Bayview Waters Apartments

The place is dated, and the bed felt like an ironing board. One of us ended up on the lounge and the other on pillows piled over the single bed. We came home feeling like we’d gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson, and our backs and hips certainly had complaints. The cutlery had mystery leftovers on it too, so give it a proper scrub before using it. I booked through bookings.com, but our reservation had somehow disappeared from bookings.com and I couldn’t leave a review. Hard to forget this stay, and not for good reasons.

I’m never staying here again, and I’ll tell other people to avoid it. We had our 9-year-old stay with us at the last minute and went to the office to ask whether there was an extra fee, but nobody was there all weekend. They didn’t answer either the home or mobile number they’d provided, then charged us $200 for the child. They also charged $50 for a small Gatorade bottle left in the room, plus a charge for a small bin with some rubbish in it. Extra towels cost $45, even though we thought pool towels should be provided. Are we meant to use pool towels to shower as well? The mattresses were cheap and left my back hurting, and I’m only 30. The place was overpriced, and the way they handled this was disgraceful.

For a low price, this place gave us a lot more space than staying in Surfers would have, at around half the cost. Our big unit was very clean, with good bedding and towels, plus small extras like tea, coffee and shampoo. It isn’t perfect, and the older building has no lifts, but the gardens are lovely and the pool and spa were a real bonus. Everything was clean and well maintained. The beach and park are at the end of the street, supermarkets are about a 10-minute walk away, and the theme parks were only 15 minutes away. Staff were friendly and helpful, and were fine with us asking for an early check-in. Much better than we expected for the price.

Lots of space, water views, and a big pool with a BBQ area. Shops and the theme parks are close by.