My husband and I have just returned from the above hotel after staying for 9 days. The weather was lovely, the hotel rooms were excellent with all mod cons except kettle. The hotel was very clean.

If you are contemplating staying in this area in October there is nothing open - except 2 small supermarkets, area is very quiet - all apartments looked empty.

If you are going for the golf then there are various golf courses in the area including the one near the hotel.

The hotel seemed to be closing for the winter at the end of October and the food was not good for this standard of hotel. There was no variety. It was stone cold - I know that Spanish hotel food is not piping hot normally and I do not mind this but when it is stone cold this is a different story. There was a microwave to heat the food up if required but not all kinds of food are suitable to be reheated. Also there were flies everywhere in the dining room with no visible deterrent.

The staff were pleasant but few spoke English. Reception staff were very helpful.

My family and I spent 4 days at this Hotel (2 adults and 2 children of 6 and 12 years old), on all inclusive.
The reservation online had an error, but they call us, and that was no problem. They gave us a family room at the top floor wich is very spacious, with 2 bedrooms in suite( I think the room is, in fact, the best of this hotel, if we don't consider the noise that comes from people around the pool). So, If you like to rest a little after lunch, forget this Hotel! It's very difficult to sleep during the day with the noise, and we were on top floor!...
During the night we had another problem: So many big mosquitos! We can see by the marks on the walls that other guests have had the same problem!
After some issues at the beggining of our stay ( the recepcionist forgot to put us the all inclusive wrist bands, the garage was not allowing cars to get in, the security case didn't work because the recepcionist didn't explained how it works and didn't gave us a code to activate it, etc...), we went to see the beach.

the beach is very close to the hotel, with a very nice path between them. In my opinion, when it's low tide, the beach is good (acceptable, but not comparable to the beaches around Cadiz, like "Playa la Barrosa") .

The pool is too much deep, so the majority of people don´t stay very far from the steps!... In my opinion, the floor around the pool is not the appropriated for a pool, and in the afternoon it looks dirty, wet and disgusting.

The food: at the first night we loved it (Thursday), and then, from meal to meal, the first good impression was dissapearing, and we felt that this hotel didn't worth the money we have paid. They just don't have a sucullent peace of meat or fish, and at our last day they served hamburguers, hot dogs, chips, calamares and another things like that FOR DINNER! The restaurant is veryyyy noisy also!

Another interest thing is that they have beatifull and enormous lamps at the lobby, and we were expecting to see the lights on at night, as they had economic lights. Another dissapointment...

The shows at night were: Thursday: a clown making magics (my kids didn't like it), Friday: The Kenian Boys (We found it a very good show), and Saturday: Flamenco Show.

We can't say that we had a bad experience, the employees were all very nice, but we wont go again to this hotel, because I think there are better options at Andalucia.

We have just come back from a two week stay. We have had the best time! If you are booked to go - lucky you!

Resort: This resort is an upmarket spanish holiday resort, very nicely kept. The lovely shopping centre is five minutes walk from the hotel and has a decent supermarket (no English Brands) and loads of shops with lovely jewellery, bags, beach stuff, clothes and pick and mix sweet shop etc all reasonably priced and on the upstairs where loads of restaurants and bars.

Weather: averaged 26 degrees perfect with a very slight breeze - we chose this resort as we did not want to boil in Greece. Evenings perfect not hot and sweaty but no need for jumpers - just right.

Hotel: Really well laid out, it was kept immaculately clean, every morning they clean the whole hotel (an army of cleaners) amazing! Towels are 10 Euros deposit and you take back whenever you like for clean ones. Safe in room £10 a week. To keep room on till 3pm an extra £14 otherwise you have to be out by 12. You can keep till 6pm for £22.

Room: We had a family suite - this consisted of one door that opened to two doors leading to each room. The main room had a living area with sofabed loads of cupboard space, kingsize bed and gorgeous bathroom. The second room had twin beds and ensuite showeroom both had bidet and toilets. The rooms far exceeded my expectations. The pictures in the brochures did not do them justice. I would say the rooms were worthy of 5 star. We were pool facing oon the second floor. You could hear the entertainment (which all finishes now at 11pm) but only if it was music on the terrace (twice a week) and we did not mind being sung to sleep! It was not loud and not a problem. Fridge in each room.

Pool: The main pool is huge but nobody had mentioned that the shallowist part is 1.4metres! Luckily our son had learnt to swim last year otherwise he would have had to have worn armbands - he can swim very well now! Cleaned daily.

Sunbeds: This was my biggest fear having read the previous reports. We arrived the first day and at 3pm we walked out to a choice of beds with parasols.... We woke up the next morning in a panic as we had slept in till 9am my husband ran to the window to see if there were any left - it was a sea of blue - not one bed reserved! This was the story the whole two weeks. Fantastic. Only one family let the side down - and guess what - they were English! Made us laugh though the whole pool area and beds and tables are washed every morning at 830, hosed down, their towels were soaked!!! All the beds were fine and looked as new.

All Inclusive: We were dubious as we had never done in Europe. No worries here. All drinks included all brands there were a couple of expensive wines you had to pay a small supplement for but the wines were fine. They have a self serve system at the pool bar (to save you waiting) but if you prefer they will serve you. I think this was to overcome previous comments about queuing for drnks (we did not have to at all). Bottled water free. Soft drinks from tap or bottles (whichever you prefer). Also snacks midmorning and afternoon, cakes, rolls etc. We were looking for a catch but there wasn't one - any bar, any time (bars closed at midnight) Ice cream free - freezer by the pool bar with lollies and tubs. magnums etc you had to pay for. Excellent.

