Gardenia Beach Hotel

Comfortable bed, clean rooms... very nice and professional service, a bit of a lack of English especially among the cleaning staff, in the bars you can easily communicate even in Polish...😆 lots of cats😅 two swimming pools, access to the beach... delicious food, I recommend

I will start by saying this is a great hotel but there are some negatives. Pools Very cold, we did go in May so this may be why as I guess the sun is not as hot but my 3 year old did not like how cold they were, however it did not bother my 7 and 9 year old You are able to use Inflatables which is great There are 4 pools in total. My eldest children loved the slide pool, however I did find the 10-12 and 3-5 slide times very restrictive. We had to plan our day around that and it did get annoying. I also found the lifeguards were not consistent with their rules and monitoring the slides. They would also often close them 10 minutes early. My daughter was walking up the stairs and the lifeguard had turned off the water for the slides, so we had to shout up to my daughter to tell her to come down. He had failed to put the chain across to stop children walking up. Had we not noticed she may well have hurt herself. Also they don't speak any English (a common theme at this hotel) My three year old liked the little round pool that was gated off from the main pool. This was a nice touch as it's a safe space for them to have a paddle. The toddler pool I did not see used by toddlers sadly. I saw toddlers paddling in the water when the splash bit was not on but when it's running I think it's too cold and too intimating for little ones. This was a big disappointment as when choosing this resort we looked at that pool and thought he would love it but I feel there needs to be a bigger area for toddlers where they can just paddle and maybe a few little slides. Reception Very disappointed. When we arrived early hours of the morning we were not supplied much information at all and just did not feel very welcome. They did however help us with our luggage to the room which was appreciated but did feel like they just wanted a tip. We also felt this when we checked out, they hovered as if waiting for a tip which at the end we did give but felt very pressured and I feel a tip is something that should not be expected. When we checked out the man did not even get off the phone to ask us about our stay, very disappointing Room I was impressed with the room, plenty of storage space for clothes. Sadly no English channel other then news. This was hard for the children when they wanted to wind down. Our view was not great as overlooked the tunnel rather then a pool but we did not overly mind this. The mini bar is free of charge and kept topped up with water. The cleaners do a great job, our room was always tidied when we returned from our day and they were always friendly. My husband did however really get attacked by what we assume was bed bugs. We also felt the bed sheet were too small so had to request another one, but we did receive this within 2hr of this request. We also had a faulty shower head, but this was sorted within hours too. Food Breakfast for us was a huge disappointed, very much geared to German tastes. It is very continental which I don't mind but I did miss being able to find butter spread as there was always so much bread so it would have been nice to be able to have butter. Plenty of seats available but we often ended up going onto the rooftop, which was nicer to be honest in terms of atmosphere but difficult as far away form the food and with a 3, 7 and 9 year old it was annoying. We needed a table for 6 of us as also had my 70 year old mum with us, and we would walk past tables of 6 being taken by 2 people. This felt very selfish and maybe the restaurant staff should monitor this and guide people to tables to avoid this as it was a daily frustration. Lunch time we gave up going to the restaurant and chose to eat by the beach snack area. This was mainly because this was where we could get hotdogs, burgers and chips for the kids. The restaurant really lacked these kind of children's food, even at dinner time chips often weren't anywhere to be seen. The beach snack area also serves up Pizza if you ask, but wasn't everyday and was guess work as to when they would be doing Pizza. Ice creams become available by the beach bar between 3-4. This was lovely and kids looked forward to this and the man that handed them out was so nice to them but again I found this too restrictive. Within the hour my kids would have 2 each, sometimes 3, but I would prefer ice creams to be more readily available and we were often by the pool and would have to wonder down for 3pm for the ice creams. I don't understand why they were only available from the one area for just 1 hour. Dinner was lovely, I often found some lovely meat, they would often make it look nice by serving outside by the pool and putting balloons around but it was often the same food that could be found inside the buffet so very repetitious. I did find not everything is always labelled so you do end up having to lift up the containers for a peek which gets frustrating I was disappointed by lack of fresh fruit, for example water melon, this was only served once during our 9 night stay. We would be offered drinks in the evening which was nice and the waiter that served us on the rooftop would start to remember our order, these nice touches go a long way but a smile from him would have been nice too. There was also a lovely waiter at breakfast time who was very warm to our children and always smiling, again, these touches make all the difference We booked the A La Carte once during our stay. Food was very much the same as at the restaurant but was a lovely setting outside by the pool and was nice to not be in in the chaotic buffet area and to be waited on. Mini Club A cute little area with slides and area to kick a ball. Does look run down though sadly and needs some TLC. We were there for a few days before we really gave it a chance as our 3 year old was getting curious and developed a bond with the lady that ran the mini club as he would see her around the resort and in the evenings at the mini disco. From the minimal time we spent there with him as at aged 3 he couldn't be left, it seemed nice, they made some cookies and then ate them later with a fizzy drink (found this odd for a 3 year old though) We really liked the lady that ran the mini club as she was the only person that worked here that spoke some English. Entertainment Personally I was not impressed by the Mini Disco. My children did not get involved because the children had to go on stage and essentially perform with the animation team in front of them showing them what to do. I have never had this before. Usually animation team on stage and the children watching them and following what they do. My children would have participated if they did it like this. I found the man that hosted the mini disco very pushy with the children, my son got upset and wanted to come off the stage and rather then just allowing him to leave he stopped him and I feel made the situation worse. That being said my children did watch and youngest did get involved in the songs and dances but from the comfort of our table. All entertainment was very much geared to the Germans. I appreciate why given that we were the only British ones at the resort but I still feel they could communicate in English as we often felt very uninvolved and uncatered for. I really felt the animation team needed to try and communicate better in English so we felt more involved. The best show was a acrobatic African show, that was very enjoyable, but sadly nothing else stands out which is very disappointing as they have the facilities, the stage outside is so big and lovely but not being used to its full potential. You can hear the hotels next door having a lot more fun then Gardenia. Beach The beach is lovely but not lovely sand, quite pebbly and stoney, but we did enjoy it and nice to have it on site. The walk to the beach is lovely too, surrounded by long trees and flowers Resort The resort is nothing short of beautiful. Trees and flowers everywhere. I took so many pictures as it did feel like paradise. However there was many steps and slopes so it's not for the faint hearted. We did manage though but just worth noting. Local Area Hotel is very secluded. We branched out once to the Bazaar but it was horrible. Being followed around, encouraged to purchase and not given any time to think what you want to buy. Really nothing else in the area which was very disappointing. Luckily on site there is a little shop which I thought was reasonable prices so we bought our gifts and souvenirs there Overall a lovely holiday, very relaxing if you want it to be, kids had a great time but My biggest complaint is the lack of interest towards British tourists so if you are British and looking at this hotel , whilst it is lovely, and we enjoyed it, we would not return.

The main asset of the hotel is undoubtedly its Employees ,especially the restaurant and beach staff. Romeo stood out in the animation team. I had big problem with the size of Large room which was certainly not designed for 2 adults and two teenagers I was explained that I could make a claim against the travel agency but not against the hotel. Food was tasty. Very nice beach with cristal clean water