Cala Azul Esmeralda Apartment

This hotel is now owned by Inturotel and not RIU as it says in some reviews. Firstly we booked this hotel through Thomson, but not as a package. Our flights were with Monarch scheduled service, and the transfers were with Resort hoppa, who were excellent. This saved us approx. £400 than booking it as a package. We are a family, with a 3 year old daughter. The staff at this hotel were brilliant through out, from the reception and maids, to the management and restaurant staff, they couldn't do enough for you. The hotel is spotless, constantly being cleaned. The food in the restaurant was amazing. We have never been half board before, usually preferring to find top class restaurants. On this occasion though, there was no need to eat elsewhere, it was that good. Something we wouldn't have believed if someone had told us we'd do this before we went! Cala d'or itself is very family orientated, and felt very safe. There is a beach a stones through from the hotel, which again is very clean. It is a small cove, and as a result can get a bit busy. If you can, go a bit early and put your towels down, then come back after breakfast. It still won't be packed, but if you need to build sandcastles, it's best to get a spot at the front. We would come back to this hotel without any hesitation.

Went to Esmeralda Park a few years ago with a very big group of family and freinds and must say its a holiday we all said we will never foget!. The hotel is of a very high standard and well mentained, and very clean!, The staff in the hotel are absulotlry brillant and exspecially great with kids, with all sorts of activtes to do e.g shows volleyball and much more.! The hotles own private beach is stunning and not to big but a perfect size for the amount of people in the hotel and very safe beach if u have kids. There is a wild west water park wich we went to that was arranged by the hotel wich was ok but a bit expensive for what it was but apart from that good. The onley thing i can say bad about this hotel is the food, But wat fussy english person likes forgien food! I must say this is a place i would recomend to any one of any age. I have been to many places since and Esmeralda Park is a place i will never forget and i cant wait till we all go again next year bring on may 2007!!!

Esmeralda park, Cala D'or : Not in the brochure Firstly i would like to say how well kept the entire property is, manicured lawns wonderful gardens. The resturant was also top class, brilliant, superb food and drink. The staff were all helpful and polite. So we must have had a dream holiday then ? No ! The problems were, firstly the family entertainment was all german. I know "English abroard expect everyone to speak their language", But we have a three year old daughter and it is difficult to explain to her why no-one will speak or listen to her. Apparently we are the only family to bring this to thomas cook's attention, one family out of over 1000 i was informed. Secondly it was very hot but no air conditioning. This was centrally controlled and only turned on at the hotels discresion, as explained in the small print at the back of the brochure. So this lead to the final problem cockroaches, as we were told " if you are hot just open the patio doors", but when we did our little friends came in. A problem which was found out only when they were on our daughters bed. When we raised this problem with the hotel they sent a lady with a can of "raid" to sort it out. But she did not know where to spray or what else to do. So the next night we kept the doors closed which meant the temperature in the room was almost unbearable. But they came in again ! As we found again in the morning on our sleepling daughters bed. We asked several times for the air con. to be turned on but no joy. So we spent 4 nights in our room with the doors closed and towels rammed against them to keep the cockroaches out, this worked. We were offered another room the night before we were due to come home, but as this was at 8.30 pm our daughter was already asleep. This was not the holiday, a belated honeymoon, that we expected. Having read some other reviews i seam to be the only one having a moan, but i thought i would share my experiances anyway. P.S. we were given a bottle of wine and free dinner, this was not compensation but a good will gesture by the managment. Thomas cook have since told us there is no complaint to answer on their part, a little disapointed by that.

it was the best ever hotel we stayed in in majorca so far. we have been to bajorca 5 years on the run now. The pool was excellent and there is a beach right next to it. My 5 children apsoulutly loved it and we are goin again this year.

