Iberostar Waves Bahia de Palma

We stayed here for a week and it is a great hotel. The staff are friendly (shout out to Nieves who cleaned our room, and to Ossu who runs the Omelette Station) and look after you. We had an seaview facing room on the 4th floor and it was nice and quiet. The rooftop area is quieter than the main pool and well worth a visit. The beach is literally on the door step.

We had dinner one night but there are lots of nice places to eat nearby.

For breakfast there is an excellent range and if you are gluten free like me there's lots to have - just ask someone and they will get you bread, cereal, cake for you.

If you want to go into Palma, the number 25 bus stops right in front of the hotel.

Would recommend this hotel.

The good Location on the front was great to get to the beach and for a wander along the front. We had a priority location room so had a lovely sea view. It was noisy with the door open but it was quiet when closed. The hotel do a few nice things like bringing round drinks and/or nibbles around the pool. The breakfast has lots of options and looks fresh. The app which tells you when your room is clean is useful. The room was fine but annoying that there isn’t anywhere to unpack a suitcase other than on your bed (which isn’t really where you want to put something which is dirty from the journey and you’re about to sleep in).

The bad You often get this with adult only hotels, but the atmosphere is a little flat. The entertainment was minimal and I honestly don’t think they should bother as it’s a bit awkward how few people there are.

We found the area around the pool a bit messy - they had given out empanadas during the World Cup final match (nice touch) but bit of them as well as napkins were still around the pool in the morning.

We told them twice that there was a plug socket in our room that didn’t work, twice they told us it was fixed and twice it wasn’t fixed - we gave up! I would say some of that may be down to language barriers, but one was flagged using the app so should have been clear. The staff don’t speak great English so something to be aware of if you have problems (they do want to help but language can be a barrier).

If you don’t like the smell of fish, you’ll struggle with dinner. We didn’t eat in the restaurant on seafood night because the smell was so prominent.

My biggest annoyance was the labelling of food at breakfast and dinner. You would often find a selection of food - maybe 12-15 different things - but only 3/4 would have labels. As a veggie, this was irritating. I pointed it out to one of the staff who brought out the chef and told me what was veggie, but A) that shouldn’t have to happen, B) they didn’t add labels after I have pointed it out and C) what she did tell me was veggie, I wasn’t convinced was.

The ugly We couldn’t keep our room on for a late check out but we were told not to worry as we could use the spa facilities. They were not good. Only 2 of the 4 showers work. There were no towels and nowhere to change privately. And the place they did have didn’t have aircon so you were as wet from sweat as you were after the shower. In the end, I had to do my hair in the bar area which isn’t nice for me or anyone else. Left a bad taste to the end of the week away.