We booked 5 nights at this vacation club in early October and were expecting a nice Marriot style single room accomodation. When we arrived we were astounded to be shown to a room that was the smaller bedroom of a 3 bed apartment. Room was clean but very very small, we did not have enough storage space in the room and had to use the balcony to store our things. Room was on the ground floor with no privacy whatsoever so we had to leave curtains drawn throughout our stay. Basically this room should not be marketed as a 4 star room under the Marriot brand, since this smaller bedroom (part of a larger apartment separated into rooms for rental) offered for rental is inconsistent with the apartment offerings in the rest of the resort and the Marriot brand. This tiny room was priced at €135 per night (excluding breakfast; including breakfast it was over €150) which was absurdly expensive for the room offering and for what is available on Costa del Sol (please refer our separate posting for our stay the prior week at Hotel Guadalmina, where we had much nicer accomodation, larger room with seaviews and at distinctly better prices). We are sorry to say that the room was the worst part of our stay.

Breakfast was quite nice, good choice but the coffee on offer was just instant coffee, so quite disappointing.

Resort facilities were quite nice, gardens were well maintained, pools were nice. Restaurant food offering was quite basic (pizza/ pasta/ burgers) but there are a lot of good restaurants nearby. We tried a lebanese restaurant by the highway which was very nice and quite popular.

On our first morning we were made to listen to a 4 h time share presentation, a sales pitch for us to buy a one week timeshare in an apartment in this resort. The apartments in this resort are nice, however separating a 3 bed apartment into a 2 bed apartment and a separate room, for separately renting out a 2 bed apartment and a single room is quite a peculiar model adopted by Marriot.

Overall would return to Costa del Sol but certainly not at the Marriot.

Stayed for two nights in a two bedroomed apartment. Has to be the cleanest accommodation We have stayed in. Most comfortable bed slept in for a long time. If only the weather had behaved it would have been perfect as the outdoor pools looked perfect, just a shame it poured down. Mandy on reception was friendly,helpful and made the check-in process a pleasure. The free round of drinks at the bar was a great touch.

We stayed at this hotel w/c 13 October 2012 - it was a timeshare exchange. On arrival (about midnight) we were warmly greeted by the receptionist, given all the information we needed and directed to our room. Our room was a studio room, which although small, had everything we needed - two single (very comfy) beds next to each other, a large TV, table and two chairs both in the room and also outside on the balcony, a small kitchenette area with microwave, sink, full size fridge, toaster, coffee machine, large bathroom with bath and shower. The room was spotlessly clean - the maid service attended each day and ensured it remained clean and tidy throughout our stay. We also had to request two non-feather pillows and these were sent to our room within half an hour of requesting from reception.

The hotel itself is definitely 4 star - the grounds and facilities are of a high standard. There are three main pools - one near the bar/restaurant which appeared to be more of an adult pool, then two further good sized pools - the last of which has a slide and appeared to be more of a children's pool, but also still good for adults. There were also two small pools for toddlers and also a large jacuzzi. The pools were cold, but enough people were enjoying them so they weren't too cold. The pool surroundings were also very clean and it was good that all pool areas were only accessible via a gate which was locked at the top e.g. child proof - good to keep your children in/out of the pool area to ensure they are safe.

The beach area was also very nice - accessed by a gate for which you need your key card to get back in. The sunbeds were very popular and there is also a beach bar which was closed due to it being out of season. However, the food available here when open is very nice. Could do with some more sunbeds on the beach as fully occupied, even in low season. People did seem to be doing the typical thing of reserving beds even though they weren't using them until later.

The facilities available for children seemed great (we don't have children) - there is a volleyball court, pool tables, table tennis tables, large drafts and chess, mini golf, play areas, a basketball/football court, climbing wall, as well as the pool games and slide etc. Certainly appeared to be a lot to keep children occupied and also safely. We didn't use the indoor facilities, but they seemed to be very popular also.

We only ate in the restaurant on a few occasions - firstly for breakfast which we thought was a little expensive at 15 euros each. However, there was a good selection and also Cava on offer for those who fancied it. The hot food was well covered, but could have been a little hotter. There was a large cold selection of food, but we did feel this should have been better covered - largely due to the number of flies (see below). We also ate lunch at the restaurant/bar which was also nice, if still a little expensive. Our evening meal was absolutely lovely and could not be faulted at all. We had this on our last night and wished we'd had more evening meals there as it was so nice. We felt that the pool bar area could have been a little better in terms of more seating and a wider selection of snacks/drinks available.

The one thing which was very frustrating was the number of flies, although this wasn't just an issue around the hotel, perhaps more to do with the time of year. They were all over us whilst outside, very persistent, and made it difficult when eating as, as soon as your food arrived they were straight on it. They were also inside the restaurant, hence why we felt the cold selection of buffet should have been covered up.

The Market Square shop was useful and had everything you'd need during your stay. I wouldn't say it was too overly priced, no more than your typical hotel shops. Lovely fresh baguettes/bread available each morning. You can even rent DVD's for only 4.50 euros from the shop to play on the DVD player in your room. The TV has all English channels (freeview) so if you are in on an evening you can watch all the soaps or other programmes of interest.

The hotel has free wifi available - all you need to do is login each day using your room number and surname for free 24hr access. This worked perfectly well on our iphones whilst on the resort. A bonus for when you want to check out the local maps before heading out or even restaurant reviews.

Transport wise, people recommend that you have a car whilst staying at this resort. However, we used the local bus service and found it to be more than adequate. The bus stop is no more than a 10 minute walk from the hotel and buses run either way along the coast road every half hour. It was only 4 euros for us to get to Puerto Banus each day - or only very slightly more to get to Estepona or Marbella. We tended to get a taxi back at night which was around 11/12 euros, again, not too bad and certainly not worth hiring a car for given that you would have to pay to park at Puerto Banus etc. We even used the buses to get to and from the airport - you can get a bus from the airport to Marbella for only 6 euros each and a bus from Marbella to the resort for about 5 euros.

Puerto Banus is only a few miles away and was our favourite place to go - a wide selection of bars and restaurants to choose from, plus shops (including designer). We enjoyed sitting at the Salduba bar on the corner where you can sit for hours watching the flash cars pull into the port and see all of the amazing yachts etc.

To summarise, we would fully recommend this resort - certainly worth a 4 star - all staff were very polite and friendly, the resort was spotlessly clean in all areas and had everything you could ask for during your stay. We would definitely return.

We were here 4 years ago and we thought our memories were too good to be true. But it was as good as we remembered and even better because our kids (7. 5, 5) are old enough to enjoy it. We even spent a lot of time in the sea. The water is still perfect for swimming in the middle of October.