Caleta Palace

13 readers found this review helpful

We have just returned from a weeks all inclusive at this hotel and were concerned before we went about what we had let ourselves in for after reading the reviews. We had a fantastic time, our arrival transfer was quick and comfortable, no hanging around waiting we were at the hotel within 45 mins of landing at Gerona Airport. We were greeted by name by the reception staff, who were very friendly and pleasant throughout our stay. The actual hotel is in a fantastic position right on the beach, the pool was large and there was a large area with sunbeds (we didnt have to fight to get one!) We were given a family room as we were traveling 2 adults and 1 child which was very spacious, the bathroom was huge and we had a balcony overlooking the patio seating area. The bar and restaurant staff were also friendly and always had a smile for us. The food was the usual standard for all inclusive in spain, not brilliant, but we never went hungry! We were allowed to get 2 drinks each from the bar per all inclusive card, which was enough and the bar closed at midnight, with snacks available until 11.45pm. All in all this was a great value for money holiday, yes you had a good mixture of British/Spanish/French/German, but variety is the spice of life and we never felt as if we were being treated any differently from anyone else throughout our stay. If I had one critism of this holiday, is that throughout our stay we had several British School trips staying at the hotel, so sometimes we were overun by not very well behaved teenagers, which the teachers didnt seem to have control over, but thankfully they went on a lot of day trips. Would I go back? Yes I definately would!

THE CALETA PALACE AT PLAYA DE ARO,WHAT CAN I SAY,THE HOTEL ITSELF IS CLEAN AND TIDY,EXCELLENT POSITION STRAIGHT ONTO THE BEACH AND CLOSE TO THE TOWN.WE MET SOME VERY NICE PEOPLE ON HOLIDAY AND DID HAVE A LAUGH.THE DOWNSIDE WAS THEY DO NOT LIKE BRITISH PEOPLE IN THIS AREA OF SPAIN.THERE WERE LOTS OF GERMAN FRENCH AND SPANISH ON HOLIDAY ASWELL WHO WERE ALL TOTALLY IGNORANTE AND RUDE.THERE WAS NO EVENING ENTERTAINMENT,ONLY DANCING ONCE A WEEK FOR THE FRENCH OR SPANISH COACH PARTY`S. TV AND BACKGROUND MUSIC WAS ALWAYS IN SPANISH {I THINK THIS WAS MAINLY FOR STAFF] NEVER IN ENGLISH.FOOD WAS USUALLY LOTS OF FISH MOSTLY FRENCH STYLE FOOD,DIFFERENT MEATS BUT NOTHING LABELLED SO YOU DID NOT KNOW WHAT YOU WERE EATING,FOR EXAMPLE HORSE AND RABBIT WAS MENTIONED THERE WAS ALSO PIGS TROTTERS [YUCK].TABLES WERE ALWAYS RESERVED FOR THE FRENCH OR OTHER PARTY`S, SOME MEALTIMES WE HAD TO QUEUE FOR TABLES AS SO MANY HAD BEEN RESERVED.ONE EVENING THE WAITRESS CALL A BRITISH WOMAN GREEDY BECAUSE SHE HAD A LOT ON HER PLATE,IF YOU ARE QUEUEING FOR FOOD THE GERMANS FRENCH AND SPANISH JUST PUSHED PASSED YOU IGNORANTE WAS NOT THE WORD.THE BAR WELL THAT WAS SOMETHING ELSE TWO DRINKS WAS YOUR LIMIT,IF THERE WAS THREE OR MORE IN YOUR GROUP YOU HAD TO GO UP AGAIN,THEY ALSO WATCH YOUR TABLE TO SEE HOW MANY DRINKS YOU HAD,THEY TELL YOU OFF IF YOU HAVE TO MANY.
GENERALLY MOST OF THE STAFF ARE IGNORANTE AND RUDE,VERY RARELY DO THEY SPEAK OR SMILE,IF YOU ARE ENJOYING YOUSELF TO MUCH THE SECURITY MEN COME AND TELL YOU TO BE QUIET,IF YOU GET A BIT MERRY THEY TAKE YOUR PHOTOGRAPH,THEN ANYWHERE BETWEEN 12o/c and 1o/c THEY COME AND SHAKE YOUR CHAIR AND TELL YOU IT IS TIME FOR BED WHAT A JOKE I`M ON BLOODY HOLIDAY FOR GODS SAKE.ON THE DAY WE LEFT THERE WAS TWELVE FAMILY`S LEAVING NOT ONE SAID THEY WOULD COME BACK,EVERYBODY`S COMMENTS WERE I WILL BE GLAD TO GET HOME.WOULD I GO THERE AGAIN NOT ON YOUR LIFE,WOULD NOT RECCOMMEND TO ANYBODY.IF THERE WERE A FEW SMILES AND YOU WERE MADE WELCOME WHICH WE WERE NOT THINGS MIGHT HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT
BARRIE AND DENISE GILES TAUNTON SOMERSET

