PLAYABALLENA SPA HOTEL

Our initial impression of this hotel was awful with the check-in process, lasting 90 minutes, which was particularly challenging with a tired three-year-old in tow. The reception staff offered no apology and provided minimal information, exhibiting unhelpful and rude behavior throughout our stay. Despite the rocky start, the holiday ultimately proved to be amazing. The hotel itself is immaculate, and the food and drinks are delicious, with branded spirits, cocktails, and ice cream available at significantly discounted prices if you're All inclusive. The animation team was consistently hard-working, polite, and very talented. Exploring the vast hotel grounds revealed a hidden Splash Park behind the indoor pool. A unique feature is the 8 PM nightly train ride. It stops right outside the hotel and tours the resort in 30 mins, offering insights into local attractions. It's important to note that this is a Spanish hotel catering predominantly to Spanish families; therefore, entertainment is primarily in Spanish. For those seeking an English-speaking, tourist-centric environment, this hotel may not be suitable. Our experience highlighted that basic Spanish manners went a long way in fostering positive interactions, while those exhibiting ignorance received similar treatment in return. We would definitely go back!

We have just returned from a week at this hotel. We are a family of four with two young children and this hotel did not disappoint! The reason for the 4 star is the lack of English speaking staff which made it hard to communicate, especially at the mini club when dropping my son off. However, even though there was a language barrier, the staff were super friendly, our children loved them all! A special shout out to the animation team. They work so hard day and night keeping all guests entertained. The live shows on an evening were incredible!! The rooms themselves were extremely clean and the beds were very comfy. The food served was variable, great choice for all inc. there weren’t very many local restaurants, but enough to get you by for the week if you fancy a change. The beach was beautiful, with a nice little park nearby for the children. There is a gate at the bottom of the hotel when you can swipe your room key for instant access to the beach! When you return via the same gate, there are showers for the hotel guests to use, so you don’t need to use the public showers on the beach. All in all, an extremely relaxing holiday in a lovely hotel.

Lovely hotel and very clean. Staff were very friendly and helpful when they understood what you were saying. As an English family we found this hotel quite difficult to get by, a lot of the staff spoke minimal English so we had to use Google translate a lot of the time. We also didn't feel involved with the evening entertainment, from past experiences with different hotels, the entertainment would be spoken in their home language and then repeated in English. This wasn't done so we didn't have a clue what was happening most nights and ended up leaving early. And on some nights the entertainment room was very overwhelming with too many people and nowhere to sit, we couldn't get in the room one night as people were crowded in the doorway. The pool area was lovely and always clean. Our garden room was perfect and enjoyed how close we were to the pool, hotel and walk to the beach. The kids loved the pool and the slides. The water park area was separate but it was nice to have the option. There are plenty of sunbeds however if you did a morning activity off-site and wanted an afternoon by the pool you would not be able to get a bed. There is a lifeguard who goes round giving tickets if you have been gone longer than an hour but those people quickly return and bin the tickets so it doesn't really make a difference. Dinner time was interesting, the food was very yummy however after a few nights it was very repetitive, the dishes would be different but they had the same flavours and the live cooking areas were always the same. Again some nights it was like feeding time at the zoo, as soon as a fresh plate of food went down the amount of people that flocked to get some and it was all gone again. You had to be very quick. Quite disappointing, some nights filled me with anxiety because it was so overwhelming, noisy and just pure chaos getting your dinner. Often I would go up once and then no more because I did not want to deal with the craziness of the restaurant. The food aisles are in the doorway and just in one area so it got very busy. We have never been to this area before but discovered it was in a great location. Yes it was right on the beach which was lovely but if you want a little town of shops you would have to drive or get a taxi. There is a bus service outside but that doesn't come very often. There is a little supermarket with a few shops about a 15 minute walk away. Overall, thank you for the experience but I would not return again or recommend this hotel. It is very much the Spanish going on holiday to the coast as would an English family going to Cornwall for example so we didn't feel very comfortable.

Booked with Loveholidays, got confirmation inside a minute, flight was with Ryanair, got an email to NOT book anything else until flight confirmed.... 72 hours is their standard. When I got the confirmation I went to look at airport- hotel transfers.... only private available at huge cost as I was only staying 4 days and did not want to waste a day transferring. I rented a car to travel the 260 km to the hotel. toll roads very good , cost around 14 euros. The hotel was every bit as good as the reviews I read, very clean, very comfortable. Staff very friendly and I must commend Javier the night receptionist, very helpful as I presented myself at 6 a.m. to check in. The food at the hotel was very good, plenty of variety.It was literally less than 5 minutes to walk to the Atlantic sea from the hotel, if beach holidays are your thing rest assured the beache is long sandy and picturesque. Would I stay again? ABSOLUTELY, but I'd stay much longer than the 4 days. Rota and it's naval base are a short drive away with lots of American chains available, large USA presence as they use the base. Sevila and Jerez are within driving distance and I reccomend visiting for the amazing architecture and history!

Amazing stay. It's a kids paradise. Food was great can't complain. Air con didn't work my room was extremely hot. I did report it to reception they did try to fix it but still never worked. My room was beautifully cleaned each day . Staff were amazing except 1 lady on the pool bar who definitely should not work in hospitality, she was in her early 40s with dark brown hair her name started with an A . She was rude on more than one occasion to me and my children felt really uneasy approaching the pool bar. One of the days She seen me coming over to the bar turned her back and spoke to another colleague for over 10 mins purposely ignoring me And children really rude woman. Entertainment was lovley and sports bar was amazing nice,clean and cool inside. Beech was a 30 second walk with lovley beech bar if you fancied a change off food.

We stayed here for a week as part of a jet2 all inclusive package & we were very impressed with the hotel , its facilities & close proximity to a beautiful, unspoiled beach 🏖️ The food offering was varied & of great quality as were the drinks . The hotel is spotlessly clean & well maintained. The only negative was the jobsworth maintenance guy who wouldn’t let us sit next to the pool until 11am on the dot 😆