Hotel Palmasol

Overall, we had a good holiday and there were lots of positives about the hotel. The location was great, the food was good with plenty of choice each day, and most of the staff we came across were friendly and helpful.

There were a few things that let it down for us though. At times the hotel felt quite strict, with lots of rules, and occasionally it felt a little like you were being watched rather than being able to completely relax.

The sunbed policy was one example of this. I completely understand not allowing people to reserve sunbeds for hours when they aren’t using them, and I actually agree with that in principle. However, towels were being removed from beds and it made us feel uncomfortable even leaving the pool area to go for lunch in case we came back and our things had been moved. I think there could perhaps be a better balance between preventing people reserving unused beds and allowing guests to briefly leave the pool area.

I also had an uncomfortable interaction with members of the housekeeping team where I felt I was being told off, which didn’t leave the best impression.

The pool area could have been cleaner and there were quite a lot of ants around the garden area. They didn’t particularly bother us, but it did feel like something that could perhaps be better managed. There was also a real lack of parasols in the garden area, which made finding shade difficult, and on several occasions there was no hand soap in the toilets by the pool.

That said, we did enjoy our holiday and there were definitely more positives than negatives. The food and location in particular were very good, and the majority of staff were lovely. I’m glad we stayed here and we had a nice week overall, but personally I don’t think it’s a hotel we would return to.

When my friends and I arrived at the hotel we were excited for a fun all-inclusive stay. Unfortunatley that was not the case at all. The hotel offers an "all-inclusive package"- however, I believe this should be retitled half board plus. You do get breakfast, lunch and dinner included- but if you book the barbecue (which we personally did not enjoy) you cannot go to the main food hall afterwards (Even though we had paid for all-inclusive).

There is no all-inclusive bar/area so if you want any drinks (even just soft drinks) or food you need to queue up (there was always a line) and wait to be served, and even then, you are only allowed 2 drinks per customer (fyi- there are only 2 cocktails to choose from). There are no snacks that you can go up and get yourself- only a select few hot and cold food items which have to be ordered from the bar. If you have booked the all-inclusive package, you should have an elevated experience; however, we felt as though our experience was identical to the room-only or bed and breakfast customers- which would have been significantly cheaper to book.

The pool area was busy every day until early evening. There were not enough sun loungers, and the pool itself is quite small for the number of hotel guests. Luckily, there are 2 huge beaches nearby which we spent our time at. They have signs saying it's forbidden to reserve sunloungers; however, every morning you could see almost all the sunloungers had been reserved or used by 10am. My friends and I tried to reserve sunloungers on our final day so we could actually use the pool. But our towels were removed with a note on top saying that there is a 'use it or lose it' policy and you must return within half an hour (or an hour? one of those time frames). Although we had seen multiple people reserve sunloungers. So is it forbidden to reserve sunloungers or not?

The reception staff were friendly, there were always cleaners maintaining the outside areas and the bar staff were non-stop serving drinks as fast as they could. Our room was nice and clean, however, there was no storage in the bathroom which was inconvenient. AFTER checking in I received an email which went to my junk mail. This email outlined the long list of rules surrounding the "all-inclusive" package. This should be readily available for potential customers to see way before finalising their bookings and before arriving at the hotel. If we had known there were so many rules surrounding the package, we definitely would not have booked.