Occidental Jandia Mar

We had a wonderful holiday here in late July. The location is very close to the beach. The hotel is situated on a large hill, however free shuttle buses transport guests from the hotel to the beach at 10am and 11am with pick ups available at 4pm and 5pm. There are also lots of shops/cafes around this area. In reality getting to the hotel, with other hotel drop offs in a coach, takes 1 and a half hours from the airport.
The island as a whole can be very windy- positives of this are it doesn't feel baking hot, however you will need towel clips for towels on sunbeds- buy these before you go as the local shops don't sell very solid ones- and keep an eye on kids and suncream as they may not feel they need to reapply due to the cooling effect of the wind. The hotel itself was very clean and presentable, as were the two large pools. The pool on the lower tier of the hotel is quieter and you can't hear much of the daily entertainment madness! Staff were friendly and kind throughout. Small queues at the bars for alcoholic drinks on some nights, however our average wait was 5 minutes. My teenagers said the onsite water slides were "mental") ..I think they meant they were fast, which was a positive to them! The food was nice but the fish was outstanding. Different fresh fish served each night. Sometimes staff were behind with clearing tables in the restaurant as it was very busy, but if you found a dirty table and asked them to clear it they would prioritise you so you could sit down- a few more staff in the restaurant would have been helpful though. The fizzy drinks, coffee, tea, water and juices are self serve both in the restaurant and snack area- so no queuing for these drinks at any time. The snack bar also had self serve functions such as a toastie maker, alongside burgers, chips, nachos with cheese sauce, pizzas (which were delicious), making it really easy to get a snack by the pool. The entertainment was good, the highlight for us was the circus performers- they were really talented. Sometimes they entertain inside, and the seats at the theatre are limited, but you can grab an outside table and watch due to the whole wall to the building being made of glass. We didn't have an issue with this. Overall we had a brilliant week here and would recommend this hotel.

Reception staff were friendly and had an easy check in. Breakfast lunch and dinner all standard but something for everyone. Restaurant is mostly always busy we don’t mind wiping down a table if we wanted to sit down although one member of staff took issue with this huffing and puffing.

We had an interconnecting room and the sizes were enormous with a bathroom in each of the rooms. The water park was good for young children I would say 12 and under. The pool is always busy with the usual reserving issues ud have anywhere. Most of the problems we had were with other ignorant guests so no fault of the hotel, topless bathing around and in the pool which apparently isn’t an issue. People standing in front of u during the entertainment taking chairs from your table when you’d only gone to the toilet then being completely unapologetic about it. Today took the biscuit around the pool one family had gone in the pool and their sunbeds had been reoccupied by another family when they came out, again completely unapologetic ‘you snooze you loose’ mentality. There was an issue with a drunk guest last night and to be fair the security dealt with it excellently. Overall you get what you pay for, standard all inclusive holiday could have been better, could have been worse.

Any issues with cleanliness again blame the other guests, you can guarantee they wouldn’t treat their own home the way they treat the facilities.

Town and the beach is only about a 10 minute €5 journey well worth it for a cheap day out. You can book excursions through the hotel. There is an app which gives you a bit of an idea of what’s going on and there’s a laundry if you need it.

We really enjoyed our stay. The staff are very friendly and the services are of a high standard. A huge thank you to Clara from the Barcy Club! The children had a brilliant week taking part in the activities.