Globales Playa Estepona

First of all, if you have booked to come here and have been reading the reviews and have become a little anxious of what you will get, please don't worry (that much) - some of the reviews are very over the top.

We travelled as a family (group of 12) on 20.08.26 and stayed for 10nights. I had asked before arriving if it would be possible to have our 4 rooms close together. The hotel staff were able to accommodate this request for which we were very thankful for.

We arrived a little after 2pm and were told our rooms were ready, despite check-in being at 3pm - again thank you.

The rooms were based in mallorca block, were very clean and spacious. 3 people to a room, each room had 4 beds which was handy. there was plenty of room for 3 of us, but 4 people might get on top of each other (so to speak).

The hotel grounds were exceptionally clean and tidy. always somebody cleaning or a gardening tidying the plants.

I found the food to be hit and miss, but never struggled to find something to eat. I would advise going early or late for any meal if going to the main restaurant. The restaurant cannot cope with the volume of guests. There is not enough staff to cope with the demand either. the majority of staff work very hard with a few odd exceptions who you can tell clearly wander about 'looking busy'. the food was not that of a 4 star. breakfast was the usual Spanish AI spread, though im still not a fan of hotdogs for breakfast. there was spanish bacon, various eggs and 'sausage' although there was a more traditional sausage twice during our stay. I would say that i had cereal for which there was a good variety however the milk was not cold or chilled and was warm.

lunch time and tea time - some meals appeared to be a little incomplete. first night there was a lamb rogan josh curry but the only rice to accompany it was an egg-friend rice with peas. I appreciate i may sound like im being petty but if youre doing a curry, its probably good practice to have a plain boiled or pilau rice to go with it. there is always show cooking on with a meat and a fish every night, along with the bbq area outside (go up the stairs in the corner of the restaurant, walk past the kids stuff and go out a side door). bbq was usually, chicken, potatoes, chorizo and some veg - all good.

Inside however, please be very very careful with the chicken dishes. on more than one occasion there looked to be shredded chicken (like fajita's) but the amount of smashed bones in it was surprising, the bones ranged from large to very small and sharp and could easily catch an adult out, let alone a child (not what id expect from a 4 star hotel. I found the food was not labelled properly either. Food tasted a bit cheap and again was full of bones.

The beach area has its own snack bar which is usually chaotic. It is not helped by the inconsiderate guests that use it. I did read some reviews about some staff being a bit rude and just chalked this up to individual people with a bee in their bonnet. however, i found some of the staff to be incredible 'anti-tourist' unless you were a spanish guest. one of the chef's (thin lady with dark hair) in the snack bar, would insist on serving spanish people first regardless of where they were in the queue. Again, spanish guests (not all of them for the record) would push in to get to the show cooking (rotisserie chicken/chicken gyros) and the chefs were happy to accomadate those pushing in.

One occasion i waited 20mins for some chicken (I know it sounds cringy - i was first in line) with a very nice spanish lady stood behind me. despite waiting, and the chef knew I had been waiting as I spoke to her, attempted to serve the lady behind me first. No doubt in my mind this was intentional. The lady behind me suggested the chef serve me first which she did. This happened several times over our 10days, to family in our party and to other guests of various nationalities. Some who regularly shouted up and at one point I thought one man was going to smack a couple of locals.

It also became apparent that the hotel sell day passes to guests who are not staying at the hotel. I appreciate this may appear I'm having a dig at the spanish people, it is not my intention, its just how i found some of the guests to be - and it was not all of them, i love spain and the people. However, the day trippers who were spanish, the majority were awful. Pushed infront of people for food which irritated all others involved but they also pushed infront of kids waiting to go on slides. Again, this was facilitated by the lifeguards who were laughing and joking with them as they did it. I can speak some spanish but im not fluent, these 'locals' were very fluent in the english expletives when they were challenged. I did not report this to the hotel reception as i thought, if those staff are like that, then the reception staff may be the same and i did not want me speaking up to hinder the rest of my holiday in the event there was an issue with our room or whatever. I have raised the concern with TUI following my return.

The slides are great for kids. the drinks are decent, San Miguel lager and various own brand spirits with some cocktails which is what id expect. The staff in the bar next to reception were fantastic, if all staff acted as they did, it would be a much better hotel.

