HL Paradise Island

Nice hotel, good food. Nice staff. Clean hotel. Could offer more cocktail drink variety.

Where to start! Bad first as I feel it is important. ❗️Hotel Apartments: double storey, one apartment on top of the other. Nearly every apartment on this block was being renovated including ours (un be known to us) no mention of this on any booking platform. Checked into the room at 3pm, walked to the apartment to find workmen still in there. Went to our friend’s room next door. Didn’t look too bad. Waited 5 minutes and entered the hell that was our room. Fresh, wet paint on the walls, dirty floors with paint and thick white dust all over, wires showing on the walls, table in the living room was damaged, rusty fridge, filthy bathroom, taps not cleaned, shower not cleaned with hair on the floor, paint all over the light switches, thick mold in the corners of the shower, the list goes on! Went to reception to complain, with photos, worst customer service Iv experienced. Not bothered, “couldn’t move us” we will send house keepers in tomorrow was the response I got. I asked to speak to manager, low and behold, no one available. “What would I like her to do” was the response I got! She magically found two rooms that we could move to. We went to have a look first as they both on the same block. Just as bad if not worse then what we had so decided to just stay put. You only sleep in the right?!? WRONG! First night, maintanence were working in the apartment above us until 6pm, drilling, hammering, dragging furniture across the floor. We had been up since midnight the night before so was hoping for a quick nap. That didn’t happen thanks to the work men above us! 8am first morning, yep maintenance above us again, hammering, shouting, drilling, more hammering! House keepers up and about for 8am every morning shouting to each other, pulling trollies up and down past the apartments, no care for guests on a relaxing holiday! Maintenance back every morning for 8am so enjoying a cuppa on your porch is a no unless you like the relaxing sound of drills, hammering and also the view of plaster powder, power tools etc as they like to just leave them where ever including your porch area! We spoke to several guests staying here and they all reported their rooms being awful! Witnessed a couple of families complaining to be told the same as we was “sorry we can’t move you” General cleanliness around the hotel is ok but a lot of rubbish. Not the hotels fault that’s lazy guests not cleaning up after them selves. Not the not so bad! ❗️ The hotel itself is nice. Big pools, small water park on the complex for the kids to enjoy with numerous slide. Food selection was ok with standard chips, pasta, pizza etc so you know there will be something you like. Bits going on through out the day around the pool ie activities. Not to far from Playa Dorado beach. €4 in a taxi or you can get a bus but most mornings it was really busy so we opted for a taxi. Enough sun beds for people there was not queuing to put a towel down in a morning. If you didn’t go to the main pool in the morn

The good point: The free bus out of here. Seriously, one of the only redeeming features. And even that had flaws. It's leaves twice a day, returns twice a day. No seatbelts. Bus driver very unfriendly. The bus drops you in a random carpark, no landmarks, I asked was this the beach, he said "last stop, everyone off". I asked again, "is this Playa Dorada?" He said "last stop". Also, the resort is quite well set up for buggies or wheelchairs, a lot of ramps around. Daily cleaners were good. Self service launderette on site. 30min hot wash for €6, I think the drier is €4, very handy. Shower has good pressure, hot water. There are some photography staff around, they are really friendly and take lovely family photos which you can buy (no idea what price). The onsite supermarket. It's not cheap but at least the kids will eat something. Bad points: Everything else. We paid €1150 all inclusive for a week in December. Private transfer from airport, expect to pay €60-70 each way. We arrived just after 9pm. Our flight was delayed so we were anxious that we had missed dinner (kids were starving), taxi driver reassured us that most good hotels would keep track of late arrivals and have a platter put aside for them to take to their room (considering we have paid for a full day of all inclusive)... nothing. Check in desk is painfully slow. Seems to take at least 10mins per check in, but if there's 6 ahead of you in the queue, with one staff, that's a long time. Esp if you've all arrived off the one flight. Swimming pools are the only real facility here. Kids do enjoy them but they are definitely cold, esp when it's overcast and the breeze hits. Inflatables and toys are allowed, so kids love that. Dinopark big slides looked good, no queues in December. The smaller pool looked good, but very slippy around the edge. Lifeguards are on duty but not sitting poolside so you seriously have to keep eyes on your own children at all times. Staff are not the friendliest. The photography staff and some cleaners greet you, the rest barely acknowledge you. I have emailed reception on 3 occasions about different issues, and never received a reply. Make up your own mind about the food. Personally I found nothing terrible about it, nothing was undercooked or burnt, it just wasn't appetising at all. I never once looked forward to any meal, not the queues, the chaos in the restaurants, and definitely not the food. Very very repetitive. Everything tastes very bland. My kids didn't like anything here so I had to constantly buy them different meals. The teas, coffee, juices are disgusting, we couldn't drink them. Ended up drinking water, total waste of money paying for all inclusive. Check plates and bowls when you pick them up, more than half of them are filthy, grease stains under the plates, looks like they were just rinsed with water after last person. The hotel must use tens of thousands of paper cups each day, all thrown away after a single use. Why not get strong

Paradise Island...nothing Paradise about it, On first sight the apartment looked really nice and spacious,but after seeing tiny bugs scurrying on the bedside cabinet we took a closerto look and found them on the headboard and picture above the bed.after checking the beds further we found them to be dirty.We went to reception to report the bugs and were told someone would come to spray so after being at the pool all day we expected the bugs to have gone but no..they were still scurrying round . Food is very repetitive and they tend to run out of stuff too.Snacks are served daily from 12 to 5 and either run out or are left out all day. Drinks are watered down (I don't normally drink at home but like a couple of cold beers on holiday)but the beer is lacking any alcohol content. If you want a cheap hotel with cheap people who don't clean up after themselves then this is for you. If you prefer somewhere cleaner then certainly don't visit here

very nice staff and environment. the food was brilliant and various choices throughout the days i stayed. met many new people and made new friends through shared experiences. very good activities for all ages and brilliant prizes to be won.

The hotel is great. Lovely staff and the animation team are great especially Alonso and Lucia. I hope to come here again ❤️. For a good priced holidays, it was good value ……………….:::::………:….,,,,.,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,;;;;,,,,,,