Paula Gale
Well, firstly - we will definitely visit this hotel again and even may do so the same time next year.
The hotel was so peaceful. Well maintained, nice overall area. Good landscaping around the pool. Never stuck for a sunbed - you may not get the same place twice in a row - but that's not how it works as they aren't reserved for you anyway...
We arrived late at night but were welcomed just as if we got there early. The room allocation was good as I had e-mailed ahead to request a ground floor room, which they had honoured. When we arrived at the room - it was spacious clean and well maintained. The bathroom was large and wheelchair accessible, with grab rails around the shower.
On arrival, there was a bottle of wine, bottles of water, cans of Coke and Coke Zero, beer, pistachios, pack crackers with tea and coffee making facilities. We had upgraded to the deluxe room prior to 1st August, so snacks were replaced as the had been used each day. When this didn't happen after the first day, I enquired at reception, and they informed me that the practice stopped at on 1st August. I informed them that it was the reason we booked and upgraded. The receptionist queried this with the back office. He returned to say that, because we had booked before the 1st August, they would go ahead and replace each day. This was useful as we had the fridge in the room and enabled us to have a beer at night and a drink in the morning and we were able to take the water out with us, so it did come in handy.
Beds were made, towels changed and floors mopped daily. It always smelled like fresh linen when we returned to the room.
Beach towels were provided on reception free of charge and these could be swapped anytime (if only we knew). On the day before we came home, we'd been to the beach and got the towels full of sand. My husband swapped the so we could have clean ones for around the pool and these were swapped without question.
The pool area had Balinese beds and sturdy sun loungers, not the cheap plastic white ones. These were made of metal. The pool area had a lovely bridge over the pool. The area was tastefully decorated and landscaped with huge statement trees and plants. It was a very peaceful and relaxing.
The restaurant was clean and modern and had plenty of choice at breakfast, from English, to continental, to salads, musili/oats station, yogurt and fruit station, bread of all kinds and toasters, then pastries, pancakes churros and choco sauce - all very tasty. The staff were very efficient, weren't pushy and only collected finished plates/dishes/cups when it was clear to do so - they didn't hover while you hadn't finished. Always helpful and always had smiles, were polite and courteous.
El Cotillo is a quiet gem. So peaceful and unassuming - the area and the grande hotel itself is somewhere we definitely want to visit again. Coffee shops with pastries and bocadillas are in place of bars - it's not without those, but definitely more laid back surfer vibe area. There was some ongoing construction work between the hotel and the beach, but this never bothered us.
This time of year you have to look out carefully for the opening times of shops and coffee shops as they aren't open as long as they may have been during the height of the season. It appears like the restaurants and café type places all take it in turns to close for one or so days per week.
Within the actual hotel building, out front there is an ATM, supermarket, ice-cream shop, smaller shops that sell artisan products, a hire shop that hires bikes, mopeds/scooters, a nail salon and more. At the end of the front of the building is a bar - the rooftop bar, that has live music and in season, opens actually on the bar. This wasn't open while we were there at the beginning of October.
Overall, our impression of the hotel was 5 stars and would recommend to family and friends.
The weather was just perfect. Not too hot to be out in and yet still able to walk around with strappy tops or a dress on. Win win.
Yannik Schmidt
Clean and nice hotel located in a rather quiet (not as busy / full with tourists) location which we enjoyed. Plenty of free parking in the area, beach is nearby and there’s good restaurants in Cotillo too.
Hotel is modern and clean! Staff is very friendly. The pool area is clean and not very busy usually. Nice facilities like an indoor gym and a (rooftop) bar next door.
The rooms are a bit noisy, we could clearly hear our neighbors shower or cough. The room fan in our room wasn’t able to shut off which isn’t really a problem, just makes a little buzzing noise. But the rooms are very clean and the interior is modern, bathroom is large and the balcony is plenty. I’d recommend a room with a pool view.
Breakfast is good! Plenty to choose from. We only went for dinner once or twice, it’s a buffet style dinner - it’s fine but nothing special. During the day you can get very delicious à la carte food here though like proper chicken burgers and salads, those are really good. Pool bar is open too!
Overall a nice hotel in a more relaxing and quiet area. Definitely worth the visit!
Carina Byrne
This hotel is absolutely perfect for a quiet and relaxing break away. The staff are amazing ...so helpful pleasant and kind. The food was delicious. The rooms and pool area are spotless. The hotel is situated in a quaint little fishing village and the vibe is chill. No sunbed wars no buffet queues even in peak season. Perfection!
Mike Groves
Sincerely can not fault this hotel or the staff, from Reception, Restaurant to Bar and cleaners first and foremost.
Rooms were kept immaculate every time they were cleaned, as were the pool and dining areas.
Everyone was GENUINELY pleasant and helpful every day. Not a fake smile at any time so clearly a very pleasant place to work as well.
Special shout out to Camila, Rene and Marko
Liam McLoughlin
We're at the Coral Cotillo Reef hotel, which is a sister hotel to this one that doesn't have a separate page, so leaving our review here.
It has been nothing short of a disaster. From checking in late last night lugging our bags to the entrance, only to find a sign saying we must go back down the road to the hotel across the road. The hotel or Jet2 could have told us this before we had to go back and forth at nearly midnight.
When we got the room, we immediately found the air conditioning didn't work. We complained and were told to come back in the morning. We came back in the morning after a terrible night's sleep, to be told it might get fixed tomorrow. It's approximately 28c in the room and very uncomfortable, particularly for my heavily pregnant wife and young child.
Things then got even worse when we tried to take a shower. The downstairs shower doesn't work at all, no water comes out. The upstairs shower does not drain properly, and flooded the apartment making the tiles very slippery. Water streamed down the steep stairs to the downstairs bedroom, creating a very dangerous situation.
I didn't know the shower was overflowing, and even though I was only showering for 3-4 minutes, it ran into the hallway in this time and our three year old slipped and hurt herself.
The staff have been friendly and apologetic but ultimately we've wasted the first day of our holiday trying to get these issues resolved so far unsuccessfully.
We've spent 8 hours unsuccessfully trying to complain to our tour operator and eventually all we were offered was an upgrade to half board, which isn't much use to us as we're vegan and expect the options to be very limited.
Given all the problems with the hotel, we'd also like to spend less time in it, not more. It's also only approximately £200 in value and in my opinion doesn't really compensate sufficiently for the issues we've had and the loss of enjoyment of an entire day of our weeks holiday.
The pool bar isn't setup to take card payments yet, which we didn't know until after we ordered...
Ultimately the hotel isn't finished and shouldn't have opened yet, and they're using guests to find the issues rather than properly checking everything is ready before opening.
Edit: The showers got fixed in the early evening, but we're still without air con. Another thing I forgot to mention is that there's a signed reception (also mentioned on the welcome sheet given at check in), but it turns out it isn't actually open. Attempting to use the phone in the room to call reception just rings indefinitely, possibly because it's going to the closed reception. This means you have to walk across the road every time you need to speak to reception.
My Booking
