Hotel Villa Real

Camp de Mar is a lovely quiet resort ideal for couples and families. The hotel is in a good position close to the beautiful beach. We were travelling with our two young children aged two and one. The positives about the hotel were that it was spotlessly clean, the rooms were spacious and the staff were friendly and helpful. The hotel has recently been converted to apartments so two rooms have been joined to make what is advertised as one bedroom apartments - but herein lies the big letdown for us. We booked this hotel believing it to be a "one bedroom apartment". Whenever we have stayed in Aparthotels before there has been a separate lounge and bedroom. There is no door between the lounge and bedroom in these apartments, only an open archway. In fact, there was no seating in the lounge area, only a single bed. For these reasons we feel this hotel should be advertised as studio apartments, not "one bedroom" which usually implies a separate living area. We had to creep around in complete darkness when we put the children in bed and ended up sitting on the balcony whispering over a candle since there was no outside light. Although parts of the hotel have been upgraded recently, (new lift, doors, windows, tiling, kitchenettes and some furniture) parts of it are very tired and it is VERY basic. We don't mind basic but the layout of the rooms makes it completely unsuitable for families with young children. My one piece of advice would be unless you fancy going to bed at the same time and in the same room as your children every night don't book this hotel. Having said all that if we found out that they had put doors in and a double bed settee in the lounge we would return. We would recommend the Arco Iris 2000 restaurant (the yellow one at the end of the bay) for excellent and affordable food. We had good meals at Le Petit Ambassador (on beach) and Gran Sol (up the hill from the hotel) too. The pool bar does excellent and reasonable lunches and the bakery just before the Spar up the hill is great. Go to the supermarket in Peguera rather than shop at the Spar, you'll save a fortune!

The Villa Real is basic, but clean and comfortable, and gives excellent value for money. Large furnished balconies are great. No air conditioning a definite minus, but fans are provided. Swimming pool large and surrounded by terrific scenery with a brilliant snack bar which is open all day selling, soft drinks, alcohol, ice creams, crisps, pizzas, freshly made baguettes, lasagne, toast, chips and more. The kids loved it! Camp de Mar is small and peaceful, with a beautiful beach and a few restaurants and a good pub. Small supermarket very close by, (everything is very close by). A little too small for us to occupy ourselves every evening, the taxi rank is no more than 100 feet from the villa real's door, Cheap taxis to Magaluf, Palma Nova, Santa Ponsa and Andraxt, all only a short distance away, so this was definitely a very good base. While there we spent a day at Aqualand in Magaluf which was great and the highlight of my holiday a visit to the amazing Pirates show in Magaluf! It cost £147 for 2 kids and 2 adults, but was absoleutly amazing, just a fantastic experience, I was stunned! We were well fed and watered there and returned with some great souvenir photos! If you visit Magaluf, be sure to visit the House of Katmandu, a new attraction for 2007 and well worth a look! I hope you enjoy your trip to the villa real, I would certainly go again.....

great apartments ,camp de mar lovely and quiet,great beach and pool at hotel, try the la siesta for great fresh fish,all in all a great hotel

well having just returned from villa real i felt i had to write this review,the hotel was just as the recent reviews stated,very friendly staff and owners who speak very good English,lovely big apartments and a smashing pool area with plenty of space and was never crowded even though we were there during the school holidays,Camp de mar itself is very quiet with only a handfull of bars and about 3 restaurant's dined at Bagara the first night which was ok but not outstanding,the next 3 nights we dined in the nearby town of Paguara which was much more lively and some lovely restaurant's did try the bar with all the lights that looks out onto the beach but the staff were so unfriendly we did not return,the hotel bar was the most reasonable prices we found anywhere and very friendly service.The pool area had a snack bar which was very reasonable,and lovely food although the choice isnt massive the food was freshly cooked and served up by a very friendly and helpful lady.The only down side to the apartments is that they have no air conditioning and the nights were almost unbearable ,you couldn't open the patio doors because the mosquitoes just ate u alive,we tried every cream ,spray and plugins available but my two children suffered terrible and we were quite glad to be home away from the mosquitoes that really spoiled what is a lovely area of majorcca and a lovely apartments,My main advice would be avoid the small supermarket on the beach because the prices are ridiculous and the owner was the most rudist person i have ever come across,instead go to the spar which is only a short walk up the hill to the right of villa real.Take a bottle opener because the hotel one is all but useless and if u need anything just ask because within 2 hrs of asking for a toaster we had one in our apartment.we will definitely be returning to villa real but we might just have to pack a fan or THREE.

