Hotel Golden Donaire Beach

I’ll keep this simple, food exceptional, drinks options fantastic, kids entertainment brilliant and and the staff are the nicest I’ve ever met, I can not recommend this hotel enough. I’ve already booked for next year. Thanks for the memories

How this hotel has a 4 star rating, I don’t know. From check in till check out this place continuously fell down at every hurdle. We arrived at the hotel for 11am, however upon arrival were told we could not check in until between 1 and 2pm. Having traveled in clothes suited to the UK’s climate, spending 2 hours in 26 degree heat wasn’t the greatest of experiences. Upon finely checking in, we found 2 of the lifts to be out of order. Which for a full hotel, was chaos. Our room itself was small, but mostly clean, apart from a few stains in the bathroom. The room came with a fridge and TV, but not much else. The air conditioningdidn’t even work! We were overlooking the pool on the 6th floor, with a large balcony, but due to the design of the hotel the sun never hit the balcony. The noise from the entertainment on the evenings could be heard, but not to a point it caused a problem. This is the only reason I gave this place a two star rating. The room itself was decent and mostly clean. The worst part of this hotel has to be food. We were on a half board basis and apart from the occasional croissant at breakfast, after the first day, we never ate here. Other reviews outline the the large selection of food available, and how there has to be something for everyone. This is completely correct if you enjoy substandard food. Otherwise, this place actually terrible. Picture the grimiest back street UK takeaway, and think worse. Apart from the insane amount of flies around the buffet, the food itself is of such low quality, that even the starving would probably pass the offer. It’s not being fussy, it’s having standards. If you love your low quality back street takeaway or smart price ready meals, then you’ll be in heaven. Accompany the terrible food with the rude waiters and incompetent hotel staff and you can see why like to give this a 1 star review. I had nicer interactions with the maids who could hardly speak English, than the waiters who could. The only good points apart from the clean room, was the closeness to the beach. Although it’s not as pictured in travel brochures or websites. For being a blue flag beach, there are cigarette ends everywhere and graffiti across the artwork. If you’re planning on visiting La Pineda, do your homework. The place doesn’t have much to offer unless you’re looking to visit the theme park or water park. I’d also recommend looking for places to eat, because inevitably you’ll end up eating out. Finally, the hotel bar prices are ridiculous. It was costing us nearly €20 per round (spirit and mixer or cocktails).

Last year we had a sea view room 413, this year we booked a family room as they looked very nice and roomy. From the moment we arrived we were happy to find most of the same staff were still working in the hotel as they were on our last visit. For us the pleasent, hardworking staff made our visit last time so we were happy the workforce like it here too. Our room was very comfortable and clean with enough space for your cloths, the only thing we missed were some drawer space but on the whole better than some hotel rooms we have stayed in. The food is good but not 4 star rating as I told the manager one evening, the food is very repetitive and not imaginative some local dishes would boost the taste buds not just meat and chips, we can get that at home. The drinks were very good with a large choice but a better choice in Ai cocktalis would be well recieved. The evening entertainment is good when its good but on too late after two rounds of bingo...good if you loke bingo. We did not see much daily entertainment just the normal darts, bowles, and pool keep fit. The music round the pool was turned off everyday after the games had finished.......BORING..!!!!! Would we come again...yes. Thank you to all the staff for making our stay so special..