We booked this holiday as a last minutes, desperately in need of a holiday getaway. The staff were very friendly and helpful and the hotel was very clean, floors were brushed and towels changed daily and bed linen was changed twice through the week. The pools were also clean but extremely cold and there were plenty of sunbeds, although we did have to fight for one with an umbrella. The beaches were small, secluded and clean but were difficult to get to with lots of stairs (difficult if you have a pram or a couple of small kids). The hotel had entertainment on most nights which was imaginative but basic (Grease themed night, etc.) but it did the job and got people singing and the kids dancing. The entertainers were also around throughout the day encouraging the kids to play games, although my daughter was only 2 so was a little bit young. As we arrived at the very beginning of the season, it was a little bit quiet and struggled for places to entertain us, but there are nice restaurants and bars around and some good days out ( I recommend the little train that stops just outside the hotel). There was a nice little fair (I mean little) with trampolines, go-karts, arcades etc. which passed the time. The locals were also really friendly and the food is what you expect of toursit Spain (steaks, chicken, burgers etc.). The were loads of little shops but they mostly sold the usual, i.e. beach balls, tacky ornaments and lolly-ices so you would need to travel. The market was good but be prepared to haggle and be verbally abused for it. The only problem with the hotel was that our room was on the first floor and there were no lifts so getting a pram up proved a little bit difficult. However, there were other parts of the hotel which did have lift access so I'm sure if requested it would not be such a problem. Overall, we really enjoyed the holiday and would return to this hotel.

We have just come back from a 1 weeks stay and had an enjoyable time Our accommodation was in a three storey block however as there is no lift carrying the suitcases up the staircases was no fun. The one bed apartment was clean and tidy, and quiet after the local entertainment was over. The staff were very friendly and helpful this included the cleaning staff who did a good job. Cala D'or centre is only a 10 minute walk away and has plenty of bars and restaurants to choose from. As we went early in the season the resort was quite quiet so not sure how it would be in the height of the season.

My boyfriend and I visited the Esmeralda Park for a week in April and really enjoyed our stay. The room was a good size, with a nice bathroom, plenty of storage space and was clean. We were at the back of block H, so didn't really have a view to speak of but it was quiet. The beach at cala Esmeralda is stunning. It's only small though, so I'm sure in high season it would get very crowded. The sand is beautiful, the sea is a stunning colour and no seaweed, so very pleasant. All the coves in Cala d'or are lovely. We went on a room only basis as we had had some bad experiences with food in spanish hotels. There was a supermarket in the complex (overpriced though). In the evenings we walked into the centre of the town(about 15 mins) and there were many excellent restaurants to cover all tastes. We didn't have one bad meal. The entertainment was very good and there was a lot on offer for the kids. The staff worked very hard and always came and chatted to you. There was a lot of sport during the day, shows in the evening and even a guided walk or a visit to a market. Due to the time of year it was too cold to use the outdoor pools. Even the indoor one wasn't warm so we only used it once. You could hire bikes for a reasonable price and it's a lovely way of exploring the area. The only problem is the many one-way streets in Cala d'or! I would recommend the the Esmeralda Park and wouldn't hesitate to return.