EVERYTHING changes - but some things stay the same. That's the story of the Villa Real, which has just been converted from an hotel to apartments. Traditionalists will mourn the loss of the sunny dining room with its jade green chandeliers and the cosy lounges with their comfy settees and armchairs, dating from its heyday in the 1970s and 80s. But no business can trade on the past forever. Despite a strong fan base of regulars, mostly older couples, small groups of friends and individuals, there must have been a need to woo new guests, and probably save staff costs too. So apartments have been created from two bedrooms, with a kitchen/diner equipped with table and chairs, settee, portable television, full size fridge, two ring electric hob, kettle and all the crockery and cutlery you might need - except for a decent tin opener or corkscrew. Take your own. Bedroom areas have new pine furniture. Balconies are mostly twice their original size, though the ground floor ones created from the former public rooms offer little privacy. The apartments are not air conditioned. Rooms (the best are on the first and second floor) can get oppressively hot - and opening the balcony doors (even with the outer shutters closed), however briefly, on muggy nights when there are mosquitos about is not recommended, as we discovered on our recent stay. Go prepared is the message. The pool area with its kiosk serving snacks and drinks is delightful. You can take a very basic breakfast here or pop up the road a few yards to the Bar Bagari for more choice at breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is very popular with Villa Real devotees. How successful it is in bringing in a new generation of guests remains to be seen. First signs seem encouraging. We suspect most old hands will accept the changes, enjoy the new freedom they allow, and still want their annual 'fix', as long as the rates represent excellent value for money, as they do at present. A few might find the growing number of families with young children - inevitable in any such transformation - problematic, but those we saw were very well behaved. The Villa Real is run by a charming, hard working family which also owns one of Camp de Mar's main attractions - the Illeta island bar/cafe. They deserve success in their latest venture and we wish them well.

Stayed at the apartments as part of a large group. Apartments are newly converted from a hotel and some finishing touches are still being added...tv arrived one day, chopping board another! Very nice secluded pool area with large sun terraces and pool bar. Staff all very friendly. Apartments are in a quiet resort and although this is what we like as a group we found Camp de Mar to be a little too quiet and ended up getting taxis in to neighbouring Peguera a few nights. Finally, if you do go request a apartment overlooking the pool. We had six apartments overlooking the front (road) and this can get very busy - particularly with Thomson coaches coming and going to the big hotel opposite.

Just returned from a week at this hotel ,what a lovely place to stay ,very clean and spacies,the pool area is very private and overlooks the mountains .The staff are very helpfull and friendly a bit of paridise would go back anytime

My boyfriend and I, have just arrived back from our one week stay in the Camp De Mar Villa Real, and it wasn't what i was expecting, we checked in on the sunday evening after paying almost double in the taxi, that we had read in some other reviews, we inderstood that A taxi ride from Palma Airport would be roughly 25€, but we did it correctly and asked a number of taxi drivers and all of them said roughly 45€, so we had no option. After checking in we were given A small key, that looked like it could open a barn door, attatched to a rather large room number keyring. when i saw the door i relised that this was exactley what i thought it was for, really you didn't need a key with one tap on handle, and this would have jolted the door open. Day 1, we decided to take a trip to Palma (27€ in a taxi and 3.75€ on the bus each way.) a great day out with plenty to do sightseeing, shopping (SHOE SHOPPING!!!) bus tours etc. this was great. We arrived back and decided to see what was about in our resort and to our shock there was nothing three resturants, 2 bars, we at least expected a few tapas bars and some where with some light entertaiment, but there was nothing. 2 of the bar/resturants and tvs, but they would have 3 hour intervals of not playing anything. so we decided to eat in the amassedor, i have never had such a fantastic meal the steak was cooked perfectly and tha mustard saoce was gorgeous, plus we had a bottle of champers which was affordable but nice. On the second day we decided to spend they day by the pool, this was fine. until lunch time i ordered 2 bagettes 8.90€, i thought that this was excpencive, as a pizza was just 5€ none of the food is fresh it is all frozen. later the evening we thought we should try out one of the other resturants on the far end of the beach, with yellow awnings, just by looking at the other people already eating in there I new that this was not one for us. There were three people sat at A table and to be honest, they did not look to satisfied with there meal infront of them. So we went back to the ambassador, again lovley meal not quit as good as the steak though but still plesant. We met up with some more english folk this night and sat chatting for a while, they to were not pleased as they had already been to the yellow resturant and said the food was nice but the staff were not polite at all, they complained about how they had to work 13 hour shifts. we avoided this place. on the third evening we decided to go to Peguera, a resort not far from camp de mar about 5€ in the taxi, but not walkable as on some part of the roadsthere was no pavements. This resort was much more livlier with resturants that staying open past 10 in the evening. After our meal here, we went for a walk and not one shop was different, everyone sold the same stuff, after relising this we got back into our taxi and went back to camp de mar and went to bed. The next few days we spent by the pool, and relaxed, we did however go out in Magaluf, and i can honestly say i am glad we did not stay there it is just crazy, I would deffo recomend BCM Foam and Fire FANTASTIC!!. The taxi ride was quit resonable @ 16€ each way. On our last night we decided to go back to the amassador and had the steak one last time. but this time we did not order the champers as we had done all other times, and when our meal came out the steak was not cooked right and it was literally half the size we should have really guest this when the waiter ask if we wanted anything else after we had ordered ou food and drink. We found the staff ok but would not have gone out of there way. through the week we found out that the hotel bar was closed, so we had gone across over to the thomson gold and the rui which both told us to get out gold pay not to have children and the rui is all inclusive so we could not be in there. personally I did not find this resort how i thought i would, if really dont care this is the right place, but we wanted to come to somewhere with just a small selection of good resturants who value people with money that want to spend in there place. Rather somewhere else. If you want some where with a slight pulse DONNOT come here. We also learned that the villa real i closing down next year and turning into appartments, i suppose this explains the staff attitudes. If i wasn't for the people we met we wuld have been very board hello to everyone!!!

