Gran Melia Palacio de Isora

If you are used to a true 5* like Ikos, this is not the resort for you. It fails to deliver on 5* in so many ways: * Service. The waiting staff are generally not friendly, not obliging, and not speedy - if you can get served in the first place. There was no way near enough staff, and the service delivered is poor. (Exceptions to this are Lucia in Nami restaurant who is warm and helpful, just lovely, and Jonay in Oasis who is also very good). * Sunbed situation. Not enough sunbeds to go around, and half of them are missing cushions so are very uncomfortable. All beds have gone by 8am so no holiday lie-in if you want a bed. Also, good luck getting a clean towel - they are like gold dust. * Pools. The infinity pool is freezing so not very usable. This makes the family pool, which is heated, absolutely rammed - not relaxing!! * Cleanliness. The resort is not particularly clean, the toilets were frequently disgusting and the public areas are not cleaned enough. The empty glasses around the pool are only collected once near the end of the day, so there are dirty glasses etc around the pool all day. We saw cockroaches at night and were not overly surprised given the lack of cleanliness. * Water in rooms. You only get free water in your room on the first night, the rest of the time it’s chargeable. We were so surprised at that one, given this is meant to be 5*. * Food. The food is average. I have allergies and they failed to adapt dishes for me most of the time, I ate a lot of dry, plain meals. It’s also extremely hard to get a reservation in the à la carte restaurants, there are only generally very early or very late slots available. * Drinks. Drinks are not well made, sometimes undrinkable altogether. Often cheap spirits used. * The all inclusive is not a true all inclusive. At dinner you can literally only have house wine or beer, no spirits or cocktails and other wine is chargeable. The all inclusive stops at about 11pm, any drinks after that have to be paid for. Some restaurants are also not included. We wish we hadn’t bothered going AI, it’s not worth the money. Another point to note is re: Red Level. We did not have this but I couldn’t really see the value in it, and a few people I spoke to that had it said it’s not worth the extra money. One lady even cancelled the red level access when she was there, as she felt it was a complete waste of money. From what I could tell, the only real benefits are being able to book the à la carte restaurants a week in advance, and access to a red level pool and lounge.

We had a fantastic stay at Hotel Palacio de Isora. The hotel itself is beautiful, with amazing facilities and a great atmosphere, but the real highlight for us was Oasis restaurant. The food was excellent, with great quality and beautifully prepared dishes, but what truly made the difference was the incredible team. The waitstaff were always friendly, professional and attentive, making every meal feel special. A special thank you to the restaurant managers, Erika, Javi and Beatriz Vega. Their warmth, dedication and leadership are clearly reflected in the amazing atmosphere they create. They truly make guests feel welcome and cared for. Thank you for making our experience so memorable — we can’t wait to come back!

Stayed at Meliá and had a very disappointing experience overall. The hotel advertises 8 restaurants, but in reality it was almost impossible to get a booking. Guests had to queue at guest services at 10:30am just to try and reserve a table for two days later, and availability was extremely poor. We ended up eating outside the resort several times because there were simply no restaurant options available. The resort feels more like a huge package-tour destination than a quality family hotel. Service throughout our stay was poor, including room service, which was especially disappointing for a hotel of this standard. The buffet was overpriced at around €50 and food was badly labelled — one “vegetarian” paella even contained fish and mussels. Another major issue was the constant loud music from pool parties during the day and evening. It was far from family-friendly and made it very difficult for babies or young children to nap or rest peacefully. Overall, overcrowded, poorly managed, noisy, and not suitable for families with small children. Definitely not the relaxing family holiday we expected.

Our experience at the Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora was amazing. The hotel itself is beautiful, with stunning facilities and the perfect atmosphere to relax and switch off, but what we’ll remember most from our stay is the people. We especially want to mention Oasis restaurant, where we felt at home from day one. The whole team and all the waiters were incredibly attentive, friendly, and always welcoming with a smile. A special thank you to Erica, Beatriz Vega, and Javi, who made every visit even more special. You can really tell when people enjoy what they do and genuinely care about every detail. At the end of the day, beautiful places are remembered, but it’s the people who make you want to come back. And we definitely will.

Really excited to come back here, and while the hotel is still lovely, it’s at the absolute lower end of 5*. A few things have changed since visiting 2 years ago that put me off returning: - sun bed wars! All reserved by 8am. It used to be that belongings were removed if unattended for 30 mins which seemed to prevent this. No one goes 5* because they want this ridiculous experience do they! - restaurants can’t be booked through app so you have to queue for guest services during a small time slot and hope for best. We were told our group was too big to book (11 of us), despite there being lots of large families here. However another member of our group went to the other desk and that person was able to book for us., had we not tried twice with different staff we would have missed out. - buffet restaurant is fine, but the themed evenings can make it tricky with fussy kids. A lot of pasta has been eaten! It would be nice if they added a couple of pizzas or some more kid-friendly staples. - lunch is sit-down meal at one of 2 restaurants with fairly limited menus, so it gets a bit tedious, would be nice to have a ‘pool snack’ style option. - evening entertainment used to be a brilliant spectacle, spanning the whole plaza so everyone could enjoy it - now it seems to be a singer limited to one end. Used to be a circus night and other interesting things, but now very repetitive. - kids entertainment similarly is down scaled and very repetitive - no sign of face painting/balloon modelling etc, which we previously enjoyed. - no bar on an evening, all table service from bar at one end of plaza - good luck getting a drink if you’re not sat near the stage! - staff are hit and miss and while many do go above and beyond, they seem unhappy. Clearly working long unsociable hours (seen same staff from 8am breakfast doing dinner at 10pm!). You get the feeling melia don’t treat them well. Of course these are all small niggles and not the end of the world, but they make what would be a brilliant hotel into a good one, and I think you can find much better value for money elsewhere.