JOIA El Mirador by Iberostar

This is a fantastic hotel made better by the lovely friendly staff lead by Tiziana , We have stayed at the hotel 5 times now and each year look forward to our next visit, The food choices are excellent followed by some really enjoyable entertainment in the evenings, We will be returning again next June and can’t wait.

Recently returned from a week in early September in a star prestige superior junior suite. Overall this is a great hotel, deserving of its five star status, but it does have a few oddities that makes it fall slightly short of perfection.

Arrival and check-in were smooth, with a welcome drink and being escorted to our room with a short tour of the main parts of the property along the way by one of the friendly butler team. The room itself was at the far left of the second floor opening out onto the huge star prestige area overlooking the main pool. The hotel style is "Spanish Colonial" and about 20 years old, so a bit old-fashioned for my tastes, but extremely well maintained and has a relaxed but reasonably grand style that is a much better fit for the local landscape than the many modern concrete slab hotels that crowd the coast further south.

Our room was vast, but the very linear floorplan made it quite a hike from the room entrance door, down an internal corridor, past the walk in closet, bathroom to the main bedroom area (a big four poster and very comfortable), the sitting and TV area and out to a big covered area with a sofa and low table area, and a small table and two chairs as well, then out into an open area with sunbeds, umbrella, enclosed with stone walls and arched openings giving views over the beach. It was a huge amount of space for two people and whilst the seating area being in one room with the bedroom area made it a 'junior' suite in typical hotel terms, the totality of the usable space was way bigger than many full-sized suites in other hotels. The complimentary mini-bar with soft drinks, snacks, multiple full-sized bottles of wine in their own cooler, etc. that were replenished each day were a really nice surprise.

A slight drawback was that the aircon was only really effective in the main bedroom area, and then only if you kept the internal door and external door closed and left it running 24/7. Not an issue overall, but if the housekeeping team left the internal door to the corridor and bathroom open, it did warm up a bit so had to keep checking back and closing it a couple of times in the day once I figured out their routine. The other thing was the small internal step down from the bed area to the seating area, and also the step up in the bathroom to the toilet and shower areas. Not ideal especially if moving around at night!

The outside area for this room, whilst it opens out onto the huge shared star prestige solarium/balcony that runs the length of the hotel, was particularly private as being at one end there was no passing foot traffic and enclosed so nobody looking into your outside seating area. Most of the other suites were less private and just opened out onto the balcony area. There was a large hot tub at our end of the balcony, but the smaller star prestige pool was right at the other end. The biggest issue with the star prestige area is that this balcony has a LOT of up and down flights of steps on two floor levels and also a lot of it is surfaced with a weird combination of stone tiles with a diagonal cross hatch of very shabby green AstroTurf running in strips between each stone tile. Frankly it was just odd looking, uneven, and not at all pleasant to walk on. Mostly we used the internal corridors to get from our end to the pool end just to have level route not littered with trip-hazards.

There were plenty of sunbeds and Bali-beds and never an issue finding 10 spots to choose from, but the small number of the nicest spots next to the small pool did suffer from the usual 'towel down before breakfast, swan up after lunch' bed-hoggers , which was disappointing to say the least. The refreshment pavilions at each end of the area were stocked with plenty of serve yourself drinks (beer, sprits, mixers, soft drinks wine, champagne, ice) and the chefs were out multiple times a day replenishing snacks, salads, sandwiches and cake. Cocktails were brought out a couple of times a day to save your legs too. A couple of days there was no vegetarian option for the lunchtime sandwiches but that wasn't the end of the world.

We did tend to head down to the main pool area in the afternoons just because the massive lagoon pool area was so nice it would have been a shame not to use it. There was a bit more life down there compared to the very sedate pace upstairs, but it was still tranquil and relaxing. The pool guys were super-helpful and friendly getting you set up with a bed.

The El Mirador buffet was great for breakfast and dinner with plenty of choice, and as vegetarians we never has an issue with choice or food quality (other than the main rice and beans dish on Mexican night which tasted of pretty much nothing but that was an isolated blip in the entire week). As seems typical with Iberostar properties, the labelling system on the buffet does require a bit of detective work to connect labels to which dish they refer to, which impacts anyone with dietary requirements more than the rest of the guests, but we piled on the pounds nonetheless.

Star prestige guests could also get an a-la-carte breakfast in the El Cenador restaurant if they preferred. The food choices were much the same as in the main buffet, but it was nice to have it all brought to the table by the very friendly and fun waiting staff. Also it was possible to have dinner in La Pergola restaurant one one night (which we skipped as whilst there were plenty of vegan/vegetarian starters and desserts on the menu, there were literally zero options for mains, which seemed extremely odd and management need to figure that one out as everywhere else we were clearly going to be catered for).

We did however have an included dinner at El Cenador one night as part of our star prestige offering. We had the 10 course vegan tasting menu, and it was an absolutely stand-out meal - great service from the waiting team, super-original and tasty dish after dish and we had a superb experience over (I guess) two and half hours - hats off to the chef and the team, a real highlight of the week.

Drinks in the main bar after dinner were great - lots of really well made cocktails. The various entertainers through the week weren't all to my taste, but they were professional and suitably laid back to suit the hotel vibe.

Talking of which, this is an adults-only hotel but the (clearly loyal) clientele are definitely at the older end of the scale. We're not at retirement age ourselves but we can see it from here. We felt distinctly youthful compared to most of the guests (trending late 60s, early 70s at a guess, and a few way older than that). If you're looking for a lively time or more youthful vibe, this isn't the place for you but if you want relaxation and no craziness, I'd recommend this place hands down.

Whilst I've raised a few niggles, the most important thing is that the whole hotel staff in every department were absolutely excellent. Eager to help, professional but friendly and fun at the same time. They look after you and service is consistently great across the board.

All in all then, we had an enjoyable stay and felt this hotel offered great value for money with all the extras that were included. The style and older build of the hotel mean its not quite up there with the super-modern five star properties, and the older clientele make for an sedate atmosphere may not suit everyone, but the staff are some of the best I've come across anywhere I've stayed.