Sol Don Pablo

My partner and I visited the Don Pablo in late September. We went on a half board basis All reviews are personal to the person who writes them so others may find the hotel is different for them. T he Don Pablo is a lovely hotel situated on the sea front. It is on a complex with 2 other hotels run by the Melia brand. It is big but you are able to use the facilities and restaurants at both The Don Pablo and the Don Pedro. The hotel is spotless. It is spacious with lovely furnishings and masses of space. The staff are exceptionally friendly and reception are very helpful. The first evening I managed to knock the shower gel off the wall. This was fixed while we were having dinner! The restaurant staff are very busy and have their work cut out clearing tables, serving drinks and re-setting tables. The restaurant (buffet style) is very large and hence quite noisy. If you are looking for a quiet dining experience you won't get it. However you do have the opportunity to go to the Don Pedro where the restaurant is smaller and is used mainly by couples. The downside to this is the food. It tends to be a little dry as it has been standing for a while. The food in the Don Pablo is lovely. Varied, plates hot (napkins available to carry your plate)and fresh,. The salads are wonderful, meat grilled in front of you and always a choice of fish. Breakfast also very good and amazingly, the toasters worked very well! We had a room on the fourth floor (1401). This was a superior room with a sea view and was beautiful. Plenty of room for clothes and a proper bathroom with a walk in shower which was what we wanted. The view was stunning. The room was kept spotless for the fortnight we were there. Entertainment, like all hotels, was varied and actually quite good. You can also opt to go to the entertainment at the Don Pedro. This is always inside but very varied. As it was still warm most of it at the Don Pablo was outside which made it more like a holiday. The day it rained it was held inside but there is a stage and the bar is close so it worked well. The bar staff work exceptionally hard. Maybe a little short staffed but it didn't stop them being polite, friendly and always having a smile. The cocktails were not the best as they were ready made but when you have to cater for so many people and there aren't many staff you can't always have 'the best'. I still enjoyed them though! The hotel has three pools. One is for adults only but was always busy from early morning. There is a pool specially for children to use balls etc but the main pool, although not enormous, was lovely. It was well maintained and very inviting. I thought the idea of netting off the pools at 18.00 a very good idea. Apart from health and safety it cut down some of the noise as the evening wore on. Sunbeds......... unless you have a 'pool patrol' you will never stop the reserving of sunbeds. However I did think going out with your torch at 07.00 and bit much. You didn't need to. There were loads of beds. I suppose some people just want a particular spot. But the sun does shine all day in most places. 🤣 Towels can be changed for 1Euro which I thought was very reasonable. There is easy access on to the sea front through the back gate on the complex. The Don Pablo is a lovely hotel if you don't mind big hotels. Personally, for us we prefer something smaller but we had a lovely holiday, looked after by excellent staff and it was certainly value for money. Thank you to all staff.

My main concern is the management structure especially outside of hours. I called down at approximately 18.50 because we had a significant flood in our room. I told them we had a ‘big problem’ yet no one senior or junior came to inspect it or to speak to us and I believe they deliberately ignored our calls about this issue. We had to follow it up again ourselves the following morning and a nice gentleman from guest services helped us move to another room. I have doubts about the commitment to customer service when no one showed any interest in what was going on in our room.

Also we asked at reception for a recommendation of which area to go to in Malaga for a nice evening out. 2 staff discussed this and then gave us the name of a restaurant. Following their advice we were shocked to have actually be sent directly into the Malaga protests that were taking place that evening. A frightening event given the police presence and crowds. Surely it is not too much to expect that staff would be aware of potentially dangerous situations in the area and should be up there date with information and guided by management not to send guests there.

Overall underwhelmed had to endure 3 days of noise from drains being dug up which probably couldn’t be avoided however the garden maintenance with the petrol mower and very noisy tools was unnecessary as a robot mower would cover the small area of grass and I know quieter tools are available .