Riu Monica

This hotel was wonderful. Reception staff were very friendly and welcoming on arrival and made sure everyone had a glass of Cara/ orange juice. We arrived at around 12:30pm Spanish time) and were pleasantly surprised to find our room was ready for us. We were on floor 6 (618) with a fantastic balcony view of the sea. Great spacious room. Loads of storage. Small fridge and free use of safe. Sunbeds: plentiful and always found a couple. The people queuing want particular ones. Food: great selection of food. We particularly enjoyed the salad bar area. Good choice at breakfast too. Waiters/waitresses are very efficient and order your drinks and remove finished plates swiftly. Drinks: very reasonably priced unlike some hotels. Entertainment: this wasn’t great but with the buzzing town with its bars and restaurants only a ten minute walk away there was no need for evening entertainment. There is no animation team here. Did miss the daytime activities a bit like Aqua aerobics and a fun day quiz but there was always popular music playing during the day from the pool bar. Housemaids: they were fantastic! Our room was always cleaned/tidied spotlessly. They obviously work very hard to high standards. Location: the hotel is in a great location to all local amenities. The transfer took 55 mins with only the Monica and another hotel to drop off at. Same on pick up journey too. Beach is only a few steps away at the rear of the hotel where the sunbathing is done. I would go for a swim in the sea every day and pleased I took my beach/sea shoes as the beach is quite shingly and sea had some bigger pebbles. A fantastic holiday with very friendly staff, all areas spotlessly clean and close to a great old town to explore. We shall definitely return! Top Tip: get a taxi to Frigliana. Picturesque village with quaint cobbled streets and little tavernas.

A nice hotel, clean and tidy. Food in the main restaraunt was ok without being great. Staff too quick to take away your plate, especially when I and my partner were still eating. I appreciate the need to stay on top of it and with it being buffet style, I get it but it can be a little annoying. A La Carte very good, great service and great food. We only booked once but you can go multiple times. Cleaning staff great, clean rooms, towels etc. Pool area over crowded and very little room to manoeuvre. Sunbeds access not before 0800 hours. Queues! We were all inclusive which was bed/breakfast and PM meal. How can you charge for water in the evening, not at breakfast? No water by the pool in 30+ degrees? Unless you pay?? Nerji great but wouldn’t return to this hotel. This hotel services the older generation (we are OAP’s too), great for some but not quite for us. Lacked the wow factor we have had with previous RUI’s.

I would like to address the first part of this review to the problem of reserved sun loungers. Our room directly overlooked the front of the hotel where we could see the queue forming each morning before 8am. There are about 50 sunbeds which are not chained off and these all have towels on well before 8am. Some mornings there were around 50 people waiting to gain access to the remaining sunbeds. Once the chain goes down there’s a rush even if the sun beds are unused for most of the day. There is no need for this; there are enough sunbeds to go round, it’s embarrassing to watch and such sad behaviour. Reception say they have tried everything to stop this; removing belongings at 10am might help. We decided to go onto the beach and use the sun loungers there (€12/day for 2 and a parasol), but surprise, surprise, they are all reserved the day before! It’s better to turn right, a 2 min walk brings you to Playa El Playazo beach where it’s easier to get a sunbed and there’s more space as it’s shingle compared to the sand on Playa La Torrecilla. Our room (354) was large, had a fantastic direct sea view, ample storage space, was very comfortable and kept extremely clean. The staff were all welcoming and professional. The location of the hotel is excellent with a line 1, local, bus stop outside and only a few yards to the tourist train up to the caves. The hotel booked us a taxi to Frigliana and we caught the Line 2 bus back at €1.20 each. The walk back to the hotel from the Bus Station is about 20 mins. The food was good and varied over the week we were there, at dinner the roast meats were excellent and the house wine was good and very reasonably priced. The restaurant itself is more like a large canteen and a bit soulless. The Spanish restaurant was much more relaxing and the mains and desserts served to the table which more than offset the more limited choice. We have downgraded our rating due to the failure of the hotel to effectively deal with the sunbed issue and the ambience of the restaurant