Occidental Jandía Mar

Currently at the hotel and loving every minute until dinner! All common sense seems to have been blown out of the water! The queues are unavoidable, wether you are inside or outside the restaurant, I once witnessed a queue of at least 50m just to get in. Then once you are in it doesn’t improve, I’m yet to sit down with my wife and eat together this is down to the food queues and the fear of loosing your table if you abandon it! I’ve found myself standing in a queue eating half a plate of food to avoid it going cold. The staff work amazingly hard to achieve a high standard but there simply isn’t enough of them. I witnessed one member of staff carve the kebab meat whilst replenishing several other dishes and returning to the kitchens to re-supply all this whilst about 30 people are queuing!!! Surely this is a role for 3 people and not one. The higher management need to realise that customer experience is being sacrificed by squeezing profit margins and customers will not return! I’m aware that this is a busy time for the hotel but we all pay a premium price at these times and the hotel should budget accordingly but the obviously don’t!!!!

Me and my boyfriend (17&18) have just returned from our weeks stay at the occidental Jandia mar, we loved it. It was beautiful, had great facilities although everything had its slight flaws. For example, the pools were big and well spaced out so there were plenty of sunbeds between 8-10 but after that I found it difficult to find a good one, although the pools were freezing so I didn’t spend a lot of time in there. The bars were good and drinks and alcohol were enough to make me happy, apart from the beer which we later found out was only 2%, I’m not a fan of wine either so we stuck to mixes and cocktails which I really liked. There was a lot for children to do in the day and the evenings so perfect for families, the teens room had a ps4 and a couple pool tables so enough to keep a group of kids entertained and right next to the bar was a couple air hockey machines and pool tables so that’s handy. Me and my boyfriend came across a lot of young people/couples and never ran out of things to do, although the disco in the hotel I had read about wasn’t open throughout our whole stay, so we got a €3 cab to the nightclub close by one night. It was also a little annoying that all inclusive stopped at 11 as our night felt like it hadn’t even started so we ended up spending a lot of money on drinks. The entertainment in the evenings was standard, we only went to watch 2/3 nights but it was a laugh and the kids all enjoyed it. The food at the hotel was OK, although I am a very fussy eater so was living off of chips and hotdogs! The pool bar food was okay although I would say could do with being more well-done and started getting repetitive. Obviously I can’t say much about the food as I didn’t try a lot of new things!!! I was aware of the steep hill before going to the hotel and felt prepared for it. As I am a fussy eater we walked to Burger King a couple of times at the bottom of the hill and walking down is okay but up is a nightmare!!!!! Killed our legs by the end of the holiday! But this isn’t the hotels fault and could have probably done with the exercise ha ha!! There was a small shop which was reasonably priced and we used a lot and a restaurant to pay extra to eat in which we didn’t go to. I came across a lot of reviews about Barcelo+ and upgrading but I didn’t have a problem with that at all, there was still plenty of drinks to chose from and I never struggled finding a table in the normal all inc part of the restaurant. On the plus side, staff were insanely lovely, rooms were clean and never had an issue with them and the hotel was a beautiful place to stay for a week but I would stay no longer. If you have and early flight I would recommend booking the early breakfast as they will open the restaurant and prepare the whole buffet even if there’s only 2 of you!!!

