Ondina

The Ondina is a 6-floor 2star hotel which is well-positioned close to shops, bars and the beachfront. A taxi from the airport cost us 20 Euros.
The Ondina lobby is quite impressive – clean and spacious with a bar and pleasant seating areas inside and out. We arrived before our room was ready and had the use of the luggage room (which also had toilet/washing facilities available).
Unfortunately, the upper floors are not of the same standard as reception with all areas looking tired and in need of updating and two very small lifts (capacity 3 and 5 (small!) people respectively) servicing the whole hotel.
Our twin-bedded room was on the 5th floor with a very small balcony (no washing line) overlooking other hotels. The room itself was basic but a good size with enough drawer/hanging space, a desk, and chairs. There was no TV, tea-making facilities, mini-bar, or air conditioning.
The walls were very thin - I could hear someone in another room blowing his/her nose!
The bathroom was adequate with bath/shower, bidet, toilet, and washbasin. There was a problem with the water and at times we had only cold water or none at all, however I don’t think this was usual - we were told by reception that something had broken down.
A number of people (including ourselves) had a problem with the pull-up knob on the bath/shower tap unit being stuck - the maintenance man came quickly and fixed ours in the shower-position and we had no further problem.
The room, bathroom, and balcony were spotlessly clean when we arrived and the maid service was excellent - rooms cleaned, beds made and fresh towels daily.
The pool was small (about 2-airbeds long and 3-airbeds wide!) and deep (2.6m). There was also an even smaller kiddie’s pool! There was only room for about 12 sunbeds and these (and the pools) only received a limited amount of sun throughout the day as the area was surrounded by the rooms.
However the beach was only a short walk away and was very clean and good for swimming.
We were half-board and breakfast and dinner were buffet-style. Breakfast was good – a variety of cereals, rolls, bread (toaster available), croissants, cakes, yoghurt, fruit, ham, salami, cheese, jams, and hot/cold drinks.
Dinner was more limited – soup, rolls and plenty of different salads and desserts but only one hot meat dish, one hot fish dish, one hot veg, chips and (usually plain) pasta. Everything was inoffensive/bland and was ok for a few days but probably would have got a bit boring if you stayed longer!
The restaurant was open from 8am to 10am for breakfast and from 6.30pm to 9pm for dinner. There was never a problem getting a table for breakfast but there was always a queue at 6.30 to get in for dinner.
There were not enough tables and if you didn’t join the (orderly) rush at 6.30 and get in quick, it was better to wait till 7.30 when the early-eaters had finished and there was no problem in getting a table.
Drinks had to be purchased from the waiting staff but we found the beer only slightly higher than outside prices. No checks were made to see if those eating were actually guests of the hotel so anyone could have literally walked in off the street and got a free meal!
Arenal is very much a German resort with few English bars. We tried The Beachcomber, The Hole In The Wall, The Queen Vic, Bogart’s and The Sportsman and found the Sportsman (on the seafront road) to be the friendliest.
Overall, we found the Ondina offered satisfactory accommodation/food for what we paid although many of the facilities (dining area, pool, lifts) were not adequate to cope with the number of guests that the hotel could accommodate.
We are unlikely to stay in either this area or this hotel again.