- Costa del Sol Holidays
- Estepona
- Globales Playa Estepona
This stunning hotel is located is on Atalaya Isdabes beach front and in the heart of the Costa del Sol just 5 km from Puerto Banus and 13 km from Maebella and Estepona. There is are numerous restaurants, bars, and shops available and public transportation. This establishment spans across 40,000 square grounds that are filled with ponds, fountains, gardens and extensive green woodlands. A water park called the Splash World is fully integrated into the hotel complex and includes a kamikaze slide that will launch you into the 12 feet pool, a capsule slide, a large wave pool and others tornado slides with rafts and aqua-racers. All relaxed rooms are air-conditioned and have balconies, flat screen TV with cable channels, a safety deposit box, telephone, free Internet Wi-Fi Access, a mini-bar, security doors and full bathroom with hairdryer. Other hotel amenities are a beach club restaurant with a large terrace and an entertainment stage. The hotel features outdoor swimming pools, children's playground, sport facilities and free self-parking is also available.
The main theme of my review is the wonderful, professional and friendly staff front of house and back of house. Stayed for 5 days with family. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Overall good for family I think some people arrive with notions of grandeur as they booked all inclusive. Top tip scan the qr code for the app/browser page for the hotel it shows all the information, maps, entertainment schedule etc..very useful!
With that short summary I will detail some points below
Reception area and arrival. We arrive 13:00 the check-in time is 15:00 and this is well posted. Not an issue really. After travelling all day we were warmly greeted by reception who directed us to leave our luggage in the storage area and to enjoy some lunch while our room was being prepared. Throughout the holiday reception staff were knowledgeable, friendly and engaging at any time of day.
The entire resort is clean with cleaners and maintenance crew and gardening ongoing well done 👍
Our room was bright with a fabulous view. Clean room would have liked a bottle of water in fridge but no big deal in an all inclusive. Tv and air-conditioning all working.
There is a beach, it isn't a golden sands beach however lovely to walk along to watch the sunset take a moment of peace from the chaos of a family holiday.
There is a snack bar/restaurant near the beach and this is where the chef was working very hard to keep the place going. Fresh salad, cake, coffee, hotdogs,burgers, pizza, paella, roast chicken, paella etc. be warned this is popular so get early. Beverages including non alcoholic beer and regular beer, ice-cream etc. This restaurant is quick serve in daytime and table service in the evening you must reserve the night before. The food offering is themed each night. A very special mention to the chef working there 18/08-22/08 whilst we were there she was wonderful and through my basic Spanish and her English we could accommodate my wifes dietary needs. Sincere bravo to this lady she went above and beyond!
The water park is a big hit with everyone with plenty of lifeguards and slides for all levels of experience. There are many pools located some more peaceful if you want, throughout all with lifeguards. The pools are kept clean by a hard working crew well done!
The entertainment crew Wow these people work around the clock providing entertainment in multiple languages with enthusiasm and a passion. Theu entertain the kids, dance at the pool then have bingo at night for the adults and a show on which are unique. Take a bow entertainers you earned it! My favourite was red code. My wife loved the Disney themed night
That brings me onto the bar, You will be given tokens to exchange for plastic cups when poolside simply return the cup and order another. The main bar serves glass so no token required. There are poolside bars, a bar near reception, the main bar where the entertainment is and then the snack bar. Barstaff and special mention to paqui ( sorry if i misspelled your name) she is a lovely lady with a great attitude. All the bar and Waiting staff were friendly and professional. It didn't feel fake it felt genuine. Non alcoholic beers are available for those who want alongside San Miguel both on tap. Bars go until 00:00 then closed. I would like to see them keep a snack bar running to same time.
There is a small shop also friendly and what you expect really in a great resort.
The main buffet dinner. There is a Hidden barbecue in the main restaurant near the kids section if you find it enjoy it.
For me the food was good..i enjoyed the diversity my wife is a plain eater so struggled..in the morning the English sausage was frankfurters and streaky bacon a small downside for my wife. Again I'm ok to eat anything. The restaurant is catering to a large amount of families..we met and spoke with French, Polish, English and Irish families while there.
The Puerto banus bus. Go to reception early around 8am to secure your tickets.. it's worth the day trip. There is a market on Saturday be warned it gets very very busy! A lovely stroll along the seaside, some lunch and some shopping was a win for everyone.
Overall a very good experience. I booked this holiday with the expectation that I could let my family snack, play etc and not have to manage every moment of the holiday. I am grateful to all the staff and the place.
The question would I return? Yes Was it value for money? Yes Some improvements? Minor stuff I will email my comment's.
