Costa Calero Talaso and Spa

Just leaving after a week here. All the staff were really friendly and the animation team were brilliant. Lots of activities to keep us busy. Food was pretty good and lots of variety. Definitely one we'd like to stay again

Family visit, 2 adult sister's & 18 & 17 yr old couple & 16 yr old.

Very long detailed review. 4.5*

We stayed here for 1st time in early July for a week. We booked 3 rooms for family, garden view superior. We dropped a few emails before our visit asking for a shower room instead of bath, trying to get all 3 rooms close together & my niece messaged to advise it was her anniversary.

We arrived early mid morning and rooms shouldn't have been available until 3pm, but 2 of the 3 rooms were already ready. The 3rd room they rushed through & was ready before 2pm.

ROOMS: We were delighted with rooms. All 3 side by side, with a little garden area out front, close to pool, actually couldn't have asked for more. We stayed to sunbathe in our area rather than around the pool as so convenient.

2 rooms had cava & chocs which was lovely to share to celebrate birthday & anniversary.

The rooms were excellent, 2 separate beds for us as requested & a lovely shower bathroom. Wardrobe is large & hangers are removable which is convenient. Bathroom had soap, a large bottle of shampoo & body wash, body lotion, a comb & cologne & shower cap. Bathroom had a bidet, but there were no signs to say not to flush toilet roll so we did.

Beds were probably the best I've had on holiday, firm and comfortable, large singles, plenty of bedding, working TV, lots of electrical sockets which included USB points. A large dressing unit & full length mirror. Fridge with water replaced daily on standard AI.

Air conditioning was excellent. I usually struggle with sinus problems with air con, but it was very good.

Lovely sliding door out to patio & grass area with table, chairs, clothes hanger & 2 sunbeds.

The cleaner for our room came daily, towels swapped, beds made, everything very tidy & clean. She even left a card in the room for the air con/electric to stay on whilst we were out.

OUTSIDE AREAS: Beautiful gardens maintained well, paths clean and tidy, pools were excellent, surprisingly warm & the salt water pool was perfect not too salty but perfect for opening eyes under water without irritation. The pools were never over crowded as so much space. No shortage of sunbeds or chairs either, even tho some people were reserving at 5am 🤣. Some areas sectioned off as superior AI, but they weren't anything special.

Great kids area with club, toilets close, a little park & games area with ping pong & pool tables & air hockey etc. There was also a spinning room with lots of cycles free to use here & a fun full size single horse ride. My only niggle here which is tiny, is you need to give €10 deposit for ping pong ball & paddles which seems a bit daft as they could just take your room number. Also pool tables etc were extra money €1-2. I've been to a couple of other AI where it was free to play, but most do charge extra so not unexpected.

The opposite side of the hotel was a sand volleyball pitch & they did shooting / archery daily, mixing it up with different options at 11am. We had fun doing handgun pellet shooting & archery but lots of other options we missed.

Daytime activities, we caught bingo 2 days at 4.30om, and won a 2h spa visit & a bottle of cava. There was also daily inflatables in the top pool in the afternoon, but we were gutted it was for under 14's as our big kids & adults wanted a go 😅 it looked great fun. Dart contest was fun too.

Spa: You get a 1 x 2h spar visit with AI which was nice. You just turn up. You get towels included & yellow hats (not sure what for as they were material, not waterproof!). The spa was lovely, lots of various massage jets, sauna, warm, mid & cold plunge pools, large salt water pool with jets etc, a very good steam room. A strange room with a bed & lights in ceiling (think I missed the point of this one). Outside & inside beds. Showers, toilets, dressing rooms & lots of therapies at additional cost. My son (16) had a full body massage which he rated as relaxing & good.

Theres also have a decent gym in the spa area you can use if that's your thing. 2 of our group went every morning & said it was quite hot & busy but good & fully fitted out.

BARS & Entertainment: We checked out all the bars 😁. The 2 pool bars offered lots of options (look at menu on website) 2 slushies per bar, one alcoholic & one not. We had frozen Pina colada, mojitos & strawberry slushies. Beer was apparently good, as was the sangria on tap. Lots of quality branded alcohol, Gordon's, Smirnoff, jack Daniels all free on AI. Ice cream for standard AI was basic strawberry, vanilla, choc in pots. The superior AI has branded ice-cream.

