Don Juan, Magalluf

...holiday.

The Don Juan Hotel is part of the Hoteles Saint Michel group and is a 3 star hotel situated in the quieter area of Magaluf. It was built in 1972 and extensively renovated during the winter of 1999 and has 182 rooms in total (161 twins and 21 single) which stretch over seven floors.

We had booked our 10 day holiday through the internet paying £283 each on a half board basis which included flights from Luton ...
...we didn't arrive at the Don Juan until approximately 1am. After checking in which was done pretty quickly we were given our key. The only thing was the lift didn't appear to be working at we were on the 4th floor and as a woman you can imagine how heavy my case was! Luckily for me Dave came to my rescue and carried my suitcase up the stairs (what a gentleman).

The room was large with 2 single beds which we then pushed together to make ... more

It's been a while since I wrote a review and I had said to myself that I would wait until after my holiday to put fingers to keyboard once again. After sunning ourselves for 2 weeks in Magaluf, Majorca it's taken me a while to get back into the swing of everyday life in Blighty but I think I'm almost there (worst luck).

Well it's been almost a week since we got back and so I thought it was about time I put my review writing cap on once again and what better to review than the hotel we stayed in on our holiday.

The Don Juan Hotel is part of the Hoteles Saint Michel group and is a 3 star hotel situated in the quieter area of Magaluf. It was built in 1972 and extensively renovated during the winter of 1999 and has 182 rooms in total (161 twins and 21 single) which stretch over seven floors.

We had booked our 10 day holiday through the internet paying £283 each on a half board basis which included flights from Luton airport. After booking we had read reports on the internet that I will admit got us pretty worried - stories of thefts from both rooms and safety deposit boxes within the rooms, less than satisfactory food and a rather dirty swimming pool area. For a while we did wonder if we had made the right decision but came to the conclusion that it was already booked and there wasn't much we could do except wait and see what it was like for ourselves.

We had an evening flight and by time we had collected our baggage and caught our transfer bus to the hotel we didn't arrive at the Don Juan until approximately 1am. After checking in which was done pretty quickly we were given our key. The only thing was the lift didn't appear to be working at we were on the 4th floor and as a woman you can imagine how heavy my case was! Luckily for me Dave came to my rescue and carried my suitcase up the stairs (what a gentleman).

The room was large with 2 single beds which we then pushed together to make a double, a bedside cabinet on each side, a dressing table with drawers and a large mirrored wall length wardrobe which not only had a 5 drawer cupboard inside but also actually had hangers too! The wardrobe also housed the safety deposit box. We also had a television set in the room though the only English Channel we could receive was Sky News.

There was also a good sized bathroom which had a toilet, bidet, wash basin, bath and overhead shower. There was a good sized mirror with lighting above and a socket for shavers etc a there was a good supply of towels and also soap and bath gel provided.

All the rooms have balconies.

We settled in for our first nights rest. The bed was amazingly comfortable and I had no problems drifting off to the land of nod on it, there was a bottom and top sheet and a bedspread provided and 1 pillow on each bed.

Our package was on a half board basis which included breakfast and evening meal. The reports we had read about the food didn't make it sound too appealing though we had seen some reports that the food had improved slightly. Personally I found the breakfast to be sufficient for anyone's needs and I do sometimes think that people's expectations are a bit too great. The food was laid out in a buffet style setting of which you can help yourself as many times as you wanted, there were plenty of options from cereals to fresh fruit and cold meats and cheese to a full cooked breakfast. Breakfast was open between 8am - 10.30am.

The breakfast choices looked like this:

Cereal - Sugar Puffs, Museli, Corn Flakes, Coco Puffs.

Fruit - Bananas, Plums, Melon, Pineapple, Oranges, Apples.

Cooked breakfast - Eggs fried, boiled or scrambled all three available everyday, Bacon, Sausages, Grilled Tomatoes, Fried Bread, Chips.

Misc - Cheese Slices, Ham, Salami. French bread, Toast, Bread, Biscuits, Sponge Cakes, Jam, Marmalade, Honey, Chocolate Spread.

Tea, Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice, Tropical Juice, Milk.

The buffet was always kept well stocked up and as soon as something ran out a member of the kitchen staff would fill it up. I wasn't personally quite sure about the idea of having chips for breakfast but true to Spanish expectation it did seem a lot of the British guests did actually have them. (not me though - in my opinion chips for breakfast is just wrong!).

Most days after breakfast we would then either go out for a walk, go to the local shop to pick up a paper or head back up to the room to put our swimming/beach gear on ready for some sunbathing.

The Don Juan has 2 medium sized circular pools and a smaller pool which would be suitable for children as it shallower. There is plenty of sunbathing space with sun loungers laid out around the pools on a sun terrace, this really seemed to catch the sun and both of us have come back with a lovely golden tan. The hotel is just 400m from the local beach so if you don't fancy lying by the pool it only takes about 5-10 minutes to walk there.

