INTRODUCTION

I have been away from ciao for a while, but I do have to say how nice it really is to see so many familiar faces around, plus the addition of a few new ones who seem to be setting a very high standard, to keep us older members on our toes.

Anyway after a long awaited return I have decided to review a hotel my and my partner stayed in when we went on a last minute holiday to Spain at the end of July.

WHAT A DEAL

We booked the last minute holiday through the teletext holiday section on teletext web site, we had never gone with them before but as it was such a good deal for this time of year and we desperately wanted a little bit of sunshine, it was perfect for us as we were not expecting anything lavish, this way we would not be disappointed.

I managed to get a seven night stay in an all inclusive hotel and all flights and transphers were included, for the bargain price of £568.00. Which I think is brilliant as it is high season and the school holidays, which is the most expensive time of year.

TOSSA

I do have to say the location was perfect, it was situated in a small town Tossa De Mar on the Costa Brava Spain. It is a quaint little fishing town surrounded by scenic views of the ocean, beaches and it was all encased by stunning cliffs, which dominated the town and gave you the isolated and enclosed feeling.

The thing that really appealed to me was the face that it was not really a tourist destination unlike LLoret De Mar which was only a few miles down the road, so if you wanted more excitement you could head there, or relax and take it easy in Tossa.

Tossa de Mar can be reached by either flying into Girona of Barcelona airports, Girona is the nearest and eliminates an hour and a half bus ride from the alternative Barcelona airport. We flew in to Barcelona and took the hours journey by bus to reach our hotel, the trip was very scenic with some stunning views, but I think the Girona airport would have been a much better option for us.

THE TOSSA BEACH HOTEL

The hotel is called the Tossa Beach hotel, which sounds very nice but you expect a beach with a name like that don't you, there is a beach but it is a fair distance down the road so I personally thought the name was very misleading. But I wasn't going to be put off by this as we had got the holiday so cheap.

The Tossa Beach Hotel is a three star all inclusive hotel that offers over one hundred and twenty rooms, which consist of doubles, singles and family rooms. The rooms are situated within two different buildings which are both connected by the ground floor, each building is accessible by a different stairwell of lift. Which makes is a stayable place for the disabled, but I personally feel like the disabled would be limited on where they could go easily as there were stairs and step everywhere.

The rooms are all located on the top to floors and on the ground floor you will find a lavish reception area with massive doors and a thick wood reception desk, here you are greeted by pleasant and nicely dressed staff, who are willing to help without hesitation.

Upon arrival you were issued with your room key and then the cheese factor took place and you were issued with a bright blue wrist band which was to be worn for the entire stay, this enabled you to eat, drink and take advantage of all of the hotels facilities. Adults are issued a blue band and children under eighteen are issued with a red band, to make staff aware that they are unable to drink.

Also on the ground floor you have computers for internet access and there is a small charge of 1 Euro for fifteen minutes, which is not too bad if you only need to check email.

The ground floor also consists of a Luggage room, where you are able to leave luggage if you are traveling later in the day, as the hotel expects you to vacate your rooms by 10am on the day of departure. Along side this you will find a massive venue room where you will fined the bar, pool tales, video games and an air hockey game, which also cost you 1 euro a play.

It is as you get to the bar area you see that this hotel is not all it seems, the bar area was dirty looking and very seedy, it did not seem to be cared for at all. The bar staff were rude and they all looked dirty and unwashed, they looked like they had just come into work after a night out and they had not been home.

The hotel had entertainment every night, which consisted of children's entertainment until 9pm and them the adult entertainment from 9pm until midnight, when the bar closed down and you were told to go to your rooms. I did not like this one little bit, yes I understand they have to work to a no noise policy to cater for all of the guests, but actually being told to go to bed by a grubby waiter was not what I expected from my holiday.

The restaurant is located in what can only be described as the basement, it spanned the whole length of the hotel and consisted of a help your self type buffet for breakfast, dinner and tea time meals. At fist there was a wide selection of food of so I thought, but as the week went on I soon noticed that it was the same old food day in and day out, anything not eaten at breakfast was put out and lunch and so on and so forth.

The swimming pool is a big but not massive enough to swim in freely, it was situated in a courtyard and was surrounded by twenty of so big plastic sun loungers which consumed the patio where all the smokers congregated. To be honest I thought it was a health and safety hazard as there was not even enough space to walk through and around the sun loungers, so I don't know how many people slipped in to the pool accidentally.