Food: Another one of our worries but no need. It was very good. Huge selection for breakfast, english bacon and eggs, pancakes, rolls pastries. Lunch buffet. Dinner buffet - most nights a theme, chinese, italian, mexican all excellent. There is a microwave which as there is so much to choose from it can go cooler as you go round. There was a good choice for kids, pasta with selection of sauces, salad bar and chips - these were always there as back up! Most nights a roast - we were not bored after two weeks ( but had learnt in the past not to have a bit of everything every night) Perfectly cooked. Also a good selection of fish. Excellent desserts always ice cream - profiteroles my favourite with the hot chocolate sauce!

Kids Club: Mini Club 4 - 7 years and Maxi 8 - 12 but they are flexible. Anna and Peter fantastic - really got on well with all the kids and worked so hard - great variety of stuff for them to do and the kids could come and go as they pleased. Mini Disco at 830 every night.

Day Activity: This was run by Leo - he is amazing - spoke all languages and a really good sport. No pressure to join in but surprisingly we did! All stuff goes on from 1030 till 1230 then 3pm till 5pm.

Evening Shows: These were proffesional acts for 6 nights and the animacion team for 1. All sorts a magician, fire eating, ballet etc brilliant mostly in the theatre ( be there 5 minutes before for a good seat). Show from 10pm till 11pm. No disco.

Overall an excellent holiday. Really enjoyed as no nationality was in the majority and everyone got on together. Staff so friendly all knew our childrens names by the end.

Car Hire: We hired a car from economy car hire - a brooker for Auriga Crown - they are five minutes walk in the shopping centre. Very cheap no excess or additional driver charge. We did not use it much as kids happy by the pool but much cheaper to prebook than buy locally! Be warned parking is at a premium over weekends - you really struggle to find a space in the resort.

Money: Do not take sterling travellers cheques! There are no exchange places as most clients are from Europe and have Euros. Do not plan to use credit cards as most places did not take them.

Golf: My husband visited four of the local courses - no need to prebook- he used the hotel golf desk as cheaper through her but you had to pay cash! Loved the golf. About 45 euros a round included buggy.

Beach: Very busy, nice but too busy for us! Sea a bit chilly.

Transfers: Thomas Cook did a minibus for us - took 1 hour.

Hope this helps you!

Overall, the hotel is nice, recent and the rooms are very spacious. Family suites made of two connected rooms are just perfect. The hotel crew if very friendly (remember : try to speak a few words of spanish and they'll be happy ; that's just a matter of politeness). The swimming-pool is very nice and everyone loves it, kids and adults. The hotel is not on the first line in front of the beach, but it's really at 150 meters from it and 400m from the golf ; overall a very nice location. The club for kids is great and kids do love it. The downsizes are the following ones :

Diversity of food for dinner is low (no enough variety for vegetables, meat too cooked, fruits too young and green, no yogurts for children). Breakfast is excellent. Lunch is much better than dinner, with wider diversity. The food at the pool's bar is too expensive for what's it's worth. Price of drinks is ok, very affordable. We did not take the "all inclusive" program, thiking it's far too expensive for our needs. Of course, if you're on a booze trip, it's made for you.

The hotel is VERY noisy and you should strictly refuse a room facing the swimming-pool on the first or second floors. If you really want to sleep before 2am and have a family room, request a room on road's side and 4th floor... Otherwise you'll have to deal with music starting in all the hotel lobby at 8am, and noise of the bar or shows between 8pm and 2am. Nice when you're used to live at spanish hours, but awful if you come from northern Europe and all you need is vacation and rest. First floor on pool's side is so noisy even children cannot sleep. Warning, the concert room is just below the 1st floor of the left aisle...
If you're without children, ask for rooms 354 or 454, they don't see the pool but see the beach and the sea :-)

The space around the pool is clearly insufficient given the number of rooms in the hotel. There are not enough sunbeds and umbrellas. During our last day, we left our towels and stuff for 45 minutes for lunch and the hotel crew removed them to give our sunbeds to another family ! That means you cannot even go for lunch (or even stay in the pool!) w/o risking to lose your sunbeds !!! Because many families (from UK, France, Spain, Sweden, Ireland) complained about it that day, all rooms received the day after that a sheet of paper explaining reserving sunbeds is forbidden before 9am, and sunbeds can be reassigned by the hotel crew if nobody's on them ! How to turn something simple (you have no seat around the pool ? No problem, you have the beach at 150 meters away only) into a gigantic mess. Seriously, this is a shame and abnormal for a 4 star hotel...

The sunbeds and umbrellas at the swimming-pool are of poor quality. They're not replaced at all when broken, even when they are dangerous.

The swimming-pool is not cleaned enough. One day, there were papers and insects floating between waters and despite of our remarks, the pool crew did NOT clean the pool until the next day.

The safe available in your room is not free of charge. It's even too expensive, about 14 euros per week !!! There's a deposit of 10 euros per beach towel ! Access to the internet through the two computers in the lobby costs 4 euros per half-hour. Soaps in the room were not replaced once in two weeks, but showers contain a liquid soap dispenser.

In conclusion, this Iberostar hotel is probably an excellent choice for mid-may or september. Probably not for july and certainly not for august. Just in front of our hotel was the Puerto Antilla Grand Hotel, on the beach front line, and that one is clearly a better if more expensive choice. Islantilla in itself is a great place, quiet and lovely, not far away from Portugal (don't miss the incredible Tavira island).