I would recommend booking the beach restaurant on themed evenings that you think you will like (they are pre-planned). its the same food, but its a nicer setting and you don't have the other scum bag guests pushing about. its free and comes at no extra cost and you are in much better setting.

Location - you are well out of the way and need a taxi to get about if you leave the hotel. for info the complex is huge, its like a village.

Other than the odd gripe above, I enjoyed the holiday but suspect this may have been down to the family i travelled with. the hotel is never a 4 star and suspect most negative reviews are down to people feeling they are short changed in paying for 4 star and getting a mediocre 3 star. i dont think the food woulw allow it to be a 4 star anyway.

The issues with the food (bones, labelling and side dishes), some staff attitudes to non-natives and issuing day passes to locals is not something id expect from a 4 star hotel. It could be so much better. For that, I would not return and suspect many others will feel the same way.

If the hotel review the comments above, please dont feel the need to respond. I have read the generic responses issued to some comments and by the look of it, the same issues crop up. Actions speak louder than words.

Just got back from a lovely week stay at Globales Playa Estepona.

Room: We stayed in Ibiza block on the second floor overlooking the splash park with views of the sea. The room is spacious, double bed with a television, good size fitted wardrobe with a safe (additional charge however €10 deposit is refundable on check out) plenty of sideboard space and a dressing area, chair in front of mirror to get ready. Good size balcony area with 2 chairs and a table and a foldable airer which was perfect for drying swimwear and towels. The bathroom was a good size also. Toilet, sink and a good size walk in shower. Shower was always warm. It did have times where it went hot however this was only for a second and can understand with the amount of rooms in the block so this never bothered us. The room was cleaned each day.

Pools: There was multiple pools on the hotel complex. We was situated near to the main entertainment pool near to the splash park however we was out for the day most days so did not spend lots of time around the pool however plenty of sun loungers free throughout the day and afternoon. We always managed to get sun loungers in the afternoon after a day trip. Only a few people reserved sun loungers with towels early on particularly if you are after front row. We were never bothered about sitting front row but can imagine if you have children you may want to be closer to pool however still a handful of sun loungers close to the pool throughout the day also. The temperature of the main pool is good, not cold. I cannot comment about sun loungers or any of the other relaxed pools as we did not use them. There is an on site water park and people can visit this hotel with a day pass and have access to the water park - again not a problem for us as we was expecting queues for the water slides and was never queuing for more than 5 minutes to get onto the water slides. There are 3 free fall slides the other side of the water park and there is also a wave pool - only comment about the wave pool is that it is colder than the main pool again not a problem and great to cool down in the heat. On the other side you have got the other water slides - 2 bowl type water slides, 1 tube water slide and 1 other tube water slide that you go down on a rubber ring either solo or double rubber ring options available. There is also a kids water park splash area with small slides and adventure type area. The hotel is beachfront and beach is accessed via a gate however it is quite a pebbly, stoney beach so probably not ideal for swimming. We walked along the beach to the right for quite a distance, which was nice however can be hard at times due to the beach not being smooth sand. The waterpark opening times are 10am-6pm and the main pool opening times are 10am-7pm.

Food: There is one main restaurant located opposite reception and a beach bar restaurant that is located at the side of the beach overlooking the beach and sea. The main restaurant opened at 7am until 10am for Breakfast and always had bacon, sausage, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, pancakes and bread, baguettes and a selection of meats and cheeses. They also have a sweet selection at breakfast with croissants etc. There is a good selection of fresh fruit available at all meal times throughout the day. We was out most days so did only go for lunch once but plenty of choice. The beach restaurant opened at 10am and had a selection of snacks available most of the day, which included pizza, burgers, hot dogs, chips and a variety of other bits. This also served fresh fruit and had a freezer with ice cream in - strawberry, vanilla and chocolate in small pots. Later during the day they would have a selection of cakes and sweet treats to choose from also. The beach restaurant had to be booked in an evening so we did not eat in the beach restaurant during our stay as we did not know how to go about booking for the reservation. We was turned away when turned up without a booking despite there being plenty of empty tables so book in advance if you want to eat at the beach restaurant in an evening. The beach restaurant does themed food in an evening and the themes are advertised in the reception area to see for each day of the week. The main restaurant in the evening had a variety of food however this was quite repetitive daily and featured lots of fish and seafood. They did always have burgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, chips, pasta and sauce every day though so even if you are a fussy eater you would not go hungry. We did not realise until near to the end of our stay that there is a bbq grill area outside where there is bbq food - small jacket potatoes, fish, sausage, chorizo sausage, grilled chicken and pork belly. Variety of fruit available and sweet treats alongside bread, baguettes, meats and cheeses as well as an amazing salad bar each day.

There is an amazing Indian restaurant just up to the end of the road and turn right - Akosha Indian Restaurant - we ate here one night and the food was incredible, fresh, tasty and authentic. Would definitely recommend if you like an Indian and only about a 10 minute walk if that.

Drinks: In both of the restaurants there was self serve soft drinks, juice, water, hot drinks machine serving coffee, hot chocolate, hot milk and hot water with tea bags available next to the hot drinks machine. There is also self serve beer (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) as well as wine (white, rose and red) and Sangria also on tap in the restaurants. At the bar near to the evening entertainment stage as well as the pool bar near to the main pool there is a self-serve soft drinks machine with paper cups if you did not want to queue for a drink. There was queues for the drinks at the pool bar however we was only around the pool in the afternoon and the queues were not too bad and went down quickly. Later in the evening around the entertainment bar, queues started to get bigger for drinks from around 9pm so prepare to wait from this time as this is when the bar area around the stage starts to get quite busy. There is a menu with a list of included cocktails and drinks within the all inclusive. There is additional cocktails advertised on signs that require additional payment however these are signed and clearly indicated that these are extra outside of the all inclusive and this was never a problem for us. The cocktails are good quality and taste nice. The spirits are good quality own brands and I was never disappointed with these. The hotel provides drinking water at the juice machines however bottled water is an additional cost - again not a problem as read the reviews before we came regarding bottled water. We had a wander around outside the hotel on our first day and there is an Aldi just less than 10 minute walk up to the end of the road and turn left where you can buy big bottles of water. We bought a 8L bottle of water and this cost us less than €2 and took that back and kept in our hotel room and we topped up our own water bottles for during the day. Even though on reading about Spain the tap water is drinkable so not essential to buy bottled water.

Entertainment: The entertainment team provide different activities throughout the day and throughout the evening. Aqua aerobics was on around 12:15pm at the main pool and different activities also took place however cannot comment as did not take part in any of these activities. Entertainment in an evening started with the children’s mini disco around 8:30pm-9pm followed by the bingo starting around 9:30pm-10pm and the main entertainment starting from 10pm to around 11pm each night. Entertainment was varied. We did not watch the entertainment every night however did see some of the shows that varied with acrobatics and musical dances. Tables do start to fill up quite quickly from around 8:30pm/9pm however even when we have been back later in the evening we always managed to find somewhere to sit and watch the entertainment and have a few drinks before going to bed.

There is a gift shop/ small shop on site with swimwear, footwear, goggles, inflatables and sun cream alongside other items. There is not too much around the hotel to walk too apart from the Aldi and Pharmacy at the top of the road or it is about a 20-30 minute walk across the bridge to the other side of the road to see the shops and restaurants over the other side. The hotel runs a free shuttle bus service to Puerto Banus each day. Tickets are available to get at reception for free 1 hour prior to departure. We got the 10am shuttle to Puerto Banus and got the tickets at 9am from reception. The shuttle bus then takes you back to the hotel from Puerto Banus where it drops you off around 12:50pm and is only around a 10 minute journey. We got taxis for fairly reasonable prices using the bolt app and uber app, which was easy to use and you could pay by card on the app or use cash. We also used the PideTaxi app when Bolt taxi service was busy. This was a little bit more pricier as local taxi and goes on time and fare more so than Bolt and Uber. We booked the Gibraltar trip with the TUI rep in the hotel and this was a good day out with a guided tour of the rock and shopping experience. We saw the monkeys as well and they were well behaved with nothing being taken from the tourists whilst we were there. The coach picked us up at 9am and got us into Gibraltar around 10am and then the coach going back picked us up from Gibraltar at 3pm getting us back to the hotel for around 4pm. We did a dolphin boat trip in Estepona and booked this using the Get Your Guide app. This was 2 hours and included a drink (beer, wine or soft drink) and a portion of crisps. We saw a group of dolphins and stopped for a swim in the middle of the sea before retuning back. This cost around £35 each but would definitely recommend. Estepona and Marbella are around a 20 minute taxi in either direction however you can get a bus at Idabe at the top of the street which costs €3 each however was unsure exactly how to go about getting the bus so we got taxis around €20 each way sometimes a little bit less depending on how busy the taxi service was and timing of journey. We also did the Selwo Adventura Zoo which was amazing. We went on a Saturday and cost around €33 each. Well worth it for a day out and can see all different types of animals including Elephants, Giraffes, Lions, Monkeys, Zebras, Hippos, Rhinos, Crocodiles and many more.

Overall good holiday. Reception team are friendly and will help if you need any help about the local area or any questions in general. We had a problem on a few occasions with the key card not working to get back into the room however noted that this is if it is kept next to a mobile phone as this wipes the memory on the key card and afterwards it worked well each time. Location is good with main transport links to different places. Would recommend this hotel.

The main theme of my review is the wonderful, professional and friendly staff front of house and back of house. Stayed for 5 days with family. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Overall good for family I think some people arrive with notions of grandeur as they booked all inclusive. Top tip scan the qr code for the app/browser page for the hotel it shows all the information, maps, entertainment schedule etc..very useful!

With that short summary I will detail some points below

Reception area and arrival. We arrive 13:00 the check-in time is 15:00 and this is well posted. Not an issue really. After travelling all day we were warmly greeted by reception who directed us to leave our luggage in the storage area and to enjoy some lunch while our room was being prepared. Throughout the holiday reception staff were knowledgeable, friendly and engaging at any time of day.

The entire resort is clean with cleaners and maintenance crew and gardening ongoing well done 👍

Our room was bright with a fabulous view. Clean room would have liked a bottle of water in fridge but no big deal in an all inclusive. Tv and air-conditioning all working.

There is a beach, it isn't a golden sands beach however lovely to walk along to watch the sunset take a moment of peace from the chaos of a family holiday.

There is a snack bar/restaurant near the beach and this is where the chef was working very hard to keep the place going. Fresh salad, cake, coffee, hotdogs,burgers, pizza, paella, roast chicken, paella etc. be warned this is popular so get early. Beverages including non alcoholic beer and regular beer, ice-cream etc. This restaurant is quick serve in daytime and table service in the evening you must reserve the night before. The food offering is themed each night. A very special mention to the chef working there 18/08-22/08 whilst we were there she was wonderful and through my basic Spanish and her English we could accommodate my wifes dietary needs. Sincere bravo to this lady she went above and beyond!

The water park is a big hit with everyone with plenty of lifeguards and slides for all levels of experience. There are many pools located some more peaceful if you want, throughout all with lifeguards. The pools are kept clean by a hard working crew well done!

The entertainment crew Wow these people work around the clock providing entertainment in multiple languages with enthusiasm and a passion. Theu entertain the kids, dance at the pool then have bingo at night for the adults and a show on which are unique. Take a bow entertainers you earned it! My favourite was red code. My wife loved the Disney themed night

That brings me onto the bar, You will be given tokens to exchange for plastic cups when poolside simply return the cup and order another. The main bar serves glass so no token required. There are poolside bars, a bar near reception, the main bar where the entertainment is and then the snack bar. Barstaff and special mention to paqui ( sorry if i misspelled your name) she is a lovely lady with a great attitude. All the bar and Waiting staff were friendly and professional. It didn't feel fake it felt genuine. Non alcoholic beers are available for those who want alongside San Miguel both on tap. Bars go until 00:00 then closed. I would like to see them keep a snack bar running to same time.

There is a small shop also friendly and what you expect really in a great resort.

The main buffet dinner. There is a Hidden barbecue in the main restaurant near the kids section if you find it enjoy it.

For me the food was good..i enjoyed the diversity my wife is a plain eater so struggled..in the morning the English sausage was frankfurters and streaky bacon a small downside for my wife. Again I'm ok to eat anything. The restaurant is catering to a large amount of families..we met and spoke with French, Polish, English and Irish families while there.

The Puerto banus bus. Go to reception early around 8am to secure your tickets.. it's worth the day trip. There is a market on Saturday be warned it gets very very busy! A lovely stroll along the seaside, some lunch and some shopping was a win for everyone.

Overall a very good experience. I booked this holiday with the expectation that I could let my family snack, play etc and not have to manage every moment of the holiday. I am grateful to all the staff and the place.

The question would I return? Yes Was it value for money? Yes Some improvements? Minor stuff I will email my comment's.

Travelled with my wife, son (12)