Iberostar Selection Albufera Playa

Our stay at the Iberostar was fantastic; is definitely a place I would visit again and recommend. I was a little nervous given no recent reviews was also concerned whether we had chosen a hotel too far out of Alcudia. True, we were asked to leave a review but not bribed for a positive one! Reposting my review as we stayed at Albufera Playa, not Albufera park! Location: It’s a bit out of the way being at the most southerly point of Playa de Muro. We hired a car so I can’t comment on the bus services - the buses did look very busy and often people seemed unable to get on board. But the beach which the hotel has direct access too is fabulous and the best of the Alcudia beaches by far. The sand is soft, water is warm, it’s fairly clean, and you can go a fair way before it even reaches waist height. Alcudia beach which also had shallow warm water has a lot more sun beds but the sand is rock hard. In fact there were pallets of builders sand on the beach and I didn’t know if they were adding more sand or filling the bags and selling them on! Plus point of course that your sandcastles will last a long time! There is a little strip in front of the hotel with kids arcade, a few shops and a couple of restaurants. Nothing major but pleasant for a paseo. It’s very family orientated and there are no rowdy bars. Hotel: Albufera Playa and Albufera Park are two halves of the complex and share pools, entertainments and snack bars. Most of the kids stuff and shop is on the Albufera Park side and spa, sports etc are on the Playa side. The Playa side IMO is nicer; the entrance is better kept, the gardens are much nicer there are more staff in the reception. Room: Our room was in the main building above reception. It was quiet, fabulous view. Rooms are a bit small but if you use the storage you can manage. The toiletries were good quality, in reusable packaging. The hotel really delivers on not having single use plastic which is wonderful to see in practice. There was a water dispenser on each floor, definitely recommend taking some reusable water bottles to keep on you. The beds were ok- I would say the mattresses need an update. Not horrendous but a bit creaky and on the harder side. I could sleep though. Lights on balconies all go off at 11pm which was a bit early - it would be nice to be able to have light a bit later. Only 2 plug sockets so a power pack for usb items and a multi-socket adaptor were helpful Restaurant: 2 main AI restaurants: Tamarindos which you had to reserve and is very nice The main Cepa for breakfast, lunch and dinner with large buffet. This is where I think the hotel could improve: The hotel is so family orientated and yet the food for kids could be improved. I saw so many kids eating a constant diet of melon, plain pasta, bread and chips. I’m not saying feed children rubbish food but many need more simple stuff like plain or breaded chicken, decent quality sausages, vegetable sticks, broccoli, etc. even cereal selection wasn’t great - all contained dairy and nuts, and there weren’t the basics like cornflakes, rice crispies, weetabix (maybe these are British basics?!) the buffet area is too high for smaller children too - something lower to encourage little kids would be ideal. My other gripe with the food - I really struggled with the labelling here which wasn’t great. I speak 3 languages but the problem is that the cards don’t easily identify if the dish contains meat, fish, etc. Sometimes the dishes which were marked vegetarian still contained meat! Catalan spinach for example - spinach, garlic, onion, raisins & almonds - no mention that this version inexplicably contained bacon. Four cheese ravioli - no mention of ham. The vegan lasagne was almost certainly vegetarian and had cheese. Lunchtime wasn’t too bad for vegetarian options but the evening was was often poor. Desserts were a bit repetitive and often got served for a couple of meals consecutively but I enjoyed them. They had ice lollies from the bar, ice creams at lunchtime. The bar drinks were good - great range of cocktails included in the AI, and as far as I could tell branded. They must get through a lot of Aperol! It’s not a boozy hotel - most people were drinking in moderation The staff however really make this place. The housekeeper for our floor Encarni was fantastic, and left sweets and towel animals for our son everyday - he really loved chatting to her and practicing Spanish. Only used the kids club once as son was a bit shy and all other kids that day were German I think, so he couldn’t speak to them, but the staff were very accommodating and really kind. There was a guy teaching swimming in the pool who the kids all loved. Generally all the animation/entertainment staff were faultless. The entertainment was great - different professional acts every night, very kids focused. Top tips: Double check the vegetarian options Book Tamarindos as often as possible Do not under estimate the sun! Take power banks and socket adaptors Feedback for the hotel: Food Labelling and better vegetarian choices Replace the mattresses (I think it was room 6512 or similar - basically above the reception) I asked at reception about a bucket / spade / inflatable exchange but don’t think the guy understood what I meant. Given the drive to reduce plastic waste I was disappointed that the hotel didn’t offer a facility to “borrow a bucket & spade” or exchange floaties - I bet a lot get bought when out there and left when people depart so it would be great to see more reuse.

We had a lovely time, the positives were: - lots of sunbeds and umbrellas, shade is important to us, and there was lots of it available - the spa was great, one the best massages I've ever had - the staff were lovely, especially Kevin who kept bringing us drinks and snacks at the pool - hotel was very well maintained, clean throughout - drink quality was good, lots of selection and no silly rules There points we would raise were: - room was small, we had stayed previously, this room was smaller and there was little space to move around with 3 of you - air conditioning wasn't very strong, room was quite warm. I understand weather was hot, but we'd been in Italy the week before and the hotel there had amazing air conditioning - food quality was mixed, somethings were great, some were very average, and it got quite same after a week. We've been once before and enjoyed it, I think I'd go somewhere different next time