Bahia Pollensa

Came here same time last year and this year we enjoyed ourselves just as much. The countryside on your doorstep for walking and cycling. We even found the Lidl this time which sells everything you could possibly need and even at better prices than England. Its not too far away and we cycled to it as the bikes we chose to rent off the hotel had baskets on and we brought our ruck sacks. You can also get a bus there and back that go pretty regular which the hotel will give you a timetable for. We ate out at night but had a great view off our balcony so enjoyed breakfast and lunch from there. The room facilities suited our needs. We were out most of the day, then round the pool in the afternoon the out for dinner till late. Reception are friendly, pool great and our cleaner kept our room clean. All in all another great stay.

I have written key notes about the hotel throughout our stay. So there is now specific order to my review, just my views and observations. Our apartment was pretty good. Bedroom, dining room/kitchen and a bathroom. Aparantly our room was a newly decorated one however you wouldn't think so. If looked dated and run down. But, it was home for 10 days and it was comfortable enough. The kitchen had a kettle, hob and microwave, as well as plenty of cutlery and plates etc. You will need to provide your own washing up liquid and sponges. Annoying there was no rack to store things on after washing up. The beds we very hard. Air con was actually pretty good! Don't leave it on at night though you'll wake up super dry mouthed!! The safe in the room didn't work. Aparantly there were safes downstairs instead but I wasn't trusting putting all my valuables away from my room. Location is actually very good in my opinion. You aren't paying prices here to wake up with everything on your doorstep. It's just off the sea front. A 5 min walk from beach. Then roughly 15-20 min walk from decent bars and restaurants. It's a flat walk along the sea front the entire way. The "old town" is about 25 minute walk away. There's a spar 5 min walk away too for all your essentials. We hired two bikes from reception one day. €14 for 2 bikes for half a day hire. We cycled to Alcudia Old Town which was lovely. PACKED with tourists so I'm glad we didn't stay there. There's a cycle track most the way and for the last little bit we just pushed the bikes on the pavement as the roads are crazy. It was a leisurely 25 minute bike ride away. A local bus to Palma took just over an hour. We got a direct bus (No. 340). Palma is lovely. Again very touristy, but very nice. One tip, get an early bus there and get an early bus back. We planned to get the 3:30pm bus back, and it was full!! We were then told we had to wait an hour for the next bus! So basically we stood at platform 14 for an hour at the front of the cue. 30 mins before the bus was due to depart the cue was already 50 people long! The bus company's didn't bother to put more buses on, it was purely first come first serve. WiFi in the hotel doesn't work!! Simple as. We tried it on numerous days in different parts of the hotel and it didn't work once. Thankfully 4g is free now on mobile networks and signal throughout was pretty good! Supermarket below doesn't have a lot of stock but does sell 6 litre water for €1.45. This is just as cheap as the local shops. The on site bars are a very expensive for soft drinks and water. Just take your own to the pool. They did a fire alarm drill on the Tuesday that we were here. One minute we were sat round the pool the next we were being asked to leave the hotel. They said it was mandatory practice. Staff for the most part were polite and friendly. The odd one was grumpy and rude but you get that anywhere. There is a "VIP" pool with lots of sunbeds, I say VIP because the only access to the pool is via a locked gate and via the rooms adjacent to this pool. In the 10 days we were here though the most people we ever saw by this pool was 2!! We couldn't figure out the room cleaning schedule. Sometimes it was every day, others it was every other day. There was no order to it. Sometimes we were left two towels each so we assumed they were not coming for a couple of days. Then they came the next day and only left one towel each. However then they didn't come for two days. Didn't make sense! I would also say this hotel is more aimed at the keen cyclists out there. In Puerto Pollensa there are cyclists everywhere you look and it felt at times like you were surrounded by a cult of them! To sum up, this hotel is a 2-star, it's definitely not 3 as they have rated it. Everything about it is very average. It looks tired and dated, the food is dull, your standard cheap buffet style food. The pool you are allowed to use is just a rectangle pool. If you can get a decent deal like we did the it's worth it, but I wouldn't pay over the odds there's better out there. I wouldn't stay again personally, but it was comfortable enough for the 10 days we were here. ...A little bit about Puerto Pollensa... You can see why people return to Puerto Pollensa. It's quite idyllic in a way. It's mostly unspoilt, it's quiet, peaceful, stunning scenery, lovely restaurants and beautiful weather. We went in October and it was lovely and quiet. In the middle of summer I can imagine it being a bit more chaotic with many more families and kids everywhere, but even then I can't imagine it being too much to handle. I have visited many places in Spain, Italy, Greece etc (your common UK summer holiday hot spots!) and they have mostly been crazy busy, staff at restaurants trying to pull you in, lucky lucky people hassling you on street corners!!..... However Puerto Pollensa was none of this, and I loved that! It's a place we will definitely revisit in the future at some point!