Club Cala Azul

Beautiful place Great team Perfect for families Very good location A Roberto (the manager) who is also very efficient and pleasant Thank you

Located half way up Ibiza's east coast Cala Llenya is in a more relaxing area than the southern half of the island with its heavy traffic/parking hassles and is well situated to explore the rest of the island by rental car. The complex has lovely vegetation and is traditional Mediterranean in style: white walls/orange tiles - which is always attractive. We were expecting sea views from inside our "sea view apartment" but the sea view was only from our (private) outside patio. During our stay the complex was quiet and peaceful both night and day which was much appreciated. A very handy mini-mart, a very short walk down the street, stocked pretty much all you needed to self-cater food and drink - friendly owners too. Also close by is a nice casual restaurant with indoor and outdoor dining. The staff at Cala Azul were very friendly and obliging. A special thank you to Erica for her reservation assistance off-season and to delightful Daniela on Reception who made us feel welcome and kindly extended our check-out time at no cost. The only slight negative is that the kitchen cabinetry and bathrooms are very tired and not as modern as the website photos might suggest, but were functional. Access to the property is on a sealed but very minor narrow road with blind corners: OK during the day but could be tricky coming back at night after an evening out. The nearby beach is pretty with parking and some shaded beach areas plus a pleasant chiringuito.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Club Cala Azul. The location is beautiful, the pool area is lovely, the views across the sea are stunning and the air conditioning in the rooms was very welcome during the recent heatwave. A special mention also goes to Roberto on reception, who was exceptional. He was approachable, funny, genuinely helpful and has excellent customer service skills. Every interaction with him was a pleasure and, in my opinion, he would make an excellent hotel manager. The bar staff were also friendly and welcoming throughout our stay. Unfortunately, our experience in the hotel restaurant was the complete opposite. One thing we were particularly thankful for was that we had not booked half board. We paid €15 each for the buffet breakfast, which consisted of a fairly limited selection of eggs, bacon, fruit salad and a few pastries. It was perfectly adequate but nothing memorable. Despite that, we wanted to give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt and booked an evening meal because there are very few nearby restaurants that cater safely for guests with coeliac disease. My wife is coeliac, so finding suitable places to eat was important. Another guest had also advised us to avoid the chips after his own coeliac son had previously become ill despite being told they were gluten free, so we ordered potatoes instead. Our daughter is lactose intolerant and ordered the children’s burger. Unfortunately, nobody explained when we ordered that, because the bun contained milk, the meal would simply be served as a plain beef burger with no bun and a few chips. Had this been explained beforehand, we could have made an informed decision or chosen something else. It was another example of communication falling short. Our son ordered the tagliatelle with meat sauce and enjoyed it. Overall, the children thought their meals were acceptable, although not nearly as good as the meals we enjoyed elsewhere in Ibiza. I ordered the sesame-coated tuna steak and my wife ordered the fish of the day, which was hake. We also ordered fries for me and potatoes for my wife in addition to the vegetables, as the menu only included Mediterranean vegetables. When the meals arrived, my tuna was significantly overcooked, dry and lacking flavour. It felt as though more attention had been given to presentation than to the quality of the fish itself. My wife’s hake was soft, mushy and unappetising, accompanied by what amounted to one potato sliced into four pieces and a dried slice of lemon. The vegetables had initially been forgotten and, when they eventually arrived, they consisted of a bowl of overcooked courgettes and peppers placed in the middle of the table that none of us found appealing. At that point, I politely approached our waitress, Magdalena, who had been pleasant throughout. I apologised and simply explained that we weren’t happy with the two adult meals, while making it clear that the children’s meals were absolutely fine. Our intention was simply to give the restaurant the opportunity to resolve the situation, as most restaurants would. Instead, the chef came straight out looking visibly angry, throwing his hands in the air and insisting that his food was amazing, that he had been cooking for 20 years and that nobody had ever complained before. Before there had even been any discussion about a solution, he repeatedly accused us of trying to avoid paying for our meals. This is the point I would like to make absolutely clear because I fully expect the hotel may respond by suggesting otherwise. We never refused to pay. At no point did we say we would not pay. We simply raised concerns about the quality of two meals after barely eating them. There is a significant difference between making a complaint and refusing to pay, yet those two things were treated as though they were the same from the moment the chef arrived. Rather than listening to our concerns or even looking at the food to understand why we were unhappy, the chef and then the manager became increasingly confrontational. Neither of them inspected the food before deciding we were somehow trying to avoid paying. The manager repeatedly insisted that we were refusing to pay while pointing her finger towards us during the discussion. She then involved another member of staff in the conversation and put her on the spot in front of guests. She looked visibly uncomfortable, as did we. As someone who manages staff myself, I would never put a member of my team in that position in front of customers. A manager should be setting the standard for customer service, de-escalating situations and supporting their staff, not making them more uncomfortable. By this stage our two children were visibly upset and embarrassed watching two senior members of staff confront us over what had begun as a calm and polite complaint about two meals. After around 20 minutes of what had become an unnecessarily heated discussion, the manager simply told us to pay for the two children’s meals and walked away. As she left, she said, ‘Good luck writing your review.’ It came across as dismissive and suggested she had no interest in understanding our concerns or trying to resolve the situation. It is also worth noting that, after repeatedly accusing us of refusing to pay, it was ultimately the manager’s own decision not to charge us for the two adult meals. That was not something we demanded. From the beginning, our aim had simply been to raise concerns about the quality of the food and allow the restaurant the opportunity to put things right. What disappointed me most wasn’t that we received food we didn’t enjoy. That can happen anywhere. It was how quickly the situation escalated and how unwilling the chef and manager appeared to listen before making assumptions. During the conversation the chef claimed this was the first complaint he had ever received. However, during our stay we had separate conversations with other members of staff who indicated that the restaurant had received previous complaints and that the kitchen was recognised internally as an area needing improvement. I can only comment on what we were told, but it certainly made our experience seem less isolated than we were initially led to believe. When I explained that I intended to leave an honest review so other guests could make an informed decision, I was told that they didn’t care about one negative review because people don’t read reviews anyway. Ironically, if you’re reading this, you’ve proved otherwise. There were also a few other issues worth mentioning. On arrival our apartment had no visible number, so despite having directions to Apartment 150 we spent around 20 minutes trying to find it. Parking can also be difficult during busy periods, with most spaces being on surrounding streets and often already occupied when returning to the hotel. Finally, although this wasn’t necessarily a criticism, the complex gave us the impression of being partly residential, with what appeared to be long-term residents living alongside holiday accommodation. It wasn’t what we were expecting and gave the resort a different feel from a traditional hotel. Despite everything I’ve written above, I don’t want this review to suggest that the whole hotel is bad because it isn’t. The location is lovely, the pool is great, the views are beautiful and several members of staff, particularly Roberto on reception, Magdalena in the restaurant and the bar team, were excellent. My advice would simply be this. Stay at the hotel if the location appeals to you, but I would strongly recommend eating in Santa Eulària des Riu instead. The harbour restaurants offered consistently excellent food, much friendlier service and similar prices to those charged by the hotel. We would particularly recommend Project Social, where the food and service were outstanding. The restaurant experience was, without question, the lowest point of our holiday. Not because two meals weren’t to our taste, but because of the aggressive and confrontational way a polite complaint was handled. No family should feel intimidated for respectfully raising concerns about a meal, and no children should have to watch their parents being treated that way while simply trying to resolve an issue calmly.