family favourite (Hotel America)

Member Name: shelley222

Product:	Hotel America
Date:	05/07/01 (826 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: family orientated, great location, friendly staff

Disadvantages: none

Hotel America is situated in the resort of Calas de Mallorca on the Eastern coast of the island. This area will offer you a more peaceful holiday with an authentic Majorcan atmosphere. The hotel is approximately an hour and a half coach drive away from the airport at Palma, although taxis are available but they won’t save you much time.

We travelled to the Hotel America on a fully inclusive package with First Choice holidays, but there are several other British tour operators here.

The hotel is perched right above the beach and you are treated to the most superb views across the bay and the sandy cove of Cala Domingo.

Shops, restaurants, pubs and clubs are all a few minutes walk and the beach couldn’t be much closer. Steps and ramps lead down from the hotel grounds and the beach itself is lovely and clean. There you can hire the use of a parasol and sun beds for the equivalent of 9 pounds a day but once you have paid, it is then yours for the day whether you are there or not. A good idea is that if you are going to vacate early, try selling your pitch on to someone else (there are always people wanting them). The sea is lovely and remains shallow for some distance, so is ideal for children. For moderate swimmers, there is the opportunity of swimming across to the next bay. The beach operates a flag system, depending on the current – green means that it is safe for all, yellow warns you that care must be taken and red forbids anyone in the water. In 10 days we never saw the yellow or red flags at all.

The hotel itself is classed as a three star establishment, and covers 9 floors, with nearly 350 rooms. The reception area has many comfortable seats and is a nice relaxed area. The reception staff are all very friendly and can all speak English in varying degrees. Here you will be able to order newspapers, safety deposit keys and picnics. They also offer a foreign exchange service which is commission fre
e and only works out as slightly less than the banks and exchange bureaus in the town.

The accommodation is in twin rooms with either 2, 3 or 4 beds. The rooms are spacious, if not basic but are clean and well presented. As well as the beds, expect to find a large storage area with plenty of room to hang items (you can request extra coat hangers from reception), two bedside tables, dressing table, mirror and chair. We had 4 beds in our room but still had plenty of space left over. Each room has a telephone but no television. There is a daily maid service and linen is changed twice a week. The only drawback was that there were no tea/coffee making facilities in the rooms and that would have been a nice extra.

All rooms have a bathroom that include a shower as well as a bath, toilet, bidet, sink and large mirror area. There are plenty of towels provided and these are all changed daily.

The room has large patio doors that lead out onto a balcony and ours overlooked the beach which was superb especially first thing in a morning. Our room also overlooked the entertainment area and was ideal at night as the children could watch the show from the balcony. The patio doors thankfully block out most of the noise and so the children could sleep. Also the curtains over the doors were full length and had blackout linings, which served a dual purpose. They not only blocked out the light but if you kept them closed during the day (the maids will close these for you) they kept the room lovely and cool, which was handy as the hotel does not have air conditioning in the rooms.

The meals were good with a good selection. Breakfast could be taken between 8 and 10 am and you could choose between a cooked English breakfast and a cold continental variety. Cereals, toast, yoghurts, fresh fruit, fruit juice and tea/coffee were also available. Lunch and dinner were at 1-3pm and 6-9pm respectfully and here the choices were very well varied includ
ing salads, children’s meals, soups and a good selection of hot meals. There was always an abundance of desserts as well as fresh fruit.

Whilst we were there , two themed evenings took place, one being an Italian night and one a Chinese night, where the food is mainly that speciality (but there was always alternatives on offer).

Between the main meal times, there is a snack bar which is open from 10am until midnight and here you can get a variety of snacks including hot dogs, burgers and sandwiches as well as hot and cold drinks.

The hotel has 4 bars which are open between 10am and midnight, one of which is an adult only bar. As well as the locally produced beers, wines, spirits and sangria you can also purchase many international brands. Children are well catered for with a good selection of soft drinks as well as their own ‘cocktail of the day’, which has to be said are lovely, although the colours are a bit alarming (cannot describe what the green one looks like).

Vending machines are dotted around the complex, offering you crisps, chocolate, popcorn, chilled rinks and is really handy for getting ice cold bottled water for taking up to your room.

There are two swimming pools with sun terraces, sun beds and parasols available and because the beach is so close the pool area never seemed to be over busy. The hotel does have gardens and are a good way to catch some shade.

There is a sand pit and playground for the children as well as many hotel organised activities, including archery, tennis, bicycles, water polo and table tennis (adults can also take part). These are played daily and the winners are rewarded with a certificate, which they are presented with during the evenings entertainment. The entertainment is varied and ranges from karaoke nights, bingo to acrobats. Children are also catered for during the evening with a nightly mini-disco run by the hotel entertainers, who are excellen
t.

When it comes to saying goodbye, your rooms need to be vacated by midday. We were not due to be collected for the airport until midnight but the hotel provided us with a luggage lock up and a courtesy room for the remainder of the day.

This hotel is family orientated, friendly and good value for money.

Summary: