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★★★★☆

“Usually very reliable, except for our last experience.”

written by jnev52 on 07/07/2016

We have just returned from Tossa de Mar, which I think was our third trip with Sunshine, and the first for which I have rated them at less than "five-star".

Problems began as soon as we reached Barcelona airport, when we found that the instructions provided by Sunshine were wholly inadequate to find the location of the coach transfer firm, "From2", and were indeed actually misleading. The problem seemed to be that they had tried to accommodate arrival at all terminals for different times of year rather than giving simple instructions for our particular flight.

Then, the transfer itself took a full three hours (which we timed virtually to the minute) rather than the estimated two hours predicted by Sunshine. No toilet stop or other facility was provided during this tortuous trip!

Upon arrival at the apartments, we found that reception is closed between 1 and 4 PM, leaving us with an hour's wait, still in our UK clothes, by the deserted poolside with no seats, bar or any other facility. I find it incredible that Sunshine could book us on a flight with timings such that this difficulty was inevitable without giving any warning. There was a telephone "helpline" at the apartments supposedly to cover this eventuality, but as the only response to this was an entirely indifferent response telling me I'd have to wait until four this was less than useless.

Moving forward to the return trip, the transfer company, From2, again excelled themselves by arriving late for the pickup even though we were apparently only the second stop in the trip. There were fewer stops this time and the transfer indeed took only two hours, but throughout the stops the driver remained firmly in his seat and never offered a shred of help, leaving passengers to load and unload their own luggage. Upon arrival at Barcelona, he again sat sullenly in his seat, offering no advice as to where we should go at this vast and poorly signposted airport, meaning that we incorrectly returned to where we had arrived only to find that our departure terminal was in completely the opposite direction, meaning a total of about 20 minutes lugging our cases from terminal to terminal in the Spanish heat.

Even then, the weight at the EasyJet counter was interminable, with a queue which wound back and to upon itself no less than seven times being dealt with by one (yes, one) check-in desk. The two other open desks seemed to be fully involved with the few "priority" cases. Only when it became apparent that many passengers way back in the queue had their flights indicated as "now boarding" on the departures board did panic set in amongst the EasyJet staff, with another single desk being manned and the affected passengers being moved to the front of the queue, meaning of course a longer wait for the rest of us. Finally we were dealt with, and had to rush through security with no time for shopping in the so-called "duty free". However, in fact we would have done as we again had a lengthy wait at the gate while the predicted boarding time came and went, with yet another panic-stricken EasyJet operative moving down the queue frantically examining passport and boarding cards saying "OK, you're checked now", only for exactly the same procedure to be repeated at the gate itself!

After all the above complaints, it may seem bizarre for me to give the holiday a four-star rating. The point is that overall we had a thoroughly enjoyable holiday. We fell in love with Tossa de Mar almost immediately, and our rooms in the apartments (once we'd finally gained access to them) were superb, with all the self catering facilities we could wish for. I don't know whether we've simply been lucky, but every time we travel with Sunshine we seem to be given an excellent room as regards views, facilities etc.

Most of the complaints above are actually attributable to the subcontractors used, i.e. EasyJet and the Barcelona ground handling and From2 Travel, although ultimately of course it is Sunshine's decision as to which carriers to use. Personally, I would suggest they ditch From2 like a hot potato.

We are already booked with Sunshine for a trip to Torremolinos in September, and no doubt will continue to use them unless our less-than-perfect experience this time seems to be the start of a trend.

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