Gran Melia Palacio de Isora

Such a fab stay. The hotel is just beautiful. It even smells so so good! Trust me!

The food was amazing, so much choice. From Mexican and Italian to Asian and classics. There’s something for everyone & the breakfast is great too. I mean where else can you get a steak, mushrooms, peppercorn sauce and chips for lunch?! Not your standard all inclusive I promise! Also you can get cocktails all day, they do not hold back on what you can get!

The pools, spa, beach is just so relaxing. If you want to rest & reset this is for you.

The entertainment was next level. Shows were exciting, surprising, and thoroughly enjoyed.

Rooms were immaculate and big!

Some tips: download the app & book the restaurants ASAP. And sit near the front for the shows, you’ll get your drinks quicker!

Loved loved loved would 100% be back.

We have just returned from an 8-night stay at Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora, travelling as a family with our two-year-old son. Overall, we had a wonderful holiday and there is a lot to love about this hotel. The grounds are absolutely stunning, the facilities are excellent and there is plenty to keep you occupied throughout your stay.

However, I wanted to leave an honest and detailed review because, while we enjoyed our holiday, there were some aspects of the service that stopped the experience feeling like a true five-star stay for us.

The hotel and grounds

First of all, the hotel itself is beautiful. The grounds are extremely well maintained and there is a real sense of space. One of the things we particularly enjoyed was the number of different pools. There are so many areas to choose from that you don’t get that feeling of being stuck around the same pool every day, which can sometimes happen at larger resorts.

The hotel is also very clean and well maintained. We saw cleaners and maintenance staff working throughout our stay and generally thought the hotel was kept to a very high standard.

The setting is lovely and there are plenty of places to sit, relax and enjoy the surroundings. It definitely feels like a special resort when you first arrive.

Travelling with a two-year-old

We travelled with our two-year-old, and overall he had a fantastic time.

The children’s activities were good, and there was plenty going on. However, I would say that the kids’ facilities and activities are probably better suited to slightly older children. At two, our son was a little too young to get the full benefit from some of what was available.

That said, he still had an amazing holiday and there was plenty for him to enjoy. The children’s entertainment was good and the general atmosphere was very family-friendly.

Food and being coeliac

This was a particularly important part of our decision to book this hotel.

I have coeliac disease and chose Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora specifically because of the excellent reviews and recommendations I had seen regarding allergies and gluten-free food. I was therefore particularly interested in how the hotel handled this in practice.

Overall, I would say the allergy knowledge was good.

We were introduced to the chef, who was very helpful and reassuring. He even prepared fresh chips for me in clean oil, which I really appreciated. Staff on the whole seemed knowledgeable about what food contained gluten and what alternatives were available.

At most meals, we were asked whether we had any allergies, although this wasn’t completely consistent every time.

One issue that did concern me was that, despite confirming my allergies beforehand, gluten-containing bread was brought to our table on more than one occasion. Gluten-free bread was offered on most occasions, but I do think consistency is particularly important when dealing with coeliac disease.

The buffet itself had a dedicated gluten-free area, which was a real positive. There was a good selection of gluten-free bread and bakery items, and many of these were individually sealed and clearly labelled. There was enough variety that I didn’t feel particularly restricted and, importantly, I didn’t struggle to find something to eat during our stay.

The food quality generally was excellent, and the staff in the à la carte restaurants were knowledgeable about the gluten-free options available.

That said, as with any buffet, there is an element of cross-contamination that you have to be aware of as a coeliac. This isn’t necessarily the hotel’s fault, but it is something future coeliac guests should be conscious of.

For example, at breakfast, the clean bowls were positioned next to the Weetabix and we regularly saw pieces of Weetabix end up in the supposedly clean bowls. Personally, I wouldn’t have been comfortable using those bowls once this had happened.

The hotel does provide clearly labelled gluten-free products, but you still need to take responsibility for checking what you are eating and speaking to staff where necessary.

