Hotel Fabricia

The pool is great, surrounded by trees, bushes, and loads of flowers, and the beach is just a minute’s walk away. The hotel itself is beautiful, and the breakfast buffet was tasty if you sign up for the breakfast package. Service was great as well. Some people in our group had upper-floor rooms with great views. Mine was downstairs, clean and comfortable but nothing special. Nicer rooms would have made this a five-star stay for me.

The gardens are beautiful, with grape vines growing almost all over the hotel, and the views are stunning. There’s a lovely large pool and private beach with plenty of loungers and umbrellas. We really enjoyed our stay at Fabricia, and the amenities and gardens alone make it worth visiting. The pool bar was fantastic for both service and food, with huge fresh salads and lots of ice creams. But the main restaurant at dinner was absolutely appalling. We paid for half board for the whole stay but ate dinner there only once. Each night there’s a set menu with limited choices, and most of the dishes felt dated and seemed to rely heavily on frozen ingredients. I had cold, rubbery seafood salad and rabbit stew swimming in oil. My partner got a wafer-thin steak with a slice of lime. The sad-looking salad bar had beetroot, pickled onions, grated carrot, and similar things. Dessert was clearly bought frozen and hadn’t thawed properly, so my cheesecake was still partly frozen. The menu badly needs modernising, and so does the hotel. The beige carpet, bridge tables, and waiters wandering around in polyester black tie gave the place a “1960s James Bond” look. It could do with being reimagined to some degree.

The oleanders and lush greenery make this seaside hotel especially beautiful. The staff were exceptional, particularly the friendly, accommodating women at the pool bar (bar piscina). I’d definitely come back.

Really disappointing. There was no help when I had a problem, just a bill to pay. The rooms are old, and they wouldn’t let you have breakfast outside even when tables were free.