Hotel LIVVO Valle Taurito & Aquapark

The travel from the airport is 90 quid by cab, or 1.45 by coach. The hotel looked nice at first glance but got worse once we were in. Rooms were a good size, but the mattresses felt like prison beds and came with one hard, thin pillow. Everything was tatty, with no kettle or tea and coffee setup in the rooms, and nowhere to get bottled water. All drinks came in paper cups, no matter what time we went to the bar. The pool was tiny, with no entertainment for kids. The food was shocking, the same stuff every day and barely cooked. If you like smelly stewed fish or Brussels sprouts for breakfast, you're in luck. It was like prison food. Jet2 holidays should be ashamed to put its name to this. It's the worst place you could pay to stay. Avoid it.

Despite the mixed reviews, we've quite enjoyed our stay. The rooms are spacious and the shower is great. They could use modernizing and some TLC, but we have no real complaints. Cleaners have done a high-standard job, and we haven't had any issues with things going missing. The food is poor, and there's no thought given to kids' meals. Our 2-year-old normally lives off chicken nuggets, but they don't have any. The location is handy for the water park and central entertainment area in the square facing the hotel. To go anywhere else, you'll need a bus or taxi. Google Maps gets really confused about travel times to nearby Mogan for some reason. The bars by the beach are good, and the food there is decent if you want a change. You could spend your whole stay on the resort if you wanted.

The aqua park is the only thing that seems to justify the hotel’s name. It isn’t included on checkout day, so if you’re staying until evening, expect to leave your bags somewhere and be stuck with a crowded small pool with nowhere to lie down. The hotel also wanted an extra €20 per person for all-inclusive access until departure, though that wasn’t mentioned when we booked. The food was miserable, and we saw cockroaches by the pool snack bar on a couple of occasions. Fire alarms went off close to midnight twice while we were in bed. This doesn’t feel like a 4-star hotel, more like its other 3-star place across the way.

The location makes getting around easy, with the Waterpark, a superstore, gift shops, and the public beach all close by. There are good tourist shops nearby too, and Amadores Beach is one of the best, bus no 9 takes you there. Our family room was fine, neither especially spacious nor too small. The evening entertainment didn’t match the quality of the TUI Blue ones.