Elba Sara Beach and Golf Resort

Just back from a week here, 4 of us including 9 year old twins. We arrived late evening but were delighted to find the restaurant was still open and that we could go and eat while reception processed our check-in. I was keen to do a careful check of our room once we got in it and found no evidence of bedbugs, thank goodness. The first thing I did notice when we went in though was that the bathroom floor hadn’t been fully swept.

The room itself was a good size and our balcony was, in the words of my kids, “as big as the room itself!” Some of the areas of the bathroom floor, such as behind the door, didn’t seem to be swept all week and there was an egg shaped makeup applicator under the sink unit which stayed there all week too. Key things like towels and bedding seemed to be done as promised. On one day I had to tell reception that our room hadn’t been done and they sorted that out for us. The air conditioning wasn’t as powerful as we’d hoped and no matter how I tried to adjust it only ever kept the room at 23-24C. I concluded there must be some sort of master setting preventing it from going colder and this meant my husband was still too hot at night. We didn’t bother reporting it as we could deal with it.

Our first morning there I woke early and decided to watch the sun rise from the balcony, which is when I realised people were already reserving sunbeds. 7am. So out of fear that we would miss out I felt I had to join in. We tried to minimise our impact and only reserved 2 since the kids were always in the pool, and we made sure we made use of them. There are signs saying not to reserve but it felt like the situation had a perpetual motion to it whereby you had to play the game even if you didn’t want to or you might lose out. I did see them ticketing sunbeds that were reserved but unused but I’m not sure if it’s enough to change things.

My kids loved the pools and spent many hours in them. Their highlight was the foam party. As has been said elsewhere, the pool toilets could really use some TLC. In the ladies there are 2 cubicles and one doesn’t lock so you have to try and hold it closed while fighting with a wet swimsuit.

We only used the buffet restaurant and always found something to eat. By the end of the week we were finding it a little samey but I think that’s just the nature of these types of buffets as we’ve always found the same elsewhere. Breakfast was our favourite meal and my husband especially enjoyed the omelettes. The restaurant is busy with it being peak season and we learnt that we had to arrive when it opened for lunch and dinner to try and avoid queues and trouble finding a table. One thing I noticed is that the evening of the Lion King performance was by far the worst - everyone wanting to eat early so they could get a seat for the show which started before dinner service ended, meaning huge queues out the door. It felt like a perfect storm of a successful production mixed with lack of space in both venues.

We didn't have any complaints about the service. The kids got drinks from the juice/water machines most nights. Sometimes it took a while to be offered drinks but others it was so quick we weren’t all seated. It was clear they were working very hard indeed and doing their best. A special shout-out to Ingrid who was so friendly and attentive.

One of my more unusual desires for our holidays is to get some Spanish conversation practice since this is so hard to come by at home. I look very British but speak Spanish fluently so always try to use it even though people often address me automatically in English. On the whole most people were friendly and pleased to engage with me, reception were excellent for this as was the lovely man on the upstairs bar (I didn’t catch his name but he told me he’s going on paternity leave). Alba on the pool bar, some of the animación team and a couple of housekeeping staff were also happy to have a short conversation when I saw them. Kasia was lovely and I had a couple of longer chats with her. Other staff just kept replying in short English which was disappointing so I stopped bothering trying to engage with them.

Overall the holiday did what we needed - it gave me a break from cooking, cleaning, and the general cognitive load of normal life. The kids loved playing in the pool in the sun, and my husband joined in with some of the sporting activities on offer. And of course the sun and beautiful views have a sort of magical effect! Thank you to all the staff for their part in a lovely holiday.

Our review of Elba Sara 🌞🌴🌊🎉 We stayed in room 648. It was a beautiful room with stunning view. Sea view suite room.

Pros -Beds were comfy and it was lovely having a fridge and a proper one. -Air con ( you need to make sure the sensors at the bottom of the patio doors line up together when closed. Or the air con wont come on. Also keep the doors all shut including bathroom door and it'll stay cool. But leave your spare key in all day so that when you come back to the room it'll be cool. ☺️👌🏻 -The view and surrounding area is beautiful! 🌞🌴🌊

• The adult slushes on all inclusive are lovely.
• The shopping mall next door is great! It has a cinema, arcades, lots of shops and restaurants. Including a pizza place and Indian.

The trampolines and bouncy castle outside there doesn't open till 4pm and its €12 for 30 mins per child. It has a few things to do. We never got a chance mind you.

