TUI BLUE Bellevue

Before booking this hotel we read all of the good reviews and decided based on these, this would be the perfect location for booking our first holiday as a family (with a 5 month old). The hotel is located in a great location, although the service falls short of expectation. An email was sent to TUI on my return but I am yet to receive a response other than advising 6 months later that the hotel will now have 6 months to provide a response (despite me expressing my concerns for the welfare for other guests). In brief, after dinner one evening I started to feel incredibly unwell. Over the course of the evening and into the early hours of Sunday morning, it became apparent that I was suffering from food poisoning from the food eaten. As a result of the above, this resulted in me and my family missing a trip booked through TUI (at the cost of £150) to Venice. TUI and the hotel did an excellent job at not accepting liability, but did not seek to establish where the likely source of the food poisoning had come from. I would have thought as a minimum this would have been reported to the kitchen staff for the welfare of other guests. If I had any doubts that it was food poisoning from the onsite restaurant, this was confirmed a couple of days later where I witnessed one of the chefs reheating cooked chicken. It is clear that the staff do not have the training or knowledge required.

Difficult review to write as not our intended destination and ‘Family Life Resort’ not what we would normally book. However, given TUIs use of Thomas Cook Airlines in their packages this was the alternative holiday that we ended up with. First the positives: Lovely Hotel in a stunning location with big rooms that were cleaned meticulously every day. Amazing views from our balcony. Friendly & efficient staff. Rabac May be small but is lovely and really nice walk into its centre from the hotel. Short transfer to/from Pula Great infinity pool. Now the average: Entertainment so-so. Some shows excellent (ABBA tribute) others not so, but could be personal taste. Whilst the food was on the whole very good it did seem a bit random at times and some things got totally lost in translation - eg, pigs knees instead of ham hock & boiled sheep instead of braised lamb. Really thought as this was almost exclusively a TUI Hotel that they would have taken the trouble to make sure the translation was correct. That said everything we tried was good, well cooked & tasty. Salad bar & Pizzas particularly noteworthy. Catering staff worked damned hard, but always cheery. Now the not so good: Tried booking advertised day trip to Pula 3 times, but each time TUI desk unmanned even though it was ‘open’. Couldn’t book on-line so in end gave up. Not the girls fault as had welcome meetings & other tings to see to as well as manning the desk, but perhaps another member of TUI staff should cover at these times? It’s all very lovely having parasol free sun-beds below the infinity pool but with children splashing around in the pool we ended up having to move or get continually drenched. The continual pool side ‘fun & entertainment’ though others may love this. Not really TUIs fault per se only our original holiday was in a quiet relaxing Hotel in a quiet resort whilst the only alternative we could get at such short notice was here and wouldn’t choose this type of resort from choice. On balance then, we loved Croatia and the Hotel generally but would pick a quieter resort next time