaning away the debris from the previous evening outside the hotel and the foyer and swimming pool area are spotless. I can say the same for the room. The maids came in every day and changed the towels and the room was spotless. My main worry had been the water. After reading the comments about brown water, the first thing I did when I arrived was to run the taps and to my great relief the water was Clear!!! No terrible smells, just good clean water! The air conditioning worked well too!
The hotel did have a lot of foreign guests but then so did all the other hotels in Santa Susanna! This is a popular holiday destination for many Europeans. There were lots of Germans, French, Italians etc. and they were all Really friendly in spite of the communication difficulties. It's amazing what the power of a smile can do!!!!
The food was ok. So it wasn't prepared by Albert Roux but there was plenty of choice and it was palatable. There was plenty of fruit too, which was good. We ate out on the resort a couple of times and to be honest the food is much the same in the bars as it is in the hotel.... all a little too salty for my taste but then that's just me. We didn't pick a particular time for breakfast or dinner and the only time we had to queue was when we turned up just before they opened. The staff in the restaurant were very friendly too!
The beach is close by and whilst it is not soft sand, the slightly gritty texture does have its advantages...it doesn't stick to you!!!
This was a cheap holiday and I have no complaints whatsoever. If you want a hotel that serves English food, where the guests and staff all speak English perhaps you should try somewhere closer to home like erm!!!! ENGLAND!!!

2 readers found this review helpful

It's three star so I wasn't expecting the best food in the world but there was plenty of choice and always something for me and two fussy children.
The buffet style breakfast had toast (if you could get near it for the germans!! what is it with them lot! they become amazingly territorial over toasters? I took it over on my last day and did 8 slices much tutting and harrumping ensued which just added to my jolly holiday spirit)boiled scrambled and fried eggs cerial, yoghurt ,fruit, bacon ,sausage and beans.... come on.. there has to be something on there for everyone.. as well as the usual cheese and cooked meats and bread roll and jams.....
BURGER KING IS NEXT DOOR ... FOR EMERGENCIES!
Majority of the guests were dutch/chek/polish/german and miserable as sin, we had a great time spotting the silent breakfasters ...grunting at each other by the pool and still not speaking at dinner time ... hysterical!
Usual parlarva over sunbeds, despite big sign saying you cant leave your beach towel on them there was always a few lurkers at 9.15 waiting for the cleaning man to finish so they could go and bag sunbeds which they subsequently failed to use untill late on in the afternoon.
Great for a stroll after your dinner lots of craft stalls, a bit of a play area for the kids and a small fairground in one direction and loads of souvenir shops and various street performers the other way.(look out for the worlds worst human statue dressed as a flamenco dancer!)
Train to barcelon only just over 6 euros (remember to look for the blanes train coming back as santa susanna isnt listed on the monitors)
entertainment at hotel was pretty lame to be honest ... if ray (curly perm and moustache) white (i think) is on... leg it.. anywhere is better than enduring that

The bar at the side of the reception was the best, the staff were great .. friendly helpful and happy and didnt mind you sitting outside and enjoying the far superior entertainment at the hotel next door.
Reception staff were a bit frazzled when we arrived (tues and sat seem to be their major workload days) but were really helpful when we asked them anything.
The beach is only under a subway over the road and is fairly clean.. apart from cigarette ends!
We got fresh towels every day and fresh sheets twice a week, and our room was pretty compact but was cleaned perfectly every day.
I would definitely use this hotel again, i can out rude people who are rude to me and enjoy unnerving them by being smiley and happy and you know... acting like i'm on my holidays!

I read the reviews before going on holiday with a family group of eight to the Riviera Hotel. I was very worried that I had made a terrible mistake however we were pleasantly surprised. Our four rooms were clean and tidy (fairly basic but adequate) and there was a daily maid service and towel change. The hotel staff were friendly and helpful and the restaurant provided a good selection of meals to suit everyone in the group. The location of the hotel was ideal as it was close to the beach, train station and bus services. The resort had a large number of shops, bars and restaurants within walking distance. Overall the hotel provided excellent value for money and the experience was very positive.

