This place is a paradox. It’s in a beautiful setting, the staff are delightful but it’s very expensive so you expect a lot for your money - and the management just doesn’t deliver it. There is evidence of parsimony and penny pinching everywhere. Starting with: Wi-Fi. It never worked. For any of us. Anywhere. For three days!. I know that many hotels have slow, bad Wi-Fi connections (Why is that?) but this service was completely unusable. Broadband is cheap and readily available across Menorca. Spend a few Euros management, and get it fixed. Toiletries. Don’t put the almost empty shampoo bottles back, replace them. Banging shutters and doors . It can be windy in Minorca and loose fitting doors and unsecured shutters get noisy at night. Do you know any carpenters? Restaurant. Do you have any chefs? Everything at dinner looked like it came straight out of a sous vide or microwave. There is no breakfast buffet and the standard breakfast is basically bread and jam. Want an egg? That will be extra! Even simple things like the Pan Con Tomate you get everywhere across the island was the budget version. Instead of the warm toasted ciabatta with blended tomatoes, garlic and olive oil you get a piece of cold white bread and a tomato! I almost laughed out loud. It’s a shame. This place could be really special and it almost succeeds but for 200-250 Euro a night you expect - and will find - a lot better.…
The old house full of history, the surroundings, the peace & quietness, Rosa's kindness... luckily they all remain the same. On this occasion I had the chance to stay in one of the unique Suites in the main building. It has a private viewpoint from which you can enjoy the incredible landscape around Alcaufar, the sea of the south coast of the island and looking towards the north you can even sense MonteToro, the highest mountain in Menorca. You could feel what our ancestors might have felt when they sheltered in this tower and watched if any enemies were invading the island. This is what I call a real privileged experience! I had dinner in the restaurant and both the food and the service were amazing. Nashua & Aina, the two kind waitresses looked after us in a discreet and very professional way. The menu offers a wide range of appealing suggestions for any palate. I eat no meat and I did not know what to choose from, I felt like trying so many different dishes! Those that I tried were finely presented. The wines proposed are well selected local and Spanish references, you will enjoy any of them. Breakfast served in the patio is a luxury treat on a sunny spring day, of course thanks to the setting but also thanks to Noemi. Thank you AlcaufarVell for an unforgettable 16 hours relaxing escape!…
We were booked into the hotel on a half board basis as part of a cycling trip. I had some trepidation, having read some of the scathing reviews. It wasn’t the warmest welcome and we were asked to write down our credit card details on a piece of paper along with exp date and 3 digit security code. Given that we had already paid in full in advance I found this odd and I declined to do this. In 2021 really not sure why you would ask a guest to write these details on a piece of paper?! The room was nice, bed was huge with a feather and a memory foam pillow. Complementary mini bar was well received. Bathroom was large with a hydro bath. However no shower screen meant that showering flooded the entire floor. There were bits of mould in the bathroom which need to be cleaned and isn’t acceptable. There are some public areas although nowhere you’d want to sit. In fact you can’t sit as there are no chairs and the spaces are almost like museum rooms as someone pointed out in another review. Unclear what these rooms were for. In fact I would have been interested to have found out more about the building’s history and these rooms would be a good opportunity to showcase this. The restaurant food is very good, however the kitchen clearly struggles to get food out in a reasonable time frame. Diners were regularly expected to wait about half an hour before even getting menus. Service from the waitresses was friendly and helpful. However I wouldn’t like to be attempting to eat here while there is a wedding going on! My tip would be if you want to eat at 8pm get there at 7:30. We had the “full breakfast” option which was huge and varied. One bugbear was the awful music playing nonstop in the restaurant. I can only describe this as slowed down samba versions of 80s pop and it is execrable. I noticed similar music at other establishments and wondered if they are subscribed to a digital service?!…
This is a wonderful hotel and restaurant. It is incredibly well run. The staff are very helpful and friendly. When we came for a week in Menorca we had only our first three nights booked, with a plan to book another hotel on the other side of the island. However everything about the Alcaufar Vell was so delightful we couldn’t leave, and decided to put up with the extra driving to visit other parts of Menorca. Lidia on the desk was very attentive to every request and gave us some great tips about places to see. The staff are all charming and make every effort to ensure that you are happy and comfortable. The cleaning of our room was impeccable and really we could not ask for more. Congratulations to the management and all the team for providing something special for every guest. We look forward to returning at some time in the future and will recommend Alcaurfar Vell and Menorca to all our friends.…
We arrived at the hotel to be informed, by reception, that due to a problem with the water cistern, we would not get our booked Junior Suite with terrace for the first 2 nights. Quite frankly we did not believe this explanation and believe that the hotel had overbooked for what ever reason, mistake or deliberate, and we had been bumped down into a suite with no terrace. We moved to our booked suite on the third day, by ourselves. Not impressed. We were not impressed either by the reduction in our overall bill at the end of our stay . One member of the reception staff presented as extremely unhelpful, another said he could not speak English! A shame really as the hotel is attractive and has bags of character but could do with some TLC in it's so called garden areas and generally. The a la carte breakfast was good. The evening menu was limited. Some meals uninspiring. More staff needed for meal service. Housekeeping excellent. Overall a pleasant stay marred by inattentive reception staff and not getting the room we booked. Cistern indeed!!!…
