Hotel Top Royal Beach, Lloret de Mar

We stayed here for 6 nights in Febuary of this year (2008) and found it to be very good value for money, and the weather was surprisingly good which was an added bonus.

It was a last minute cheap gettaway I had already booked the flights with Ryanair and not decided where we were going to stay exactly, and then we decided to try lloret. We chose The Royal Beach because it was very resonably priced (£208 for 6 nights all - inclusive for two people) and it had fairly good reviews.

One mistake I did make though was I had booked the hotel and flights seperate and didn't bother with transfers we just got a taxi from Girona airport to resort, this was easy enough to do but cost 50 euros each way. I found out when we got home I could have booked a transfer both ways for about £25 so could have saved quite a bit of money there.

The hotel itself is quite nice it has a big pool, a smoking bar and non-smoking bar, arcade, resturaunt, shop and the rooms were quite good with fairly modern decor and bathrooms, we had a decent sized balcony overlooking the pool. All the staff were very pleasant and the entertainment acceptable. Also if you fancied a change there is plenty of nightlife in the center of Lloret about 10 mins walk away although if you have paid all - inclusive you might be a bit miffed at having to pay for drinks but its there if you want it.

We went all-inclusive and paid very little in my opinion the drink was very good and free flowing and queues at the bar wern't too bad, there were also 3 more h top hotels in the resort where you could use your all-inclusive card, (which weren't as good as royal beach but it was very handy). The food however was awful, if you were thinking of going here all-inclusive make sure you allow for eating out there are some excellent resturaunts nearby but be prepared to pay extra for your food as the hotel food is not good enough.

The hotel is well looked after and very clean we saw a young boy throw up in reception as we were waiting to check in and within seconds staff were cleaning it up and the rooms and public areas were very clean also. The room was cleaned daily and bed linen changed which isn't always the case in these cheap hotels.

The main bar was non-smoking which my wife and I found very nice as neither of us smoke and there was a seperate bar for the smokers which we weren't expecting in Spain we thought smoking would be ok everywhere so it was a nice surprise.

I think we probably would return to the royal beach as it was such good value for money and we would know next time not to expect anything of the food, it was nice being able to go for a walk and stop at another hotel and still be all-inclusive too.