Travelled with my wife, son (12)
JUST ARRIVED...OK we were not expecting 5 STAR LUXURY, but for £3000.00 for 3 nights for 6 ADULT LADIES maybe a wee bit ....Arrived at 11pm given a ham sandwich a piece of melon and a fairy cake...Paid for a safe 45 euros that didnt work on the first night asked for a discount (NO NO NO DISCOUNT)...NOT GREAT SO FAR....OK WE WILL UPDATE EACH DAY WITH A FINAL REVIEW....Trust us all we have extensively travelled throughout the world so if we say its good its good....If we say its crap for value KEEP WELL CLEAR.
We are currently coming to the end of our family holiday at the Globales Playa Estepona, it’s been a good family holiday.
Firstly, the highlights! Rooms are big and spacious. They are set out in blocks and when you first arrive it’s deceiving how big the hotel actually is. We stayed in the Formentera block which gave us a great seaview. We did have a few ants in the bathroom only. I reported this to reception and it was dealt with straight away.
Entertainment - the team works really hard and there’s a lot of activities that take place in the main pool. The evening entertainment is great too, the one step to broadway show was great. On another evening a band was signing lots of motion songs. The atmosphere was great and everyone was up dancing.
Food - this is my one criticism and I had read the reviews before I came. There’s plenty of variety but for the size of hotel there is one main restaurant and a beach restaurant. In the evening you can book to go into the other side of the beach restaurant. The food isn’t really of any different quality h it they theme the dinner and it’s more peaceful with a sea view setting. The problem is that the reception don’t tell you this so it’s only when you login into their WiFi and read up on the hotel where you find out more. In terms of food my biggest criticism is the temperature. Don’t expect a hot cooked meal and you’ll be fine. No we didn’t stave but they need to look at how hot they are keeping their food on the show cooking stations. Additionally, in the day the beach restaurant offers burgers, pizza, hot dogs, pasta. They consistently run out of pizza, as a staple for kids it would make sense for this to be constantly cooking. Improvement here would be investing in more restaurant and kitchen staff - there’s simply not enough to keep a hotel of this size going. This leads to long queues for plates as they’re not washed in time or long queues for certain food.
Pools - plenty of pools! We didn’t sit around any of the quieter ones surrounding the blocks closer to reception as the kids wanted to be near the main activity pool. This is a busy area. My one recommendation would be to bring pool shoes as it’s very wet and slippery. There are lifeguards near the pools. The ones at the splash park need to review their approach. I went down a slide where kids had blocked it - no one is keeping an eye on the safety here and it seems parents don’t educate their children either.
I would recommend bringing a water bottle as saves few trips to the bar, easy to get soft drinks as it’s self serve.
Yes you do have to pay for certain things for ease these are - arcade machines, trampolines, popcorn, slush and candy floss. Some require cash and some it’s bank card only so be aware.
Getting out and about is relatively easy. There’s a bus stop within a 5 min walk which is opposite an Aldi and pharmacy. You can head into Estepona for just over 2 euros each or Peurto Banus. Be aware you must sit down on the bus and when seating is full you won’t be allowed on. They come every 30 mins and worth downloading the Avanza app so you can track the bus.
Finally, be aware of arrival day at the hotel. After a 2 hour transfer (for some it’s 1 hour dependant on hotel drop offs) we arrived to a queue out of reception! It took an hour to check in. Because of this we didn’t know about eating at the beach restaurant etc. it was a long wait and a rushed check in once you got to the front of the queue. Please also be aware that to get a plastic cup for your drink at the bar in the day only you need to use their tokens they give you. Secondly a pool towel is. A 10 euro deposit and 1 euro every time you want it changing.
Overall, it’s a 3 star holiday. The resort is not 4 star, the food doesn’t allow it to be. However, it’s lively for kids and no one will starve. However, if you want luxury or something along the lines of Turkey and Egypt all inclusive then this hotel will not give you that so be prepared.
Absolutely amazing room, spacious bathroom, food was incredible, slides and waterpark were amazing, quite busy but not an issue for me.
The resort is large and caters to a variety of different preferences when on holiday but for an all inclusive the actual included food and drink was not the best. Only basic on-tap wine beer and sangria available much of the day with many decent drinks at an additional cost. My son was hugely disappointed by the variety of ice cream and snacks available as everything he wanted was at a high additional cost. The rooms didn’t even have bottled water provided as a standard so you had to collect your own water from the few bars and restaurants at limited hours. I recommend taking your own very large refillable flasks to remain hydrated! The pools were clean and offered a variety of different atmospheres from the very busy and noisy main pool with slides to the quieter pools with or without bars. My son loved the slides but was also pleased to retreat to quieter areas too. Restaurant was average. Variety of food options but of average quality and felt the bit samey after a few days. Even the beach bar was just a themed buffet - shame there are no other options available or late night snacks for hungry teens! Location is good but the beach didn’t really feel an option to spend the day on sadly. The shuttle bus to and from Puerto Banus was excellent though. Wish we’d used this more to use the beaches there