I am not particularly sensitive to trace gluten, and to my knowledge I wasn’t glutened during our stay.

À la carte restaurants — difficult to book

This was probably one of the biggest frustrations of our stay.

We booked All Inclusive Plus rather than Red Level, and one of the reasons we chose this hotel was the range of restaurants and the ability to have a more varied dining experience rather than eating from the buffet every night.

Unfortunately, booking the à la carte restaurants was extremely difficult.

We struggled to get reservations and eventually had to ask our concierge for assistance. Thankfully, our concierge was fantastic and did eventually manage to sort this out for us, and we were able to eat at the restaurants we wanted to.

However, the difficulty in getting reservations meant that we ended up eating at the buffet more often than I would have liked, particularly as someone with coeliac disease.

I would strongly recommend anyone with dietary requirements to try to get their restaurant bookings sorted as early as possible and, if necessary, ask the concierge for help.

Once we were actually in the restaurants, however, the experience with the food and allergy information was generally very good.

Service — unfortunately inconsistent

This is where I think the hotel fell short of what I personally would expect from a five-star resort.

There were occasions when the service was excellent, but unfortunately it wasn’t consistently excellent.

On several evenings, we experienced very long waits for drinks. During the evening entertainment, there wasn’t always another bar available to simply go and get your own drinks, meaning you were reliant on table service.

On two occasions, we waited more than an hour to even get the attention of a member of staff. Once we finally managed to order, we then waited around another 30 minutes for the drinks to arrive.

That’s a very long time to wait for drinks, particularly when you’re sitting with a tired and thirsty two-year-old.

Another example was our Bali bed booking. We had specifically booked the Bali bed with Moët and fruit to arrive at 1pm. At 2pm, the drinks and fruit still hadn’t arrived, so we had to contact the staff ourselves.

Even after doing this, we waited another 45 minutes before everything arrived.

Again, these aren’t catastrophic problems and they didn’t ruin our holiday, but they are the sort of details that make the difference between a very good hotel and a five-star experience.

All Inclusive Plus

We stayed on All Inclusive Plus rather than Red Level.

For us, this worked well overall and there was a good range of food and drink available. We particularly enjoyed having access to the different restaurants once we managed to secure the bookings.

However, I would definitely recommend understanding exactly what is and isn’t included in your particular package before travelling, as the different levels of board and Red Level can make a significant difference to the experience.

Meliá Circle

We were also offered the opportunity to attend the Meliá Circle presentation during our stay.

We did consider it, but ultimately decided it wasn’t for us.

This wasn’t because we had a bad holiday — we genuinely enjoyed our time at the hotel — but our experience with the inconsistency of service made us question whether we would want to commit to repeatedly returning to Meliá properties in the future.

We have stayed in four-star hotels where we have experienced better service, although we have also stayed in five-star hotels where the grounds and entertainment weren’t anywhere near as impressive as they are here.

So for us, it really came down to the overall balance of the experience.

Overall

I want to stress that this is not a bad hotel. In fact, we had a wonderful holiday and there is a lot that we absolutely loved about it.

The hotel is stunning. The grounds are beautiful, the pools are fantastic, there is lots to do, the children’s entertainment is good, the food quality is excellent and the gluten-free offering was much better than at many hotels I have stayed in.

As someone with coeliac disease, I would not be put off booking this hotel. The fact that there is a dedicated gluten-free section, individually packaged and clearly labelled gluten-free products, knowledgeable chefs and staff, and a willingness to prepare food separately were all major positives.

However, I personally wouldn’t rate the experience as a five-star experience overall.

For me, the main thing that let the hotel down was the inconsistency of the service. Some staff were absolutely fantastic, particularly our concierge and the chef who helped us with our dietary requirements, while on other occasions we experienced very long waits and had to chase staff for things we had already paid for or requested.

Perhaps our experience was simply unlucky or particularly personal to us. It’s worth saying that we spoke to numerous other guests who spoke extremely highly of the hotel and had clearly had a fantastic experience.

