Puerto Del Sol Aparthotel Review

Overall Rating

Location, on the Marina front. All inclusive, drinks and food good quality, see below.

The odd unruly Brit!

We had a fantastic holiday had, by all!
Firstly I would like to explain a little about us so you feel you are
getting an honest opinion and who from as before we left after reading
some of these reviews I was dreading going but most of the bad stuff mentioned is totally unfounded in my opinion.
We are mid 30's with one 2 year old son, we are both working professionals, my husband within the finance world and myself in HR. We live on the South Coast of England in a detached home, eat out on a regular basis and feel we have fairly high standards. Before moving to the South Coast we lived in London and are fussy eaters and eat at The Ivy, San Lorenzo's, The Oxo Tower (which I dislike) and Sugar Reef to name a few.
We booked Puerto del Sol as prior to having our baby we travelled to the Maldives, Mauritius, Cuba etc. and had always gone on an all inclusive basis and thought it would be nice to try it in Europe as long haul flights would be purgatory with our 2 year old.
We arrived at the hotel and the reception was lovely, very cool (air con), clean, large and staff we smiling and very helpful. To be honest we thought all the staff were lovely. I do not speak Spanish, but which ever Country I visit I always learn to say hello, please, thank you and good-bye. Many visitors obviously did not think the same and barked orders at them in English that I could just about understand, so that is why they probably put the staff were rude. The staff always smiled and said hello to us even if we were just walking past reception or the bar. There was one lady in the snack bar who didn't smile so much but if you said "hola", she always replied and when you said 'gracias' she always said 'not a problem' back in Spanish - what more can you ask for.
We were dreading the food after reading the reports and thought we would be eating out at restaurants. We really can't stress enough that we do not have a clue why people are complaining. The restaurant is open plan and just the same as any European hotel restaurant, apart from the fact it has a wonderful full size window over looking the marina an the view is amazing (rather nice to over look a 3million pound boat while eating). We could not work out why we were nearly the only ones who made a bee-line for the tables next to the window - why on earth would you sit in the middle of the rooms and not look at those views!
Breakfast is lovely, every day toast, croissants, pastries and cakes, cereals, fresh fruit, prunes, raisins, spreads including jams, honey, Nutella, cooked breakfast changing from fried eggs to scrambled or omelettes, sausages both Spanish and English, bacon, bean, lovely cooked Spanish tomatoes, juices, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, milkshakes.
Lunch and dinner are very similar, but how anybody can complain is beyond us, there was a huge salad bar with fresh salads of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, shredded carrot and beetroot, onions, olives, capers along with various pasta salads including seafood salad with crab meat and mussels, potato salads and tuna pasta salads. This was out every lunch and dinner and all fresh and crisp. Then there were also cheeses and cold cuts of meat along with hot food which consisted of normally 2 meat and 2 fish, there was mullet, cod and salmon, all fresh and lovely and meats were beef, chicken, pork either grilled or stroganoff style, they varied it every day and out of 7 days they didn't put out the same thing . There were various olive oils and vinaigrettes. Yes they did put out chips every day but along side this were fresh pastas that you could add your sauce to or olive oil and olive's/capers and they also put out either a roast, mash or croquette, or saluted potatoes. Also a selection of fresh vegetables and vinegared vegetables.

I reckon the reason people were complaining about the food is the following. The only real downside to the holiday was the odd unruly Brit, that complained about the food and everyday stuck just meat and chips on their plates, no salad or fresh veg. It's no wonder they put chips out everyday as that is all some people take. And if you never smile at the staff and be rude, how can you expect the staff to smile to you?
Don't get me wrong we met some really nice people while away and not everyone was like that, at all.

There are 3 pools, the main one with the snack bar is very busy, but we went to the smaller one which was lovely with a kids pool also, plenty of loungers and chairs. The main pool was busy but there was also another small pool near the restaurant that was not used very much.

The grounds were very well maintained, very large gardens, a small but clean playground. The hotel is right on the Marina and we had some fabulous walks round of an evening. There were red mullet swimming in swarms around the boats and our little one had great fun feeding them.

The kids club starts a bit late unfortunately at 8.30, but it's only for an hour. It is a bit amateur, but then again so is a lot of the kids entertainment in Europe. The kiddies all seemed to enjoy the disco and dancing around which was all that mattered. It was downstairs in the entertainment room and would have been nice outside, but it is air conditioned and was never hot or smokey, but it was September and not high season. Again it was only the children who were unruly that spoilt others entertainment, but moreover the parents who would not keep them under control. We did not go to the adult's entertainment but instead went to the reception bar or the balcony bar area which had a pool table and was nice to sit out in. The drinks were great too, not watered down as I had read, they were huge and very nice, the wine wasn't great but the beer was good, the cava good and the spirits were great. My parents followed on with my sister and niece and nephew and they had scotch on the rocks for a nightcap and they said it tasted lovely and they normally only drink malt whisky neat. They do not limit your drinks either.

Our room was large and clean, in fairness they did not clean that often and only really made the beds, but we have stayed at very expensive villas and had to clean ourselves, so I was happy to buy some bleach and just do it myself a couple of times in the week. It was clean when we arrived and we left it clean, they supply you with good quality mops etc. and cleaning cloths and clean bath towels.

This is unbelievable value, good quality and a lovely location. I did consider not posting a blog, as I thought the less people that go the better for us next time as not so many people will be there, but I thought it only fair to the hotel to give an honest view.
We will revisit. I would not go during high season as it is a large complex and it probably gets very busy but May and September would be great times to go. For a 3* hotel it is definitely one of the better ones we have stayed in for that * rating.

Members' Comments onbluechick's Review

• Black Ghost 7 on 22nd Sep 2007

  Great review, very helpful indeed. Can I just agree with you that often people complain about food when really they just need to see what there is and start eating and exploring! My main hatred of some holiday resorts is how the authenticity, including local traditional food, of the resort and culture gets wrecked by holiday makers. Unfortunately often this is the fault of our fellow British peeps!