rated the Bellevue Hotel as follows:| Cleanliness |  | | Location | | | Staff | | | Food |  | |
| Entertainment |  |
| said: Okay. I've just returned from this hotel on a week's all-inclusive deal. Knowing very little and hearing only bad reports about the hotel before we left, I have decided to write a very detailed report about the hotel, because I know how frustrating it is to have vague comments! I made notes everyday about the hotel so all my comments are as close to the events as possible, and not a week/month later.
Here goes! It's long but hopefully it'll help you make a decision.
We arrived at the hotel late at night (11pm) via a private transfer from Girona airport. The first place we headed was the reception. We were greeted by a friendly and helpful man who explained everything as well as the language barrier allowed. I admit his English wasn't great but it was decent enough for him to understand us and us him. This was the same fro the rest of the staff - helpful, they didn't always smile, but who smiles 24/7?! I heard complaints about the staff not speaking good English - do our hotel receptionists speak spanish to their Spanish guests?? Probably not, so until we do for them, we can't moan that they don't speak it fluently. The reception area was clean, with sofas, books (that you could borrow, or take, but replace with one that you have already read), newspapers and flight/transfer information. You could also hire a safety deposit box key for the box in your room, which was 20 Euros for the week (with 5 of that being returnable). We didn't see this as unreasonable - many hotels only offer a safe box behind the reception, so to have one in your own room with access whenever you need it is, according to me, worth the £10 you pay. If you want to use the TV in your room, it is 5 Euros to hire the remote. This money is fully returnable when you return the remote to the desk.
When we arrived in our room, we were somewhat disappointed that we didn't have a balcony (as we were told by the holiday company that all rooms had them), no TV and no 'piped music'. We didn't have a view of the sea, but one of the hotel's small carpark (it's not an ugly one, don't worry!) and the surrounding forestation, but it was nice and quiet. Despite these few disappointments, we were very glad to see that the room was immaculately clean, nicely decorated and well proportioned with a lot of storage. The floor was tiled and the furniture was a medium wood colour (similar to oak). The decoration was quite contemporary, with 3 walls in white, and one in a soft yellow colour. The bed sheets were terracotta and cream and had matching curtains. This was completely different to what I was expecting because I'd heard reports of how it was all 50s decor, with broken furniture and broken tiles. One thing I would recommend is a fan (if you don't have a balcony or if you don't like leaving the door/window open). It can get quite stuffy in the rooms, and a fan would make it a bit more comfortable. A few times over the holiday I was woken by the bin men. I don't know why but in Spain they come at 3am! It was louder because we had our window open fully, but it only lasted about 5 minutes.
The bathroom was quite small, but as a couple, we didn't need oceans of space to do what you do in a bathroom - it was fine. Again, it was immaculately clean - the suite itself was plain white, as was the tiling with a light blue border. The bath had a tiny chip of the ceramic in the bottom, but it didn't leak or anything like that (it was probably caused by someone dropping the shower head). The one thing you have to be careful of in the shower is when you turn the shower on. If you put it on full, it flies of the holder with ther pressure and soaks you! My boyfriend did this, and we spent the next 5 minutes rolling around laughing cos of the shock on our faces. Again, though, it wasn't a problem! The showers were strong enough to not need to have it on full.
We did move rooms half way through the holiday. This wasn't due to a problem with the room we were in, but just because we wanted the things we'd paid for. The reception staff were brilliant, moving us as soon as they had a room available (less than 12 hours). The second room was slightly more dated with the darker wood and the chairs were slightly older, but we had everything we asked for, inc. balcony, tv, music. We still had the side view of the car park etc, but as we were further up we had a nice view of the hills behind the town. In addition to this, we had a larger bathroom (all marble, had a bidet this time too), and the room itself was bigger. The decor was the same (apart from the wood and the floor was a darker marble as opposed to tiles). Although still at the side where the bin men came, I didn't hear them at all over the days we were in this room - perfect!
After unpacking, we headed down to the bar for a drink. The bar was a reasonably large room with about 15 tables, plenty of chairs, some wicker sofas in the corner near a little fountain. There were more tables and chairs outside on the terrace, which overlooked San Feliu.
