Maistra Select Petalon Resort in Vrsar

We visited this hotel for 10 days in June 2025. Before booking I had read the reviews, and a few people had mentioned that it was hilly. I had recently had a double knee replacement, so requesting a room lower down the complex. I understood that this request may not be facilitated but booked anyway. This complex is not just hilly, it is extremely hilly. We booked in and a porter took us to our room at the very top of the complex. There were quite a number of steps down to our room (no ramps) and we struggled down with our cases. Our room was very dark, even with the shutters open, as our balcony was surrounded by trees and insects. It states that every room has a sea view. In ours if you squatted down and looked under the trees, you could just about see it. The air condition wasn't working either. We went back down the hill to reception to ask if we could change rooms, and was told a firm "no, too busy. All full." We mentioned that the aircon wasn't working and was told it wasn't yet switched on, and maybe would be tomorrow, but she would get someone to look at it. It was 24°c at this time and set to get hotter. We went to the on site supermarket to get some drinks for the room, but that shut at 2pm. We were looking for the cafeteria as mentioned in the brochure, and was told by a member of staff that it had closed 2 years previously. That evening when having a shower I couldn't get the shower doors to meet, so the floor got wet through, there was also no shower mat. As I had a shower the water wasn't going down the drain and lots of mucky water started to come back up, so I got out before I flooded the place. A member of staff came to take a look at the aircon, which he said was broken and would be fixed on Tuesday (this was Saturday), it wasn't fixed our entire stay. He did unblock the shower the following day though. The rooms were visited 3 time in 10 days by the cleaner, who only changed the towels and made the beds. The bedding wasnt changed in our 10 day stay. When my husband used the shower and tried to shut the shower door, it fell off on him. The food in the dining room was tasty, although could have been a little warmer. And we always found something we liked. You can now get wine and beer with your meals which was a nice touch. There was no evening entertainment. And the only bar that was open was in the pizza restaurant by the beach, but this closed at 9.30pm. So unless you wanted to go into town for a drink, you had nowhere else to go. We couldn't sit on our balcony because it was full of midges and ants. The pool area was lovely and clean, although the staff could be a little grumpy. The umbrellas were a nightmare. As it was breezy and the bases weren't sturdy enough, they were flying all over the place. Both me and my husband got hit by one. And I saw one fly over the balcony of the pool. Luckily nobody was walking below. The beach area was lovely, and there was some lovely walks round and about. There's a small train that stops

Beautiful location, staff were friendly but we had to wait for ages for our room and were then asked to pay for our booking, it was a package holiday so we'd paid upfront, they didn't seem to understand this??
The food was ok with plenty of choice but the hot buffet was never hot.
About 9 coach loads of teenagers on a school trip arrived on the second day and they ran wild the whole time they were there.
The area is beautiful, the Croatian people are friendly and all of the places we visited were spotless.

Overall the hotel is good. Breakfast and dinner in the canteen style buffet is no thrills but nicely cooked food with an adequate selection. Self serve wine and beer at dinner is a nice touch. Each accommodation block has its own parking but it’s on a first come first serve basis so is a nightmare. We stayed in block A closest to beach and pool. Air con non existent unfortunately, so had to have the balcony doors open all night which meant being woken at 6am by noisy hotel ground staff shouting at each other and talking on phone. More staff training needed here it’s not ok. The room in general was fine. Plenty of storage, fridge, TV and bathroom with good shower and plenty of towels. Maid service daily. Everything is shut by 10pm so no real sense of evening entertainment, not even one late bar. If I return to Vrsar again I’d stay at the Belvedere next door.

The holiday started with us being dropped off at the other side of our apartment and since we didn’t know any better we had to drag our suitcases through god knows how many flights of stairs and when we got to the top we realised there was only 2 flights of stairs have we been dropped to the right side, that was so annoying in 35 degree heat, but we moved on. Next the room is lovely and clean, bathroom was nice, amazing water pressure. The air con wasn’t that cold, only was able to turn it down to 20 degrees. They have a really handy app where you can tell them something is wrong and they fix it very quickly. I asked to turn the temperature down l, they did, but it definitely didn’t go to the temperature. I set it to 11 degrees just to see and it was still the same, it wasn’t hot or unbearable, but we would have liked it cooler. We have also requested extra pillows and they were there by the time we got to the room. There are loads of other things you can do on the app so that was super handy. The daily clean of the room could have been better. I got some after sun which was bronze on my duvet and it was still there on day 10 so the beds weren’t changed even once and were left dirty, but it wasn’t a big deal. The sink and toilet wasn’t being cleaned either. Just made the beds, fresh towels and emptied the bins. But that wasn’t a big deal to us. Another thing was the prices - the 2 sun loungers and umbrella on the beach were €24 so I thought that was a lot, it was free at the pool. Drinks were €8.40 for 2 cokes. You could put all your drinks and snacks and pool bar and the restaurant on the room so there was no need to carry money with you. The biggest put off was the huge hill to get to our apartment. We were right at the back and top of the hill, I think that’s where all the double rooms are. This meant endless amount of stairs if we were coming back from the beach or hill coming back from anywhere else. Even put us off going to dinner one night as we were knackered from a hike we took in the day . Service at dinner was slow, some days we would have eaten the entire meal and still nobody came to ask what we wanted to drink, there was no air con in the restaurant so on the really hot days this ****** cos we were thirsty and dripping sweat in our food lol. All the staff were really nice thought and the food was insane, no doubt the best out of all the holidays I have been to when it comes to buffet restaurants. The town was really nice, but not a lot of shops, mostly restaurants and bars. Some fun things for kids like bouncy castle etc. the walk to town wasn’t too bad and there is tourist train although you will pay €3 even for one stop. Would be better if it was hop on hop off but hey ho. We had one day which rained and there isn’t a lot to do for adults. The highlight of the trip was 100% the sunset dolphin boat trip. €25 per person, definitely worth it. The resort is basically surrounded by camps so it’s busy. The pool is for the resort and th