Top Osiris Hotel Calella, Costa Brava

My girlfriend and I took our first holiday abroad together to Calella and stayed in the Osiris for a week in June 2003.

We've had better nights sleep in Club 18-30 hotels!!!!!!!!

First impressions

Our first impression of the Osiris was that it was a very nice and posh hotel. From the outside it looks just like the brochure, the scenic lift is very atractive. The reception staff seemed very disorganised ...
...shuffled in front of a digital camera for individual mugshots but they failed to tell us what they were for. It was only when we returned a couple of hours later did we realise they were for our all-inclusive identification. They asked us to return later to pick up armbands! The hotel is predominately English, although you may get the odd German and Belgian family. Most guests were from Manchester, Newcastle, Scotland, Wales.

Our room
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My girlfriend and I took our first holiday abroad together to Calella and stayed in the Osiris for a week in June 2003.

We've had better nights sleep in Club 18-30 hotels!!!!!!!!

First impressions

Our first impression of the Osiris was that it was a very nice and posh hotel. From the outside it looks just like the brochure, the scenic lift is very atractive. The reception staff seemed very disorganised when we checked in; After a long wait we were shuffled in front of a digital camera for individual mugshots but they failed to tell us what they were for. It was only when we returned a couple of hours later did we realise they were for our all-inclusive identification. They asked us to return later to pick up armbands! The hotel is predominately English, although you may get the odd German and Belgian family. Most guests were from Manchester, Newcastle, Scotland, Wales.

Our room

Our room was situated next to the lifts (which are very slow to arrive when called) so as you can imagine this was very noisy. The evening entertainment finishes at midnight so people head to the late night bars at the bottom of the road. People come back screaming and singing between 2 and 3am, even kids. I have always liked the Welsh but during our stay a couple of coachloads were constantly at the centre of all the noise and trouble. One night the police were called in as a waiter was assaulted. They may as well have torn down the signs asking people to obey a 11pm - 8am silence rule.... When we eventually did get to sleep we were awaken at 9am by the maids (daily service) who insist on chatting loudly to each other. Beware, not all of them knock before entering the room! We definitely needed that daily afternoon siesta.

Our accommodation was very basic, our room had 3 single beds with two pushed together, a wardrobe with safe deposit box (keys can be hired from reception), bathroom with shower, balcony containing two hard chairs, and a Television. There may as well have been no lock on the door and it looked as though someone had broken in previously. The television had the volume control disabled so you had to get a remote control from reception, but that was only a E10 returnable deposit. There are no fans or Air
conditioning.

One other annoyance is the very large bathroom vent, through which we can hear people in the adjacent rooms carrying out their ablutions.

Our room faced a very busy through road towards the back of the hotel, facing thick trees and bushes. Young lads on mopeds use the road as a race/performance track and there must be at least three large dustcarts that work that route daily. And then there are the HGVs.....

This has to be one of the noisiest hotels I've ever stayed in, there is no escaping it!!!

Facilities

In the basement there are excellent Saunas, Jacuzzis, a Gym, mini bowling alley and games/kids rooms. This is for over 18's only. Unfortunately these facilities are closed between 2-4pm every day, not sure why, maybe so the attendants can have a siesta!

Food

The food is not brilliant and there isn't a great choice. The snack bar seems to have the same things on offer all the time i.e. reheated leftovers from lunch/dinner.

Staff

We felt the staff could have been more pleasant, the head chef in particular. He spent most of his time banging his trolley into chairs deliberately and finding it very amusing. If looks could kill, I would
have been surprised to be home now. The waiters and waitresses seem almost too keen to take your plates and glasses away and can also be lethal with a trolley!

The resort

The beach is about 10 minutes walk away and sadly riddled with smallpebbles making it very uncomfortable to walk along. The sea was too cold for us to brave, unfortunately. Your best bet would be to hire a car and sample the beaches nearer Barcelona - we found some nice secluded ones. Sacar is a fairly cheap local hire company and we booked via a small cambio down the road. They even threw in a free half day.

If you are hiring your own car be careful where you park your car around the hotel, there are clearways which we failed to notice (E70 fine) and we spent the best part of an afternoon visiting police stations to get our car back. All the motorways have tolls.

There are the usual abundence of souvenir and tourist shops. Our favourites were on the Malgrat/Santa Susanna coast road - we needed two evenings to check most of them out.

Entertainment

The entertainment is excellent and was the highlight of our holiday. The animation team - Becky, Chantelle (for the kids) and Chris - worked tirelessly to make sure everyone was involved and having fun. There is always something going on from quizzes to sport to karaoke.

There is a TV in every room with DVD channel showing three recentish films a day starting at 4.30, 9.30, 11.30. The usual local Spanish channels are there as well as CNN, BBC World and a couple of German and Italian stations.

Conclusions

Our advice would be if you are expecting to get more than a little sleep and good food, then this hotel is not the one for you. The food is not great, but I suppose you get what you pay for, we booked very last minute. You might like to sample Santa Susanna, adjacent to Calella which has better shops, beach and hotels (from what we heard) 

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