Don Manolito

This is a really nice small and quiet hotel. Professional friendly staff, clean comfortable rooms and decent (if not great) but varied food. The location of the hotel is good, walking distance to beaches and the old town and there is a nice pool. It is a refreshing change from large "industrial " hotels.

Having booked before I read some of the reviews ( from 2017/2018) I was a bit concerned. However the more recent reviews seemed better so I was hopeful.

My view was that the Hotel was great. The staff were friendly and most spoke more than enough English for good communication to be possible. No denying that the majority of guests were German so this was what was spoken most, alongside Spanish, but no issues at all.

The hotel was very clean and well managed ( cleaners came every day but honoured the 'do not disturb' signs if you didnt want their service).

Food at breakfast and dinner was plentiful and reasonably varied though after 10 days the choices at dinner started to be a bit "samey".

Breakfast had choice of cereal,fruit, yogurt, bread, pastries plus cooked eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes. More than enough. Agree with others that the juice was probably juice drink not pure, but not undrinkable. I took my own coffee because I dont like any coffee from vending machines but I did have one coffee from the machine and it was fine. Plenty of normal tea/ herbal teas etc that could be made up oneself.

With regard to dinner- always soup of some kind. Plenty of salad as its own course or to go with main course - always some sort of fish (normally white); a meat dish or two plus pasta and a sauce; various types of potato; big variety of puddings and fruit and cheese too if you have any room. There was always a decent amount of veg too but over-boiled in my view. Not everything had a familiar taste but what is the point of eating what you would eat at home. Plain tap water was not available at dinner but bottled water, wine, beer and many other offerings on wine list were, so complaints one couldnt have anything to drink are wrong or at least outdated.

Pool was lovely and kept very clean ( on our last day it was being "hoovered"). Plenty of loungers for the number of people needing them, plus seats and tables some near the hotel reception and some near pool side bar.

We asked for a quiet room and while there was no guarantees, we got one ( 302). Small balcony that the sun reached in late afternoon. Mattress maybe a little hard for my back but not uncomfortable and we both slept well despite us both having various aches and pains.

Away from the hotel it was a shame that the pollution has caused many of the main beaches to discourage swimming, though most of the beaches open to sunbathe. We enjoyed the walk along the beach towards Loro Park every second day and to the old town on the other alternate day. Carnival was on while we were there but most activity started too late for us to want to attend. However we had always planned a quiet break so were quite happy with this.

All in all we enjoyed our time very much and would happily return.

The room is outdated, there is no airco not even a ventilator. The breakfast is the same everyday and not nice. The food tastes like nothing, there is no fresh fruit (only some oranges and banana). The juices are artificial, there is no normal chocolate paste, only almost liquid jam in a bowl. The receptionist were nice in general, but the manager was really not customer friendly and her English was bad. On our last day, they have planned a photoshoot of the pool. There was no communication to the guests in advance, no compensation, nothing. They just closed the door so we could not enter the outside part. After that there was no sorry, no communication at all. They were just ignoring that we waited 1h30 to enter the pool. Would not recommend to stay here, just for the lack of communication and the unprofessional behaviour of the manager. The pictures they have taken during the photoshoot contain pool towels, which you won’t receive, just so you know ;)