1 reader found this review helpful

Just returned after a week in the Riviera and to be honest was pleasantly suprised after reading the negative comments. I can see how some people have been disappointed by the hotel but on the whole I thought we had a good deal, yes the hotel is mainly full of German, Dutch, Polish and Russian guests and you do have to be able to tolerate their sometimes arogant and rude nature (they don't understand how to queue) but the food was more than acceptable in the restaurant and if you picked the right time to go it wasn't such a problem, for instance the best time for breakfast was 8.15am as the diehards who would queue for the doors to open at 8.00am were in and sorted and you missed the main rush which seemed to be seemed to be 9.00am to 9.30am (if you left it to the last minute ie. 9.45am you stood the chance of nothing being left). It was the same for the evening meal which was from 6pm onwards, again if you left it 15mins you could walk straight in and get a table and comfortably get fed before the mad rush which was 7.30pm 'til 8.00pm. A couple of times I thought the food was not quite hot enough but there were two microwaves that you could use to warm things up if you wanted to. I have to say that I am a very fussy eater and wasn't really looking forward to the half board deal that we had taken but there was always something there that I could eat and plenty of it. It's worth noting that if you go to this resort on a B&B basis there aren't really any restaurants to get fed at, just a couple of Brit bars that served food (the drunken duck just around the corner looked very good).
The hotel in gereral was OK and just about justfied a 3 star rating, the rooms were small but they were clean and the sheets were changed once and the towels changed every day (if you left them on the floor or in the bath, otherwise I think they would not bother). Air con did the job and kept us cool at night.
We didn't really bother with the entertainment as a short stroll away there were lots of hotels with outside entertainment which was free to all.
All in all I would stop here again and would recommend it as a good hotel for families and couples.
The resort is very nice and quiet and despite a disco next door we were not bothered by late night revellers who in the main seemed to be very well behaved.

Just arrived back from a weeks holiday, at the riviera hotel . The hotel its self is very clean and tidy , until you arrive at your room , the rooms are very small, the bathrooms are dirty and smelly , towels not changed regular,
The food was quite good , you never failed to find something to eat, breakfasts were extremely greasey, and be prepared to clean away the table , before you use it ,
Entertainment was ok , but we had best of both worlds. The hotel opposite had good entertainment so you could see that from the top bar . Infairness for the price we paid ,we would probably go back , but they really would do themselves a favour by sorting the smell in the bathrooms , and upgrading the bathrooms.

We have just returned from a 4 day break and all i can say is yes all the negative comments are correct. 99% of the guests are German, Russian or Polish. Ignorant, rude and nasty. Food terrible and only caters for foreign visitors, that is unless you love fish for breakfast, dinner and tea with their heads still attached. Hotel clean but wont be going there again. Paid a 20 euro refundable deposit for the tv remote and guess what? All channels are spanish or German! Funny seeing all the bars have Sky TV. Malgrat de Mar is much better resort and only a 10 minute walk away. If you get a cheap enough deal I would recommend you stayed there.

we had a good time at riviera and going back on 4 aug 2008 /11 aug 2008 the best time we have had in spain and santa susanna is a good resort for all ( food good hotel good pool good bar good nights are good to roll on aug 4 2008

We had read the reviews on this hotel before we went and we were not sure what to expect. We were pleasantlly surprised, the rooms are very clean and the maid came in every day. We found the food to be very good. with plenty of choice for everyone. we never had to queue to get into the resturant and the staff were very helpful, it is situated in an ideal place, just ten minutes walk to the train station where you can go anywhere on the costa brava and it is very cheap. we had our 6 year old twin grandaughters with us and they had a great time in the childrens pool, i would reccomend this hotel to anyone as we will be going back.