5 readers found this review helpful

i loved it
the food was great the waiters were kind
the sea was wonderfull and the pool was beautiful
the rules were abit strict on kids but it didnt matter
i made lots of friends my friends came fromm all over the world from germany to england
the town center was just a stone throw away
if your looking for a lovely holiday book hotel caleta palace :)

i loved my holiday x

Was on holiday here from 18/09/08-02/10/08. Read Holidayhotels.co.uk before going & it seemed OK. Holidayhotels.co.uk was wrong on some info, could have been time of season. Was there on All Inclusive basis.
AI food & drinks, there was no Gala Meal for the two weeks we were there. Pool bar was not open every day so you had to go to the main bar from the pool.
At reception there are no bicycles for rent. There is no hairdresser, free or otherwise, laundry or supermarket at all. There was no organised kids programme or any entertainment (animation) for them. The TVs in common areas seemed to be for the staff entertainment only, IE Spanish TV programmes.
Car parking in hotel grounds is 10 Euros a day. Safe boxes are 4 Euros a day.
Bar staff are very strict on only two drinks being served per person & only two drinks at the table per person.
Standard of food dropped dramatically when the French & Spanish holiday coaches stopped coming to the hotel, complaining seemed to work for a couple of days afterwards. These coach people are also given priority in the restauarant, ignore the reserved place settings & sit where you like, if asked to move tell them to find you a table.
There was no entertainment except Saturday nights when a couple of dancers appeared. Then a Romaniain with a small disco for a couple of nights. When we had a sing song, security came down, took photos of singers, warned them & then tried to send them to their rooms shouting "BED".
Playa De Aro is not a typical "British" resort & is very expensive, caters a lot for Swiss & other European countries. Clothes, shoes, handbags are minmum 50 Euros. Pint of beer 4 Euros, Bacardi & Coke 7.5 Euros. Will stick to Costa Del Sol & Benidorm in future.
Les & Yvonne, Aberdeen.

The good points:- This hotel is set right on the seafront, the location of this hotel is perfect, and is only a short walk to the town centre. The rooms we stayed in were clean and well maintained. The cleaners were very friendly, and changed the towels and bedding on a regular basis. We made friends with some lovely people there, ( If any of you Brits who stayed there want to get in touch with myself or Sue our email is:-
easthamalf@hotmail.co.uk.
Now the bad points:- The exept for the cleaners the Spanish staff had no time for the British, on numerious occasions they put reserved signs on 3/4 of the tables for anyone but the British. (The first time I took photo's the reserved signs were upright, the manager saw what I was doing, and the next day the signs were lying down on the tables), The manager told me "the British sit on the tables on the right and thats where you have to stay. For a 3star hotel the food had alot to be desired, Pork (pink inside) Chicken (when cut displaying red juices from the center) undercooked Bacon (it made a colourful meal). It's a good job they had a microwave to heat up the meals properly, otherwise more people would have had Gandi's Revenge.
I have photographs of food being left on the tables from lunch, right through the day till at least 9.30,( when we went out for a drink). When tables became empty, the waiters were in no hurry to clear them, because they knew we would take the dirty dishes back ourselves so we could eat.
They had entertainment, but only for the Spanish guests.
There were cigarette ends and litter on the patio floor, because the ashtrays were rarer than rocking horse manure, and there were no litter bins.
When you queued up in the bar for a cup of tea (yes cup of tea) there would be 1 or sometimes 2 people serving (and they were in no rush) when you eventualy got served
they would give you the tea, and walk away quickly knowing damn well they had'nt give you the milk, when asked they would say "wait I am serving" (I suppose it's the Spanish sense of humour)
All I can say about this hotel is STAY AWAY! The staff don't want the British there, Sun4 U know whats going on, I rang them up and I asked them to send a rep out, but they did'nt. On returning I got intouch again, I have just recieved an email from them telling me that they are making enquiries with the hotel concerning my complaints.
Some of the other guests have some really bad experiences with this hotel, and I hope they get in touch and warn others.

After booking this holiday for a short 3 night break I read the reviews and was dreading the break if honest but pleased to say it was not half as bad as the reviews had suggested. The hotel was clean, staff friendly, food good, rooms basic but adequate. The bar shut at 11pm which was a shame but the resort itself was great and wine was very cheap £4 for 5 litres of red wine! We didn't experience any unfriendly staff and the only night we couldn't sit anywhere was a night the hotel had an occassion on but apart from that we could sit wherever we wanted for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Playa De Aro is a lovely part of spain, the beaches are beautiful although pebbly not sand but I don't like sand anyway so that didnt matter. This hotel is right on the beach so we had the choice of the pool area or the beach. One of the best european beaches I have ever seen and great for walking along with beautiful scenery. I can really recommend this resort and the hotel as it was good value for money. The only down side to our short break was the transfer from the airport to the hotel and the return journey. Like other people mentioned our flight outbound was delayed so we missed our original transfer so we had to wait for over an hour while other flights arrived. Then we were put on a coach which dropped us of at Loret where we had to wait for another hour for a taxi to take us to the hotel. It was the same on the way home. Our flight was 11pm and we were collected at 3pm and then dropped at Loret on the side of the road where we had to wait another hour. We finally got to the airoprt 5 hours before our flight was due to leave. This was very badly organised by SUN4U and as it was a short break we spent a lot of that break getting to and from the airport. SUN4U need to look into this as other people were left stranded at Loret in the middle of the night and you do not even know what side of the road to stand or when the taxi will turn up. On the way home we stood on the other side of where the coach turned up and we had to run across a very busy dual carriage way which felt very unsafe to say the least. Some people we met at the hotel actually missed their transfer due to delayed flights and had to pay £150 to get to the hotel as there was not coach to take them. I know that holiday companies try and keep the cost of holidays low but at the end of the day people would rather pay extra for safety and ease of getting to their hotel and back to the airport. The least SUN4U could do is make holiday makers aware of what is involved in the transfer and then they have a choice. I would go back to Playa De Aro and would probably stay at the same hotel for a short break. I wouldn't ever want to experience the dreadful transfers again!

