We arrived at 11am after having travelled for more than 24 hours by coach. The reception area was full with people leaving/arriving and chock-a-block with luggage. We had to wait 2 hours before we could have our room and had to sit on uncomfortable chairs as there were only a few sofas/comfy chairs. Our first impression of the hotel was that the entertainment area looked like a cafe (later on in our hotel we wandered into other three star hotels to compare and they all had separate larger entertainment areas and nice tables and chairs). The stage as it was called consisted of planks of wood and a couple of speakers. The hotel owners spared no expense or imagination here! Our room was clean and surprisingly comfortable (because there were three of us so we had three beds in the room). The air conditioning was good. The maids did clean the room everyday, however it was only surface cleaning. I don't recommend looking under the beds, under the dressing table, in the wardrobe or balcony!). The towels were changed every day if you left them in the bath. The food, what can I say? If you appreciate good food then this hotel is definitely NOT for you. However, on Fridays there is a special buffet and it’s like a banquet. So much choice of nice food its difficult to choose. They even give desserts (normally you only get 1 type of melon and a few other fruits, jelly, blancmange that we nicknamed slop and sometimes instead of jelly a disgusting mousse). On Fridays there is also cheese and biscuits and pate. It's crazy that six days a week the food is awful and one day a week it is out of this world. If you love pork then you might enjoy the food they serve daily. There is at least two or three pork dishes at the main counter and more pork in the evening at the hot counter where a chef starts cooking after the first guests are allowed into the dining room. Breakfasts are not worth getting up for. In the eleven days we were there they served bacon 3 times and the rest of the time it was different types of sausages (I think breakfast and lunches were the left overs from the night before!). We had scrambled egg once and fried eggs twice. The rest of the time it was hard boiled eggs. This hotel is obsessed with pork and they even served pork pasties for breakfast! Cold baked beans were on the menu every morning. It would have been nice if they offered an alternative such as grilled tomatoes or mushrooms. They didn't even serve croissants every day. There were no fruits (fresh or tinned) or yoghurts at breakfast. By 9.15am there is limited bread left, usually a few stale pieces and the staff don't refill the baskets. At 9.15am the staff close down one of the two drinks machines and start cleaning it out. The fruit juices are watered down so much they taste like squash. Bottled water is not included in the all-inclusive deal. If you ask for a packed lunch they are very minimal and they don't include drinks (even for all inclusive packages). They are supposed to give drinks if you miss an evening meal but we found that we got the same packed meal whether it was for lunch or dinner. Lunches as I said previously are mainly left-overs plus a few extra dishes. There are less salads to choose from and the fresh cooked counter is not used. There is more choice of fruit in the evenings. There are two separate counters for salads and main meals. However, in the evenings if you don't want salads people complain if you try to bypass the salad counter and join the queue at the main meals. We found it was best to get your drinks from the lounge bar before going into the dining room because there is only one barperson and the queues are long so if you get food first you end up with cold food. The pool is nice but not big enough for the amount of guests staying at the hotel. If you want a sun bed you have to queue up. There is a chain put across the entrance of the steps to the pool area and the cleaners clean the pool area from 8am so they don't let you get your sun beds before 8.40am. By 9am every sun bed is taken. Also because the floor is wet it is slippery and if you take beach bags down to the pool area they get soaked through. There is not a large area surrounding the pool so you have to be prepared to get wet whilst trying to sunbathe because naturally kids like to splash in the pool. We used to move a few tables so our sun beds were not on the edge of the pool but then a large group of Dutch youngsters put their sun beds in front of us and because they were in along line we were prevented from getting to the pool! Some of them had different colour wristbands so I assume they weren't even staying at the hotel. We got fed up having to get up early to queue up for beds so we went to the local beach which is only 10 minutes away and you can get a nice space. It's a nice beach however, it's steep so the water gets deep very quickly and there is a strong current and big waves so you have to keep an extra careful eye on young children. There are good showers on the beach to wash off the sand before you leave. The entertainers do try to entertain the kids and they have water games every afternoon/water fights. My son got injured whilst taking part in the water fights. The entertainer gave my son a pad to put on the foot but as it was a deep cut this was not sufficient. I noticed there was a first aid cabinet near the bar area so I took my son to the bar and the barman, who was the first aider treated the injury properly. The evening entertainment was appalling. Most people like ourselves went on organised evening trips. A lot of people we spoke to went to the local bars. The hotel was full of Dutch/German youngsters between 18-20 and they were very rowdy and not very friendly. This hotel is more suited to this age group and we wouldn't recommend it to families. There were two pool tables but one of them was out of use. We used the games area over the road. (Pool, table football, discs etc). We didn't have any problems with the bar staff. They weren't friendly but they weren't rude either. The only annoying thing was that adults are only allowed order two drinks each and children can only order 1 drink (on the all inclusive deal) so as there were three of us two of us had to go to the bar if we all wanted a drink. At the poolside our son could never get drinks for us. The snacks at the poolside were good. The food was cooked to order so it was always hot and fresh. We didn't have any complaints about the reception staff apart from one young man. Our son's wristband broke (whilst participating in water sports at the hotel) and he wanted to charge him 2 euros for another one. We waited until there was another receptionist on duty and the band was changed without any problems or additional costs. The hotel charges 18 euros a week for the use of the safety deposit boxes. As we were staying 11 days we had to pay the weekly charge and 4 euros per day for 4 days, so we had to pay 34 euros (if we stayed for two weeks the charge would have been 36 euros). We went to look at other three star hotels and in our opinion they are far superior to this hotel. We think this hotel is over-rated and should be a two star hotel. Regrettably we would not consider staying at the Esplai ever again.

Me and my family stayed in this hotel for 1 week. It was lovely. The weather was brilliant! The staff weren’t very helpful and the food well... we went mc Donald’s most of the time through out our full-boarded holiday. The same dish was handed out everyday day! If you like the food you would have it over and over again if you didn’t... tough. You either had to have it or paid extra to have something different. I think if the hotel wanted to improve get a better menu!!!

The hotel lobby at least 15 steps above street level which from the start ment having to carry suit-cases prams/push chairs up them. No ramp was provided. The hotel lobby was neat & tidy. 2 lifts & 6 floors. The rooms were very small and in need of redecoration, and as the week progrested it was obvious the same could be said for the rest of the hotel. The staff were not at all helpful. Even to the fact they would not give us a glass full of ice to have with our drinks in our room, when the children went to bed at night. The food was dreadful. The same menue each night breakfast did improve when the omlett bar opened. The pool was dirty, toilet door lock in the pool area toilet stuck due to low maintenace and locked our 8year old in, it was 10mins before we could get her out. Going all inclusive should have ment all food & drinks, this was not the case. The bar staff may sure that AI guests were the last to be served, because they realised that the paying guests would tip them from their change. Also AI guests could only have 2 drinks at a time, even though they were aware that we have an 8 year old with us they would only let us have 2 drinks we which ment that 2 of us had to go to the bar each time we wanted a drink. in short not what the brochure said.