Adrian Roca Nivaria Gran Hotel

Room: We booked a junior suite as we travelled with 2 children and an infant. The older kids had their own room, and we had the baby in the cot in our room. The whole suite was huge, bigger than any other hotel room we have stayed in before. As it was ground floor there was a terrace area rather than a balcony, which was also very large. Overall very spacious and well appointed. We had some air conditioning problems the first couple of nights, but these were fixed eventually on the 2nd attempt. I should imagine most other guests wouldn't have this issue. They put a bottle of fizz in the room for the trouble.

Pool: Good choice of pools with a heated upper pool and unheated lower pool. The upper pool was a salt water pool although both were fairly kind on the skin and eyes. Size and shape were great and there was normally plenty of sunbeds available except the last 1 or 2 days of our stay when a new batch of guests had arrived. A separate pool area on the other side of the hotel for children had a good variety of water slides and another large shallow pool. It was a bit confusing at first how to navigate between these two areas but I would suggest going past the kids club and up the ramp by the beach lift behind the tennis courts to avoid wandering around corridors in wet swimwear.

Grounds: Fantastic planting with lots of palm trees for shade and ambience. Flowers, plants and outdoor spaces well maintained, with regular cleaning regimen and attention to detail on planting even in walk through spaces where other hotels may not bother.

Food: Superb food buffet options. Among the best I have had at a hotel buffet. The fresh grill options were amazing, with lots of variety of meats, steaks, chicken, many fish options like sole, sunfish, cuttlefish grilled to order. Theme nights were great and big variety of dessert options. We didn't use the a la carte restaurants so cannot review these. Outside seating area at Garoe restaurant was much nicer than inside, the ambience of the inside seating could be improved a bit. I was a bit confused why all-inclusive guests could not have lunch at the pool side snack bar. It was unclear how this worked.

Drink: Somewhat limited cocktail menu with some options annoyingly excluded from the all-inclusive deal. You can only order what is on the menu, bartenders will not make just any cocktail you ask for, even if you can see the ingredients right in front of you. (No blue lagoon!). The smoothies you also had to pay extra. I have had better variety in 4* in Turkey and Mexico without the extra charges. However the cocktails they did have were very well made (not premix) especially the pina colada using real coconut milk and sangria also properly made. The wines were good and at lunch time and you could help yourself from the ice bucket. I would welcome more poolside service for drinks (where they come to you, again, received in 4* elsewhere) but the mix of all-inclusive and half-board guests doesn't work well for this. Table service for drinks at dinner and the piano bar could sometimes be slow.

Beach: Very easy access with an elevator going straight down almost to the shoreline. Good shower facilities to hose down sand afterwards. Black sand beach was surprisingly large, lots of interesting fish to be seen around the rocks if you have the right gear.

Service: Staff were always very helpful, and English well spoken among staff. My daughter dropped a plate and restaurant staff were very good handling the situation. Reception staff helped answer all our questions and provided smooth booking services for excursions we wanted to do. Aircon repair guys sent promptly even if it didn't solve the problem first time around. Room cleaning were flexible for when we had to be in the room with the kids.

All in all a great luxury resort, but with a few pinch points re aircon and cocktail options, which were minor in the grand scheme of things and was a very enjoyable resort to stay in with massive rooms and great pool areas.

Superb family hotel, great bedrooms with large bathroom and walk in wardrobe,large separate kids bedroom with own TV ,British channels and even Sky sports. Brilliant for 6 and 8 yr old grandkids with super pool, slides, climbing areas and games. Plus 2 large pools, sunbeds always available, buffet excellent always hot, great choices for all. Staff all friendly, immaculate everywhere. Only let down by very poor evening entertainment, apart from flamenco display very weak singers each night with canned backing tracks, one night a poor gymnast performed for less than 15 minutes.No compare or connection with audience. Highly recommended as long as you don't look for decent entertainment.

A fabulous holiday again, We visited in 2025 as a family of three and returned this year with our 9 year old child, and a grandparent. We stayed half board and stayed in standard doubles suite with sea views. We were there for eight nights in late July/early August.

Arrival - we arrived at midday this year and again the reception staff were welcoming and efficient which was appreciated after an early start. Whilst our rooms were not ready (we arrived before normal check in time) our bags were kept securely and we took the opportunity to have lunch at the pool bar.

Room - we weren't expecting the rooms to be as lovely as our superior suite the year before however there was still plenty of space with a walk in wardrobe. The bathroom was large with a bath, separate shower and double sink. The balcony was a good size large with a table and two chairs, two sun beds and a parasol. We were on the 5th floor and had a good view of the sea.

Pool - there is no need to bring towels as on check in you receive a card for each person which is then exchanged for towels. The towel hut is on the slope in between the main salt water and chlorine pools and opens 10-6 each day. You receive two towels, one that hooks over the top of the bed and covers the entire sun-bed and then a blue towel for drying off. You can then exchange these when needed.

We mainly used the main chlorine pool overlooking the sea. The pool area was kept clean and tidy with plenty of beds and parasols. The staff do enforce the no reserving beds in the morning and will remove towels if you aren’t present on the beds or in the pool which is great. Floaties are allowed in the chlorine pool and a lifeguard watches over both pools keeping a general eye on things. There is then another pool with water slides and entertainment team on the other side of the hotel.

Pool bars - There is a small pool bar offering coffee, beer, soft drinks and cocktails with limited snacks such as crisps and ice creams at the chlorine pool but this doesn't open until nearer lunchtime. The main pool bar that serves food is next to the salt water pool one level up, a quick walk away. The food was nice - some sandwiches, pizza, pasta dishes, burgers, hot dogs etc available. The staff at the pool bar are lovely and a particular shout out to Hayley and Genovieve (apologies if I have spelt this incorrectly) who were fabulous just as the were last year.

Main buffet restaurant - my husband and daughter had breakfast a couple of times and thought the selection was nice. We didn't eat at the buffer restaurant most nights as we do like to go out however the selection is nice, salad, fish, bbq and pasta station and themed nights.

This year we ate at the Spanish a la carte, and the food was delicious and the staff were really lovely with one of the waitresses recognising us from the previous year when we visited the Verona (Italian) restaurant.

Bars - again we didn’t stay at the hotel every night but there were singers etc of an evening. It’s not a big production so does feel more chilled out and you can still chat with your party.

General

You can use your room key to charge any drinks or food to the room and pay when you leave so no need to bring lots of cash unless you want to pay as you go. Card also accepted.

You can download the resort app to view menus and make restaurant bookings and find out general information which was really helpful.

The weather was beautiful averaging 24/29 but don’t underestimate the UV levels. The sun is brutal, it feels hotter than it is and is easy to get burnt very quickly.

Local area - there is a mini market 1 minute walk from the front of the hotel where you can get a variety of food and drink. For an ice cream there is a lovely shop right outside the hotel and we often stopped on our way back from dinner to enjoy an ice cream.