Occidental Jandía Mar

Just a bit of background i have stayed in many all inclusive from mexico to the maldives so hope this is taken as balanced as i mean it to be First things first you get what you pay for for those expecting perfection pay to go 5 star not to a 4 star resort. Check in was very swift and easy, our room was in block 3 so a great location - the room was spacious for myself, wife 5 year old girl and 2 year old son. Yes the beds were singles pushed together but hardly the end of world, the balcony was great and had 2 seats and 2 loungers for the late sun. I would have prefered a safe to use free of charge but not a huge issue, the bathroom was spacious and clean the shower did release water on the floor but had a spare towel so no major issue. The pool was superb, heated and salt water (with an area with sunbeds) where the kids could walk into it and play to their hearts content! couldnt get our 5 year old out of it for the first 4 days! the splash area was also great for the kids The food i thought was fine, breakfast was ok but i think the staff at the eggs station could make an omlette for some variety! plenty of choice though and the pastries are so moreish. didnt use the buffet at lunch time we used the snack bar (which has a toastie machine) although i would wander in to use the Mr Whippy machine!! amazing. Dinner was varied all week with was lethal for people like me who cant resist! Fresh meat and fish stations so the food was hot if timed right - yes some was lukewarm at best but its a buffet.. the help yourself to the wine and water was great. We had issues as a large group as we were told you couldnt reserve tables yet others did, however this was resolved quickly. we also had a special birthday which the hotel went above and beyond for and valentines night was excellent as well. Bar staff were great with some generous measures, local spirits were fine and 100% not watered down - trust me! finally the animation team were superb, i played mini golf, darts, archery, water polo and water volleyball all superb fun and the team are a credit to the hotel. Dominka even supplied the volleyball net and equpipment even when not planned and that flexibility with all of the equipment was appreciated. special mention for Inma who did the kids mini disco - she was incredible and so good with the kids, her energy and patience was incredible both kids miss Barcey! the evening shows were of a very good variety with tina turner and the 3 singers especially superb however huge shout out to the team who performed around the world in dance one of the funniest nights i have had on holiday - tremendous all thats left to say is " let me see your koukou moves!!!"

This is my honest review about the Occidental Jandia Mar. I have awarded this place a 5 star rating for the hotel, friendly customer service, weather and Location only, and sadly a 2 star for the food and drink. I booked this as a Christmas gift for my partner and we were looking forward to the trip, First off... please be advised there will be a 1 - 1 hour 45 minute transfer time, no one told us about this at time of booking so as you can imagine it was rather boring, stuffy & smelly on a coach that should of been scrapped 30 years ago. Once you finally arrive at the hotel you are greeted by an amazing looking building and stunning view over the sea and beach in the distance and you feel the long drive was worth it after all. The staff at reception are amazing, friendly and really make you feel welcome, We upgraded to Occidental Plus, giving us an upgraded room with sea view, coffee machine in the room, bath robe and slippers, the use of the exclusive buffet at the La Toscana restaurant for both Breakfast and dinner. Premium brand drinks at no extra cost, main block room, fast check-in, 40 inch TV in the room, free replacement pool towels, free use of the U-Spa, full mini bar stocked on day of arrival 2 beers, 2 water, 2 sparkling water, alcohol free beers, fanta lemon, fanta orange, coke, This is not restocked again but you are given complimentary water daily! Free parking if arriving by car. The room- the room was amazing, good size and equipped with everything that you would need for your stay, big comfy bed, 40 inch TV on the wall, clean and tidy, the bathroom was good, with rain shower over the bath, sink unit, toilet and bidet, Towels are changed daily If requested or you fold them up and place them back on the rail, complimentary shower gel, lotion and shampoo along with toothpaste and brush. The grounds- the grounds are large, 2 large pools with loads of sun beds, pool bar, children's wet play area, and plenty of places to walk the food and drink off. The walk to the beach is down hill meaning a steep slow walk back up to the hotel, so not really a place to go if you have mobility problems, but.. the hotel does have a bus to the beach which you can use. It takes about 15-20 minutes to walk down to the beach, beach is large and stretches wide. It can be windy so a wind break is a must! Food and Drink- it is all inclusive, you have a large buffet restaurant (and the use of the La Toscana restaurant if you have upgraded) the restaurant is huge, plenty of places to sit, never the need to book a table, a variety of food stations, cheese and crackers, pasta area, hot meat station, fish station, and traditional food station, along with a wide range of puddings Sadly this is where it went down hill for us, the hot food is basic, but extremely Cold! And sometimes uncooked, the chicken breast on a few nights was not cooked properly and still raw on the inside, chips under cooked, and it seems that nothing has flavour. We never used the La Toscana restaurant. Self service drinks, either bottled water, fizzy pop or wine. The hygiene from people using the restaurant is shocking, especially with with current situation regarding Coronavirus, the hotel offers hand sanitizing at the doors but we noticed approximately 70% not using it, quite disgusting! Theatre bar stocked with drinks, as we upgraded to O+ we ordered a drink but shocked to taste it was poorer quality drink and not branded, we complained and was told by the guy behind the bar that the premium bottles are sometimes filled with unbranded cheaper alcohol, so just be careful and watch where the bottle is pulled out from! There is a children's show and nightly entertainment in the theatre, after 11pm all drinks are stopped on all inclusive, All public areas are clean and tidy and they really do take pride in the appearance of the hotel, maids clean your room every day unless you put the do not disturb sign on the door, There is a Burger King at the bottom of the hill just in case you get fed up with the food here, We noticed that some of the food at the hotel, if not eaten that evening is reinvented into something else like FRIED BATTERED BROCCOLI! Very strange. Overall opinion- Lovely location, great hotel and friendly staff, lovely weather ( February), basic bland food, just watch the drink situation, Long transfer time from airport, great room, enjoyable holiday,

