Las marismas

Booked this hotel as a family of three, based largely on the number of positive reviews.
Arrived in the dark and given a vague map directing us to our apartment. None of the room numbers are illuminated so this took us quite a while wandering around, as the complex is huge.

The apartments themselves are in need of a MASSIVE upgrade. We were aware that there was no aircon, but the ceiing fans were completely inadequate in this regard. As we were given a ground floor apartment, we didn’t feel safe leaving our patio doors open on the “safety” chain, as others have done, going by previous reviews; our daughter was also on her own in the lounge on the pull out metal bed. We hired a fan for our daughter, which made little difference. As such, NONE of us had a full night’s sleep for the entirety of our stay.

The room had a fridge and sink area which was adequate. The bathroom door lock didn’t work, and the shower works from the tap, in that you have to pull up a little lever for the shower to work. It was so stiff when we arrived, that we felt that the room hadn’t been used for a while, despite staff telling us that the hotel was full.

We only really used the large pool, which was nice. The sunbed area was clean and tidy, although many of the sunbeds and some umbrellas were broken. It was pleasurable to see the manageress come down and remove towels from unoccupied sunbeds, and put them into the Pile of Shame! We never had a problem getting a sunbed. Pool towels could be hired for 1€ each. The pool toilets were very clean.

There is a pool bar and a seated area in between the two main pools. We were self-catering so my husband queued at the bar to get drinks/food and told the staff his table number. This wasn’t a problem until about the fourth day, when, after queuing for around twenty minutes, the barman told him that he wasn’t allowed to order at the bar if using a table, and that he had to wait to be served at the table! It was embarrassing as a) it hadn’t been an issue before and b) there were no signs telling us that this was the case. We utilised the “table service” after this, and were waiting over thirty minutes before having our order taken. There simply is not enough staff.

We ate a couple of nights at the hotel, and both were nice. Staff in the restaurant were very friendly, overall.

The resort itself is in a nice spot, about 10mins walk from the main strip. A taxi down to the harbour was around 6€, and there are plenty of places to eat and drink.

We were glad we didn’t stay AI, as the entertainment at night seemed to consist of a couple of musicians and little else. Likewise the entertainment around the pool during the day, which seemed to consist of a couple of games of water volleyball and aqua aerobics; the “animacion team” I think we probably saw twice trying to drum up interest.

We arrived late on a Saturday, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that our rooms were changed the following day. This boded well, I thought. However, by the Wednesday, we still hadn’t had a cleaning service and were using the same towels. I went to reception and queried this, and was told that reception had clean towels and that we could request them. There was nothing to inform us that this was the case. Our room was cleaned the following day, and then once more after that during our 11 night stay. Yuk.

Our return flight was later on in the evening. The hotel seemed quiet, so we asked if we could pay to keep our room for longer. We were told no, the hotel was fully booked. It definitely wasn’t; there were so many sunbeds free, and, also, we’d spoken to a couple the day before who had asked the same, and were told that their room had been allocated to someone else. They left the day before us and had a poolside room, but we noticed that noone had been allocated their room the following day.

Overall, the resort from the outside looks lovely. However, it is in need of a HUGE injection of money to upgrade it. The addition of aircon would improve it greatly.

It was interesting to see that there is a review from a year ago that mentions many identical issues that we have pointed out. There is a reply suggesting that their views were taken on board in order to make improvements; this, however does not seem to be the case, which is both disappointing and sad, as this could be such a lovely place to stay. On the whole, I wouldn’t recommend this to anybody.

I'll start with the negatives - more to show how good this place is that the best I can come up with are nit-picks

- sunbed reserving policy not enforced the first few days of our stay. There were still some beds to be found with a bit of effort. Kids pool was best for beds but I accept some may want to be closer to big pools. They did begin lifting towels a few days in and quite frankly, it was a joy to behold, quality entertainment. No issues after this point. (attached pic of the towel stack of shame)

- half of the arcade machines, of which there are not a huge amount, were faulty at different times. I'd say the kids (i.e. me) lost at least €10 on games/pool tables that would not work.

