San Miguel Holidays from AU$3,531

Good Stuff: Room was clean and refreshed daily. We like the north hotel zone so the location was great. Drinks were not fancy but good and not watered down. Service was pretty good around the pool and in the restaurants. There was plenty of seating around the pools. Beach access was easy. Most of staff was friendly. Tips were not expected for every little thing and that was very nice. Not so good stuff: We didn’t have hot water for 5 days of our 7 night stay. We asked about it 4 times and someone came up once but did not fix it. Mattress and pillows were very hard and it’s probably time for new ones as the mattress was obviously sunken in the middle. Website said guaranteed restaurant reservations with premium SkyView room. That did not apply and it was hard to get a reservation-some people were waiting in line to put their names in as early as 6:30 am! So, we only got to eat in the nicer restaurant once. Food was inconsistent but we didn’t have any trouble staying full. There was apparently room service available but there were no instructions about how to order it and no in-room phones to use for things like that. There was an option to order off of a secret menu-fries, pizza,nachos- and we would not have known this had we not spoken to people who knew about it. Pools were too cold to swim in. Ocean temp was 81 and very tolerable so I’m guessing the water temp in pools to be 75ish. Birds ate from plates waiting to be cleaned and they left droppings in restaurants.

Clean room. Good pool and beach

Rooms were spotless and serviced every day. Beautiful stay in the middle of woods with a serene and accessible beach. We stayed 5 nights with all inclusive package. Things we loved: - Direct access to the water to snorkel and it was worth it - Beautiful location -Beautiful architecture -love how the light hit the chandeliers in the main area - Clean rooms -Clean pools - Great staff (except front desk) -Loved the New Years celebration Things to be aware of: -there is one pool for activities and kids. There is an adult only pool as well. The hot tub is only for Royal club members. -If you love seafood and meat, there are lot of options. However, vegetarian and vegan food options were limited in the buffet Things to improve on: -Front desk staff need to be trained better. We found them slow and inefficient. -Our keys didn’t work multiple times during our stay. The first time, we had dragged all our luggage to the room only to realize the key wasn’t activated! - Vegetarian options like veg fajitas, enchiladas, etc could be helpful for non meat eaters - Kids activities were all conducted at the pool, would be nice to have some indoor time too. I think the name of the conductor was Jesus, he did a splendid job interacting with kids and making them comfortable. -Guests need to be asked to not reserve beach chairs hours in advance. Some of them just left towels to reserve early AM and only came to the beach at 2PM, while others had to sit on sand instead.

Here is a balanced review of this resort Positives: Great beach, pool/beach chairs and towels always available, rooms are clean (however check your mattress.. one of ours was ripped and had what looked like dead bugs in the creases but the hotel did change it out for us when I raised this to their attention). Property is well maintained. Negatives: check in took over an hour and we were given the incorrect room 2x. The food at the buffet was a 6/10 with limited choices and things like stew as your meal options however there was generally one made to order taco or fajitas station that was okay. You get 2 guaranteed restaurant reservation during a week stay but the line up in the morning to reserve the restaurants are LONG… The tennis, pickleball and basketball court are great but they charge you $7USD to turn the lights on to play in the evening even though it says on their sign they are open until 9 pm. When the outdoor theatre is being used for evening entertainment you can hear everything in you room and it’s REALLY loud until approx 10:00-10:30 when things shift to the disco. Many families with young children were complaining about this. Overall this resort has its pluses and minuses and if you can get a good deal it’s worth staying at but not if you’re paying premium prices.

The service at the buffet and around the pools and bars was fabulous! The restaurant service was slow. The food was the biggest draw back. It just wasnt very good. With the same thing day after day.