Barcelo Margaritas

Had a lovely holiday here ! Hotel spotless, room serviced every day. Staff where lovely and so hardworking. Shout out to the bar staff who where fab and the animation team who worked so hard. Food was great, bar was great! Only stayed by the bottom pool. Always got a sunbed, if you require an umbrella you need to be up by 9am. Towels where changed daily by the pool, but I believe that was changing to weekly as we left. Rooms where lovely and we never heard anything of a night. Really comfy beds. The only downside was the location, it's a bit far out. But saying that taxis are €5 to resorts and there is a free bus to the beach! Bars and restaurants not far from hotel. Overall a fab holiday and we will be back!

Thursday. Water Polo Day.

It all came down to this.

Two teams lined up for what would undoubtedly become the biggest game of their lives: a 5 vs 5 friendly. Although there was absolutely nothing friendly about it.

Tensions were already simmering after certain comments about Freeman’s sister, Tammy, the day before. To make matters worse, Freeman had been picked last—just like every PE lesson at school. He’d had enough. He wasn’t turning up to make up the numbers. He turned up thirsty for revenge.

The whistle blew.

It was end-to-end stuff. Mac was flying into every challenge. Cam gave absolutely everything. Wynnie was everywhere, glued to the ball. Mayo, meanwhile, put in one of the all-time goalkeeping disasters. He couldn’t catch a cold, let alone a water polo ball. By the end, the only thing he’d managed to save was his energy. And Luke… well, everyone forgot Luke was there.

The holidaymakers completely forgot they were on holiday. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the pool. The bar had never been so empty.

For a while, it was a close contest.

But one team was clearly superior.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t factored in the biggest obstacle of all: referee Alexandro.

The decisions became more baffling by the minute. I’ve seen less corruption in a game of Monopoly where the banker also owns half the board before the game starts. He made Gianni Infantino look like the gold standard of transparency.

Rumour has it FIFA are already considering him for the next World Cup final. If that’s true, football is finished.

The final whistle blew, and somehow the better team had lost.

One thing’s for certain…

We’ll never be playing under those regulations again.

I was on holiday here from the 18th June until the 25th of June and had a wonderful experience. All staff were great, place was spotless. We got fresh towels everyday at the pool (which is an important factor for me). We were also able to swap dinner to lunch on the last day to enable my daughter to eat something prior to flying home.

We found the location great, atmosphere was good around the pool. The rooms were modern and clean.

I enjoyed it so much that I booked to come back 2 weeks later.

Although the majority of things remained the same and we really enjoyed it, there was a couple of things that I was disappointed with. Fresh towels by the pool have now changed to one change in your holiday. (I appreciate some guests on my last holiday were taking advantage of the clean pool towels, but now I feel we are all being penalised).

Lastly, although I’m half board I never ate anything on the first evening due to arriving late. (They put on a cold buffet, but it is not great for children, so ensure you eat before you arrive). However, on this visit they would not let us swap our dinner for lunch on the last day unless we paid 26euro each!!! Although I have now read prior reviews stating that if you’re all inclusive or half board it starts at 12pm on arrival and finishes at 12pm on the day we leave. I feel when I book a 7 day holiday at a hotel, I am a guest until I walk out of your hotel and on to a bus home. This means you are technically not getting any food on a Thursday as you are not there due to flight times and no food (apart from breakfast) on a Thursday!!!!

I absolutely loved Gran Canaria and will definitely be retuning next year. I will however, seriously consider if I would return here again or look elsewhere.