Iberostar Royal Andalus

What People are saying

A very pleasant stay

Vesselina K on 08/11/2017 15:37

A lovely hotel for families with young kids. The food is delicious, staff knowledgeable and very helpful. Swimming pools and kids club are amazing. Family rooms are spacious with stunning sea views.
Totally recommend!

Enjoyable vacation in a hotel with improvement potential in the "details"

BastianB on 05/11/2017 16:44

We --- German, me, my wife, and 2 daughters aged 4 1/2 and 1 1/2, accompanied by my 71-year old dad --- stayed here in late May/early June 2017 for 2 weeks. The goal of our vacation was to spend quality time as a family while not wasting time on day-to-day chores (especially my wife, who does most of the work at home). Overall, we definitely achieved this goal, as the hotel offered the right environment for it. Still, there is some potential for improvement of things to watch out for when deciding whether to go here.

Positive: especially the staff and the food made the trip!
- The staff was very, very friendly and attentive, especially to children. Everyone smiled and talked nicely to our kids, not just the animators, but staff in the restaurant, at the bar, the reception, and the cleaning personnel --- our older daughter even "fell in love" with one of the animators. Other examples: I always got a carton of milk in the evening at the bar to prepare milk for our kids in the morning. And the waiters in the restaurant know your drink preferences after a couple of days Overall, they definitely make you feel welcome and enjoy your time.
- The food was really good and offered a lot of variety. We used the "all inclusive" option and thus tried all meals available. Excellent pasta, great pizza, lovely desserts, and fruit all the time. We did like most of the "theme" dinners, such as Italian or Mexican.
- A special highlight was the photo shoot we had with the photographer on site, Juan from Vista Photography. We discovered him by accident, as he had his desk near the bar. We agreed to a photo shoot with no risk (the shoot is free, you only pay if you want to get the photos afterwards), and he was able to capture some really nice shots of our family despite our two challenging little whirlwinds, who weren't very cooperative most of the time. At the end, we bought all photos. Highly recommended!
- The hotel offers nice facilities with several pools and theme pools (dragon, pirates) for the kids. Rooms were clean and practical and adequately sized.
- The beach is long and very beautiful. In summer, you even get to enjoy the sunset over the ocean. Great place to talk long beach walks or just play at the beach. And it takes literally a minute to get to the beach from the hotel, with a path descending to the beach from the swimming pools.
- Reliable and fast Wi-Fi everywhere, sometimes even on the beach. This was extremely practical, as it allowed you to stay in touch with friends and family and also communicate with each other on site.

Things that could be improved were mostly details:
- The child care is in Spanish (and sometimes) English only. If your kids are, for instance, German-speaking only and rather shy, the child care may not be helpful at all. We went to the Mini Club 4 times, but we (= the parents) always had to stay there so our daughters stayed.
- While the food was children-friendly (pizza, simple pasta, fruit, ice cream), a "kids buffet" that children can reach themselves without the help of adults, for instance, would have been even better. We always had to get the food for our kids, meaning we were on our feet most of the time when eating.
- The facilities definitely needed some maintenance for the main season, and this maintenance unfortunately happened during our vacation quite a lot. For instance, both children pools were closed (one after the other, not at the same time) for 2 - 3 days. The pool par was closed for a few days. The swing on the playground definitely needed some oil. And some of the coffee machines and water dispensers were out of order for a few days. This was all stuff you can live with, but given the price of the hotel was > EUR 350 per night, you shouldn't have to, in my opinion.
- The rooms do not have enough light to spend evenings in the rooms. We had a family room, and my wife and I typically stayed in the room after the kids had gone to bed. The light in the room was not enough to read a book, we would have wished for more light.
- If you don't like "train station" atmosphere during dinner, get a table outside, but that requires to be there early. The atmosphere in the dining room is not unusual for such a hotel with so many people, so just be aware of it. Sitting outside, though, is amazing.

We did not participate in all the entertainment offered (sports, exercising, games) and never watched the evening shows, so I cannot comment on them.

We only did one trip to Cádiz and spent the rest of the time on site or at the beach. Overall, we really enjoyed the time at the hotel. If you are able to live with the minor issues mentioned above, you will have a great time!

