Positiv
·Room (Large w. see view)
·Bath area spacious and beautiful w. shower and bathtub
·Cleanliness of total operation
·Pool landscape beautiful and specious
·Pool service
·Room maid
·Limo service
·Breakfast buffet = copious

Negative
·Location = to remote
·Rental car needed
·Poor beach
·No courtesy bus
·No animation
·Hotel Restaurants = expensive

My wife and I stayed at the Hotel Elba for a week at the end of October to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The hotel itself is superb. We stayed in a junior suite that was spacious with a wonderful bathroom- including jacuzzi shower and bath! Towels and bedding were changed daily and bedroom toileteries were replenished frequently. We really enjoyed the meals in each of the hotels three restaurants - Paris Roma; Asia Fusion and Andalusia - which was fortunate because the hotel really is in the middle of nowhere, with Estepona at least two miles away. We went into Estepona a couple of times and frankly, were very disappointed. We found it to be grubby with hardly anywhere decent to eat - unless McDonalds or other fast food is your fancy. The other slight disappointment was the lack of anywhere pleasant to walk to from the hotel - unless you fancied risking life and limb dodging the traffic on the busy footpath-less road. We had been looking forward to coastal walks along a promenade, but there wasn't one.

Anyway, back to the hotel. The Thalasso Spa is excellent, although we hadn't read anywhere before we went which said that it was 30 Euros a day each. I suppose that was our fault, but it really should be free for guests. The most disappointing thing for us was the so called beach. The hotel crows on about having a private beach. That may be. The beach is black sand and pebbly - nothing at all wrong with that. However it is totally unkempt, being covered in rubbish, driftwood and the like - including broken wooden boxes with rusty nails protruding. It would take hotel staff a few minutes a day to maintain it. A hotel which purports to be 5 star GL really should do better.

The pool area on the other hand was very well maintained, with plenty of excellent sunbeds and a good bar service. The indoor pool, although unheated when we were there, was a good place to stretch out in what was basically a lavish greenhouse.

That said, we had a wonderfully relaxing week in opulent surroundings. On the last night I decided to treat myself to a Remy Martin. However, when we got to the bar at about 10.30pm the only other people there were the barman and someone who was sweeping the floor. I took one look at the price list - saw that a Remy was 20 Euros and went to bed instead.

This hotel has the bricks and morter needed for a 5 star rating. Unfortunately it has been let down by a lack of care for its customers.
Upon arrival we were told that there was no record of our booking (two rooms, 3 adults and two young children) Despite showing the reception staff evidence of a confirmed booking we were still made to wait whilst they tried to understand what had gone wrong. Eventually we were told that two rooms could be made available to us but we would have to wait. After 45 minutes we got our rooms. We then tried to obtain a meal. At the restaurant we were told that they would not be able to offer a table for another thirty minutes as the kitchen could not cope. This despite the restaurant being two thirds empty. We were not even allowed to sit at a table and wait but were instructed to leave. We then tried room service. This took 45 minutes to obtain a sandwich. All this took place a 2100hours with two young children who were asleep on their feet.

The next day there was a strong smell of sewage in the wing of the hotel we were occupying. Using the air conditioning only made matters worse. After visits by reception staff, technicians and management, we learnt that this was a common problem when the wind was in the south west. Apparantly there is sewage outfall nearby and the winds blow the smell into the hotel, or so a manager informed me. The hotel did arrange for a transfer to two other rooms on a higher floor which resolved the problem.

There are three restaurants, all with good and varied menu's. The only problem was that they did not seem to understand the concept of warm plates and food. All to often a good meal was ruined by cold and soggy vegetables served on a cold plate. When they got it right it was a good experience. The fault in the first instance lay with the serving staff. They should have realised that what they were serving was not acceptable. Again recompense was generous when we made our feelings known.

The whole hotel did not seem to be strongly managed and it did not ensure that its staff gave a five star service. On a number of occasions I had to remind Housekeeping that our rooms needed to be cleaned. This should not have been necessary.

All of the above by themselves would not have spoilt our enjoyment of the Hotel had the one feature we had looked forward to been up to scratch. There were two very well designed and attractive swimming pools. The problem was that the water (late October) was not just cold it was artic! For children to play or swim in them risked the real possibility of hypothermia. Consequently we were unable to use them. The Management refused to even consider heating the smaller internal pool which would have been acceptable.

This hotel did not seem to care for its clients. Whenever there was a problem the management did their best to help. But they seem to have missed the salient point that the type of problems I was seeing just should not have happened in a 5 star Gran delux hotel. I left feeling that my money had not been well spent.

On a more general note future customers should realise that the site is remote and a hire car is essential. Even taxi's were not the answer. The hotel should consider the provision of a mini bus into Estepona. This would be much appreciated by families which needed at least two taxi's for any journey and which could not guarentee that we would both reach the same destination.

We have just returned from a fantastic week in Estepona. We hired a car at Malaga airport and the hotel is about an hour's drive along the coastal road - lovely. The hotel is on the main road but all of the rooms overlook the sea so you can't hear any traffic noise. You do need a car, though, unless you want to pay out for taxis as there is nothing near the hotel. Daniel, on reception, was fantastic. He offered us a free cocktail while we were waiting to go to our room and even gave us an informal spanish lesson! We would also like to thank Hassan, the night manager. We heard a banging noise on our ceiling one afternoon to evening and he offered us another room and then went upstairs to discover it was a chair on the room above's balcony which he replaced. Our room was spacious with a lovely bathroom. We had his and hers sinks, shower cubicle and a jacuzzi bath. Bliss! There were also the usual toiletries. We had a large balcony overlooking the sea. As a Brit, though, I would have liked tea making facilities (pot of tea was 3 euros 80!)The pool area was lovely, it was cleaned daily and towels, loungers etc were available. The weather was gorgeous and we spent several hours soaking up the sun. The only downside was the pool was very cold. There is an indoor pool but that was cold too. We were told it is heated out of season from the 1st November so we just missed that! It's grit your teeth and jump in! The breakfast was very good - lots of choice, but some of the hot buffet was luke warm. We used to get the chef to cook us an omelette which was fine. There are loads of tables on the terrace and that was the best place to sit. The only disappointment for us was the evening meals at the restaurants. They were very expensive and not that great. I'm a vegetarian and there was little choice. However, in the nearby port of Estepona there were loads of lovely restaurants and a lot cheaper so we suggest you go there. We didn't use the spa as it was 30 euros a day!!!! We thought that was a bit of a cheek as we think guests should have been able to use the jacuzzi and steam rooms without paying extra. However, we enjoyed our stay and would stay at this hotel again, but not bother using the restaurants for dinner.