Apartamentos Don Vicente in Cala San Vicente

We stayed at this hotel at the beginning of May on a half-board basis, in a twin room with a pool view.

Upon arrival, we were warmly welcomed by the friendly reception staff. They kindly offered us a complimentary upgrade to a sea-view room, which was a lovely gesture. Unfortunately, the only available upgraded room had a double bed, and as we specifically wanted twin beds, we were unable to accept.

After checking in, we were pointed in the direction of our room. While it was extremely clean and well-maintained, it was very compact. The space was quite limited, and we found it difficult to move around the beds and access the balcony comfortably.

Having travelled all morning, we headed to the snack bar for lunch. When we tried to order, we were informed that around half of the menu was unavailable. Unfortunately, the staff member was unable to clearly explain which items were available and which were not. We were also told that this was the hotel’s reopening day, something we had not been aware of when booking. Once we eventually found something to order, the food was acceptable, but overall it did not feel like the standard you might expect from a four-star hotel.

Later, we spent some time by the pool and noticed that the hotel was extremely quiet. Ordering drinks from the pool bar proved to be rather frustrating. Several drinks listed on the menu were unavailable, which seemed surprising given that the hotel had only just reopened. The barman appeared somewhat unhelpful when we asked about alternative options.

We ordered frozen cocktails, which understandably took longer to prepare. However, when I politely asked if they could be brought over to our loungers — especially as we were the only guests by the pool — I was told rather abruptly that there was no lounger service and that I would need to wait approximately 15 minutes at the bar.

Paying for drinks was also problematic, as the card machines seemed to be frequently out of order. On one occasion, ordering and paying for just two cocktails at the sea-view pool bar took over 20 minutes, despite there being no queue and only my friend and me using the pool area. The cocktails themselves were average, although we did appreciate that they were made with branded spirits.

Overall, we had expected a hotel reopening after the off-season to be fully prepared and operating at its best. Instead, many aspects of the stay felt disorganised, and even simple requests often seemed unnecessarily complicated.

On a positive note, the breakfast was very enjoyable. There was a wide variety of options, the food was fresh and tasty, and the staff in the restaurant were consistently friendly and welcoming.

In summary, our stay was fairly average. While there were certainly some positives, particularly the cleanliness, breakfast, and helpful reception staff, the overall experience was let down by the lack of preparation and organisation. We came away feeling that it’s probably best to avoid staying at a hotel on its reopening day.

Disappointed for the money we paid. Hotel is set in a beautiful location and that was probably the only highlight of the hotel. We stayed for 7 nights in August. The food was pretty poor for both breakfast and dinner, not much on offer compared to other similar hotels we have stayed at, and we found the food to either be odd or bland. The room was basic to say the least and almost felt very run down. When we arrived the room wasn’t fully clean and you notice things like a dirty shower, and sand on the floor. We felt it needs a good refresh throughout. We were on the half board plan and felt that no offering of any drinks throughout the day was rubbish, they don’t even have any water stations anywhere, you have to pay for a soft drink and only receive complimentary coffee in the morning. The hotel has very little entertainment and does not highlight when they have anything on. The room was kept pretty well maintained during the stay from the cleaners, which was good but the overall service was non existent from the rest of the staff. We asked on our last night to switch to lunch instead of dinner due to our flight time and they refused, saying we are only allowed breakfast on that day. I also wanted to mention we stayed on the 1st floor by the outside pool entrance/exit and gosh was this noisy. Our room faced the bin area below and every morning there was no care for noise to the rooms close by. The best part of this hotel is the setting and location. Probably wouldn’t visit again, disappointed for paying £2.8k for 2 people