Pinarella Alba Marina

We stayed at the Alba Marina apartments for 2 weeks attracted by the closeness to the beach. The main problem was the fussiness of the owners. Notices were everywhere about what you could and could not do.

This would not have been too bad had the apartments been well equipped but there was not enough kitchen equipment and what was there was mismatched,chipped or broken.

Bedlinen was not changed and was threadbare. I have never been to any villa before that did not leave at least some of the previous residents cleaning materials for you. We were given 2 dishwasher tablets. We suspected that the owners kept leftovers for themselves.

Yes all small things but this was added to by the owners attitude. They sat and kept watch over the pool every afternoon.

On going in the gate if you even hesitated they would leap out barking at you to take your shoes off or to shower before going into the pool sometimes before you had even put your towels down.

Instuctions also included notices that you must not go out if the washing machine or dishwasher were on! With a family of five self catering that does not leave much time for the beach!

On our last day we had a 7 o'clock flight and the kids decided that they wanted to have a last swim. It began to rain quite hard and as you have to be out of the apartments by 9am without fail we moved under a loggia area telling the kids to stay in the pool as they were already wet. My 8 year old came up to tell us something but did not come into the dry area.

The owner ran out to tell him off for wetting the path even though rain was hammmering down! He then proceded to make a huge show of mopping where my son had stood even though it was raining!

We found Corsica to be packed mainly with French and Italians and the island is too small with too few facilties to support the numbers it attracts. Restaurants all serve the same often very poor food and are very expensive.

Our advice - stick to Spain !