We were so looking forward to this holiday, especially after Covid and all the travel restrictions. We chose the hotel from its website - be warned, don’t be fooled like we were! The check in time was 2pm. We emailed to say we were on our way and would be there at 2. No response from hotel. Arrived, in pouring rain, at 2. We were met by a terrible, surly, arrogant ‘Manager?’ Who just said, room is not ready, you will have to wait for 45 minutes. No apology. Led us to a table in the dining room where we just had to sit, in this dull, cavernous place. The waitress actually felt sorry for us and bought us a drink, as we knew a colleague of hers at a different hotel! After 45 mins were told our room was ready. We had to go out in the rain and bring our cases in, no help offered. We were told that a table was booked for dinner at 8.30 that evening (we were booked in half board) I asked if I could have something to eat, as had only had yogurt at 9am that morning. They just said ‘No, kitchen is closed.’ We had to drive to nearby village to find a mini market where we bought some biscuits. Yet on their website they say that there is all day room service and the ‘pots are simmering all day on the stove.’ Well, not much was simmering that day, except us! Our room - huge disappointment. Furnished with old cast offs and an ugly black sofa bed. Bathroom even worse. We booked a Garden Room which should have had a hydro bath - instead we had a disabled bathroom and a bath from the seventies, stained and with a plug that didn’t fit, so no long soak possible. Awful cheap toiletteries, all quite ghastly. We asked for towels for the pool, which we found at the end of the long overgrown garden. Freezing cold. All plants in pots were dead, it looked so rundown. We went for dinner, and the food was very good indeed. However, not many in the dining room and the music playing was awful. We both agreed it was like being in some second rate care home. The other guests, or inmates, were old Etonian types who must like hiking and enjoy the public school severity of their surroundings. We discovered two upper rooms, which were furnished like a museum, no chairs or sofas to sit on. All very depressing. The beds were the hardest we have ever encountered, with brick like pillows. We thought the breakfast would be the usual fare which we have encountered in Menorca, such as yogurt, fruit, ham, cheese and pastries. Oh no, not at this place! You get “ coffee or tea, pastries and a bread basket with butter and jam and one glass of orange juice.” If you want an egg, or yogurt you have to pay €24! No we were not even given the orange juice! We decided that we couldn’t possibly stay in this place for 8 nights. We decided that we just had to get out, and quickly as it was so bad. They tried to charge us double the cancellation fee, but we stuck to our guns. Never have we packed so quickly! No one was bothered to find out why we had to go. This place is obviously geared up to host wedding functions. Alongside the dining room is a huge semi permanent marquee type of structure, with big round tables and a bar. We imagined what it would be like staying in the hotel whilst a wedding was going on - simply unbearable. We drove away like released prisoners, down the unkempt driveway on on to freedom. We hoped it wouldn’t be a ‘Hotel California’ experience, where you can ‘check out but never leave’, but we got away. We found a hotel online which we went to next, and it was simply heavenly after this awful experience. Alcaufar Vell was possibly a nice hotel once. But it is run down, uncared for, overgrown, broken shuttered, dead worms on paths, inhospitable and overseen by an arrogant man who doesn’t care less. You have been warned.…
Worst experience in Menorca!!! The restaurant “specialty” is breakfast/brunch but it was awful from start to finish. Initially we encountered the head of house who, quite frankly, should have been kept in the basement. She offered no service with a smile or assistance when our table wasn’t ready. Instead we were told to go for a walk and come back. Eventually, 1hr later!!!, we were seated but told the kitchen was struggling with the high demand with only 3 other occupied tables!!! As a result they couldn’t serve us the normal breakfast because eggs would take them too long to cook!!! Instead we were served only what the kitchen could manage which was cold cuts of meat, essentially food we didn’t want. They then charged us the full price, (although they did throw in a free croissant). The only redemption was the nice boy who served us, he acknowledged the terrible experience and tried to make up as best he could. In summary it’s a nice setting but we would never ever go back to eat or stay at this hotel.…
Such beautiful setting, and worst night of our holidays. Management was faced with a problem (we showed up with a small quiet well behaved Teckel) and kicked us of the restaurant! Knowing to get a taxi to go back to Mahon would be nearly impossible at that time on a Saturday. We had to wait outside, with nothing to eat, for the taxi, which we had to call ourselves. No sympathy whatsoever for a starving child. And we had to pay for the water and glass of champagne we had already ordered. The restaurant was more than half empty on the busiest night of the summer. I can see why. Go figure why they would have such unfriendly bosses running the place. Could be so much better .
In England it would be known as a fine Country House Hotel with an excellent restaurant. Only 15mins by taxi from the airport. But not on the flight path all the time we were there. We can't wait to go back. We dined in the courtyard 6 nights as part of the Inntravel cycling trip we were doing. The wait staff were friendly and spoke excellent English. The menu was shortish but always included fish as a special. The food was excellent. Our room with its own small terrace/garden was excellent with a deep bath and fine shower. The double bed was huge. Plenty of storage and hanging space. We will return.
This hotel was one of two we stayed in whilst on a walking holiday with friends organised by Inntravel. The house is very old and full of character with modern art (with eye watering price tags) displayed around the building. We all had large rooms at the top of the building with a small dressing area and a good sized bathroom with a huge “spa” bath. The room was comfortably furnished and stylish, our friends were similarly pleased with their rooms. Alcaufar Vell is in a fairly remote rural location and you will need a car. However the village of Punta Prima is a 45 minute walk over a fairly rough track but is a comfortable walk for those with moderate physical mobility. There are plenty of bars and restaurants but do look beyond the menu boards displayed offering “roast shoulder of lamb” and other English delights. We had an excellent lunch of more local food at the Casa Fermin. Service was excellent as well. We were staying for three nights, breakfast included with two dinners and two picnics. The included dinners also came with a bottle of wine per couple from a good selection on the wine list. They also kept any leftover wine for us for the following evening. We were able to choose from the a la carte menu without restriction as well. The meals were excellent, plenty of local food and we believe they even baked their own bread. We were all delighted with quirky hotel. Another excellent choice from Inntravel …
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