... Despite the fact that 1) we have no objection to a little drink or two by the pool (I proved that in Rhodes), and 2) more often than not I will end up by the beach rather than staying by the pool, we decided this was a bit dodgy, so opted for the next cheapest apartments - Marthas, in Palmanova.
We ... Read review
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Advantages: lovely apartment, nice pool, great location Disadvantages: it wasn't cheap
...looking at the reviews for Marthas after we had booked and paid our money. Basically all reviews pre-2008 or so stated that the place was AWFUL, but apparently the apartments had been renovated around about that time and were brilliant now. We weren't really sure WHAT to believe but it was a done deal now. We'd chosen, whether we liked it or not, this is where we were staying...
****THE LOCATION****
Palmanova is located ... ...of shenanigans...)
Marthas is located on the Palma side of Palmanova (handy when it comes to airport transfers as we were one of the first off the coach on the way there and one of the last to be picked up on the way back) and is in a fairly good location as most places are easily accessible from there. There is a Mercadonna (large supermarket) situated directly behind it, as well as a few restaurants and pubs. There is also a bus stop ... more
In July, my sister and I had some time off booked so decided to go on holiday together. After spending ages looking at the fly globespan website to try and find the best deal for that particular week, we quickly came to the conclusion there WASN'T any brilliant deals. Given that it was smack bang in the middle of the scottish school holidays, everything was expensive. We finallly managed to find Majorca for just over 900 quid for the two of us. Not the best of deals but beggars can't be choosers, right?
We could have got the holiday SLIGHTLY cheaper if we had chosen the cheapest apartments but then we noticed a line of text which said we could only use the pool if we patronised the bar. Despite the fact that 1) we have no objection to a little drink or two by the pool (I proved that in Rhodes), and 2) more often than not I will end up by the beach rather than staying by the pool, we decided this was a bit dodgy, so opted for the next cheapest apartments - Marthas, in Palmanova.
We made the mistake (or not) of only looking at the reviews for Marthas after we had booked and paid our money. Basically all reviews pre-2008 or so stated that the place was AWFUL, but apparently the apartments had been renovated around about that time and were brilliant now. We weren't really sure WHAT to believe but it was a done deal now. We'd chosen, whether we liked it or not, this is where we were staying...
****THE LOCATION****
Palmanova is located on the Balearic island of Majorca between the capital Palma and the notorious party resort of Magaluf. It is a busy, popular resort in its own right but far quieter and calmer than Magaluf - thank goodness! (I'm a bit old for those kind of shenanigans...)
Marthas is located on the Palma side of Palmanova (handy when it comes to airport transfers as we were one of the first off the coach on the way there and one of the last to be picked up on the way back) and is in a fairly good location as most places are easily accessible from there. There is a Mercadonna (large supermarket) situated directly behind it, as well as a few restaurants and pubs. There is also a bus stop directly behind it (going in both directions, so you can easily get to Palma OR Magaluf). The main beach is about a five minute walk from the apartments, as is the main strip with the majority of pubs and restaurants for your evening's entertainment. All in all, I couldn't have faulted the location - unless you wanted to be on the Magaluf side of Palmanova as apparently its easy to walk to from there. (One night me and my sister decided to venture to the other side of Palmanova just to explore and were absolutely exhausted just doing this - of course, it was about eight pm and STILL in the late twenties temperature wise, so no WONDER we were tired out!).
****MARTHAS*****
Now, our first impression of Marthas was gained at approximately 3am in the morning. Which wasn't the plan. Our plane had been due to leave around about 2pm the day before. Which would have got us into our apartments probably around about 6pm that evening. INSTEAD our flight had been delayed by over eight hours so we got to Majorca slightly later than planned.
