good points,

weather was very hot
good beer
great staff
very clean
close to centre

bad points,

small pool
very small beach
horrid smell when in the sea like raw sewage
food very boring


i returned yesterday and had a okay time. i went all inclusive and although saved me alot of money not buying alcohol the food was dissapointing.
went out for evening meal 4 out of seven nights. the beach is tiny and sterts to fill @ about 9am so by 09;10 there is not a space left .

had a relaxing week but would not return.

We've just returned from a week at Ponent Playa, and I can say I was pleasantly suprised with the stay.

There was ample parking, with a 3.5 euro per day charge, and you also have to pay to hire the dafe in your room.

OK so the room is pretty basic (although A/C was a welcome relief at night!), but you dont go to Mallorca to spend your whole time in the room!??!

I didnt experience any problems in the restuarant, and we were all inclusive. Always got a table straight away, and the service from the staff was quick and friendly.

The food was also great - lots of local dishes, but also some British food for the unadventurous.

You can walk from the hotel straight onto the beach, and the views are terrific.

All in all a great holiday, and I would totally recommend this hotel.

The entertainment staff deserve a HUGE mention - they were always about the hotel, and were having fun WITHOUT being annoying! I've never seen people work so hard - they did a great job. If you're taking kids they will LOVE these guys!

Overall great hotel. We were on the ground floor and could be on the beach in 2 minutes which was excellent. We did look at the pool once as an alternative to the beach but it was way too small for the size of the hotel.
The food was very good with lots of choice every day, there were not only British in the hotel so the food was varied.
The rooms were as expected and the sheets and towels were changed every day,
The hotel was only a few minutes walk to the shops, bars etc leading to the centre of the resort.
Overall an excellent hotel and will definately return in the future.

We booked 13 nights at the Ponent Playa about a week before we flew out. I read the reviews on here and on other review websites. Generally they are favourable and quite decent compared to other hotel reviews I had checked for Majorca.

I have to say though that our experience was not so good...

The rooms are basic. I had requested a sea view which in a strict sense we got - if we looked over the balcony divider of the next room! Never mind - wasn't intending spending a lot of time in the room anyway. The room we had looked quite grubby on the walls but the beds were clean enough and made up daily and towels are also replaced each day. Walls are paper thin though and you can hear conversations in the next rooms especially with families who don't have any respect for other people! Doors slam very easily though and still make a reasonable noise even when trying to close them quietly!

The overwhelming feeling I took from this holiday with regards to the hotel is frustration! The classic holiday annoyance of people reserving poolside sunbeds all day by getting up before the sunrises, the pool is not really big enough for the amount of customers the hotel has! You get half a dozen lilo's in there and it's chaos!

The cove down the steps from the hotel is nice but always crowded! It was difficuly to find any place to claim as your own little space! Swimming was great in the ocean though - water felt freezing initially but you soon got used to it.

The most annoying thing I found was the restaurant! We stayed half board. Again, too many people for the size of the restaurant (even though it is quite big) and/or too little staff and poor organisation. You have to find your own table and more often than not you end up claiming one from someone who is leaving/just left. So you have to wait for the waitress to come and clean the table/replace tablecloth/bring cutlery etc. Not really the staff's fault as they were pretty much working their socks off. Just a typical 3* hotel trying to keep costs down. You find yourself in a queue of 4-5 people waiting to use the toaster. They would only have one chef cooking meets/eggs etc. and too many people waiting for the stuff to be cooked. Quite often I would miss out on the food just cooked and just give up waiting and end up with beans on toast at breakfast. It was very hit and miss whether you got the food you wanted as you wandered around. Dinner was very much the same. Food was reasonable and seemingly varied but you soon saw the same things popping up each night. By the end of the holiday I was just sick of the whole restaurant experience - especially due to ignorant guests with no manners to queue or just walk in your way. It was a bit of a riot and free for all. I realise you get this with 3* buffet's but manners cost nothing! On our last night they stopped people coming in as they said it was too full and actually showed us to a table - much better in my opinion!

We left early on the day we departed and had notified the hotel reception and were told there would be a cold breakfast available. The choice in the morning was pathetic. We ended up with a cup of tea basically! Another family mentioned this too. We were at the point where we were joking about it and just wanted to leave, but it was pretty poor!

I found the resort boring - same old tatty souvenir shops. The centre had some decent shops but you get the same stuff back in the UK for less these days. Entertainment on a night was terrible at the hotel and pretty poor in the resort. We ended up watching Elvis/Madonna/Robbie tribute acts at Eden Paradise and that was the best it got! Walshies was OK for watching a bit of footy from back home.

I don't know if the problem is me and my expectations?! In my opinion it's a poor reflection on the intelligence of UK holidaymakers when all there is to do is get drunk and watch terrible entertainment! Then again, maybe I am just a miserable so and so! :-)

I personally wouldn't go here or Majorca again (we saw a bit more of the island via the Island Tour which was pretty good and the Coves des Drach which was excellent). I am just sick to death of these tourist destinations. I want something real when I go away in future.

To be fair I think this hotel and Cala D'or is possibly suitable for families with small children due to the calibre of entertainment. We are older now and my son is nearly 16 - we just found it all boring really.