Elba Castillo San Jorge and Antigua

We had a great holiday. Great location close to shops, restaurants, bars and beach. We had a sea view room we paid extra for. Rooms were cleaned daily and beds made. It was very hot in our room at night so had to hire a fan. Could have done with some air con for sure. The kids loved both pools and the animation team are really friendly, enthusiastic and worked hard to get everyone involved and we all enjoyed their song and dance in the morning. The kids are still doing it now we are back at home. They especially loved the inflatables on family day and the foam party but found we did have to get up early to get a sun bed near the pool which was essential having young children. My daughter loved the mini disco and joined in on stage with everyone once she got her confidence. The staff work really hard here and the all inclusive package is great for breakfast and drinks. Most loved were the omelettes churros pina coladas and sangria. It was nice you could also have a bottle of wine with your meal at dinner too. We did have to eat out a few times as found the lunch/dinners quite repetitive and even my less fussy child struggled and was eating mostly pasta and salad in the end. The desserts were nice though, especially the profiteroles. We had a problem on the last evening where our turkey was undercooked which put us off eating and we had to go out late and get something else. The snack bar was a good idea although we weren’t keen on the burgers so my daughter was mostly eating chicken nuggets and chips and we ate in restaurant. We did have to ask other guests where things were when we arrived as didn’t know the bar served food during the day to start with as there were no menus anywhere. Although it showed what was on daily on the board, it didn’t always show where in the hotel it was on so we did miss a few bits at the start before we got to know where everything was. Overall it was a fun family holiday worthy of a 3 star rating and we all enjoyed it !

Reception 5/5 - Very quick check in, offered us food as we arrived after meals ended for the day, arranged late check out for us and sold us Pepe.

Rooms 4/5 - Exactly what was required for our holiday, cleaned every day as expected and everything required in there, slightly warm but that’s what balcony doors are for.

Cleaners 5/5 - Very friendly and did what was expected of them.

Food 4/5 - Never gonna be top notch but plenty of options on breakfast to satisfy a family of 4 and same again with evening, nothing outstanding but all good.

Pool 4/5 - Again met all expectations, choice of 2 pools, we preferred the one looking out to sea, really enjoyed the pool bar was all good apart from the sunbed police. We expected the reserving of sunbeds to be monitored having read reviews on here but they were worse than expected. We’d reserve sunbeds at 8:45 and head for breakfast and by the time we came back half an hour later our towels had been taken off the sunbeds and put in a trolley in reception. What was stranger was our towels were moved but the bags we’d left on the sunbeds at the same time were still there.

Entertainment 2/5 Firstly serving the majority of drinks, especially wine in paper cups is a big negative but every now and again you get lucky and get a glass or a plastic beaker. If you are lucky enough to get either of those at 10:30 the bar staff come round and insist you must transfer those drinks back into a paper cup, even though they’re still serving for another half an hour at the bar. The kids entertainment was very daft, in the daytime, their was a kids club every day but never once were ours invited too it, sounded like it was very dependent on what pool you were at. On a Wednesday there was a foam party in the “inner pool” which again our kids would not have been aware of had it not been they’d chatted to other kids in the day. The entertainment around the pool each day consisted of the same song, the same dance routine and then the same playlist every single day apart from Mondays which to be fair their was a big inflatable obstacle course which the kids loved. The kids entertainment in an evening was very repetitive which for a 10 day holiday was very disappointing, every night the same, an intro song, another song with a dance, a song with a dancing adult to get involved in followed by a song with Pepe, the kids club mascot involving a conga line around the audience and done. Kids entertainment was a massive disappointment. The evening entertainment was very hit and miss, a lady on the saxophone who was ok, a burlesque show which was painfully embarrassing, a quiz night which is half karaoke half quiz, both as bad as each other as it defeats the point of the karaoke night the following night which they allow 13 applicants, when half of these are kids who are afraid to sing is pointless. The South African singer was the best of the lot to be fair. The Entertainment team 1/5 - Very arrogant, only spoke to guests who they recognised, the performances were boring and repetitive, the burlesque show was cringey, and they ignored multiple children on more than one occasion to stare at whatever was more important on their phones. I’m pretty the male entertainer who sang would have ate himself had he been chocolate, he loved himself that much. He fancied himself as a singer too, some of the songs he gave a good performance but I’d rather stick sharp objects in my eyes than listen to his version of Robbie Williams “Angels” again.

Overall 3/5

All in all we were quite happy with our holiday, however the performance of the entertainment team mean we are no longer coming here next year as originally planned sadly.

I loved this hotel, Not a tacky modern 5 star like most expect nowadays, But a calm, Traditional style spanish resort. The entertainment team was beyond outstanding & they do lots of pool games throughout the day, I’m not 100% sure if this happens all the time but on sundays they have more of a chilled day without music for day of rest. Food is excellent and staff are lovely, All involve the kids in fun activities , Rooms are what you’d expect, clean, Basic, And there’s honestly no bad view whether your facing the street round the front , Or have a pool / sea view , If you want a fun pool day i would recommend the pool with the sea view as that’s where most activities take part, mini disco is great but very loud in the rooms so if that bothers you i’d recommend ear plugs, however it doesn’t go on super late, Cleaners are lovely apart from one day when they just completely skipped our room, & theirs no air con but on a night it’s not too hot anyways. Not to mention theirs rock pools and chipmunks if you leave the hotel by the gate around the sea view pool and walk left, But if you go right for a while theirs a harbour where you can swim with sea lions, dolphins, feed fish ect.! Lovely hotel will be glad to return