The bar itself was quite small but we never found the queues were over a minute. All drinks were served in plastic cups, and although some people moaned, saying "We're not children, we can have glasses", I thought it was a great idea. The amount of drinks that people had in a day would have created a collection nightmare!! Some messsy people left cups strewn all over anyway, without having the added danger that if they were glass, and got knocked over... as you can guess, bare feet and glass doesn't go well at all. You were allowed two drinks per person. Again some people moaned. Again, I don't see the problem. If people were to get 5 drinks each, they'd end up wasting it - people were leaving drinks when they only had two each! By limiting it to two per person, at least they were limiting the waste.
Now, onto the main thing - the food and drinks! This is where I worried most! As it turns out, it wasn't actually that bad. The main thing people HAVE to remember is that this hotel is NOT mainly British. When we were there (in the British school holiday time), it was about 60% Spanish and a few other nationalities, 40% British/Irish, so it's not going to be that wondeful good ol' British food you might be hoping for. Yes, the food repeats, but to be honest, I thought it was okay as it was in different combinations. The meal times were; breakfast 8-10, lunch 1-3 and evening meal 8-10pm and a snackbar was available between those times. Here's a run down of the food every day.
BREAKFAST:
It was the same every day, offering a big variety. On one stand, there was a fried breakfast with fried eggs, scrambled egg, bacon, sausages, tomatoes and beans. My boyfriend thought this was fab and ate this most days. However, like anybody who's ever been to Spain before, you'll know the bacon is not like British bacon - it's more like streaky bacon and it isn't cooked as much as we usually like it. The scrambled egg was a bit weird too, but the fried eggs, the beans and the sausages were really nice. The sausages looked weird, because they were cocktail size, but they tasted really good! On another stand, there were cereals, like Sugar Puffs, Cocopops, Cornflakes, etc. There was also fruit available, which I didn't have any of, but a lady was telling me that her daughter had been eating fruit every day, so I guess it must have been okay. On another stand there were croissants, danish bread, sliced normal bread, baguettes and crusty bread, with a good variety of jams and butters (3 types of butter, strawberry, raspberry and apple jams, and orange and lemon marmalades). There was a toaster which was a conveyor belt one. You had to put your toast throught twice to get it really brown, and sometimes if there was a queue, it took a few minutes (though still faster than my toaster at home!). The drinks are breakfast were coffee, cappuccino, hot chocolate, pepsi and other soft drinks, water, orange, pineapple and apple juices.
LUNCH and TEA:
Day1:
Lunch
* beef stew - beef, carrots, peas, gravy (I thought this was really nice!)
* grilled cod (not battered/breaded, it's like the stuff you can buy in Britain)
* potato wedges (reeeeeeeally good!)
* cheese croquettes
* tagliatelle
* pasta sauce (tomato)
* cheese
(Pasta, pasta sauce and cheese were served everyday - perfect if you didn't like the look of anything!)
Tea:
* missed this on first day - our watches were at the wrong time...
Day2:
Lunch
* chicken breast in sauce
* white fish (like the cod the day before)
* chips
* pasta etc
* vegetables (peas, sweetcorn, green beans)
* rice
Tea:
* cheeses and ham crispy pancakes (like Findus ones)
* beef stew
* potato wedges
* chips
* fish in a sauce
* pasta etc.
Day3:
Lunch:
* Chicken curry (which was really nice!)
* rice
* spare ribs
* chips
* vegetables
* pasta etc.
Tea: (the only tea that looked really bad..!)
* Anchovies
* chicken in a sauce
* vegetables
* chips
* pasta etc
Day4:
Lunch:
* steak (though it was really tough)
* vegetables
* fish in tomatoey sauce (was good)
* pasta etc
* chips
Tea:
* Seafood stew
* burgers
* calamari rings (which some kids were trying and loving!)
* tuna steak in a spanish/tomatoey sauce (this was absolutely fantastic)
* pot. wedges
* pasta etc
Day5:
Lunch:
missed it because we'd eaten too many snacks and were full.
Tea:
* Burgers
* chicken in sauce
* fish
* mussels (which I've never dared to try!)
* pasta etc
Day 6:
Lunch:
* stew/chunky soup, with meat (I think beef), chunky vegetables, kidney beans, butter beans, etc. Slightly spicy (really nice!!)
