Gran Melia Palacio de Isora

We are are now checking out at the hotel after a week on an all-inclusive package (2 adults and 2 children, aged 3 and 8). The hotel itself is beautiful, spotlessly clean, and the grounds are exceptionally well maintained.

However, despite paying over £5,000 for a week in a standard family room, we don't think we would return for the following reasons. The first disappointment was the "included" minibar. In reality, only water and Coca-Cola are complimentary. Alcoholic drinks, Pringles, nuts, and other snacks are all chargeable. We were also surprised to find just one Mars bar in the minibar for a family of four—and even that incurs an extra charge. It also seems strange that there are no complimentary drinks for children other than water.

On our first full day, we struggled to find a sun lounger. There are nowhere near enough loungers for the size of the pool areas, and many guests reserve them with towels before disappearing for hours. After spending too much time walking around looking for somewhere to sit, we noticed the premium day beds around the pool, which include two sun loungers. Hoping this might be a reasonable alternative, I enquired at the kiosk, only to be told they cost €200 for the day (including food and drinks) or €150 just for the bed. Considering what we've already paid for an all-inclusive holiday, these prices are difficult to justify and left us feeling disappointed.

The food has been fairly average throughout our stay. It isn't bad, but it certainly hasn't matched what we'd expect from a five-star hotel. We regularly stay in five-star resorts, so our expectations are naturally high, and we expected a better standard and more variety. The service has also been inconsistent. We often had to wait a long time for drinks and, on several occasions, had to ask more than once before they arrived, also they never come round and ask if you’d like more drinks.

There’s only one ice cream kiosk, for the whole hotel which is located outside the pool and only opens from 1-5!!! Which is mental to think kids have to wait until after lunch to have an ice cream.

Nowhere near enough lifts throughout the hotel for people with prams and walking issues. Most of our stays we were met with “out of service”. And having to walk all the way round just to get to the pool.

Having since read a number of previous reviews, it's disappointing to see that many guests have raised similar concerns. It gives the impression that the hotel is more focused on protecting its revenue than genuinely listening to customer feedback andimproving the overall guest experience. From what we've read, complaints often appearto be met with small goodwill gestures—such as the use of a day bed for a day or vouchers—rather than meaningful resolutions or refunds where appropriate. Whether that's the right approach is for others to decide, but based on our experience, it's left us feeling extremely disappointed.

The incident that ultimately cemented our opinion of the hotel happened on our final day. Our transfer was due to collect us at 3:40pm, with our flight not departing until 6:45pm, so we decided to have one last lunch at Oasis knowing our children would need to eat before travelling. When we arrived, the hostess struggled to seat us because our room number had already been removed from the system. I explained that although we had checked out, we were still at the hotel until later that afternoon. Once seated, we ordered drinks, but thankfully I decided to double-check that our all-inclusive package was still valid. I first asked a manager, who said she wasn't sure but thought it lasted until 3:00pm, and suggested I ask one of the waitresses instead. After three members of staff discussed it amongst themselves, we were then told that our all-inclusive package had actually finished at 12:00pm and that we would have to pay. Given everything that had happened throughout the week, this was incredibly frustrating. I challenged this, and another manager was called over. After asking for our room number again, she noticed we were still wearing our all-inclusive wristbands and eventually agreed to honour the package until 3:00pm. What was most concerning wasn't simply the confusion over the policy, but the fact that multiple members of staff and managers all appeared to have different answers. For a hotel of this standard, there should be clear, consistent procedures that every member of staff understands. Instead, what should have been a straightforward final lunch became an unnecessary and stressful experience, leaving us with a very poor lasting impression of the hotel.

Overall, this is a beautiful hotel with excellent facilities and immaculate grounds. Unfortunately, for the amount we've paid, the all-inclusive experience hasn't delivered the value or level of service we were expecting. It's the smaller details and service standards that make the difference in a luxury hotel, and sadly those are the areas where this resort has fallen short for us. So for all of the reasons above, we would not return to this hotel, nor would we recommend it to anyone.

Honest review after staying at this hotel for 7 nights with two children aged 8 and 5.

Pros: Amazing infinity pool with large shallow areas at either Side for kids.

The grounds are beautiful and spotlessly clean.

The staff are very friendly and polite.

Breakfast was a good variety and very tasty.

The rooms are lovely and spacious.

The entertainment was good.

Lunch at agave and the Italian resteraunt was good. ( little tip- on the app it says you have to pay for buffet at the Italian, when in fact you don’t if you are all inclusive. Highly recommend this resteraunt for lunch.)

Handy little shop on site and prices are fair. However the petrol station across the road has everything you may need for a fraction of the price.

Pirate pool and splash area is good for younger kids.

The ice cream bar is delicious with a variety of flavours.

The cleaning team do a great job cleaning the rooms.

On the app you can click amenities you require such as pillows, fresh towels, dental kit, iron, hair straighteners and they get delivered fairly quickly.