We were dropped off in the dark around the corner from the apartment (the street was too small for the bus to fit down) and luckily my sister was paying attention enough to see the driver point us down the street where we should be going, because I had been in another world! I was worried we would find the place locked, or no one on reception, but a man with fairly limited English was sitting there when we entered. He took a while to get our details sorted, passport details checked etc, then gave us a key and fairly limited directions to our room, which was on the second floor.
It wasn't until the next day that we got a proper look at the rest of the building. First of all, there is a lift. You don't need to carry your suitcase all the way up the stairs (unless you WANT to!). Secondly, there IS a hotel bar but we never used it. It basically is in reception, and is very small.
The swimming pool is also fairly small, but was very nice. It was situated directly outside reception and you can see the road from it. I THINK that people who did not belong to the apartments were perhaps coming in to use it, although I couldn;'t have proved that one hundred per cent and don't know whether it was actually allowed or not. We only sat out by the pool once, but it was very nice, and a bit of a suntrap, although it took a while for the sun to actually start shining on all the (free) loungers. This was the only place I had ever been where I didn't witness any of the dreaded towel-bagging of loungers - possibly because for most of the week I think me and my sister were the only Brits staying there! It seemed to be mainly Spanish people staying from what I could gather.
One little nuisance regarding the pool was there seemed to always be those floating lilo things kicking about. It was as if people left them when they went home and the apartment staff just thought they would leave these for other people's use. So more often than not, it wouldn't be possible to swim as three or four individuals would be floating around the pool, sunbathing and crashing into one another! THAT was a bit of a pain!
****THE ROOMS****
Me and my sister lucked out when it came to the apartment itself, as we got one on the end of a corridor. I don't know if this meant ours was bigger than the others, but it DID mean that we had two balconies. Okay, so one was very small but it was nice to have a balcony off your living room AND your bedroom! The larger balcony was equipped with the usual chairs and table, although all we had a view of was a swingpark and other people's balconies in the apartments across the road. No sea view for us! (I don't think ANYONE got a sea view, mind you!)
Now to INSIDE the apartment . . . the living area was fairly large, and had a pretty big TV. I spent most of the week assuming the TV didn't work as we didn't have a remote control. Turned out we didn't need one. The TV had the usual mish-mash of channels you find while abroad - mostly Spanish, German MTV (why German???) and a couple of English speaking news channels which never tell you anything you need to know (considering we were in Majorca when the car bomb killed the two policemen in our very resort and knew nothing about it until the next day when people at home started texting and calling to make sure we were okay, I think this proves my point!)
The kitchen was extremely well equipped - we had a microwave, toaster and kettle, as well as a hob - and there was quite a bit of space to store food - which was good since obviously these were self-catering apartments! The large fridge, however, was mainly used for storing alcohol! :)
The bedroom was also large and we had tons of storage space in the cupboard. The safe was also in here but we never used this so I'm not sure how much it would have cost. The air conditioning, thankfully, was free - we needed that desperately due to the extreme heat - but also incredibly noisy!
In terms of cleaning, it looked like the cleaners came every two days, which wasn't too bad. They never turned up before we were ready to leave and were never there when we returned to the apartment - which makes a nice change as usually you are tripping over them!
My one complaint was the lack of a hairdryer. We checked on one website beforehand which claimed there WOULD be a hairdryer supplied but there wasn't. My sister asked at reception if there would be a possibility of hiring one but the woman behind the desk at the time looked at her like she was slightly mental and said no. BUT . . . my sister quickly realised that if you stood under the air con vent for about five minnutes her hair would dry itself. Perhaps THAT was considered to be a built-in hairdryer!!!
****SHOULD YOU STAY HERE?****
If you are interested in going to Majorca, I would definitely recommend Marthas as a place to stay. It's definitely one of the nicest places I have stayed in on my numerous trips abroad and there was probably about three times as much space in our apartment than I had in Rhodes. Marthas apartments are lovely - don't pay attention to any negative reviews you see anywhere from a couple of years ago, they simply don't apply anymore. This is definitely a lovely place to stay!
