Balcon del Mar Apartments

Review date: 15 May 2007 - A HotelStreet visitor from Staffordshire, England, UK wrote:-

Review title: "Rubbish"
Travel date: April 2007
Hi, my self and my fiancée have just returned from ten unforgettable days at Balcon del Mar. I'm afraid to say they were unforgettable because it was a complete nightmare! Where to start? Well, the location of the apartments is awful, at the top of a steep hill, which in 25 degrees heat is horrible. It takes about 20-30 minutes to walk down to the main strip and beach (even longer if you can't find the short cut). If you walk the long way round, you find yourself walking over a building site, not easy for families with push chairs, small children or wheel chairs! Once you have finally made it to the 'main strip' all you get is one road and that's it! The beach on one side and the shops/restaurants on the other. The beach is OK, I suppose. It's just sand and water. The first 20 metres of the beach is very pebbly and sharp, so be careful! Now the shops are not great, just the usual lucky men standing outside trying to sell you a Playstation 2. It is just shop after shop of this for a good half a mile! There is a decent choice of restaurants, but be cautious, some waiters and staff are very rude. Customer service is something they do not know. There is no friendly banter, just a menu thrown in your face, then they disappear again. We tried 15+ different restaurants and I'm sorry to say they were all a let down. The best food and service we had all holiday was at McDonalds (I would recommend a trip there).

The situation of the apartments is terrible. After the 30 minutes walk to the main road, you have to find a place to eat or drink, but can not use any toilets anywhere without buying, so parents beware. So after you have walked a good 45 minutes, eaten and drank until you are full, it is a 45 minute walk back home, again not convenient for children, elderly, and anybody who forgets about 'the hill'!

The pool was closed when we arrived, which we were not told by our tour operator or reception. The pool bar owners said it would be open again in seven days. Well, after ten days is was in a worse state than when we arrived. The second pool is more like a blue pond, it is tiny and freezing. There is only room for about ten loungers round the pool, but there are 80 apartments, so if you want to lie by a pool that is cold, half in the shade and has constant wind around it, get there early in the morning to save a lounger.

As for the apartments themselves, they are very basic, so basic in fact you begin to wonder how it got a three star rating. When we got our first apartment (yes, I said first) it was a nightmare, absolutely awful. The furniture was broken and all seat covers were ripped, on both chairs and the sofa. The door to the balcony was in tatters, there were gaping holes all over it, the wood was rotting and broken on the door, window frames and sill, so there was a constant cold breeze, freeing in the mornings, but no air conditioning in the room, so put up with it and wear a jacket! As they are self catering apartments you should be able to cook a meal if you wish, but how can we cook a meal with a two ring hob, one saucepan, a kettle that stops working when the water is warm at best and a two slice toaster. So we couldn't actually cook anything worth eating, not that we could eat it anyway because we only had one fork!

The cable television all brochures advertise is rubbish- 20 channels on the TV, the only English channels are 'true movies' and 'Eurosport' so if you like watching either of those, make sure you have a supply of euro coins as you have to pay to watch! The bed sheets are old and tatty wool covers. They are ripped and have holes in, so on a cold night, which there are you are freezing all night.

On the first night we both wanted a shower, only to discover that we got one minute of warm water then ice cold. We complained to the reception staff and they said it would be sorted. On the second day we still had cold water, so another trip to reception, they sent up just a staff member that had no idea what to do, so another cold shower that day. We asked if we could change rooms to save the hassle, but they said no other rooms were available for us, with a balcony and sea view that we already had. The only room they had empty was a double, this room was awaiting guests the next morning, so we couldn't move. On the third day they sent up a maintenance man who fiddled with the boiler and told us in one hour we would have hot water. After four hours it was still cold, at this point we were told the maintenance man had gone home, and lived too far away to come back that day, so we were given a key to another room to use that shower. They finally fitted two new boilers for our room but we still had no hot water. One person could possibly manage a two minute shower, but that's it. The reception staff we saw (two people in total) were incredibly rude to us and were trying to make it our fault that we had no hot water, we didn't get an apology at all. The next day we were very rudely told that we were not allowed to have the key for two rooms, so we had to change to a different room before 10 a.m. the next day. Bear in mind we were not told this until 20:30 that night. And what room did we get; the double room they told us had guests arriving. So these other guests' obviously never turned up! Once we got in the new other room, it was in a worse state than the previous, the main windows overlooking the street were broken, they didn't lock at all and were not even on properly, so on one side we had an inch gap, so this apartment was also freezing.

You get no cleaning products in the apartments so cannot clean up after yourself, do washing up or at least make it liveable. Underneath the kitchen counter was thick with dust, and food swept under there, the cleaner never once cleaned properly. The problems were endless. In short, the apartments are dirty and old, under equipped and broken appliances. You are lucky if you get hot water. You need to be fit and healthy to get up the hill every day, or have enough money to get a taxi. The reception staff are rude ignorant and arrogant, your problems do not get sorted at all. They are not suitable for the elderly or families, and any couple wanting a relaxing holiday, please steer well clear of Balcon del Mar. Save your money or go else where. You will just be as disappointed as we were.