“Easter Holiday”

Stayed here during the easter holidays with our 2 kids. From the get go after arriving late on the monday night the staff were excellent offering to keep the resteraunt open so we could have a bite to eat. Double room with sea view was ample & the view was stunning. Food at the buffet had some am... more

Stayed here during the easter holidays with our 2 kids. From the get go after arriving late on the monday night the staff were excellent offering to keep the resteraunt open so we could have a bite to eat. Double room with sea view was ample & the view was stunning. Food at the buffet had some amount of selection each night with a different theme although we did eat out twice during the week just for a change. The animation & entertainment team were 10/10 every night we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Great holiday & will return.

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“Nice stay”

Overall really enjoyed our stay at the Elba Sara. Just a couple of improvements that would have given a 5 star. Lovely hotel, fab location, clean, comfy beds, fantastic service, any issues quickly resolved. Drinks were great. Lots to do for the children. Self service at the pool bar; food and d... more

Overall really enjoyed our stay at the Elba Sara. Just a couple of improvements that would have given a 5 star. Lovely hotel, fab location, clean, comfy beds, fantastic service, any issues quickly resolved. Drinks were great. Lots to do for the children. Self service at the pool bar; food and drinks wise, definitely a plus and not something I've always seen at AIs. Breakfast was brilliant. Good amount of sun beds. We went at peak time over Easter and always managed to get some however if you want them by a certain pool, you would need to be up by 8am. Enjoyed the nature feel of birds, fish in the small river that runs through, the cats they take care of, also rock pools with ducks and fish on the beach in front of the hotel, we also saw a "chipmunk" in the rocks to the left of the beach by the hotel. Nice beach nearby. So loads of good. Things we weren't as keen on were the evening meals, unfortunately looked and tasted quite bland and ended up eating out on quite a few nights but the rest of the meal times and mexican was good. Wasn't able to get a place in the Italian despite trying to book quite early on, would definitely recommend booking as soon as possible. Only other gripe was the timing of the evening entertainment, being 30 mins for kids disco, 8.30-9 and act being 9.15 -10. I've not known it to be so short before at an all inclusive, I know the animation team work all day so perhaps more staff to rotate to make a lengthier time to cater for all as we definitely made more use of the evening entertainment than day time and so would have preferred longer. Other tips: eurospar next door sell multipack big bottles of water, buy some early on for the fridge. We also ended up buying juice bottles for the kids and added our own cordial as options seemed to be water/pop / fruit juice.

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“Wouldn’t rush back”

We were rather disappointed with our experience here especially after having a fantastic time at Elba playa blanca last year. Room The room was big enough for the four of us but the air conditioning was terrible (we did ask for it to be looked at but it didn’t make a difference) we also asked f... more

We were rather disappointed with our experience here especially after having a fantastic time at Elba playa blanca last year. Room The room was big enough for the four of us but the air conditioning was terrible (we did ask for it to be looked at but it didn’t make a difference) we also asked for additional pillows as you only got one very soft pillow but they never arrived. On four occasions (11 night stay) out dirty towels were taken away when the room was cleaned but not replaced and we had to request new ones which on one occasion took almost two hours to arrive, not great when you just want to get showered and down for dinner after a day at the beach or pool. The towels often had holes in them too. We also had an issue with a light that kept flashing even when turned off but they were very quick to come and address that issue. Pools Two heated pools and one cold pool which was still enjoyable on the hotter days. The female lifeguard was amazing, fantastic with the kids and always made an effort to talk to you and make sure everything was okay. You could always get a sun lounger if you weren’t bothered about where it was but if you wanted a pool side one you had to reserve early. One day I noticed someone had reserved three pool side loungers but no one came to them until late afternoon so maybe something could be done to stop this. Twice during our stay the main pool had to be closed as someone had done a poo in the pool, the day I seen it happen the lifeguard was on top of it straight away and made sure everyone left the pool straight away. This could obviously happen anywhere but maybe a reminder to everyone to make sure they use the double nappy system to stop this happening. Food We were half board so only breakfast and dinner but there was alway a good choice of food available and we never had any issues with anything being under cooked. I do feel like it could be more organised at busy times as sometimes you couldn’t get a free table and just had to be lucky if you seen someone leave then ask for the table to be cleaned. Some nights you had to queue and a table would be found for you which I much preferred. We had one night at the tex mex restaurant, the salad bar was amazing however we ordered the steak with onion rings and cheese fingers for the kids but after waiting over an hour an a half received a baked potato and chicken fingers. Other people who came in after us seemed to be served first so I think we may have just been unlucky. Entertainment This was okay but nowhere near as good as our previous stay at Elba. They have family fun day advertised on Saturday afternoons but it doesn’t actually say what’s involved. On our first Saturday we took a walk into town and came back late afternoon to see it was a foam party and inflatables but it was just finishing so I thought we would get it the Saturday afterwards so made a point of staying at the pool all day but there were no pool activities at all so we were a little disappointed. We also missed the Pepe dance that was done at our last Elba hotel but I suspect that was just hotel specific. Location I loved the location however my six year old didn’t enjoy the 20-30 walk to the resort centre. He did love feeding the chipmunks directly outside the back of the hotel. It was also great to have the shopping centre directly next door to pick up any extra supplies. Overall we did have a lovely time however I definitely wouldn’t be rushing to come back and stay at this hotel.

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“Could be a great 4*”

I was a little torn on whether to give 3 or 4 rating but a few things knocked it down for me. We went as a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children aged 6 and 10) and went all inclusive. On arrival I felt like it took longer than it should to check in, the person tending to us kept going off to help ... more

I was a little torn on whether to give 3 or 4 rating but a few things knocked it down for me. We went as a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children aged 6 and 10) and went all inclusive. On arrival I felt like it took longer than it should to check in, the person tending to us kept going off to help other members of staff who were dealing with other people without saying anything and we had to keep asking if we could just get checked in. We were given room 338, a nice large room with a good size bathroom and I liked that the children got their own single beds, however I woke up and have been bitten several times and after seeing the state of the mattresses I am not surprised!! Food on a whole was ok, breakfast was good with fresh omelettes to order, pancakes but fruit was mainly tinned! Lunch times we mainly at from the pool bar, it was repetitive but nice enough with burgers, hot dogs, salads. Evening meals were themed but again very similar but with a twist depending on which themed night, we ate in the Italian for the a la carte and enjoyed it, I had the seafood risotto and it was lovely!! Drinks, beer from the pool bar was dreadful most days, flat. The mojito and pina colada slushies were good but other than the choice of 2 cocktails on All inclusive they weren't any! If you asked for a pina colada it was pre made out of a bottle, which was often curdled! If you asked for it shaken properly some staff we great and obliged and others simply said no it was only if you were paying for it. This annoyed me slightly as we had technically paid for it as paid more to be all inclusive. No bottles of water unless it was with dinner, you had to fill up from the machines which is fine if you have taken a water bottle otherwise it was a very small glass. Staff were very friendly on a whole, deputy manager fantastic!! We had an issue with one rude member of staff called Rachel on several occasions but this was dealt with by the deputy manager on duty and I cannot rate her enough. Animation team were great and always something for the kids to do, water polo, foam party etc. I don't think we would return but if you are looking for cheap and cheerful then this hotel would work for you.

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