Villa Le Blanc Gran Melia

Firstly, if I could give 4.5 stars I would have. However it’s not a feature on Tripadvisor so I elected to go for 4 stars, although the experience was better than 4 stars. Me and my wife came here for our Baby-moon at the end of August looking for a relaxed holiday. Thankfully, given the amount we paid, we had a lovely time here. In terms of facilities there is a lot on offer, from the various pools (we particularly enjoyed the adults only area), to the spa (which we didn’t try) and a few different experiences. The staff are very friendly and attentive, helping us with an issues we had and booking us into local restaurants. The rooms were clean, a good size and our sea view was enjoyable for our morning coffee. The whole hotel is well furnished and is maintained to a high standard. The breakfast is as good as we have had anywhere else. However we had dinner in La Terraza Del Balear and it was very disappointing. You ended up paying a lot of money for food that wasn’t particularly filling and not well portioned. I had to complain about my stuffed squid, which consisted of 3 small pieces of squid “stuffed” with a bit of sauce. To their credit, they took this item off the bill with minimum amount of fuss. The only other sticking point is the price. It is incredibly expensive, even for the service they offer, especially when that price doesn’t include all food and drink. We have spent 10 days on safari in South Africa, 10 days in the Maldives or 14 days in Japan for less money than the amount we paid for a week here. We have spent less than £700 a night in hotels that we equally as good and offered more in return. In conclusion we had an enjoyable stay, but the price seems a bit inflated for what we experienced. When you go out for dinner, there are good local options within a 15 minute walk or a 15 minute drive.

The hotel is beautiful and set in a quiet area in the south of the island. Our room was a good size and very comfortable with a nice side view of the sea. It was always kept clean and the hotel does an evening turndown service. All the staff were very helpful and friendly, but it seemed clear that they were short staffed as service was regularly very slow . On a couple of occasions, in both the main restaurant at breakfast and the cafe bar area in the evening, having ordered drinks we ended up leaving after 15 minutes because they hadn't arrived. A few times at breakfast the order was not delivered correctly and the majority of the time the eggs arrived cold. In fact, in general we found the food very average especially considering the price. Food and drink is very expensive and as a result we saw so many guests eating in other places and even eating homemade sandwiches by the pool. Can't help thinking if the hotel adjusted their prices for food and drink more guests would eat in the hotel as it is such a lovely place. Great swimming pool with plenty of large comfortable sun beds and umbrellas around the pool and gardens with views out to sea. The Spa was fabulous with professional ladies from Thailand giving excellent massages.

A fantastic hotel, made so by the staff. Without exception the staff, of which there are unusually large numbers, could not do enough to make our stay special. Here I must mention Alejandro the concierge and Lucia a hostess as well as the customer experience manager unfortunately I have forgotten her name. The hotel was immaculate, I have never seen so many cleaning staff in a hotel. The food quality was excellent. On the minus side the roof top adults only swimming pool area had zero appeal, it was dead. For our ten breakfasts our hot drink and hot food orders were wrong every day. Overall a great hotel with great staff.

A beautiful hotel to look at with a great pool but sadly the staff just aren’t up to 5* standard. This hotel needs some well experienced staff to give guidance to the young people who make up the majority of staff. For example, in the restaurant no one could explain how some of the items on the menu were cooked; items we ordered didn’t materialise, our servers weren’t knowledgeable on the wine list and pre dinner drinks took up to 20 minutes to be served. Be aware that most restaurants in San Tomas are attached to hotels so if you’re looking for traditional restaurants or you want to escape the monotony of the hotel restaurant menus you’ll need to get in your car or take a taxi. This hotel also allows dogs. I was not happy to see one owner bringing his dog down to the pool and letting it sit on one of the sunbeds. We also had a dog in the room next to us that constantly yapped whenever anyone walked past the room. The cleanliness of the rooms couldn’t be faulted. Great service here. Value for money? In my opinion having travelled to 5* hotels all over the world, no. Much work needs done here to bring it up to 5*.

Executive summary: Food is inedible and maybe the worst we have had. Direct access to beach is nice, the hotel is visually appealing, staff are courteous but again food is very bad. Food / drink: - Quality not even close to a 5-star hotel but priced as such - The food is legitimately gross and we were not able to eat it despite having a free breakfast included - We drove 30+ mins each meal to not have to eat here - Some nights we opted to not eat Hotel / rooms: - Nice design - Very clean - Nice pool and rooftop pool - Direct beach access is convenient - Pleasant staff Recommendations: - Gran Melia needs to step in here, the food is laughable and is not the product they want to put out. If the food were to be better this would be a more special place. We actually had ate poolside at a 3 star hotel elsewhere and was CONSIDERABLY better.