On the outside of the hotel near to the pools there is a seating area and also a children's play area with climbing frames and a slide perfect for entertaining the younger members of the family who can get bored during the day. For the older guests there is a pool table outside on the sun terrace, a table tennis table and a dartboard all of which are able to be used all day. There was usually some kind of entertainment during the day such as water polo or volleyball played in the swimming pool in the middle of the afternoon or darts in the morning.

The hotel has two bars one inside and one outside by the pool area, these provide a wide variety of cold drinks and bar snacks throughout the day and evening at relatively good prices though I must admit we didn't use these much as we tended to go out into the main part of Magaluf in the evenings rather than stay in the hotel.

There is a 24hr reception which offers currency exchange facilities, the staff were all extremely friendly and always happy to help with any questions or enquiries. The reception also sells stamps and postcards which was quite handy and has a post box which is emptied daily.

The lounge area is large with plenty of seats provided by large sofas and tables and chairs which were very comfortable. There is a variety of games machines including pinball and space invaders and a pool table in the lounge area. There are 2 internet terminals for guests to use, you do have to pay for these at a cost of 10 minutes for 1 Euro which is around 60p, and the hotel also provides WiFi access for those who may want to take their laptop with them.

In the evening there was always some kind of entertainment put on inside the hotel for guests to enjoy. This ranged from bingo and quiz nights to Spanish dancers and 70's tribute acts and was a different thing every evening. So everyone should find something to suit them.

When we arrived at the hotel I was slightly disappointed at the location of the hotel as the last time I was in Magaluf we were right in the middle of the main strip. However on our first day we went out for a wander round and I was surprised at how quickly you could get to the main part of the town. It literally took us about 10 minutes medium paced walking time and we were right in the thick of all the bars and clubs. This meant that we could actually sleep at night because we weren't right in the noisiest part of the town (anyone who has been to Magaluf will know how noisy it can be).

The one thing that I wasn't too keen on with this hotel was the evening buffet meal. Even though there was still a fair bit of choice some evenings I was struggling a bit with stuff I could have. Maybe I am just fussy and had I have wanted to eat chips every single night for dinner then I would've been fine but I do like a bit of variety in my meals. Again it was a help yourself buffet style set up with salad, pasta and rice salads every evening and then a choice of hot meals which usually rotated amongst pork chops, fish, cannelloni, veal stew, sausages etc. There was soup available each day (always chicken) and a choice of desserts (fruit, angel delight, ice cream). You had to purchase any drinks that you wanted to have with your evening meal though these were reasonably priced (5euros for a bottle of house wine).

We tended to eat one evening in the hotel and then the next evening we would go out for dinner somewhere and alternated it like that. However if you were on a stricter budget you could eat at the hotel every evening to help keep the cost of your spending money down (obviously as long as you are staying on a half board basis).

As I stated before there was a safety deposit box in the room which you could hire out. I enquired about the fee and was told that you must put down an 8 euro deposit which you got back when you go home and for 10 days we would've had to pay 21 euros for the hire of the box, personally we thought this was quite reasonable. In the end we decided it wasn't worth us getting one though as we really had no valuables with us - reception had got our passports and neither of us had cash or travellers cheques with us because we were just withdrawing cash as and when we needed it. We didn't hear of anyone who had any problems with thefts from their room while we were there so I think the problems they had experienced a while ago had been sorted out - though I would always advise anyone if you do have valuables with them to not take any chances and get a safety deposit box.

Our room was facing out from the front of the hotel and overlooked a car park (not very exciting) although we did have lovely views of the mountains from our balcony. Due to the positioning of the hotel and the direction in which the sun rises our room remained quite cool during the day as the sun shone on the rear of the hotel more than the front which was quite nice. No good if you just wanted to sit and/or sunbathe on the balcony during the day though!

There was a mixture of guests of all ages and nationalities; there were the younger crowd who just used the hotel as a place to sleep before venturing into the liveliness of Magaluf town centre and families who made use of the entertainment provided within the hotel. I noticed there were a lot of Spanish families staying in the hotel as well.

Both myself and my fiancé were very pleased with this hotel. What we had originally been dreading and sounded like it was going to be the hotel from hell actually turned out to be a pleasant hotel with friendly staff and enough facilities for us. The food in the evening could maybe have been slightly better but when you are catering for a large number of guests I don't think you will manage to please everybody all of the time. The room was a good size, was kept clean with a maid who came every single day we were there to change the towels and empty bins etc.

The location couldn't have been any better, far enough away from the main strip that you actually sleep at night yet not so far that you couldn't easily walk to the shops, restaurants, bars and clubs (or stumble in some cases) and could easily make it to the beach even when trying to carry a beach bag and a massive lilo!

I think for the price we paid we got a really good deal though through chatting to other people in the hotel it does appear that prices can vary - I would say check the internet as that's where the people who got the best prices had booked their holidays from.

I would award this hotel 4 out of 5 - We really only needed somewhere to rest our heads overnight and have breakfast with a decent pool area and that's what we got. To be honest we didn't expect the Ritz it was a 3star hotel which had received bad reviews but one that actually exceeded our expectations. 

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