In September of this year we traveled to Mallorca and stayed at the Esmeralda Park Hotel in Cala d'Or with our 1-year old son and 4-year old daughter. We had both positive and negative experiences, so I will do my best to provide you with details on both. The hotel's entertainment program for children is superb! This receives an "excellent" rating. It catered mostly to kids ages 3 to 7 (approx.). Every afternoon the kids could visit the Kids Club for a couple of hours where they would play interactive games, do arts & craft, went on a field trip or prepared for a show at night. The staff was well-trained, multi-lingual and very creative. In the evenings the kids were invited to an outside kids disco, which was very engaging and non-stop. The staff interacted wonderfully with the kids (in English, German and Dutch) and each child seemed to feel part of the group. They danced, played games and Turo The Dog (mascot) presented awards to all the children who attended that afternoon's kids club. Next to entertaining the children, the same staff put on a couple of hilarious shows. Every night there was entertainment until approx. 11:30 PM. We enjoyed a couple of shows by the entertainment staff, but also (cover) artists presented some wonderful shows. The hotel is located at the beach and has a small beach. The beach is at the end of a cove, so this creates a beautiful view. Smoking is allowed... everywhere! This can be a positive thing for the smokers around us, but was a terrible experience for a non-smoking family. In the morning, when we entered the lobby to go to breakfast, we were greeted by a blue-gray cloud of smoke covering the entire lobby. The smokers were kind enough to refrain from smoking at the breakfast table (this may have been enforced by the hotel - I am not sure about this), but seemed to smoke twice as much in the lobby. The beach was littered with cigarette butts. Every square meter had at least (!) 10 cigarette butts. Repeatedly we had to remove them from our one-year old's mouth. The hotel provided a buffet style breakfast. It was a good, decent breakfast with cheese, sliced deli-meats, hot sausages, eggs (boiled/scrambled), cereals, milk, yoghurts, juices, hot coffee and teas, and an assortment of breads and cakes. Breakfast receives a "neutral/average" rating. It was good, but you weren't able to receive anything "made to order". There wasn't a buffet style lunch available. However, there was a small outside restaurant by the pool, which provided some meals and were great for lunch. They had a small kids menu (which included chicken nuggets, so my kids were generally happy with that) and a regular menu of maybe 10 items. Not elaborate, but plenty for a nice, quick lunch. They also offered some delicious ice creams and good espresso's. Most people enjoyed lunch wearing a t-shirt and shorts over their beach wear. It was a very casual environment. Lunch receives a "neutral/average" rating. The hotel offered a buffet dinner, which we never used. Generally we went into town and found a restaurant that had entertainment for the kids. Several restaurants offered a little play area for the kids. Both kids enjoyed this tremendously. The hotel has two pools, which look beautiful. However, the water isn't heated and it was freezing! Very few guests would swim in the pool for obvious reasons. Our one-year old's teeth would literally chatter after being in the pool for a minute, or so. Our 4-year old just learned how to swim and really wanted to use the pool. She had a hard time convincing us, though. The pool receives a "terrible" rating. It may have looked nice, but it was pretty much useless. As I mentioned earlier, the beach was littered with cigarette butts. This was unfortunate, because the water was stunning. It was clear and warm with hardly any waves, so this created a wonderful environment for small children. Because of the pool's temperature, we were forced to use the beach more than we would have and we learned to place our blankets very close to the water. This area seemed to have the least amount of butts. The only problem was that 95% of the guests with small children had the same realization, so the beach was generally packed pretty full. But to be fair; Europeans are used to packed beaches and they are generally very friendly and outgoing, which allows you to make new friends every day. The beach receives the "okay, but some problems" rating. The hotel was recommended to us by our travel agent, because it catered to children. However, the hotel's surroundings did not cater to small children at all. The hotel is built against a hill, so there were steps everywhere! Most every pathway was interrupted by stairs. Sometimes only 3 or 4, but often by several, which makes it hard to use a stroller. Our room was on the second floor and we had to carry the stroller, the inflatable boat (yes, we lost that fight!), the beach towels and the baby up and down the stairs every day. There were no elevators available. Cala d'Or is a beautiful little town with many restaurants and plenty of entertainment for the kids. There were several places in town that were converted to play areas for kids with inflatable jumpers, race cars and rides for small children. Though the town offered many different types of restaurants, they all seemed to have one thing in common: every restaurant we visited served french fries as a side dish! After several days of eating either steak with fries, fish with fries, chicken with fries or tortillas with fries we were craving vegetables! When requested, we were able to make that substitution. The overall rating for this hotel is "neutral/average". My daugher has only fond memories of this hotel and that is priceless! My husband and I had to work around the areas that needed improvement, but ultimately had a good experience.

We stayed for 2 weeks in July, the accomodation was good, the facilities excellent. It was great for our 5 year old son, he thoroughly enjoyed it. We went there because it was good for kids and it was. There were 4 young entertainers who were brilliant. I would highly reccomend this hotel to anyone.

Just returned from Esmeralda park in Majorca, spent a week October half term. weather was not too kind to us, unfortunately rained a few days whilst there. Attractive, quiet location, with it own private beach cove, little surprised that it was quite small, but nevertheless it did its job and kept my children age 9 and 11 occupied. We had a one bedroomed appartment located on K block, you have many different blocks which sort of surrounds the different level swimming pool. From our K block and the other blocks near us, theres no real views, if you can get blocks near the pool you will get great views of the sea and cove, N block had a good position, but depending whether you want to by right near the pool, which I guess can get a little noisey. Apartments very basic and simple with a small kitchenette (very small!) there was 4 of us, so a room with 2 single beds, and in the living area 2 single sofa beds, note, can be a little hard for sleeping on! overall, fairly comfortable. Lots of restaurants to choose from and all in walking distance. We chose half board and was not disappointed, food was buffet service, good varity. Must see is the Caves of Drach in Porto Christo, you can arrange this from the Hotel, it looked as if it was cheaper arranging via the hotel then the holiday companies, check it first before booking with your holiday reps... Lastly, be warned, that part of Majorca, Cala D'or last week of October (half term) everything closes down! we had not realised this.. and was quite surprised, come the last 2 days of our holiday, everything starts to wind down, seemed like a ghost town on our last day. Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the Esmerelda, just looking around at other surrounding hotels, Esmerelda in my opinion was one of the more attractive hotel.