Having read some of the reviews before we came away, I was a little worried! We are a family of four- two adults and two children, aged 9 and 11. I want to give a realistic opinion... Reception/check in desk- never enough staff. Most of the day there’ll be only one or two staff there and so the queues can get long. Yes, some of the staff aren’t super friendly (as mentioned in a number of reviews) but then, in real life, is everyone always nice?! No, but I think some of the staff could do with being a bit friendlier. Maybe it’s to do with the fact that they’re always having to deal with queues of people. The check in process was a bit tiresome and, after we’d checked in, they said the room wasn’t ready and to go eat lunch and come back in an hour. Not ideal to have to go away, eat and then queue up again to get our room key but it wasn’t the end of the world. Rooms- we had a connecting family room. The kids room was brilliant- they had a low-rise bunk bed with a third pull out bed. Their bathroom was brilliant with a double walk in shower. The adult room was spacious with a shower over bath. The terrace was big although we didn’t use it in the evening because it was always very windy. So pack a cardigan! Rooms were clean and both had a big tv. A downside is that you could opt for a safe but you had to pay 3euros per day for it. That’s disappointing as it’s normally included with most hotels. You also have to pay 2euros for a towel and then 2euros every time you want a new one. Again, this is something that has always been included in hotels I’ve stayed at in the past. The rooms were cleaned well everyday but the freebie products weren’t replenished. Pool area- two big pools. The top pool seemed to be more for young children (I think the temperature is warmer) and the bottom pool tended to be for older kids (this pool was quite cold). Not enough sunbeds but then this is often a problem at most hotels. We went down to secure some sunbeds with our towels at 9am one morning and only just managed to find four sunbeds and we had to squish them into a corner. So it was obvious that people were putting towels on their sunbeds very early to get prime position. There aren’t individual umbrellas to give you shade but, instead, some stand alone covered areas. This means, if you have differing opinions on where you want to lay, you may not be able to lay together as a family. Pools are great for everyone so couldn’t fault the size of the pools or cleanliness. The foam party was brilliant as well! Main restaurant- great but depends what time you go. We tended to go towards the end of service for breakfast and that suited us well as we always got a table and there was still plenty of food. Had we gone earlier, maybe we would have hit a rush. Breakfast food is good; plenty of different types of bread, fresh eggs and bacon etc., a big table of breakfast-style desserts, some cheese and meats (although a bigger selection would have been better), cereals and pancakes/churros. The choc sauce always seemed to run out. Sometimes things weren’t replenished as quickly as you’d like and this applied to the evening meal as well. At breakfast, I’d have liked to have seen more chopped fruit as there were just big bowls of the same type of fruit every day. There were big bowls of yoghurt as well but individual pots would have been nice. A big plus point for us was the freshly squeezed orange juice. The evening service- GET A GREEN CARD! When you check in, you will get a green or a red card which give you the timings for your evening meal. The green card is 7pm-8.15pm and the red card is 8.15pm-10pm(ish). We got the earlier sitting and glad we did because from 8pm onwards, people start having to queue for a table. Get there latest 7.45pm would be my recommendation. Food is plentiful. They have theme nights but, other than that, the food is often the same. There’s a pasta stand, there’ll be pork and lots of fish, meats and cheeses and then whatever the theme night food is. The desserts are pretty standard but nice enough. There is the same wine every night- red, white, rose and sangria. As well as lots of bottles of still and sparkling water. At breakfast it’s water and cava. We didn’t really use the restaurant at lunch but I’m assuming it’ll be what you expect. Snack bar- they’re missing out on a trick here...it opens at 12pm and closes around 6pm I think for both food and drink. If they left it open longer then people wouldn’t mind eating later in the restaurant and there wouldn’t be the queues because, after the snack bar closes, there’s nowhere else to eat. Throughout the day, the snack bar has all the standard all inclusive drinks and serves take out style food so burgers, chips etc. Nothing to write home about but it’s a snack bar so what would you expect?! Pool bar- self serve beer and soft drinks, massive measures when you order alcohol. If you’re all inclusive then you’ll get a local version of the big brands so you won’t get Jack Daniels but you’ll get an equivalent. But you can pay for the branded stuff. There is an upgrade you can do but not sure how much it is and not sure what you get. There’s a part of the restaurant that is sectioned off for the upgraded people but this isn’t sectioned off at breakfast. There’s also another restaurant which is a la carte which I assume you can eat in for free if you have the upgrade but is payable for everyone else. I think you might also get some of the cocktails in the lobby bar for free that aren’t free if you’re normal all inclusive. If you have normal all inclusive then you get five standard cocktails for free but the rest have a price next to them. Entertainment- not horrendous but tacky in a funny way. We had a laugh watching a guy dress as Whitney Houston and act out a scene from the Bodyguard. The majority of the evening entertainment is done by the onsite staff who are all lovely and friendly but don’t expect big theatre acts every night! Overall, it basically needs more staff. I think that would cover off the issue with not having enough tables for people- if they had more staff to clean tables quicker and replenish food quicker, the queues wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad. Same applies for reception- they need more people. Rooms are clean and big and comfy. Pools are great especially for kids and the entertainment staff seem lovely. Secure your sunbed early and eat early and you should be trouble free. And a trip to the beach is worthwhile as it’s a stunning beach. The hill that everyone talks about really isn’t that bad but it depends on how you feel about walking up hills! Take your own lockable suitcase to avoid paying for the safe and your own towels to avoid paying for them. I’d give this hotel a strong 3.5 out of 5. Would I return? Yes, if the kids really wanted to but I think there’s better 4 star hotels out there.

1st 2nd class we all eat same food use the same public toilet use same bar but in restaurant this is were 1st and 2nd class seating everybody should be equal shame food good rooms good staff friendly would come back prob no as only 2nd class

Stayed here in July, honestly the rooms were so awful I wouldn’t come back if you paid me. The quality of the rooms is more like 2 star and the walls are paper thin, even if someone in the room next to you is just chatting, you will hear every word. The facilities in the rooms are dated (no chairs, dodgy fridges, poor quality light fittings hanging off walls) and it feels like they should have been updated five or ten years ago. Staff reasonably unhelpful, our room wasn’t correctly set up and took them over an hour and a half to set it up right meaning we didn’t get into bed until very late as we arrived late in the evening. The communal areas are much better, but honestly not enough to make it worthwhile staying. I know people comment about the drinks and the all inclusive, and yes they are right, not all the drinks are included - only beer, wine and local spirits at certain times (stops at 11). We didn’t mind this but I know some people have had issues in the past.