• CHIPMUNKS! 🐿 They will run right up to you! Which is kinda scary lol. But they run away if you dont have food to give them. They apparently like cucumber and wallnuts from Spar.
• The restaurant outside the hotel on the sea was amazing! Although watch for the tide coming in because the path will literally disappear into the waves! 🌊 Worth it for the food though! 🤪
• If you can't get a late check out you get 30 mins for a shower room or an hour if you're a family. This was good but im glad I took my own hairdryer as the room was small and far too hot to do my hair so I used the plug socket just outside the shower room to do my hair. :)
• Mini disco was great for kids! The animation team in general are brilliant they work so hard!

-The lion king show was brilliant as well all done by the animation team. Thoroughly enjoyed it. 🦁♥️

• White party was fantastic! We loved that! The painted the kids faces before it as well which we thought was a lovely touch.☺️👌🏻
• The pool options were great. The kids slide pool was heated and a big hit! The main kids was the coldest we felt but it was fine once your in. The deep pool was great for a good swim but I can still stand in that pool and I'm 5 foot 2 lol.
• Taxi to airport was €17 and was like 10 minutes and stress free. We are glad we cancelled the Jet2 bus and just taxi'd it.
• The airport was stress free and had lots of shops and an outdoor terrace as well.
• They cooked steak and chicken pretty much everyday which I loved.
• Cleaning staff, reception staff and some waiting staff were lovely. Great with kids too.
• The photographer Damiano? Was lovely. We are glad we got them taken. Especially when its pics of the 4 of us.
• Hotel cats are lovely and they take care of them which is lovely to see. 🐈♥️

Cons

• Floor in room was often still dirty but we just wore slippers on our feet and told kids to wear flip-flops etc. This is a minor thing tbh every place we have been to was the same.

• Sunbeds... on our first day we only got a chair because others reserved beds and by 1pm the staff removed their towels after they attached notices to their beds. We counted 12 in a row reserved but empty for the 5 hours we were there. We had to set alarms everyday to get a sunbed otherwise you'll be there with just a chair for hours before staff remove them. I was happy to see staff doing this though. Staff usually started putting notices on beds at 11 or thereabouts.

• Kids slushes were crap. The lemon one is rotten lol. Wish the had the normal blue raspberry slush. They did have strawberry though.

• Sometimes the bar at Mini disco wasn't open and you'd have to go upstairs to get your drinks and walk downstairs with them which always made me panic that I'd drop them. Bar staff very friendly. ☺️

Thankfully I never did fall though.

• Lack of lifts. We went in the summer so it was busy season, I guess. And we were on the 6th floor.
• The pool music was dire at times. Songs like What about us by pink. Or Head above water by Avril lavinge lol. Just felt they could play more lively fun songs. They played cover versions of some songs. The vibe felt off at times with these kind of songs. When animation team came out it was great though and everyone always enjoyed that and the acqua fun in pool.

I think it depends what life guard is on to be honest to what music you'll get. I understand everyone has different tastes when it comes to music though. I'm just comparing to previous holidays we've had elsewhere.

• The walkways around pools are extremely slippy! Seen so many people fall. They do have signs everywhere though.
• Pool toilets often soaking which I understand but sometimes their no toilet roll for some time.
• Pool bar staff slow to clear plates in pool bar and slow to refill food as well. So we used the restaurant after a few days of this. And the restaurant was always quieter at lunch time which was nice.
• The plates in restaurant are always soaking wet. I just dont expect a 4 star to have wet plates. That's if you can get a plate as sometimes finding plates or bowls or cutlery was hard. We option used soup bowls for pudding as the bowls would go quickly. But we went during summer holidays so we do understand it was very busy.

I suggest the hotel does set times for meal times to avoid big queues in the summer holidays for food. And more chefs as they look overworked at nights.

• The queues for food sometimes was a nightmare. One queue for everything and sometimes you were lucky to get a table with cutlery. Staff work incredibly hard and some were lovely. One lady gave our kids a lolly pop and I forgot her name but she was a lovely woman with short blonde hair.

• Food options for kids were not great. Pizza, spaghetti or pasta. One night out of the 11 nights there was chicken nuggets. And sometimes the only pizza available was tuna pizza which I thought was odd. There was better options at breakfast though.

• The "Elba Sara Happy place" Facebook group deletes your posts if you say anything slightly negative.

If you're part of that group you may find it misleading because they dont allow any negative feedback or personal experiences/opinions. Definitely don't share any opinions if it doesn't match theirs. So I would advise you look here, or Jet2 or other holiday website reviews rather than that group as they just won't allow any negative feedback to be posted at all. Even if its minor. 😂👌🏻

Having said all this we would return but not at the price we paid and definitely not during the summer holidays. But we did enjoy our stay.☺️🌴🌞🌊🎉 Just minor things that every hotel has. And I will say there was definitely no bed bugs in our room because its the first thing I checked after the reviews I read. ☺️