3 readers found this review helpful

I have to give this hotel a 10 as i had absooutely no complaints! The hotel was lovely! It was located on the beach and had a lovely pool area and patio area - very sociable! The food was fantastic and was not repeated everyday! There were plenty of different meats and lots of fish and always chips and salad if thats what you fancied! If you wanted to go and sit on the beach you could just get all inclusive drinks from the bar and take them to the beach which saved a lot of money! At your evening meal you could get as manty bottles of wine from the dining room as you wanted and go and sit on the patio and eat your meal and drink wine if you didnt want to queue at the bar or just save your bottles of wine until the bar shut!! We had no problems with the staff at the hotel althougg a lot of people complained about them! In fact there were a lot of people complaining about a lot of things but i think it was just them wanting to complain rather than the hotel or the staff! We are a couple in our 30s who like a good holiday with nice food, plenty of drink and a good atmosphere and we got all this! We met some lovely people there and would say it is a very sociable hotel. The onlyl problem was out of the hotel as there wasnt a great deal to do, and it was very spanish and didnt cater very well for the english but if you find the right company and the right bar then you do have a good laugh! I would reccomend going here but not if you are up for a totally wild holiday just a little wild!

Best advise to anyone reading this is NOT TO GO.Just back from 6 nights at this hotel and what a relief to get home.Hubby and I travelled from manchester and flew to Barcelona. We were taken by coach to Loret and dropped off on a street corner and told a mini bus would pick us up in 5 mins to take us to hotel.1 HOUR LATER at 10.35 PM the mini bus arrived.When we got to hotel it was 11.05PM 5 minutes late for all inclusive drinks so we had to pay for drinks.We were both starving but no food available.Room very basic but ok I suppose .Hotel full of French and Spanish who were treated like royalty,reserved tables in the dining room,always served first with drinks.The only entertainment was Spanish music in the inside bar area in which all the Spanish and French were waltzing to.So they had entertainment but us brits had none.One night my husband my self and another couple were sat having drinks the time was 12.15 am and two security guards appeared and asked us to leave or they would get the police I could understand that if we were roudy or lager louts but I can assure we are not just a couple wanting a relaxing drink on holiday.So the rules seemed to be after bar shuts at midnight everyone must leave I felt like I was on a curfew.The pool bar was open once while we were there.There was no animation team whatsoever well not for us brits anyway.The food was cold and the conditions in the dining room I felt like I was in a workmans canteen,so we decided to eat out most nights. We found the staff very miserable and they had the couldnt be bothered attitude some times I felt like I was begging for drinks .I would not reccommend this hotel to anyone so be forewarned DO NOT BOOK THIS HOTEL YOU WILL REGRET IT !!!!!!

me and my partner went to lloret on the 13th September the weather was absolutely brilliant. our hotel was very basic but spotless. everybody was helpful. you could not have asked for it closer to the beach or the shops and bars. ideally situated. the hotel only did continental breakfast but we went there on the cheap so what do you expect. i would definitely reccomend this hotel to my friends as it was ample for what we wanted. i have stayed in hotels that have been twice as much as this and did not get my towels changed everyday like this one. overall i would go back to this hotel again but would upgrade to a room with a balcony.

absoulety agree the staff here are rude and racist against brits was told i wouldnt get served first because of the colour of my white skin. one lady barstaff ran off in a stress nwhilst in the middle of serving me..totally rude they will ignore u for ten plus mins at the bar and will even give u wrong drinks. the hotel itself ok..setting lovely the food is not marked up withwhat it is,,so beware if u have allergies. be prepared at 11.30 to be told to go back to your rooms..totally stressy staff ruined the holiday..i would never ever recommend this place to anyone. Believe what u read its true. The only channels u get in your room are cnn and eurosports so no satlitte tv at all..thats if tv works. the entertainment is rubbish they got spanish dancers in one night but i thinkthat was for their own benfit coz that was the only night the barstaff smiled. im glad to be home.diabolical expirence..get me another holiday!!