Cons:

The buffet resteraunt at dinner wasn’t very nice and was repetitive everyday.

Avoid the kids club it isn’t very good and the staff do not look after the kids properly.

The shower leaked badly throughout our stay. We reported it but it never got sorted.

Not all foods are labelled for allergens, especially the desserts.

Overall a lovely stay in a beautiful hotel. We were worried we wouldn’t get treated well being non red level but we didn’t have any issues with customer service. I would return in the future.

Let me start off with saying how much of a wonderful 10 nights we just had here with my wife and 2 children aged 7 & 4, it’s 4 stars due to some minor faults that may not annoy guests.

First off, the hotel is absolutely stunning, it’s MASSIVE! I’ve never been to a hotel of its size in my 42 years on this earth, the whole surroundings from the building, the grounds to the pools are just visually stunning to look at. We went with Jet2 and no issues as per, we arrived late at night around 11pm and were sorted with our family room very fast, the reception were excellent and even offered us food if we wanted it, we were fine but were given bottles of water which was a nice start. We were All Inclusive so I’ll note down as much as possible below:

Rooms - Our family deluxe room was same level as reception, the room wasn’t huge but it was perfectly fine for us, 2 large single beds for the kids, an XXL King Size bed for us (we all slept amazing the whole trip thanks to perfect air con and comfort) and a decent size bathroom with toilet, shower and bath, shampoo, conditioner & soap wash all supplied. The balcony looked directly onto the kids pirate ship pool which was good for ease of use and with the pool opening & closing we were always out anyway so was perfect. The only downside to the room was the shower, it was really poor for the overhead rain shower and was pretty much just loads of drops of water, hand shower was fine but it didn’t really concern us as we were in and out, the bath was good though! Some parts of the furniture look dated but again didn’t even bother us, others it might I suppose.

Staff - Need to start with the cleaners as I mentioned the rooms, fantastic, in daily to replace all towels, room was spotless, everything filled up in bathroom and they even rearranged the kids teddies into their beds, they also restock your mini fridge with fresh bottles of water and coke free of charge, everything else in the fridge you will be charged for, (beer & chocolate). All other staff at the hotel were fantastic from luggage to reception to bar staff to restaurants, top marks!

Food & Drink - Personally we thought the food was excellent, we spread out the meals from the big main buffet to a mixture of the hotel Italian and Oasis. The hotel buffet was good, they’ll cook steak, chicken & fish in front of you and a massive selection of everything else, we never had any issues with it and breakfast was solid, the egg station queue is long at peak times so just bare that in mind if you want an omelette. Italian & Oasis were just incredible, served and treated like we had just arrived off the street for a meal and not an all exclusive guest and for lunch again oasis and the poolside Mexican were so so good! The ice cream hut was also a great addition for the family.

Hotel App - Read a lot of bad reviews about the app, we downloaded it when we arrived and it worked completely fine, we were able to book tables in any of the restaurants any time we wanted, not sure if it’s been resolved but it worked great for meals and activities like the pool Paddle board, kids arts n crafts etc…

Pools - Due to my kids ages we pretty much spent the whole holiday at the main kids pool which is pretty much central in the hotel, the pool was busy with kids but it was great, perfect temp to cool down from the sun and the kids were never out of it, poolside bar for drinks & crisps, the Mexican is just down stairs next to the large salt pool, on this pool, so large and stunning, we were in it loads too.

Drinks - For All Inclusive the drinks range is massive so you won’t be let down, in any restaurants please note it’s only beer, wine, soft drinks & water….cocktails or anything else is extra charge but everything free at poolside bars etc….i tried many cocktails and all excellent! The poolside bar staff are all legends and great with everyone.

Kids Activities - The entertainment staff are great with the kids, kids disco was good and inflatable fun fair was good for them to let off some steam.

The small things that annoyed me:

Flies - There probably isn’t much the hotel can do with this as the hotel is so large, in an open area and next to a large banana farm but biting flies are real! They sadly pestered us a lot of the holiday, some days constant and other days not so much but if left unnoticed you will feel them nibbling away, they are constantly on your legs or near your table when eating outside, it really bothered me but my wife seemed calm with it so possibly just me personally but I just felt anytime I relaxed one would be on me in no time, again hard for the hotel to manage this I would imagine, I felt of if I was covered in sun cream if helped for parts.

Check Out / All Inclusive:

Our taxi pick up wasn’t until 7:30pm, we were informed that we had to check out of the room by 12, this was ok but were told that our All Inclusive would only last until 3pm, 5/6pm would have been a nice touch from the hotel so families like ourselves can have dinner before leaving, just meant we had to delay lunch to nearer 3. The hotel do provide a shower room spot for you tho which was good to freshing up.

The Circle - We were approached a few times about this but politely declined and that was that but it will most likely happen.

All in all we had a brilliant stay here, the minor things wouldn’t stop me from returning! Thanks for a lovely stay!