Hotel El Greco, Ibiza

Just returned from holiday and thought you might like to know about this great resort and the hotel we stayed in. I was really looking forward to this holiday, which had been booked a year earlier, as we had been to this resort and hotel before.

Portinax is on the north side of the island and it took about 40mins from the airport to get there. The El Greco is perched right on the most beautiful bay you will ever see. They filmed South Pacific there. Yes there are a few steps down to it, but by the end of the second week you hardly noticed them. The hotel is spotlessly clean and the maid service was amazing, I lost count how many times our sheets were changed. The maid came and cleaned our room ever day and tried to clean our sons (3 of them) but often couldn't get in because they were still a bed. This did not put her off though as she would return later to venture where I feared to tread. All the hotel staff were very friendly and helpful.

The Hotel El Greco is ideal for families or couples looking for a holiday away from it all but with a choice of things to do when you are feeling a little more active. It has a total of 244 rooms over 6 floors. I would recommend a room on one of the higher floors if you can get it as people are leaving and arriving at all times of the day and night.

The entertainment this year left a lot to be desired and we found that we spent a lot more than we had intended as we tended to leave the hotel on a night and venture across the sands to the "town" centre (a few shops and 2 bars). The bars where great. Our favourite being Del Boys whilst the kids (I say kids but they are 21, 17, 16 and 12) loved Vincent's. Brian, Bev and their family made us very welcome in Del Boys and by the end of the 2 weeks it felt as though we were leaving family behind.

The main reason we returned to the El Greco was because of the food. My husband, Ivan, is a bit of a parki eater, where as I'll eat anything (and I do). Here however there was so much to choose from that even Ivan had different most days and nights. The buffet is about twenty feet, double sided and at the top they have what they call the show cooking. My advice would be to walk round first and check out the show cooking before deciding what to eat. There is usually a choice of two soups for starters, with as much freshly baked baguette as you can eat. The show cooking usually consisted each night of a choice from a meat or a fish dish, ranging from beautiful sirloin steaks, pork steaks, lamb chops, pork chops, gammon steaks, tuna steaks, salmon steak, hake and swordfish. My husband thinks this is the best gravy he has ever tasted abroad. The main buffet usually consisted of some sort of casserole, a kids dish, vegetable, salad, cold meats, cheese and a selections of deserts to die for. Ivan usually opted for rice pudding (only place we've been able to get it abroad) or sponge cake and custard. A couple of night during our stay that had special champagne night where the chef would pour as many glasses of champagne as you wanted and a special table was set up with fresh prawns on ice, mussels in white wine and various other shell fish. At lunch and dinner times there was a help yourself bar where you could pour yourself a lager or a wine or a soft drink (as many as you liked). At breakfast there were always bottles of champagne available if you wanted them.

The water park as promised was only a short walk away from the hotel and beach and was fantastically supervised by the lifeguards. There was also a bar there were you could continue your free drinks. Although not that big it did keep the kids entertained and there's not many hotels that have their own water park. We did spend a couple of day around the pool but it wasn't very big and had a lot of small kids running around so most of the time we went on the beach. The sea went out for miles before getting to deep to stand and the you could see fish swimming around you. There was also the usually water sports, donuts, banana boat, skiing and pedalos. We took a pedalo out one day and the view of the beach was amazing.

We also hired a car for a few days. We got a good deal through the Thomson reps at the hotel. This turned out to be quite fortuitous as the 2 days we had the car Ibiza had the most rain they had had in 40 years. Had we not had the car we would have been stuck in the hotel with little to do. As it was we were able to explore the whole of Ibiza, visiting Ibiza town as well as many little unspoilt coves.

Now for the downside. Just outside of Portinax is a sewerage works and depending on which way the winds blowing the smell is disgusting. This did not help the entertainment as on our first week this was out by the pool. The second week after the rain it did move inside but the entertainment was so poor we still went out for most of the night. I did hear though that the Thomson reps had had that many complaints that a new entertainment manager was brought in midway through our second week.

I have read in other reviews that the Thomson reps could hardly been found. This I find hard to believe as there were always two reps a their desk in the hotel until 8pm every night. Debbie a young rep from Gateshead took a shine to my 12-year-old Chris and really made his holiday and had us laughing at some of the complaints she had received. Namely, the man who complained because there was a courtesy room, when he had already booked a late checkout room. First time I heard anyone complain because something was provided, or the man who complained that the reps had not told him there might be jellyfish in the sea. Sorry did he not read the newspapers before he left England, which was full of the amount of jellyfish around the Spanish coast.

The hotel is not really the place for teenagers/young adults as it is more for families with small children. Although there were quite a few teenagers there. Unfortunately they all seemed to be drawn to each other and made a lot of noise when returning home at 5am in morning after an impromptu beach party (mine included). So much so that we were threatened with being asked to leave the hotel if it continued.

I personally love the resort and the hotel, but I think if I was to return in future I would probably go self catering rather than all inclusive, as on top of the £3500 it cost for our family of 6, we spent about another £1000, due to the entertainment not being up to much. And although the food was fabulous the meals at Del Boys were excellent and reasonably priced, so I think it would have been cheaper for us this year to have been self-catering.