3HB Falesia Garden

I don’t normally write a review unless it’s exceptional and exceeds expectations and well this hotel certainly did that and more 💯 right from you walk in the door you get an idea of the kind of holiday your going to have the service is outstanding and i genuinely mean that wether it’s esmeralda on reception or Nelson in the bar/restaurant or Jose serving drinks you get a level of customer service I’ve not often encountered abroad , The rooms are awesome so cosy with everything you need and with just about the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept on 😴 i mean I could go on and on if I’m honest there was literally nothing I could complain about and I can’t wait to go back next year 🙌

Myself, my wife and two teenage daughters are just back from 10-night stay at Falesia Garden. This is a wonderful hotel, certainly one of the nicest we have stayed it. The hotel is spotlessly clean and all the staff are very friendly and helpful. We stayed bed and breakfast. Breakfasts were great with plenty of selection and we ate at the buffet one night, there was a good selection and food was of good quality, We also ate at the bar for lunch one day which was great and two nights at The View restaurant on site which was lovely. Wifi throughout the hotel was excellent. The pool area was great, there were plenty of sunbeds and umbrellas (1 for every 2 sunbeds) no matter whether we were down mid morning or returning in the afternoon. The pool itself was nice, it is not the biggest of pools but you can clearly see this on the photos. There were no charges for pool towels or for use of the safe which I thought was nice. The apartment was a good size and was well equipped for self-catering. We had noticed on other reviews and on the website that check in was at 4pm so were prepared for this but when we arrived at 1.30ish, our room was ready. Our balcony looked over the gardens and to the side you could see the sea. The room had the best air conditioning I have experienced in a hotel. The location of the hotel is great, the view from the pool area, the bar and restaurants is excellent. There are steps down to the beach and you are quite close to a small shop and a short walk away from a small supermarket. There are some nice restaurants close by and we also travelled to nearby areas to eat out some evenings (taxi and uber very reasonable). The hotel has a lovely atmosphere, in the evening there was always a musician/singer, bar was lovely as were the bar staff. On our third night my daughter sprained her ankle on a pothole really badly walking back to the hotel from town which fortunately was not a break as we first feared. The hotel staff were great and arranged an appointment with a local private doctor for us. She couldn't put weight on her ankle for most of the stay and the hotel was able to provide crutches for her. What I thought was particularly lovely was that over the remaining days several of the staff would stop me to ask after her. Overall, a wonderful hotel and stay, thank-you to all the staff.

Staying here right now, 10 nights in total.

Positives: Extremely clean in all areas, restaurants, bars, rooms, pool, reception. Staff are mostly friendly and the hotel seems to run very well, breakfast is fantastic if you select B&B, amazing views. Very good gym for a hotel with Techno Gym equipment, treadmills, rower, spin bike, seated bike, cross trainer, several machines for upper and lower body, good area with bands for stretching, food and drink in the Falesia Bar are great, hotel seems calm and not overcrowded, helps that you are 10-15 mins in a taxi from Old/New town albufueria, good service to sun loungers too if you order food/drink, you can do this on your phone. Rooms are very modern, great shower, air conditioning is excellent. Staff very helpful and helpful when we wanted to hire a car, arranged it for us through Discovery Cars, they were great, dropped it off and picked it back up from the hotel. We visited Tavira in Portuga, Sevilla in Spain and Ayamonte in Spain, would highly recommended, so easy to drive into Spain, no boarder checks, straight through and over the bridge.

Areas of Improvement: Check in was frustrating, rooms not ready when we arrived around 1:30pm, we received no calls even though by 2:30pm one of our rooms was ready, by 3:50pm our other room still wasn’t ready, only when I went back to reception 10 mins before 4pm did they finally check it was okay to give me a key. I’ve stayed in many places and most don’t have tourism tax, they do here, it’s not expensive and not a fault of the hotel but worth noting, you pay upon check in, there’s refurbishment going on in a few blocks, next to the block we are in, it’s not noisy, however, it’s a poor view from the balcony, I did ask to move to a better view but was quoted €700. Falesia bar is nice, however it’s very understaffed, even when it’s quiet, it’s hard to get served and even harder to pay, I don’t know the girls name, but the waitress from Moldova does a good job, when she’s not there, the bar struggles, especially when busy, staff upstairs in the restaurant are normally stood around with nothing to do, bring them down…Gym facility is good, however, there’s a daily cost and you cannot ‘pay as you use’ you have to pay per person for everyday of your stay, even if you don’t intend on using the gym on certain days, the hotel need to change this, 3hb could easily adopt a pay per day pass, they could issue you a card to enter after you pay and the guest returns after use or the card stops working if not returned or have a drop box to put the card in after each use, the reception manger did help me with this, I only wanted to use it twice in ten days, so in the end, he arranged for 2x €5 euro payments, I then needed to ask reception to open the door for me, not sure why the hotel are making the gym such hard work to use, they don’t monitor the usage at all, when I walked in a family had two young children messing around on the machines all under 16, more like 10yrs and 12yrs it was dangerous what they were doing, plus it’s clear people get one card for the gym and let multiple people in, happened several times whilst I was in there, the nightly entertainment isn’t great especially when someone is playing saxophone non stop, also, World Cup games being shown, but staff cannot turn the volume on the TVs, I spoke to reception who said they need to speak to IT, nothing was done about this..

Overall, it’s a great hotel, my frustrations will likely not bother you! Well, apart from check in and slow service at Bar Falesia, you can also walk to the beach from the pool area a lot of steps but a nice walk, UBER is your best friend around here, it’s cheap and there’s loads available and quickly. In my 20+ years of travelling on holiday as an adult I haven’t ever had to wait until the 4pm deadline to check in, so this and the annoying gym situation are areas I’d ask the hotel to change, plus, add more wait staff to the Bar!