* breaded fish
* vegetables
* salmon in a white sauce
* chips
* pasta etc
I can't remember anything after we had for tea after this day because I didn't get chance to write it down! My apologies, but I guess you understand the types of things they serve. Some of the things were a bit of a disappointment, like the steak, but there is always something you can have. Kids could be a bit funny about things, because even if it was just like Englsh food, the look of it could put them off. Take the burgers for example, they were exactly like English ones, but they had a few herbs on top which put a few kids off. Personally, I had been really dreading lunch and tea because of some reports, but was actually surprised. It's true that the dishes weren't labelled - just take a chance!!! Most things I had were really nice. And yes, there's a lot of fish... but if you go to Spain and most of the guests are Spanish, what can you expect really?!
In addition to these hot meals, at every lunch and tea, there is a sandwich bar and a salad bar. The sandwich bar has different meats, cheeses, etc, and the salad bar, well, it's salad!
The puddings were absolutely fab - my favourite part of the day! There were 6 bowls, some of which I wasn't sure of what was in them, but the ones I did know were chocolate angel delight, custard and strawberry angel delight. In addition to this, there were 3 flavours of icecream - over the week we had orange, lemon (my favourite), vanilla, cornish (really creamy, v. good), chocolate and a toffee/coffee one. There was also fresh melon everyday, either water or gala. There was other fruit too. Sometimes there were extras like swiss roll, chocolate logs, creme caramel, which were all really nice.
IF you're all-inclusive, the snack bar will be welcome to you! It provides drinks (soft drinks, beer, water), cheese burgers, plain burgers, hot dogs, cheese/ham toasties, chips and pizza. The man who serves is really nice, "Yes my friend", and he'd remember your favourites and put them on the grill before you'd even got to the hut! The snack bar is down by the pool so it's handy to get to. It's open from 10-1, 3-7.30, so basically anytime the dining room's not open!
Moving onto the pool. The pool area was paved, and further back it was like astroturf. The view was absolutely stunning. Because the hotel is on a hill, you can see for miles, you've got endless sea at one end, then San Feliu de Guixols, with its buildings, port and landscape beyond at the other end. The pool itself was clean (with the exception of a few leaves that blew in, but can't be helped), deep (2.75 metres at deep end), it was a decent size. Lilos, beach balls etc can be used as long as they don't 'impede other's enjoyment of the pool'. The best time to go for a proper swim is during breakfast - there are absolutely no children around. You can still swim comfortablely uptil about 12. In the afternoon there tended to be more children playing, families tend to go to the beach in the morning and the pool in the afternoon.
There were plenty of sunbeds, which you can reserve with your towel if you want all day sun or you can get a bed which might be in the shade for part of the day. Leaving your towel there all day is okay, but don't take the mick!! Some people put their towels there in all day sun spots at 8am, came to the pool at 12, stayed til 2, came back at 4 and left at 6. That's not fair on those who are planning to spend all day there. It's okay to leave them there for a couple of hours, e.g. over dinner or if you go inside for a bit, just not for the majority of the day. There are some rude people who might move your towel (like a woman did to us on our last day - we only moved for a couple of hours to get some shade! It was the first time we'd left our beds all week.), but to be honest, the woman we had problems with was the only unfriendly person we'd met the whole time we were there. Some families were a bit loud, but you'll get that anywhere you go. Some of the sunbeds needed changing, e.g. if you sit up to read, sometimes they collapse (which got funnier everytime!), but rather than being run down, I think they were just a bad design! The slightly more modern style ones were fine, and most of the others were okay too, it was just the odd few.
The entertainment at the hotel left a bit to be desired. Granted, we didn't take part in much of it as we'd just come to spend time with each other, playing board games and reading etc., but the overall impression was that it was okay, but could be much much better. The actual things that were on offer sounded pretty good, but I think because the hotel's not very big (115 rooms), people are less enthused to take part. There were only two reps (I think they were reps, or they might have just been entertainers), both Spanish but spoke good English, who were great with the kids but didn't really make aan effort to talk to anyone else. There was a quiz on the first night we arrived, which is a fab idea but it should have been done twice a week because it seemed as though people really enjoyed it. Twice in the week there was a Salsa dance lesson, which I would've gone to... if anyone else had! It's a bit nerve racking going to something yourself, or when there are only a few other couples going. I think if it'd been a bigger hotel, there would've been more and it would've gone down better. There was a karaoke night which was professionally done, just not many people joined in (I wanted to but my boyfriend was too shy!), though a few people sang loads of things, which was funny, a bingo night, a dance competition, mini-disco every night for the kids, and a pool competition. There was something called 'Crazy Games' or 'Juegas Locos' which we didn't go to but heard mixed reports about. I think if you had kids you'd enjoy the entertainment more. During the day there were activities for the kids, some of which included water polo, water bulldog, etc, and other things like drawing on the paving stones with chalk, which I wanted to join in! I think there were more things that people without children didn't see, but the kids seemed to be having fun. For adults (and kids sometimes joined in) there was Latino Aerobics which did look good - I just didn't have the energy to join in! What wouod've been good is if they'd had something like sunbed aerobics, as a few of us were joining in with the aerobics from our sunbeds.
