Is Serenas Badesi Village Resort

We paid £1600 for one adult and one child for a week at the end of May, during UK school holidays, all inclusive with Jet2. It was good value then. When I asked the hotel about a week in July, they quoted €4500 without flights or transfers, which definitely isn’t good value. The rooms were lovely, the beautiful beach was a 5-minute walk, and the food was decent for all inclusive if you’re willing to queue or push your way to the front. Babies and children are well catered for, with a baby kitchen and a great mini water park. Eating was the stressful part. It was incredibly busy, and people literally pushed in front of us to reach the food. I know we Brits love a queue, but with a young child it was really difficult, so I ended up picking easy-to-reach things like salad. They need a better system to stagger meal times; it felt like a scrum.

We knew where we were going and hired a car, so getting around the island was no problem, even though everything is far away. At reception we could communicate in English, and getting drinks in the evening was easy. There were jugs everyone could fill with their choice of drink and take back to their room. Everyone was kind and helpful. We had lovely evenings listening to a fantastic singer performing beautiful songs in Italian and English. I love Italian hits and the language. We have no complaints. Thank you all so much for everything.

The village-style resort is beautiful, with clean pools and plenty of free sun beds. There was entertainment all day and into the evening, and you can tell the team puts in a lot of effort. Most of it was in Italian, so I couldn’t follow much, which was a shame. The dream team crew were so friendly to my kids and made them feel welcome, so thank you to them. The activity app was brilliant, with lots to choose from, including sailing, kayaking, paddle boarding, shooting, mermaid ing, windsurfing, nurf gun battles, and football schools. These were free with the stay, and we made the most of them. Our room was large and spacious, and cleaned to a high standard each day, but the beds were rock hard and gave me back problems by the end of the week. The mini fridge only had one complimentary can of water. Luckily we brought our own towels, because the ones provided each day smelled horrendous, and we couldn’t use them. The all-inclusive deal was misleading. It mostly covered restaurant food and certain drinks. Some beverages, ice cream, waffles and other pool treats, popcorn, and cotton candy by the evening entertainment stage all cost extra. I’ve never seen so many extras at an all-inclusive hotel, and it was a letdown. Photographers around the complex take lovely holiday photos, but they’re expensive. Each photo costs 7 euros, and there was no reasonably priced package for all the photos digitally or printed, just 7 euros each or 100 euros for everything. That adds up when you’ve already paid for extras on an all-inclusive holiday. There was plenty of food at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus lots of activities and daily entertainment. It’s a lovely place with friendly staff, but quite a few things let it down, as I’ve mentioned.

The resort is well designed, and the rooms are quite comfortable. Service was average, handled by young staff who were kind but inexperienced. The seaside is often windy and the water rough, so if you’re not used to those conditions, it may not be as usable as the other side of Sardegna. I would have liked a more welcoming, inclusive experience at the Serenino mini club.