We can thoroughly recommend the Alicia. We had a great holiday and are planning to return.

We only booked the Alicia with Thompson’s as a last minute holiday and we had no idea what to expect. Although the hotel is excellent we were informed that it was a 4 star but it is really a good three star. It is a family hotel with a good cross section of all age groups during the main summer months.

Rooms: The view from the veranda was stunning looking over the beach and the bay. We rejected the first room they gave us as the carpet was badly stained and the furniture was badly scuffed. The second room was much better. The rooms had comfortable beds. Reasonable sized bathroom, safe, hair-dryer and TV with Sky and BBC1 & ITV . It was incredibly hot when we were there but the air conditioning in the room was excellent. We would have liked to have had a fridge in the room which would have made the room perfect. My 14 yr old had his own room, which looked out, over the pool. The rooms were immaculately cleaned every day and we were very impressed with the general cleanliness of the hotel.

Restaurant: A five star breakfast. The best breakfast selection I have seen at any hotel. Fresh fruit, a full English, freshly made omelettes made in front of you, freshly made pancakes it is all here. The hotel requests that men wear long trousers for dinner in the evening which we liked as it was an opportunity to dress up a little and show of your tan. There is an excellent salad selection. A very extensive range of hot food including regional food and traditional English dishes. There is also a chef that will cook fish/meat to your liking plus there is usually a carvery of either beef, pork or turkey. There is normally also an excellent range of deserts. If you order a bottle of wine and do not drink it all the waiters will put your room number on the bottle and they will keep it for you until next time.

Gym: The gym is next to the down stairs poor. The air conditioning does not work. The temperature down there can easily get up to 40 C. There is a table tennis table, a rowing machine a running machine and a step machine, which is broken.

Sauna: Excellent Sauna with separate male and ladies changing rooms.

Pools
The downstairs pool is quite small. No one seemed to use it much. It is quite dark down there and the water is pretty cold. A lot of disabled people come to the hotel and I do understand that it is popular with them as the pool offers easy access for the old or the infirm. We were a little disappointed by the outside pool, as it is smaller than I would have expected. If you want a sunlounger by the pool get up early. There are no Germans at the hotel, it is 100% occupied by British guests, but by about 9.00 all the sun loungers have been reserved with towels despite signs asking guests not to do this.

Entertainment
Christine the entertainments manager is completely mad and I mean that in the best possible sense. She is a Belgium lady and she is great with the kids and with organising the poolside entertainments. These include water polo, air rifle shootings etc. Bingo will never be the same!!!!

Sun Deck: Prepare to fry. A large decked area for the serious sun worshippers.

Bar/lounge The waiters in the bar are excellent. There is an outside restaurant/ bar area or an inside air condition lounge for when the sun gets too hot. At lunch times they sell simple but good bar meals chicken & chips etc and excellent pizzas. The comfortable lounge area had a large television which was popular with those watching the big sporting events back home

Shops. If you want any snacks or drinks for your room there is a Spar shop just two minutes away. There are shops all along the sea-front selling anything you could want. The leather goods are particularly reasonable. There are a lot of British owned cafes and pubs and at times it feels more like England than Spain.

Nearest Cash Point: Opposite the spar shop. There are plenty of cash points in the area.

Beach: The beach opposite the hotel has lovely sand and is protected by a man-made cove so is relatively safe. As soon as you enter the water there are large rocks, which can make getting in and out of the water uncomfortable. We also got stung twice by jellyfish, which was very painful, like being injected with a hypodermic needle. We were told that jellyfish in the area were uncommon. I hope that is the case. For a 14 mins truly excellent beach walk along the shore you reach the natural bay of Cala Millor. This is a beautiful long natural sandy beach with no rocks and clear warm sea. The down side is that it gets really busy and you really have to hunt to find a place. It is very popular with the German tourists. The upside is that many of the bars sell excellent German beers.


Internet: There is a computer you can use near to reception for a modest charge if you really need to look at your e-mails

Market: The market makes for an interesting morning out. . You have to barter for every thing. Our advice is before you go check out the prices in the shops otherwise you may be ripped off.

Entertainment: Most of the entertainment was good. Comedians (not for the politically correct) Acrobats, tribute bands etc. One night a week the entertainment staff put on an act which mainly consists of miming to well-known sounds - a bit cheesy but still good fun.

Trips: The Thompson rep Martin was excellent very helpful very friendly. We went on three trips which was fun. The boat trip on the high-speed motorboat which took us to the bay was as much fun as the snorkelling. The snorkelling was very professionally run - ‘PADI’ approved so we decided to also go scuba diving, which was a real experience. The other trip we did was Rancho Grange the cowboy horse riding and line dancing which was good but was spoilt by being over commercialised. The horse riding was good, suitable for any standard and the scenary was fantastic but they kept you waiting for long periods I suspect to encourage you to buy drinks at the bar that was more than twice as expensive as anywhere else. The food was good but again a long time coming again I am sure to encourage you to buy more drinks at the bar. There was sangria included but only during the meal. When the line dancing started the free sangria stopped. I also did not like it when they were really pushing you to buy photos/ videos and other souvenirs of the day. It was a good day but it could have been a lot more enjoyable.

Best Points: The weather and beaches were fantastic and the location of the hotel was spot on. Beautiful blue sky every day. Scuba diving
Worse Points: Not having a fridge in the room, Jellyfish,


Would we come again: You bet!!!!!!!!!!