Finally, the proximity to the town. As you may know the hotel is on a big hill, which many people moaned about. Having said that though, if the Bellevue was a 5*, the prices would be higher because of the few and elevated position... you can't win. Anyway, we were told it was a 5 minute walk to the beach. Via the road, it isn't, it's probably 20 minutes, but we were told of a shortcut by the reception staff which really was just 5 minutes. when you leave the hotel by the steps, turn LEFT (not right, down the hill), follow the corner round (slightly uphill) then you'll see more steps on the right. Follow that road and it takes you almost straight on the beach! The road has steps and it is quite steep, but it's short! It's also lit at night so it's safe. Me and my boyfriend and 21 and 20 and reasonably fit and we didn't find the climb back was too bad and that was with bags and a lilo. It would take longer with children and those who are slightly less fit or less able to walk, but there's no rush - you're on holiday!
For those not wishing to make the climb, you could get a taxi, but they tend to cash in on the hill, charging around 8 euros (£5). Still, while you're sunbathing, I'm sure you'll hear and see the yellow train. This 'train' runs between the Bellevue, through San Feliu and onto the next beach along (Playa de San Pol I think), then back again. One day when it was raining (storming more like!!) we got the train back to the hotel via San Pol. It took an hour roughly, and involved us seeing some amazing views and only cost us 5 euros each (£3). You can see one of these views by turning left out of the hotel and walking right to the top of the hill - talk about being on top of the world, it's stunning! If you are all-inclusive and planning to go to the beach for a day but don't want to miss lunch, you can order a picnic to take. You just order at reception before 8pm. I don't know what it's like, but it's worth a try! The beach is a man-made one, immaculately clean with clear water and pedaloes for hire, etc. There is a Life Guard on duty constantly during daylight hours and a First Aid hut which is also available in daylight hours. The tide stays the same practically all day, so no worrying about the towels getting carried away by the sea wehn you're not looking! It's also reasonably calm. Beware with children though, there is a drop in the sea - it's not a gradual increase in depth, but a rather sudden one (about half a foot to a foot in some places) about 5-8 feet out into the water. One of the best things is that the sand is more like a fine pebbles, no sand sticking to your suncream when the wind blows! It's still easy to walk on, but much more suncream friendly.
I wouldn't recommend this hotel to those with mobility difficulties, or those who cannot be bothered raising their heart rate. The hotel has 2 lifts but these do not go to pool level. The hotel is on a hill and if you're wanting to go down to the town a lot, it could make life difficult. Those with children should be fine - one family I spoke to said they'd been down to the beach and the kids hadn't moaned about the hill.
On the last day, we weren't due to leave the hotel for our flight until 7pm. We had to vacate the room by 10.30am, which we thought would be a problem. The hotel, though, have a locked courtesy room where you can leave your bags. In the bar toilets, there are showers, and hairdryers, with plugs if you need any other appliances. If all-inclusive, you can still use the restaurant and snack bar etc free of charge until you leave. This was really good, because we felt like we still had a full day, rather than worrying about luggage and getting ready etc.
So - as a run down, the things I most enjoyed??
* the pool
* the staff - always friendly and helpful
* the cleanliness
* the convenience of everything
* the courtesy room
Things to change?
* some of the guests!
* to have fruit available out of meal times
* the food could be better, but there again I didn't think it was really bad. It wasn't top notch, but it certainly wasn't worth going into town to buy some more. My honest opinion, I thought it was fine. I've had worse at my local pub!
* food for late night arrivals - there were crisps to buy in the bar area, but after a day of travelling to the airport then flying, it would've been good to have a sandwich on arrival.
My overall rating would be 4 out of 5. It's definitely a 3 star, so if you're expecting a posh place with all the extras, don't go here. You get the cheap price, you get the standard service. I got everything I was expecting of a 3* and a bit more. No complaints here.
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Mike Beadle from Scunthorpe travelled to Bellevue Hotel with
Fleetway
on a singles holiday.
