Sol Marbella Estepona Atalaya Park

Upon arrival the hotel is huge. It’s in great need of maintenance. The pool area’s overgrown and tatty. Queues are ridiculous.

A vending machine in the lobby that kept breaking and not re-stocked.

The safe in my room was broken - twice I queued at Reception still wasn’t sorted and my room smelt like the drains. Shower trim was dirty and I had to hold the shower head as it kept falling off.

The staff weren’t exactly friendly either. After I’d queued at the pool bar for 20 minutes the rude woman serving said she wouldn’t serve me because I’d forgotten my plastic chip. I wasn’t even in swim wear and it was the early evening. I’d not long arrived and just wanted a drink for my room.

I’ve stayed in a few of the Sol/Melia hotels in the Costa del Sol and this hotel wasn’t representative of the others I had stayed in.

I wouldn’t return and don’t recommend.

Our family (8 people) has now spent a week at this hotel. The rooms are nice – and that's about all the praise we can give! We arrived at 2:30 p.m., expecting to have some lunch before the restaurant closed at 3:00 p.m. Unfortunately, we ended up wandering around completely confused because the staff spoke very little English and showed absolutely no interest in helping us find our way. Eventually, we found the snack bar – which consisted of nothing more than French fries and cakes. :( We settled in despite the disappointing experience, but throughout the entire week we had to put up with boring, repetitive food, three large events with extremely loud music until midnight, and staff who seemed completely unwilling to help whenever we needed assistance. On our departure day, there was no lunch available at 1:00 p.m., even though we had a three-hour drive to the airport ahead of us. There was also no Sunweb representative at the hotel at any point during our stay. The hotel is worn down and poorly maintained. For example, the paint in the swimming pool is peeling off, and you end up walking on loose flakes of paint. Overall, everything feels second-rate. We will never come back here again!

This hotel shouldn't have a 4 star rating. It's 3 stars at the most. Its location isn't great, with nothing accessible. The hotel is still stuck in the 70's. It is clean, but it's plain, dated and in need of a refurb. The jazz bar, which has a great outside terrace, was closed and there's another bar/room downstairs that's also closed. So only one entertainment room. This isn't mentioned in the brochure. The staff are great though. On check in, I wasn't happy with my room and the reception was very accommodating in moving me to another room. The rooms are clean but minimalist and plain. No iron/ironing board or even a kettle. I rang down to reception to ask for both and they immediately sent them all up to my room. Unfortunately I returned the kettle because the inside was rusty and sticky on the base. I said the best place to put it was in the bin. My room had a view of the main pool, which gets extremely noisy at certain times throughout the day. So if you like a siesta and your room overlooks the pool, you'll find it impossible to have a nap 🙉. The food is a real let down, especially at dinner. It's tasteless, bland, basic and unappealing. Even the scrambled eggs at breakfast didn't taste nice. If you're all inclusive, at breakfast, no staff member comes to take your drinks order, you have to help yourself. At dinner, nobody takes your drinks order, you have to help yourself. I only spent 3 nights there (out of the week that I'd booked) and as soon as my husband arrived on my 4th day, I checked out and we checked into another hotel. Would I stay there again, sorry but no.