Resort Santa Maria

The entertainment was easily the best part of our week. Ciro was great, Francesca, his wife, was incredibly sweet, and Luigi, Gabriele, Liliana, and Stefania were all lovely and always ready to help. We had so much fun. The room had good equipment, including a kitchen, large fridge, and air conditioning. The food was good, and they’ll give you free seconds if you ask. The second courses felt a little skimpy, though, and the buffet side dishes need work. They were the same all week, until they ran out. Breakfast was the same buffet every day too, with donuts, chocolate and apricot tart, and plain croissants. The coffee was awful. There’s no air conditioning in the restaurant, so it gets hot inside, while it’s cold outside, bring a jacket. The shuttle needs improvement and comes every half hour. The pool is a little small, but fine overall. Think it through before booking.

We had a lovely week here with the children, and the wait staff were very kind. The entertainment was great fun, with Ciro and his talented team putting on different shows, including some for adults. The food was good too, though there wasn’t much suitable choice for younger children. Most dishes were elaborate, so my daughter would only eat plain pasta and I had to buy other food myself. Breakfast had plenty of sweet options, but the savory selection was just cheese, salami, and sliced bread. Cleanliness was the main problem. The rooms, breakfast room, and dining area were all very poorly cleaned. Our room didn’t look like the website photos at all, and several things were broken. It was like an attic, with broken blackout curtains on the skylight and missing knobs on the drawers. The bathroom was beyond reproach. If you’re mainly going for the beach and entertainment, there’s not much to complain about, though the beach isn’t two minutes away as the website says. I wouldn’t recommend the property itself, because you could be disappointed.

A family-focused village with a huge beach and clean sea, reached by shuttle to the private beach. The food was excellent, the staff really friendly, and the entertainment kept both children and adults having a great time. Great value for money.

The entertainment team is the only reason our holiday wasn’t a complete disappointment. Ciro and everyone with him were kind and dedicated, and they saved what would otherwise have been an unforgettable bad experience. Gianluca, the maître d’, was always polite, kind, and ready to solve problems. The pool manager and gardener were equally courteous. The people working there deserve to be at reputable, well-organized establishments. The place itself is old and neglected, and housekeeping was terrible. We found fleas in the mattress and had to spend €48 of our own money at a pharmacy to deal with it. The owner showed no interest in reimbursing us and didn’t even ask how our child was the next day. When we reported it, the manager was rude and accused us of bringing the fleas from home. Animal feces were left outside our room for days where children could walk or fall into them. There were no blackout curtains for the children, no hot water in the bidet, and the bidet was broken. The bathtub was so tiny it was hard to turn around in, had no curtain, and left the bathroom flooded. The shutters were completely broken, and the facility was very dark in the evenings. Our towels weren’t changed until after four days, from Sunday to Thursday. This is disgraceful for a place calling itself a tourist village. There was no children’s menu, which makes no sense for a place advertising itself as family-friendly, so we bought food for them ourselves. The indoor seating wasn’t enough for the number of guests. Until we complained, we had to eat outside among bees and flies. Some nearby tables had rainwater dripping from the gazebo onto their plates. After two rainy days, we had to delay lunch because eating outside wasn’t possible. Indoors, the tables were so close together that they got in the staff’s way too. The management is the problem, not the staff. The owners should ask themselves some questions instead of blaming offers or promotions. We’ve stayed at resorts before, but never in conditions like these. The owners should wake up before the staff’s good work is wasted and this place closes.