The Cliff Bay Hotel

I hesitated to give 5 stars, because nowhere is perfect, but this hotel is so close I felt I had to give the top grade. The View - The hotel is perfectly situated, and the views are outstanding from every area. We had a top floor bay view room and this is definitely worth paying the extra, the view day and night is just fabulous. The balcony is also large and comfortable. The staff - Extremely well trained and both attentive but also very friendly almost without exception. There was in fact only one exception, a female senior waitress in the buffet restaurant, both evening at breakfast she was cold and brusque. I guess you cant change a personality, but everyone else was truly wonderful. The Room - large and with an outstanding view. My only complaint was the size of the bed. Two doubles pushed together does not make a double bed and this was much too big. The space in the room could have been so much better used - a small table or a sofa maybe? The bed was also very hard and we woke every morning with a sore back so this was a big negative. But I know some people prefer hard beds and at least there was a pillow menu. The food - this was actually very varied. We did not try the Egon Ronay restaurant as this was far too expensive as part of a holiday. The buffet, while plentiful, was also we felt not worth the cost, and we found the bistro food, while cheaper, extremely poor. However the A La Carte in the buffet restaurant was outstanding and we would go back just for that. Also the fish at lunch at the beach front restaurant is out of this world, one of the best seafood restaurants we have been to. A pity this is not open in the evenings. The pools - just wonderful and warm too. Perfectly situated and the inside outside pool is a great idea. The timing - we visited 3rd week in February and lockdown was enforced while we were there. This was strange and such a shame. The hotel grew emptier as the week progressed, the evening entertainment stopped and the staff were visibly tenser each passing day. They told us of their fears for the future. So very sad. In the town everything was quiet and local people were visibly anti-tourist. We were lucky to get home and grateful to BA for bringing across an empty plane to pick us up. I so hope all goes well for this hotel, we would love to go back. Summary - there are some negatives, as mentioned, but overall this is a fabulous hotel. I so hope the world opens up again as we definitely want to go back next year.

Beautiful hotel, excellent views, cuisine, cleanliness, standards. Impressed that they noticed it was my husband’s birthday whilst there and left a delicious cake and bubbly in our room. Staff friendly, welcoming and helpful.