Exe Estepona Thalasso & Spa Adults only

Admittedly, we booked this hotel without reading the reviews and took the trip advisor rating for granted. A mistake not to be repeated. The hotel is approximately 70km from Malaga airport. I would highly recommend that you organise some sort of transfer beforehand as the prices of Uber and local taxis are quite expensive, even for short journeys. The location of the hotel itself is not ideal either as you will require a taxi to get anywhere. The town of Estepona is about a 10 minute drive, Porta Banús is about 15 minutes and Marbella is a little further than that. You will find yourself needing to travel to these places for dinner etc.,. We rented a car, but on occasion, we opted for a taxi/uber so we could both enjoy a drink with our meal. There is an underground car park but it will cost you €15 per night. The other option is to hopefully secure a spot on the limited street parking available directly across from the hotel. Upon check-in, the lady we met at reception was very friendly and any other person working the reception desk was also quite pleasant and friendly. The hotel itself was clean. Our room was also very clean and housekeeping always did a good job throughout our stay. The bed was spacious and comfortable. The air-conditioner worked very well and the room was nice and cool. However, don’t expect nice views of the sea or anything else really from the balcony. The pool area is nice and the pool is large enough. If you wish to use the white beds that feature in the pictures, you must pay €30 for the day. You will not be able to get a drink of any sort from the poolside bar until 12 in the afternoon. Cocktails are €12 each. The servers have limited English and not very attentive, particularly if you sit down to have some lunch. You will need to get the menu from the bar yourself and prepare to wait. However, they need more training in relation to serving alcohol to those who are already very intoxicated and posing a danger to themselves and to be more vigilant about serving drinks in glasses when being consumed by the pool. Glasses were smashed by the pool by a group and it took awhile before this was cleaned. However, glass shards remained days later. The breakfast was reasonable. It had both hot and cold options. However, sometimes the hot options were cold and could have been replenished with fresher options more regularly. There was a nice selection of fruits and juices. The Greek yogurt was nice and there was a range of different toppings to choose from. I would recommend the spa. It was very relaxing and the amenities were very good. The area is clean and calming. It costs €25 per person for 90 minutes to use the pool, sauna, steam room etc., Treatments are available at an additional cost. On our second night, the fire alarm went off on four separate occasions between the hours of 1:30am-7:30am. After the first occasion, we rang reception to ask what had happened and we were informed someone had been smoking in their room. No other explanation or apologies were offered on the other occasions. Overall, there are probably much worse places that you could stay and while we did enjoy the relaxation of the holiday, it is not somewhere that I would return to.

Room was lovely, amenities where lovely. We booked the Deluxe suite with a jacuzzi. The room was beautiful, the terrace was beautiful. View was also great. Unfortunately, we were let down by the service and food. We paid over £800 for 2 nights. We asked if we could have our dinner in our room and where told that they charge nearly £10 just to bring food to your door, the AC wasn't working as it should and it took the technician over an hour to turn up. We paid for late check out and when we asked about this we were told that we had to call the reception the night before to confirm availability, we did so and where told that we have to call the morning of check out for availability which defeats the whole point of check out, not only this but if we have paid for the service, we shouldn't be chasing them, they should be calling us. Dinner was tasty, and breakfast was very underwhelming in taste, I found mouldy bread on the buffet, which I reported to a waitress who didn't seem to care very much. As I mentioned, Rooms 5*, service 2*.

I recently stayed at this hotel and unfortunately, my experience was rather disappointing. While the hotel itself is clean and the rooms are well-maintained, the overall service left much to be desired. The breakfast was particularly underwhelming – it was the same limited selection every day, lacking variety and taste. The quality of the food was quite poor, and sadly, it did not meet basic expectations. The cocktails were equally disappointing; they tasted very cheap and there were even technical issues during their preparation, which did not inspire confidence. The hotel's location is acceptable – it's conveniently close to the highway, which makes it easy to reach by car. However, you do need a vehicle to get around, as most places of interest are not within walking distance. Thankfully, there are a few nearby shops where you can buy essentials, which made self-catering a more appealing option during our stay. Overall, while the cleanliness of the hotel was a positive aspect, the poor service and low-quality food and drinks significantly affected our experience. I expected more and, unfortunately, would not choose to stay here again.