Piano bar has a beautiful terrace. Lovely staff too. We drank a lot of liquor 43 which was amazing. Also recommend the Honey rum, pink prosecco was also very good, we had that a lot, some places insisted on glasses, others would provide a bottle with ice bucket which was easier as queues could be long in the entertainment area.

So many drinks options, I did find it a shame there were no lists or menus anywhere, so you have to look on website or just ask.

Entertainment was as expected for AI, we caught a couple of magic shows, an excellent back to the 80's night (pair of men playing guitar & singing, they would drop the occasional very funny line into songs if you listened hard which we found hysterical). There was an interesting horror night done by the entertainment team, excellent decorations, they mimed & danced to various songs & got kids club involved in the show which was a lovely idea. It wasn't scary, but some of the smaller kids didn't like the zombies & Freddy Kruger & Jason outfits, so judge on your own child whether it would upset them if very young. We found it fun. We've had better entertainment in some hotels, and far far worse, so was happy with what was available here. Kids club at 9pm, entertainment at 10pm. Nice outside area if you want to watch from a distance outside.

Food: AI is always difficult, they have to provide for various nationalities, keeping food hot is impossible in this scale, hence the microwaves if this bothers you.

Plenty of seating breakfast & dinner in main restaurant. Some outside. Lots of lovely staff, cleaning up, seating, getting drinks & cooking. They all worked very hard. Never a queue for seating, and always plenty of space & food!

Breakfast was continental, fruit, cooked, pancakes, churros, fresh eggs, fresh cooked omelettes, juices, many tea options, coffee via machine ( liked the mocha) prosecco (that's a habit I miss now back home!) and 3 fresh juices/smoothies. Lots & lots of yogurts (about 10+ different flavours!), nuts, seeds, so much food!

Dinner was table service for drinks, lots of different wine etc on AI. Again so much food! Always atleast 2 X meat & 1 x fish cooked in front of you. So many salads, cheese, soups, lots of veg & various potatoes, starters, fresh bread, 2 theme nights. Lots of seafood & fish which I loved. My autistic son ate very well despite being fussy. Pizza & pasta every night, pasta was often plain with sauce of choice to add.

We had an amazing Asian night with sushi, roast duck, shell on prawns, fresh cooked tuna, spring rolls, lots of Chinese dishes, rice, noodles etc etc. they still had pizza & pasta & salads, etc even on theme nights.

Lots of roast meats & stews. People who say the food is repetitive are crazy or very fussy!, at home you have a meal, here you have a choice of 100's of dishes! If you had a "normal" meal a night 1 meat, potato, veg there's no way you would need to eat the same twice, the selection was superb.

I had a plate of various food every night & never got bored as always different options. Food was also well cooked & beautifully presented.

The deserts I rarely had room for but looked beautiful. The one night I had desert I was eying up the apple strudel & a lovely chap in kitchen area came over & showed me it was best in a small bowl with vanilla ice-cream. Soooooooo lovely, I ate so much that night I felt I could have rolled back to the room 🤣. Always 4 different flavours ice creams which were often different. Cakes, hot & cold puddings, fruit. One night we had a white chocolate fountain and tonnes of cubed fruit & jelly sweets etc.

Lunch was in a different restaurant by the pool. Again lots of choice, pizza & pasta & burgers daily, lots of salads, fruit, veg, potatoes. Self service drinks were water, fizzy pop, beer or red or white wine. Area was open air , so birds would try and steal food, but didn't worry us & they stayed around the outside area. I personally loved feeding sparrows spaghetti 😅

THE AREA: The location of the hotel was perfect for me, but a little too remote for others. Theres a lovely marina, bars, shops & restaurants about 10 mins down hill. Quality shops & a higher end vibe, without being over priced in bars. Lovely water taxi to the next town (which is full of tourist shops, pubs & bars etc & much more down market if you like the bustle & nightlife). Free shuttle coach multiple times daily to & from Puerto-P which was handy. Taxi between €10-14 one way. Theres a fab supermarket opposite hotel which was great for getting extras for room. Very good prices too.

Additional comments:

Key card system instead of wrist bands was strange, but actually easy.

We had issues with sewage smell in bathroom, the put up with 2 days, then reported to reception & a team came out in an hour & resolved easily, so wish I had reported sooner. Very impressed with this. They also monitored it as were in niece's room next day to sort issue before we knew there was an issue & reported!

Reception like all staff were VERY lovely.

We loved the darts game we joined on last day.