- the TV in the room may as well not exist for native English speakers, it only had Sky News and the HDMI ports were disabled so we couldn't connect the kids tablet or laptop to it. Not an issue for us but some might spend more time in the rooms and find it a problem.

- I did not like the beer (Tropical), which is not something I've said very often in my life. I had a terrible terrible pint on the 1st or 2nd night that really put me off it. Thankfully the nightly alternating cocktails helped make up for it. Again not a massive issue as we were there with young kids so it was only ever one or two a night after we'd had a venture up the town.

Now, with that out of the way I can gush about how great this place is and how much we enjoyed our stay.

One bed apt (2242) was fine for family of 4. Not a bad view overlooking hole 17 - where "Blanco" the cat provided the entertainment chasing whatever he was chasing back and forth most nights. We stayed AI so didn't do any cooking but all the bits and pieces looked to be there, bottle opener too which we did use :) . Bathroom was a good size, the pressure from that shower is a joy to behold! Air con is not needed, the fans do the job fine and we also left the patio doors open pretty much all the time.

The gardens and pool areas are kept in excellent condition. Plenty of sun beds and no "wars" as such but you do still get inconsiderate numpties leaving towels out but thankfully this was addressed during our stay.

The food was really really good. I don't usually expect so much from AI. We did not eat out half as much as previously planned. We arrived late on a Friday and reception happily informed us that we still had time for BBQ - quite frankly how all holidays should start! Even some of the boring "international" nights were really good. Mexican night was good but not great - no soured cream, no churros for desert even though they're there every morning for breakfast (which is the last thing I could fathom for breakfast). My wife loved the Spanish nights. The least favourite was probably the Asian night as it was the only night the kids struggled but my wife did say the sushi was very good. A note on the kids - plenty of the usual beige food if that's your thing but our 7yr daughter developed a love for grilled fish, the staff at the hot counter knew exactly what she wanted when she appeared with plate in hand.

The staff were excellent, the restaurant guys go out of their way to play with the kids. On the bar were mostly Lucas and Brenda who work their asses off. They also helped my wife discover a new found love for Campari - as Aperol was an additional charge, so the Campari Sprits is now a thing. . .albeit a fair bit more potent. I've seen complaints about AI guests being stuck with plastic cups for beer but I received a pint glass when I asked for one without any hesitation. We didn't see a huge amount of the evening entertainment but what we did catch was excellent, special mention to the South African lady who had a stunning voice.

My kids were a bit slow in getting involved but eventually fell in love with the mini club. The ladies were great and the kids did not want to leave. I also see mentions online about the lack of a mini disco and for the most part we didn't see one (probably not around at the time) but one evening in particular they had a good blow-out with all the kids at the stage area in the bar/arcade room (picture attached). I did see a sign down at the kids club stating that there was disco in the bar most nights so I'm at a bit of a loss to explain what's going on there.

Anyway, this yarn is long enough. We had a brilliant time. We had 11 nights and the value for money was unreal - we booked with Sunshine (OTB spin off company) and the holiday was £1000 cheaper than going with Jet2 and TUI which both seemed to only have 10 night options. All in all we would absolutely brilliant holiday and would consider a return visit and recommend Las Marismas very highly.

Just back from a weeks stay at this hotel with 4 adults and a teenager. We were self catering so can’t comment on food in the hotel restaurant. Hotel grounds are very well kept. Three pools means there is plenty of space and pools aren’t crowded. One pool is heated but still chilly but refreshing. Rooms are really spacious and beds are comfortable. The bathroom was huge and shower powerful. The hotel is 5-10 mins walk to the top of the main strip and 25-30 min stroll to get to the music square. The only negatives were the cleaning services, in a weeks stay we only had 2 visits and no clean towels in one of our rooms for the entire stay. The other is the sun bed situation. On arrival we were told sun beds could not be reserved but on the first morning found towels on sun beds from 9am when we came down. We found our beds and sat poolside and read for 2 hours. Went up to the room to get ready to go out for breakfast and was gone for max 10 mins and came back to find ours (and others) towels removed. It seems the deal is that the pool opens at 10am and if no one is on the sun beds at that time the towels are cleared off. This probably should be made clearer when checking in.