- Majorca Holidays
- Cala dOr
- Gavimar Ariel Chico Club & Resort
This attractive aparthotel is situated in the heart of Cala d'Or in a quiet side street, yet just steps away from the pedestrian area of the city centre with its numerous shops and the beach of Cala Gran. The famous marina with its large variety of restaurants, bars and cafés can be reached within a short stroll. The island capital of Palma and the international airport are about an hours' drive away.
Great location and enjoyable stay – a few things to be aware of
Overall, we really enjoyed our stay and are already looking at booking again for 2027.
Our room was clean and tidy, with plenty of towels provided and the room being made up daily. The air conditioning was excellent and kept the room lovely and cool. The staff also appeared to be friendly and helpful throughout our stay.
Location: The location is fantastic. It’s only a few minutes’ walk back to the beach, as well as the main restaurants and bars, so it was ideal for us as we enjoy going out in the evenings.
One thing we were a little confused about on our first day was the snack bar deposit system. You have to pay €1 for a plate and €1 for a plastic cup, but this is only a deposit and you get your money back when you return them, or you can swap them for clean ones. We didn’t know this in advance and didn’t have any cash with us, so we had to find a cash machine. I’d definitely recommend taking some change with you. Quite a few people also brought their own reusable plastic cups and water bottles, which I thought was a good idea.
We only ate breakfast at the hotel and used the poolside snack bar for lunch, as we prefer to go out for dinner.
Breakfast: Unfortunately, we didn’t think the breakfast was the best. There could have been more choices of chopped-up fresh fruit, particularly around the yoghurt section. We would also have liked to see proper breakfast sausages rather than the tinned hot-dog-style sausages, especially hot dog sausages were at the snack bar at lunchtime.
We saw hash browns on one day and thought they were really tasty, so it would have been nice to have these available every day.
Breakfast also finished at 10:15am, which felt quite early compared with other hotels we’ve stayed at where breakfast runs until 11am. Our children often didn’t wake up until around 9:45am, so we found breakfast a little rushed.
Poolside snack bar: During the first couple of days there was a real shortage of burgers, although this seemed to improve as the week went on. There were also hot dogs available. Unfortunately, we didn’t think the chips were particularly good. There is also a freezer to help yourself throughout the day to ice lollies and tubs of ice cream. I thought this was great.
All-inclusive drinks: The all-inclusive bar was great. There was a self-service area with soft drinks, fizzy drinks, juice, a slush machine and water. You could also order a good selection of cocktails from behind the bar, including Pina Coladas, Vodka Suns, Tequila Sunrises and Sex on the Beach, as well as a selection of local spirits.
A couple of things to be aware of:
Down the corridor straight from reception, near room 1109, there is a fire hose housed in a metal casing in the middle of the wall. Unfortunately, my child caught his head on the corner of the casing, which is quite sharp, and it caused a cut and bleeding to his scalp which lasted a few hours.
I completely understand that the fire equipment needs to be there, but I do feel the positioning could be reconsidered from a health and safety point of view. I think it could be lowed and more floor level …. Personally, I’d much rather a child bang their leg than their head on a sharp metal corner. Perhaps some form of protective cushioning or foam around the corner could help prevent this happening to someone else should it remain on the middle of the wall.
There is also a queue for sunbeds around the pool from around 9:30am, with people waiting at the locked gate.
Another thing to be aware of is that inflatables and balls are strictly not allowed in the pool. This was something we disagreed with, particularly as we have children. We’ve never come across this rule in other hotels we’ve stayed at and couldn’t really see the harm in children using something like a lilo. We saw quite a few people arriving with inflatables, presumably having purchased them during their holiday, only to be told they couldn’t use them — so it’s definitely worth knowing this before buying one. Some music around the pool would have been nice. The entertainment team did aqua Zumba, water polo, water basket which we joined in daily.
Despite these points, we genuinely had a great holiday and really enjoyed our stay. The location, friendly staff, clean rooms and overall atmosphere were all positives for us, and we would happily return.
We’re already looking at booking again for 2027!
We stayed as a family here again we have been around 15/18 times now,this was our 3rd here this year, great location and pool areas. Rooms are std unless you upgrade were you get separate bedroom a fridge etc. BIG thank you to Francesca on the reception desk, she had always gone above and beyond for us, to be fair they all have. The animation team were fantastic thanks to Jose he was great with my lad always playing an joking around, always came to say hello and a chat him his team were always busy bringing fun and games to the pool area. My only fault is that in the dinning area they have stopped using the above heating lamps to keep food warm, so not everything was hot as should be.
We had a good stay at Aerial Chico. We were a family of five, two adults and three young boys including a wheelchair user. Prior to our stay I was pleased with the communication from the hotel regarding accessibility and we requested a suitable apartment for my son which they did their best with. The staff were all very friendly. The hotel is very clean and the staff work hard to keep it clean. Our apartment was cleaned daily with fresh towels. We had a two bedroom apartment which was basic and would maybe benefit a bit more decor. The air con was great with a unit in each bedroom and the lounge. The pools were lovely, we were always able to get a couple of sun beds as we didn’t mind which pool we went to. The entertainment team were great, they always came to chat to the boys and included them in the activities, they worked so hard to provide a range of activities and entertainment. I think the food was disappointing, especially by the pool. It wasn’t refreshed during the day and was very limited, cold bugers, chips and not much else. The restaurant was ok for adults but not very suited to children.
Avoid the hotel. Picture used on trip advisor is years out of date. Pool is very run down. Resort is good as is the location. Resort is obviously made up of a number of hotel bought up and loosely hung together. It is a case of minimal cash input and maximum extraction. One pool in the Jet 2 brochure does not exist main pool is over the road with missing tiles and lights hanging out of wall see picture umbrellas look like they are 10 years old. It took 4 days to get hold of the Jet 2 rep . Apparently they are not allowed to put their phone number on the board or in the folder in the hotel. Nothing in the Jet 2 folder apart from a QR code for a useless app. Cooking facilities in apartments have no plates , cutlery , pots , glasses etc Restaurant is run by "Basil Faulty" ironically with a Spanish accent. He even looks like him. ( I am not kidding) We we told we could move our main meal to lunch time as long as we let the manager know we had been in. He aggressively told our family off saying " you need to give me 24 hours notice" My wife said "we didn't know that's not what reception are telling people" His reply was " Well you know now" and marched off. I would estimate 25-30% of the food if not more was untouched on the serving area. We gave up with the Restaurant by day 5 of 10. (The Neptuno Restaurant just round the corner is great) We paid £5000 for this to come here for a wedding. Great wedding disgusting hotel. Avoid this Hotel.
Location is ok, hotel is split into 4 blocks the main pool is across the road which I found bizarre. The staff were friendly enough. Food was absolutely awful that goes for the snack bar too. Our room was 1117 the bathroom absolutely stunk like a men’s urinal even when the cleaner had been in it smelled so bad it really was gross.
We went all inclusive as there were 6 of us and we thought it’d save us a bit of money on food and drinks but we only ended up eating there on the first day because the food is that terrible and the drinks aren’t that much better.
On the whole the place is in dire need of a refurb, most of the sun loungers and umbrellas were broken. It’s quite grubby and for me I think basic cleanliness and basic food should be a minimum.
