Seaside Hotel Sandy Beach

The hotel is in anarea surrounded by plenty of other hotels. It is only a few minutes stroll to the beach provided you use the secure back entrance (accessed by your door key.) We found it quite hilly. There were plenty of shops and eating places on the hotel's doorstep. It is about 30 minutes from the airport and a taxi cost us about 40 euros. The island had quite a kew excursions available. We took a taxi to see the dunes at Malpinas. It cost about 10 euros and was quick and easy. There are some very upmarket shops there like 450 euros for a lady's jacket..

The staff were friendly especially in the restaurant. They spoke enough English to serve us well. The main language of guests was German. The staff seemed to manage with everybody and we watched them skilfully handling a drunk man who had gatecrashed the hotel. The room cleaning was good and offered a laundry service which we did not use.
It was my birthday and a bottle of chilled wine and a card was left in our rooom. We had made no mention of this but it had been picked up on their computer system. On Valentine's Day. all the women were handed a rose at breakfast. Lovely touches.

The food was fantastic. It was served outside on the terrace for all meals with an inside restaurant available for rainy days. There were cooked to order options at every meal - eg eggs for breakfast, fish and steak at lunch time. Dinner always had several roasts as well as the cook to order options and a selection of other meals. These were sometimes themed like Chinese or Mexican. It looked to us like they catered for their German guests well with sausages on offer and a great selection of cold meats , cheeses, pickles and nuts at breakfast and lunch. They didn't forget other guests though and I enjoyed porridge for breakfast.
We had all-inclusive. There was a pool bar and snack bar which provided/sold cake , teas and coffee. All-inclusive was 10 until 11. Prices were good - two brandies cost 5 euros. Tipping was optional but I think people did it, if at all, at the end of their stay.

There was a lovely pool. You could hire towels with a deposit of 10 euros. That meant you could get clean towels regularly which saves packing them.
There were a lot of games like pool, chess, French boules near the pool. The toilets were spotless. The sunbeds were renewed for the season during our stay. They were excellent. Three pool attendants provided the soft mattresses to lie on. You could not go to the pool before 9 so there was no problem with sunbeds reserved from the middle of the night which we know happens in some hotels.

The room was a good size. It had a dressing room area instead of a wardrobe space which was great. There was a table, two chairs, dressing table and chair, lovely private balcony. It had a safe, telephone and fridge. Entry was off an open corridor. It was cleaned every day. The bathroom and toiletries were well-supplied. It only had a shower - which was a generous size but we would have preferred a bath.

We always eat lunch even when on half board and we really wanted to just chill out so staying in suited us. Lunch was delicious there. We had good weather and sunbathed every day but you definitely need a warm jumper in the evening in February and it did rain.