Melia Tortuga Beach - All Inclusive

Oh dear. Not sure what has happened to this Hotel. Not everything is negative on this review but the Food and High End Management was the main issue. We've stayed here on 6 previous occasions but this will be the last. Firstly, the staff at the Spa, Housekeeping, Gardeners, Bar Staff & Maintenance Staff work so hard. They never stop. I have to mention, in particular, Eileen, Flavia, Ava, Antonio (Spices Restaurant) and Ricardo. Myself and my mother in law visited the Spa and had a facial. We would both definitely recommend having a treatment here. The staff are wonderful and we both felt fabulous after our visit. Reception - Had an issue with the location of the 2 rooms that we had booked but the Male Reception guy (sorry forgot your name) was so helpful and sorted everything out within a day. Cant thank him enough. The Female reception staff need to realise that people have paid a lot of money for their holiday so any issues should not be treated as a joke. Food - this is the biggest issue. We've never had any issues with the food before but unfortunately my husband, mother in law and my son were sick for a couple of days. The quality of ingredients is very poor. There is only so much any good chef can do with cheap cuts of meat and fish. Director's bad attitude - on Friday 8th November, around 7am, we noticed a "gentleman" in the Spices restaurant who obviously had connections with the hotel. My husband asked one of the staff who the "gent" was and we were told he was a Director. The young lady who was in charge of "meet and greet" at the door ended up being pulled to one side by him. Instead of having a quiet word he started to wave his "fat sausage" finger in her face. I felt it was totally uncalled for and she looked really uncomfortable afterwards. Absolutely no need, no matter what the problem was. The Pools - although the pools are cleaned of leaves every morning, we couldn't help but notice that quite a few of the tiles have come loose and really do need replacing. I appreciate it would be difficult when the hotel is always full. All in all, we used to love our holidays here but will not return again.

Let’s start with the obvious, this isn’t 5 Star and I would categorically not come back and would recommend anyone else thinks carefully before staying here. A group of 6 of us stayed here for 11 days but only because there was no option to move hotels which we tried to do after 48hrs but Tui could not find space anywhere else. Sun loungers: if you want space by the pool then you need to be up before 6am (in the dark) to put your towel down. The hotel are seemingly fine with this when challenged but you then see regular episodes of people falling out by the pool when towels are moved. If you are lucky enough to get a sun lounger (and we were in the end as ‘if you can’t beat em join em) then be prepared for horrific music that also can have expletives in it which isn’t great for kids. Food: very average and limited in variety. The restaurant is too small for the occupancy of the hotel and you can’t always get somewhere to sit down and when you do they regularly run out of cups, glasses and various food items. There is no option to sit outside and if you do you are asked to return inside (even when no tables!). The A La Carte is better and the food presented well, but is like warm. Hygiene: This isn’t good. Both families in our group were ill, a mixture of sickness and diarrhoea and in some cases two separate doses of it in the 11 days which typically lasted about 4 days at a time. Hotel response is ‘can you prove it’s from our hotel’! Staff: A mix really. Some are friendly but also be prepared to stand at the bar until they want to serve you and reception tend to find reasons not to help you rather than the other way round. To give credit where it’s due, one of the restaurant managers, Daniel, is great and very friendly and helpful - he was usually based in La Cabanna. And guest experience did also try and make the stay better with some concessions around access to the water park at their other hotel (but tip: you can just walk in anyway!!) Entertainment: it is never really clear what is on as they don’t advertise the programme well, but anyway there isn’t enough space to sit and watch it in the evening. For a hotel which I believe has around 750 people the seating for the evening is around 100. We didn’t manage to get a seat in the 11 days! General: the hotel lacks space. So for example, on an evening there is nowhere really to sit as a family and have a drink, play some card games and just generally relax. The main bar is small and maybe has seating for max 20 people.

On arrival at Sal airport we met the TUI rep who tried to flag down our taxi who had decided to drive off. She did call another taxi for 8 people with only 7 seats and was made to put the youngest on a knee. On arrival we were told to go the bar and get ourselves a drink while we waited to check in. 5*??? The concierge took us to our 2 rooms and it was all downhill from there. The first room was covered in water, the aircon didn’t work (no aircon in twin room at all) and was leaking all over the floor, no tv, no hairdryer, no working phone. 4 attempts to fix and it was only a temporary fix. We were shown to the second room where the staff had to shoulder barge the door to let us in. Turns out the door handle was broken and only access was with a key. The place was dirty, staff rude & aggressive, soiled sheets, poorly maintained in all areas. If you can find a seat in the restaurant, good luck finding plates, cutlery cups, no table service, etc. Food was average and lacking choice, no ice cream in the whole result but the staff said we could purchase it at a cost from the beach I haven’t got the strength to list all the issues, but I can definitely say don’t waste your money! Stay at the In Palace instead which is incredible. Due to the obscene amount of issues during the first 6 days of our holiday we were moved to the Riu Palace which was amazing. Everything you would expect from a 5* resort & more.

But, shouldn't have worried. Will admit that we had a problem with our allocated room (aircon unit leaking). Asked to be moved, and ended up in a lovely room. Staff were very helpful. The hotel seems to get a lot of criticism re the food. We found that especially in the main dining room there was so much choice you could always find something to eat, and the desserts are really yummy. Only complaint would be that the air con in the restaurant and main building needs to be more efficient. Always book the speciality restaurants when you can, gives a bit more variety. The beach is wonderful, and a short walk to the safe swimming beach. I think people need to be aware that all of the food items are imported and as such may not be available on the menu as expected. All in all we enjoyed the holiday.