I can completely understand why people love this resort. The setting, pools, grounds, food and entertainment are all excellent, and there is certainly enough here to have a fantastic holiday without leaving the resort.

Would I say don’t book it? Absolutely not. We had a lovely holiday and I would still recommend it to someone looking for a beautiful family resort, particularly someone who values excellent grounds, multiple pools, entertainment and good gluten-free food.

Would I personally return? I’m less certain. Having stayed at a number of hotels across different star ratings, for me the level of service is just as important as the physical beauty of the resort, and on this particular stay the service wasn’t consistently at the level I expected from a five-star property.

Ultimately, I think Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora has the facilities and setting of a five-star resort, but our personal experience of the service was more mixed.

That said, we have come home with lots of lovely memories, our two-year-old had an amazing time, and we certainly didn’t leave feeling that we had made a bad choice. It is a beautiful hotel with a lot going for it — I just think there is room for improvement in consistency of service and in making the restaurant booking process easier, particularly for guests with dietary requirements.

Our stay at this hotel was sadly not a 5 star experience and we wouldn't return. We had really high hopes for this holiday, spending more than we normally would for 9 nights All Inclusive Plus. First impressions were good, a beautiful grand foyer and a friendly welcome. I was underwhelmed walking into the 'Deluxe' room, which just seemed to have 2 extra single beds which we didn't use. There was sometimes a smell of sewage in the room, but we didn't raise this with the hotel as I looked at reviews and saw it wasn't resolved.

On the third day of our holiday, renovation works started on the Oasis restaurant, which wasn't communicated to Jet2 or ourselves. The Italian restaurant Olio was offering Oasis' lunchtime menu at lunch but obviously not at dinner so we only got to eat at Oasis once. Our jet2 rep asked the hotel if they could make a good will gesture to guests affected by the renovations and was told no, as they had provided an alternative. This isn't true, as the evening menu at Oasis was not offered elsewhere. Additionally, the ice cream bar we had been looking forward to was also closed due to the renovations and not relocated.

We were in Olio from 7.30pm until 9.30pm one night because service was so slow. My partner asked for a drink 4 times until I had to approach the bar to get it for him. Despite being "All Inclusive Plus" we felt this was false advertising as simple italian dishes like carbonara weren't included and you had to pay extra. We also ate at Nami the Asian restaurant, which was lovely but again, I fancied the duck pancakes but they were only included for "Circle" members...there were so many tiers we weren't aware of until later in the holoday that made you feel inferior for not being a Circle or Red Level customer.

One day we went to a banana farm that was 30 minutes away. We got a taxi there but struggled to get one back. I phoned the hotel for some help and they were quite unhelpful just saying we needed to call a taxi firm, so I asked if they could give me a number for one. I called the number she gave me and was told they didn't even cover the area we were in, so in the end we asked the banana farm staff to help us. This is a small thing but again we felt the hotel staff weren't very helpful.

You also can't just get a drink at the bar in an evening, we were told we had to wait for someone to come to us. We waited 10minutes, still no one came over so my partner had to approach again.

There were also football games scheduled to be shown in Oasis which my partner was going to watch. He asked if they can put it on somewhere and was told no, they can only show games in Nemos which doesn't open until 5pm so he couldn't watch the 12.30pm match. Our jet2 rep asked if they could show it somewhere else but the staff did not seem bothered to find a solution. They didn't realise I speak Spanish so could understand their dismissive comments to our rep.

On the plus side, the food at the Pangea buffet and Agave was absolutely delicious, and the service at Agave especially was brilliant and fast. Shoutout to Auraelia.

The scheduled activies like yoga, paddleboard yoga and candle and soap making were also a lovely addition and the external people who did the workshops were great.

I have never felt the need to complain to our rep on holiday but did this time and even the Jet2 rep was unable to get much help from the hotel so I will be registering a formal complaint. Over £3,000 later and we left feeling disappointed.