last minute panic to find some were to go for 7 days and the hotel villa real poped up in my searches in the easy hotel site. the price was right but the flights were booked with flyglobespan as thay were cheaper than easyjet on this occasion. this was the first time i have booked everything myself so it was a littel worrying that things might go wrong..it didnt.. The resort was everything we were looking for quiet not to crowded and very clean you should be warned its not the ideal place for teenagers as there is no nightclubs discos or noisy bars. that said there are bars there and very nice relaxing bars thay are. The hotel was again quiet and as an other reviewer has said it has a faded charm about it the breakfast was a continental style buffet which suited us but i did here some brits monaning about there being no eggs and bacon ...... There was a good mix of guests from france spain italy germany ect so it was good to meet people from other countrys rathr than a hotel full of brits. the staff were very frendly and helpfull and were practicaly fluent in english thay also had some good rules to; like not being allowed to leave your towel on the loungers unless you were there to use it although this was ignored on some occations not by the germans but by some brits .... Eating out at night Bargari is highly recomended i had a steak one night and it was falling of each end of the plate and all for 6.50e we also tryed a restaurant by the beach the petit ambassador slightly more expensive very busy but good food bargari wins it turn right out of hotel up the hill aprox 100 yrds. if you want a look around try Andratx wednesday is market day or Paguara both very nice resorts with lots more shops ect and easy to get the bus to or by taxi for aprox 5euros A final bit of advise is airport tranfers these can be arranged with companys who opperate coaches that drop of at hotels all the way out which is fine if there are more than 3 of you but it can take up to one and a half hours to get there if theres only 2 of you get a taxi it costs practicaly the same or less and only 25 min drive try Taxis Palma Radio at entrance 2 of the airport girl is very helpfull and has very good english thay may be on line to take pre bookings now as the young lady was telling me thay were just about to change the web site to do this drivers were very good to. Every thing went like clockwork and the whole holiday was exactly what i wanted it to be 7 days by a nice pool with a cold drink cos i was worn out i hope you find the same.

This was a last minute booking (flights and hotel) with Easyjet - and it proved a good choice. Camp de Mar is a quiet resort 25 minutes from Palma Airport with an attractive beach area and a delightful island bar/restaurant connected to the mainland by a narrow footbridge. Seafood is a speciality here and it is a great place for a lazy lunch, although the staff are happy if you only want a soft drink or beer while you take in the view. Two huge hotels dominate the bay, but tucked behind them in the little resort centre and within sight of the local taxi rank, the Villa Real is an old fashioned family-run establishment where every room has a balcony, some facing the central square while others overlook the pool and garden with its kiosk serving drinks and snacks throughout the day. Basking on a sunbed in plenty of space here with a view of the mountains seemed infinitely better than battling for a prime spot at the somewhat crowded and soulless larger establishments fronting the sea. Breakfast was a standard cold buffet with a reasonable choice and the dining room and other public rooms were pleasant and well kept, with an air of faded charm. The staff were friendly and helpful and on the last day let us keep our room into the evening for a late check-out at no extra charge - a real bonus. The dining room did not appear to be open in the evening during our stay, but we soon found the Bar Bagari, just behind the hotel, where the food and wine was excellent and very reasonably priced. Their chicken in pepper sauce and a bottle of house Rioja can be recommended. There are a couple of fancier and more expensive restaurants close at hand. Neighbouring Paguera is a short bus/taxi ride away and offers lots more shops and bars, while two or four-hour boat trips from Camp de Mar taking in local coastal resorts are inexpensive and worth a try if you become bored with the sleepy atmosphere and easy pace of this relatively unspoilt resort. Those wanting a quiet place to chill out, away from the hustle and bustle of the busier parts of Mallorca, will not be disappointed.