THE BEDROOM

This was very basic and a little bit on the small side, when we fist entered the room it was very dark and dingy but we pulled the closed curtains to let in some light, which it did indeed but it also put us in full view of the hotel across the street, who's guests could see directly into the room they were that close, I would have to say it was a car length distance between us and the hotel next door.

Even though it was a little bit cramped, it was adequate to suit mine and my partner's needs. It contained a double and single bed, chair, bedside unit, cheat of draws and a wardrobe. We also had a television with one English Channel, a telephone, kettle and safe which is basically everything you need when you are on holiday.

The room was advertised as having air conditioning, yes they had the actual units but it did not work luckily we were away from the sun and the floor was done in ceramic tiles so it was cool enough for us two, so with the help of the ceiling fan we were fine.

The room can with a small balcony, which basically touched the hotel next doors balcony, it had a small fold away seat and an ashtray for any smokers, not that I would fancy standing there in full view of everyone smoking. We were positioned away from the sun so the sun never even hit the balcony so this may have been added for smoking purposes only, as the hotel does not permit smoking inside.

The room also came with an ensuite bathroom which had a bath and over shower, toilet, wash basin and cosmetic area. This was basically half the size of the bed room, so in a way I feel that it should have been made smaller and the room made a bit bigger, however as crazy as it sounds if I felt claustrophobic I would go and sit in the bathroom.

WHATS INCLUDED

Many people tend to opt for all inclusive hotels so it saves them on food and drink bills, so I can see why it appeals. In this hotel the all inclusive status offered you a wide array of things.

You got inclusive access to food which included Breakfast buffet, Lunch Buffet and dinner buffet. This could only be accessed at certain times during the day and worked on a help yourself and eat as much as you can basis.

The restaurant opened for breakfast at 8.30am - 10.00am, for Lunch at 12.00pm-2.00pm and dinner at 6.30pm-9.00pm.

If you were outside the time frame for the set buffet meal times you could go to a snack bar located in the bar area and have ice cream, pizza, chips, hotdogs and other food items. This too was included in your all inclusive package. The snack bar was only open when the dinning room was closed and it shut early in the evening, so I can't comment too much on the food as I only had a hotdog once and to be honest it was not the fantastic, but filled the gap.

In the bar you get free alcoholic drinks and soft drinks, but to reduce queuing times you are limited to only two drinks at a time. I found this perfect for us as there was only two of us, but many larger families were complaining as one in two of them also had to go to the bar. The bar is open from 10am - 12pm.

All entertainment and children's entertainment day and night was included. This included membership to animation which is a kids club run by qualified entertainers, they entertained the kids during the day and held a disco in the evening from 7.00pm until 9.00pm

You were offered a daily maid service, which we did on the first day but then declined and did it our selves from then on. On the first morning we were rudely awoken by the maid at 7.15 in the morning, she just walked in and started to clean while we were still in bed. So this we did complain about this and started to secure the door with a chair to avoid any similar occurrences, surely a do not disturb sign would have been much better.

MY OPINION

Me and my partner did not really do anything at the hotel as the staff were rude, and the other guests who were just there to get plastered started to really grate on us as we were there to have a bit of sun and relax, so for that kind of holiday this is not the place to go.

The thing that really annoyed me was the fact that we had to wear those plastic wrist bands, mine was put on so tight is cut into my wrist and they did not seem to soften up at all throughout the stay, I actually had to ask someone at the airport to cut it off on my way home, and beware you will come back with a white bangle when you return home as the sun seems to attract to the band.

The restaurant food was okay for the first few days, but after that I found it all to be very bland and repetitive, I am not sure how people could eat this stuff all day everyday but if they have paid for it then why not, as I am sure that many of them paid a lot more than we did for our holiday.

I can only describe this place as that of the TV show Benidorm, where all the guests are rude and only there to either pull or get drunk. I personally found that this is not the kind of place for me.

Even though I have many gripes about this place, for the money we paid I could not complain. As I saw it the money I saved could be then spend on meals and drinks out, in the many bars and restaurants located through out the town.

Although the beach was a walk away I was happy as it was a pretty sandy beach the offered me the relaxation I wanted with brilliant views, plus it got me away from that awful hotel and all the noise.

I loved Tossa De mar itself and I would visit again, but as for the hotel I don't think I will be returning to it or any all inclusive resort for that matter as if feel we would not get our moneys worth.

I feel this is a family hotel or even better suited to stag and hen parties, if you are a couple looking for a relaxing break with nice food and a few quite drinks then this place is a definite no no.