TUI MAGIC LIFE Calabria

After reading some of the earlier reviews, I must admit I was slightly apprehensive about my holiday at tui magic life Calabria on the 6th July. Airport was fine coming in, 15 to 20 minutes Transfer to hotel. Check in, yes queues but a coach load of people had arrived, was given the option to go and have lunch or wait, we waited & then went for lunch. We stayed in adult only private lodge and it was one of the most relaxing holidays I've ever had. Rooms were fine, great shower. Cleaners came twice a day. Safe, mini fridge restocked daily. Pool area was lovely, clean & plenty of sunbeds & shade. Breakfast & evening meals plenty of choice, I turned into a greedy guts so found the pizza only choice at lunch a bit disappointing but could have gone to the main restaurant or beach for more choices. Lovely walk to the beach through the woods. Yet again plenty of beds & shade, very good beach bar plus self serve drinks & good choice of food. The sea was fun, very wavy onto the shore got thrown about a lot & gets deep very quickly, I would worry if I had little ones. Although the were having the best time. Did the shuttle into pizzo which was nice for a few hours, ice-cream was yummers. Ok the niggles. Seats at the pool bar in the evening were so uncomfortable, some cushions maybe nice. There was a charge of 30 euro for The padded curtained pool beds ... Come on its supposed to be all inclusive. Nobody was paying this so they were unused. Stromboli by night trip ... All seemed a bit badly organised, left at midday. Coach transfer no aircon. On to a very packed boat. Arrive at stromboli you have 4 hours on the island, which is 3 hours to long, just a few shops & restaurants. Back on boat. Yes seeing the lava was amazing if you could find a place on the boat to see it. Didn't think it was a good trip for little ones. As I said Lava amazing but wouldn't recommend the trip. Only did one specialty restaurant which was the Oleo (adults only) hmmm it was ok, wish i hadn't bothered really, food was better in the restaurant. Not much to complain about, had a very nice holiday here, would like to add I saw no rats, any insects were where they was supposed to be. Very clean and well maintained. All the staff in the adults area were lovely, very professional & welcoming. Would i come back here. Yes I most definitely would.

I’ve just come back from a two week stay at this resort and I feel MISOLD and frankly MISLEAD . All around the hotel you see the Magic life logo and before the show there is a promo video showing you what they offer and even asking you to WORK FOR THEM, yet this hotel does NONE OF IT. Enteratinment: when u enter the hotel there is a massive stage area . In the whole time we stayed we only had three below average shows. One night they put a FILM ON! The staff are poor, one in particular Stanislavsk actually insulted two of our party and one has a DISABILITY, During the day after 2 forget it, and that’s only two days a week. Food: The Italian is okay, however the main dinning room is a TRUE NIGHTMARE!. Someone in our party was allergic to shellfish which it’s full of and they cross contaminate all the time, made aware of and did nothing. We had a child in our party and in every speciality restaurant all she could eat was a ham burger. The poor staff are working Soo hard but there is just not enough!! AND IF YOU NEED THE TOILET FORGET IT! every main bathroom only has TWO toilets, and the one in the Wonderbar DO NOT USE unless you have had all your injections. Beach/Pool: PLEASE TAKE BEACH SHOES! You can count the sand that there is, and as you walk into the sea it dramatically slopes into deep water. Yes there are plenty of sun beds, as everyone gets up at 9 to fight for a sunbed around the main pool. We went into Pizzo and it was lovely, had the best time exploring and can totally recommend the tuc tuc ride around. HEATHER the rep in resort is useless and only wants to sell you trips, and make her targets. So have the confidence to go it alone!

Two adults stayed in the Private Lodge area at the beginning on July so the review will mostly be based on our experience in the Private Lodge. If you do not have children or yours are older it is definitely worth the extra to stay in this part of the hotel. Stepping through the Private Lodge gates you immediately feel a sense of calm from the main part of the hotel. As a Private Lodge guest you can access all of the facilities in the main part of the hotel, although I’m pretty sure you would not want to use their pools (crowded and noisy) or the main bar which seemed very depressing. Positives: - The room, although small was modern and comfortable with a great shower. - The maids kept the room spotless and were extremely helpful if you needed anything extra. - The archery was great fun - thank you to the girl who runs this - she made us feel comfortable and taught us a lot. - Tennis lessons were good - thank you to the beginners coach at 8am - The pool in the Private Lodge is huge (probably bigger than the main children’s pool). Never a problem finding sun beds and was an oasis of calm. Lovely pool bar with a huge selection of drinks and sometimes waitress service to our sunbeds. - Breakfast and dinner in the Private Lodge restaurant was good. Good selection of food although it would be good to see more authentic Italian dishes. We found the white wine to be tasty and was served to us at our table. - The app is a good idea to enable guests to view the activities each day and book the speciality restaurants. - Staff in general were very friendly. - Speciality restaurants were lovely, particularly the one on the beach. - Guest services have a WhatsApp number so it is easy to contact them with any questions or issues. - The evening shows were enjoyable and the dance troop work very hard. Negatives/improvements: - The balcony’s are extremely unpleasant. They need painting, are full of bird mess and you would not want to sit out on it. Whilst I appreciate the need to preserve the wildlife, they could be painted and the furniture replaced. - Lunch in the Private Lodge is very limited. Lovely setting for a glass of wine at lunchtime but the food options are poor - pizza and limited salad only. Extending the salad options would be good to give more choice there at lunchtime. We would go to the Magico restaurant in the main part of the hotel at lunchtime for more choice but this is not the same experience. - There is nowhere to get a decent coffee in the Private Lodge. Perhaps turning the useless Private Lodge Reception (where all they tell you is to go to main reception) into a bar with a proper coffee machine would be a good idea. This would also enable extra seating for the evening plus they could serve snacks here which seem to be missing from the Private Lodge area. - The hotel is in the middle of nowhere. The shuttle in Pizzo only takes 20 minutes but beware - on our return journey, there were more people than there was room on the bus and so some people were left behind for a long wait to be collected again. - Air conditioning was ineffective. Even on the max setting the room was never very cold. After complaining, staff were very helpful and showed me another room but the air con was the same so this seems to be a problem throughout. I am someone who likes my room on the chilly side so this was an issue. Overall we enjoyed our stay but the balcony and lack of air conditioning mean we probably would not come again.