Detailed review by bean372042
bean372042
Nuneaton, United Kingdom85%
The Hotel Gavilanes is built into the cliff overlooking the beautiful bay of Galdana it is not the most attractive hotel from the outside. It is, however, slightly unusual with the reception, bar and pool area being on an upper floor and most of the rooms being below.
Reception is bright and airy with settees and tables and an Internet area. The reception staff are extremely friendly and helpful, explaining where your room is and arranging for a porter to take your luggage.
The rooms are quite large and modern they are tastefully decorated to a high standard, it is certainly worth paying for a sea view, as it is stunning. Also available is an excellent laundry service, usually taking 24 hours to return clothes beautifully cleaned and pressed and a pillow menu! (Choose your own shape and size if the ones in the room are not to your liking) The bathrooms are large, clean and well equipped.
The bar is on the same floor as reception and is large, bright with a great view of the bay. It even has an indoor fishpond with fountains. The bar is well stocked although it is expensive compared with local bars. The waiters are quick, efficient and friendly. It has a great atmosphere, especially early evening when a local piano player entertains.
Also on this floor is a small library, TV area and a games room with pool, air hockey and arcade machines.
There are three restaurants in the hotel. The main buffet restaurant is on the floor below reception and has an amazing choice of food. Plenty of fresh salads, an array of meat and fish dishes, a show cooking area where the chefs cook steak, fish, kebabs, paella etc and an Italian corner, where fresh pizza and pasta are available. There is a good wine list and they do not mind if you wish to take your remaining wine up to the bar after dinner. The waiting staff are very efficient, perhaps too efficient sometimes as my plate had been removed before I had finished. The second restaurant is upstairs outside on the terrace. It has the same food as the main restaurant but no Italian corner. Both of these restaurants serve a good breakfast, again with lots of choice and excellent service. If you do want to eat breakfast on the terrace overlooking the bay be prepared to queue for a little while, as it is popular. The third restaurant is al a Carte, which I have not used.
The outside terrace is also where the evening entertainment is held. It is fairly average for the resort and follows the usual mini-disco.
The entertainment staff are great, not only with the children at a well-organised kids club but with adults too. They arrange the weeks activities such as shooting, archery and games such as shuffleboard and also take groups of people on walks to other bays and into the local woods.
The pool area can be a bit of a problem as it is a little small and there are not many sun beds near the pool itself, there are others on an upper tier, where there is a very small childrens pool but we found that people reserved most of the beds very early in the morning, perhaps not using them until after lunch, this was annoying. The pool itself is not very big and has a shallow end for children and a waterfall at one end. This can get full of inflatable toys. There is no pool bar or waiter service out here. For a small deposit the hotel will supply pool/beach towels, which can be changed twice a day. However you are only a lift ride away from the fabulous beach.
There are 4 lifts down to the beach area and here you will find the hotels supermarket, which is surprisingly well stocked, a gift shop and a small outlet selling papers, books and magazines. Outside is the kids club, recreation ground and a dive centre, which arrange a free try dive in the hotel pool.
Overall this is a great hotel, superb location, spotlessly clean throughout, great food and attentive staff. This is why we went back many times.
Sol Gavilanes9
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