Now this is a tricky one to review as it has its good points but also has its bad points First off the hotel is situated at the top of an extremely steep hill - I had seen others comment on this but underestimated how steep. But this I guess can not be helped by the hotel so maybe just something for people with low mobility to consider. Check in was fast and simple the receptionist speaking very good English - finding our room was another thing though. Because of the way the hotel has been built into the steep hill it is like a maze and is very easy to get lost. The reception is on one level but you might have to go out the front door and cross the road to get to block one or go out to the terrace and then down three more levels past the bars, pools and spa etc to blocks eight and nine (could definitely do with more sign posts). The room itself was clean and what you’d expect from a Spanish resort - however the fridge was an issue. It is locked away in a cupboard under the dressing table not actually working properly so nothing in it was cold and actually radiated heat and made the room hotter. The safety deposit box also had no instructions I ended up locking us out luckily I “test” locked it first and didn’t lock anything in. The beds were just two singles pushed together so if you’re a couple don’t plan on getting to know each other if you know what I mean otherwise someone will end up on the floor. The bathroom was large and big but the shower sprays water everywhere and I mean everywhere. Pools - why have signs up saying do not reserve loungers if this isn’t enforced. Every morning all the loungers near the pool and in the sun were “reserved” - like I said there is signs but if anyone is going here my advice is ignore them like all the other guests do and staff do and reserve them yourself! Food - this is also a contentious one. Breakfast was good at the cold side like nice pastries and cookies etc and the churros were amazing but my god the hot stuff. The word “hot” is an insult there and the hotel seem to know all the food is cold as they actually have put a microwave there instead of fixing it. My advice plate up what you want and microwave it! The “hot options” however are avoidable the scrambled egg is like rubber, bacon is just fat, the beans are hard like not cooked properly and the sausages were an insult to British and German people - they weren’t even cheap hot dogs god knows what they actually were. The chef should definitely improve the sausage! Lunch we were at the snack bar which we enjoyed with burgers, hot dogs, pasta and chips etc not much to say here except go for it. Dinner was disappointing, the hotel has such a large area for food service but there is a lot of dead empty space between stations for instance there’s a couple pots of pasta and sauce but then it’s 6 paces before you reach more food even then there’s only about 5 mains all of which are very “touchy” foods what I mean is saucy, fishy etc so not a lot of option children and people who don’t like things like rabbit, goat and fish. The hotel here should use the space they have to offer more plain simple dishes like a plain grilled chicken breast every night Evening - Enjoyable and fun just make sure you get to the seating area at about 1900 otherwise you won’t get a seat! If you’re British then you’re queuing skills will come in handy as there’s one bar person serving over 200 people so very slow service. Hotel Photography - If you - the future guest - take anything from my never ending review it’s this bit. His name is Alex, give him and his team the widest birth possible. He will approach you at the pool, he will approach you at the bar, at dinner, at evening entertainment and he will hound you and hound you into doing a photo shoot with them which he tells you “is completely free and with no further obligation and then you can pick your favourite photo” which to us sounded like we’d get to print one photo for free and maybe pay for some extra. No it’s €99 for 20 and that’s the start price. And when you tell them no they go all pissy with you and start harassing you till you leave trying to get you to come back and pester you. If the hotel is reading this please have a word with them and tell them to back off. To summarise a lovely hotel to stay at in terms of the weather and the price and the staff are friendly but it does need work to the food, bar service, imposing rules on reserving seats and the photographers. I would recommend this hotel to people but would ask them to read this first as a warning.

This is my first experience of an all inclusive. I have read some of the other reviews and can't see some legitimacy behind some of the comments. Considering I haven't done an all inclusive before I can't compare to other all inclusive experiences. There was a good choice of food when we went to eat. The layout of the hotel was good with everything pretty much accessible. Stayed on ground floor of block 6 so it meant no steps to navigate which was good. To be honest you don’t need to leave the hotel as everything you need is on the hotel premises. If you want a beach visit then sure go to the one down the road but to be honest staying round the pool down the bottom was just quality with the constant good weather. The only downside was the air conditioning in the room - we did speak to reception 3 times about this only to be told that the air conditioning isn’t put on till March which was disappointing as it was so hot at night in our room.

Put it this way. I paid for a 14 night family Christmas holiday but left after 1 night. The hotel was a dump. The children's play area had wooden floor boards sticking up with 2 inch long splinters. There were nails sticking up and holes in the floor. The slide and swings were rusty and were at least 15 years old. The pathways had raised areas sticking up which my son tripped over an my room had no wi-fi. The balcony was unsafe and the shower just sprayed water on the floor. The staff were so uninterested and you have to walk through the smoking area to get from the hotel to the one working pool. The other pool had been emptied and was being repaired. I complained to the Jet2 reps who said if i didn't like it we should move. They didn't care. I did move hotels but had to pay £1300.00 for the privilege. Avoid this hotel.