Iberostar Royal Andalus

After staying at many all-inclusive resorts around the world, I genuinely do not understand how this resort has the ratings it does. Unfortunately, our experience was extremely disappointing, especially considering we spent close to €3,500 for a five-day stay. The poor experience started at check-in. The front desk staff simply handed us our keys without giving us any information about the property, parking, explaining where anything was, or telling us about the restaurants, pools, or activities. We were at the resort for three days before we even realized there was another pool—that’s how little information we were given. Customer service was another major disappointment. Many of the staff working in the all-inclusive areas seemed irritated that they had to serve guests. Always acting so busy and rushed that they were "unable to stop". Many times I'd see a customer waving their hand to get ones attention. Asking for something as simple as replacing an empty food item or requesting an egg-white omelette was often met with visible annoyance or attitude. There were exceptions, and I want to mention them: one woman working at the Star Café was consistently friendly and smiling, and she truly stood out because of how rare that was during our stay. The resort advertises itself as all-inclusive, but in my opinion, that is misleading. There is essentially one main buffet restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is extremely crowded, constantly swarming with people, and frequently runs out of items. The other included food options are the pool bar, which serves drinks, bananas, apples, sweets and plain sandwiches; the Star Café, which serves coffee and many of the same basic ham and cheese or turkey and cheese sandwiches as the pool bar; and the Alameda Grill, which offers basic burgers and hot dogs that honestly looked like something you would find at a convenience store. The other actual restaurants require additional payment. I’d like to note that there are some items at the pool bar and Star Café worth getting, but those require extra payment as well (you do get 50% off for being all-inclusive). The food was, without exaggeration, very mediocre. We’ve stayed at all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, and Aruba, and this was easily among the worst food experiences we’ve had. Everything lacked flavor and quality. For example, the avocado was kept directly on ice, so it was practically frozen when you bit into it. The hard-boiled eggs were so overcooked that they were brown and had a blackish layer open cutting open. The chicken sometimes undercooked. I found hair in the food on two separate occasions. Overall, the food simply did not come close to what I would expect from a four-star resort, especially at this price point. The children’s activities were a nice feature, and the resort has an app where you can see what activities are happening throughout the day. There is also a Kangaroo Club for younger children (0-3). However, after meeting the person running it, I personally did not feel comfortable leaving my two-year-old there. The room, however, was amazing. We had a pool-facing room with a cute separate area for the kids (Side Sea-View Family Room), and we really enjoyed the accommodation itself. The beach is also absolutely beautiful and, in my opinion, one of the best things about this property. Unfortunately, the main swimming pool next to the children’s splash area often looked very murky and dirty, to the point that I didn’t really want to get in. **If I could do this trip over again, I absolutely would not choose the all-inclusive option. I would stay at a hotel in the area, enjoy the beautiful beach, and spend my money eating at local restaurants instead. The food here simply isn’t worth paying an all-inclusive premium for. Based solely on the quality of the food, I would already rank this as one of the worst all-inclusive resorts we’ve visited. When you add the poor customer service and lack of basic information provided to guests, this felt much more like a two-star experience than a four-star resort. *I’m writing this review for anyone considering spending a significant amount of money to stay here. The room was beautiful and the beach was amazing, but for nearly €3,500 for five days, the overall experience was a huge disappointment and, in our opinion, absolutely not worth the money.

We had a great holiday at this hotel. Prior to our visit we contacted the hotel as she had a disability and needs a seat in the shower. We were so grateful to find we had been given a room with a wet room shower and a seat for her. We really appreciate this. As we arrived in the evening and missed lunch that day and were on AI we were given it on the last day. We loved the food especially the show cooking. Again because my wife walks with a stick we were always given a disabled table close to the food which helped enormously. There is not much to do in the local area but the beach was beautiful for walks. We had a lovely holiday.

This is our fourth time at this hotel and from the children (5) to the adults (4), we are all delighted with the treatment from all the staff, whether at reception, restaurant, bar, pool, entertainers, etc., excellent food in taste and quality. Here I would like to make a special mention of Antonia from the kitchen (she is a great professional) and Antonia from the housekeeping staff, an unbeatable treatment. Thank you to everyone and we hope to see you again. Congratulations on your work.