Super hotel

Rosty49 on 02/11/2017 15:36

I just want to express my content with the stay at IberoStar royal Andalus. I was met with kindness and politeness from all the staff. Meals were magnificent, the place the hotel is situated is marvelous with the sea so close. All in all a great stay

Not our cup of tea

Nicole08 on 31/10/2017 15:24

Best thing first: Outstanding location with unobstructed view at one of the nicest beaches (if not the best) in Europe. The location makes a great base to explore nearby cities and places such as Vejer, Jerez, Cadiz or Chiclana.

The Hotel however was a disapointment.

Travelling as a family with a toddler (2.5 years old), we admit that family hotels are not our favorites - too often we feel they compromise on quality. This one failed to meet our expectations completely, we found the concept not thought through, lacking attention to detail in so many parts and compromising on quality in so many areas:

- Pools not heated, freezing (!) cold, even for the brave ones. Completely empty therefore. BUT: Asking to use the heated pool i in the Spa zone, we were told it is 15 EUR per person and for children only between 1-3 p.m.
So now, this is where it starts: being a family hotel they are well aware children either sleep or eat between 1-3 p.m. This is such a non-family-friendly practice, is is unreasonalbe and not thought through.
Totally understandable if they wish to separate adults and children, but then why not think of a more reflected way of doing so? And by the way, the pool was empty every day, at all times. Good customer service would also have meant to let Junior Suite guests enter for free for one day or at a discounted rate, especially when the pool has no visitors.
- We had a Junior Suite. The Junior suite looked not like on the pictures advertised at their Iberostar Royal Andalus website - our fault, we saw later that is was a model picture, as the picture shown under "Junior Suite" has a huge balcony overlooking the dunes. Having worked in the tourism industry for over 7 years, I should have been aware - however, it is the first time I feel cheated.
Our balcony was small and had the size of the other ordinary rooms, overlooking the pool, with a side sea view. The shower cabin was smaller then the shower cabins on cruise ships. in fact, the smallest we ever had. There are only 2 electrical outlets, of which only one is in the bathroom. The bathroom itself has no storage place.
The room had only 2 mini baskets for garbage. Not enough with a toddler.
And the baby cot was completely empty - not a little gift or extra or even a pillow or anything. Just very basic, mass accomodation.

- Their understanding of customer friendliness: Welcome was rather frosty (or shall we say "crisp"?). We were told first to pay the deposit for the towels, so 30 EUR for 3 towels. Not a problem, but unusual for us (first time actually). Later I went down to reception as there was no kettle in the room - I had asked for it beforehand, they forgot to put it in the room (as there is no coffee machine in a Junior Suite...another Novum for us!); ..fine, we are handed out a kettle, and are immediately asked to pay another deposit of 10 EUR.
So we pay for a Junior Suite - let me tell you it does feel welcoming if you have to pay deposits for all sorts of small things.
The Minibar was empty - you could ask for it to be filled, but for a deposit, of course.
And the late check out was of course also at extra cost and so on...

I admit we have mostly stayed at 5 star hotels, but also had 3 star boutique hotels, B&B's and small inns, which all had a more advanced understanding of customer service. This one is 3* at best.

- The restaurant: As mentioned in many reviews it is terribly loud. The atmosphere in fact is so terrible that we decided to eat elsewhere, although we were on full board. But screaming to your partner every night is not our idea of a nice family vacation.
It is not understandable why management keeps resonding that nothing can be done against it.
Apart from the level of noise, which is already bad enough, the seating is narrow, it feels crowded, children are running around, waiters with dirty dishes move around, big groups of 20 or more people are sitting on large tables - we have never seen anything comparable, and this is certainly the biggest downside for this hotel. I would not know to whom we could possibly recommend this place, as it must be equally uncomfortable for elderly people as it is for couples or families. As a family, we did not feel comfortable in the dining room - not once.

- Evening entertainment: Listended to a band singing 5 Elvis songs in bad English and left for no return..Classy enternatinment definitely looks different.

On a good note: Most staff were friendly, room cleaning and service was efficient, food was okay for the times we ate there. So 3 stars. But we will not return to Iberostar as we did not feel as valued customers.

Golfing trip

mickthemug on 30/10/2017 23:47

I was put off by the sparrows in the dining room. The food was in the open and it was possible for the birds to alight.In one of the restaurants I saw sparrows picking on the exposed cheese.There was no facility for a singsong in the bar area.Irish people like to sing and enjoy themselves but the management did not approve. The rooms were fitted with a security safe but it cost €3 per day to use it. Such a facility should be included in the overall price of the room.The pool and beach facilities were eexcellent.