Lopesan Villa del Conde Resort & Corallium Thalasso

Just recently stayed at the hotel September 2018, found it to be overall very good, my breakdown of the pluses and minus below. Arrival - Great that you have your cases taken on getting out of the taxi and the next you see of them is in your room. Check in process reasonably easy, good breakdown of what you get / information pack given. Little surprised not shown to your room. Rooms- Very good rooms in general, everything you can think you will need is provided. There is a very adequate bathroom, a walk-in wardrobe / changing area, safe, large flat screen TV, and a fridge. The Fridge is almost useless, as it is a wall mounted slim fridge, which only hols a few bottles. Our booking was for a Double room with Sea View - Half Board basis, on arrival at the hotel we were shown to our sea view room, which was room 3274 in block J, directly over the main dining room La Plaza Buffet Restaurant. The room entrance being off an open walkway overlooking the main square (Plaza) where the entertainment was held during the evening. The balcony to the opposite side of the room having 4 to 6 meters of alfresco dinning present under it from the main dining area, before an elevated walkway / sun area incorporating a swimming pool. Our room was a significant way back from the sea, and that there were other rooms directly in our view from the balcony to the sea. We realised if you looked directly from our balcony you looked at the rear of other rooms, whereas if you looked to the left from our balcony you could look over 3 swimming pools, 2 sunbed areas, an out of commission pool bar / restaurant, numerous trees and other plantation in the grounds of the hotel as well as a significant public walkway / promenade to see the sea. Some sea view that is, but technically as the reception desk responded to us ???you can see the sea??? when we asked for a room change, which we were told there was no other sea view rooms available. Unfortunately, our rooms entrance as noted above was directly facing the main square where the entertainment was held each night, so it was a little noisy on an evening, it did not stop us sleeping but could for light sleepers. It was also directly over the main ???La Plaza??? restaurant, which meant on a morning when we opened the patio doors, we could here the alfresco dinners, which were directly below and project out from our balcony, not ideal. As a minus the air condition we were told when we complained is set at its coolest to 22 degrees. This made it impossible to have an afternoon nap and so very difficult to sleep at night. I complained about this and was told it was due to with health and safety regulations. I found this incredulous for a 5-star hotel in a resort with temperatures that were during our stay reaching in excess of 30 degrees. It was interesting to note when we checked out that we booked a half hour complementary room to shower and change as we were not getting picked up till 5 pm. The room allocated was near reception. As soon as we opened the door we were greeted with wonderfully chilled air con. The thermostat read 18 degrees! Breakfast- Exceptional is the only word, if you cannot find something of your liking here, I would not believe you. There was everything possible that you could think of, hot and cold food, every type of egg going, fruit, cheese, meats, fish, breads, cereals, porridge, fruit juice, smoothies, water, decent coffee and / or tea. everything you could conceivably want. Dinner- The food was probably the best quality buffet food we have ever had, it was exceptional. The only slight comment I would make was that dependent upon where you were sat, the food could sometimes be Luke warm by the time you started to eat it, as the restaurant was vast in size. The choice and quality of food though was exceptional, I don???t like fish, whereas my wife prefers fish, neither of us had any reason to complain, every conceivable palate was catered for during the dinner service. The strangest thing with the restaurant though was it was on two sitting, which meant that for 15-20 minutes before access was available for either service there was a long queue forming to get in to get the alfresco dinning areas on each sitting, (during our stay the temperature was around 30-degree C). It also gave the impression that dinner was very regimented, as you had two short time slots to enter the restaurant, rather than it being a completely relaxed and uncomplicated process. A La Cart Dinning - When we attempted to book in the A la cart restaurant OVO (noted on your web site as Playa Major) we were taken aback to find out there was an impose surcharge of 20 euro per person to use the restaurant. We decided against it as the food in the main restaurant was very good. General Comments - They have also got a 'Unique' VIP class which if you can afford separates those guests from us other mortals i.e. 'Them' and 'Us'. A prime section of the Restaurant and pool area is dedicated solely to 'Them'. They also have a different colored pool towel. The pool restaurant was closed for refurbishment and enclosed in green tarpaulin making it unpleasant to lie at the surrounding pool. To make matters worse we then found out Monday morning that we had to put up with constant drilling, grinding, cutting and banging coming from the refurbishment of the pool bar area from around 9.30 am through till around 4.30 pm. It was also not possible to use the quiet pool due to the noise from an adjoining block that was being refurbished. In their infinite wisdom the management also decided at the same time to close La Casa Viejo - a smaller more intimate restaurant with outdoor dining which give guests the choice to dine there for breakfast and dinner. The grounds in general were very clean, always appeared to be someone cleaning up / doing minor external maintenance / painting during our stay. The Staff ??? This has to be one of the crowning glories of the hotel, they would always stand back for the guests to go first, always polite and helpful. In the restaurant the waiters in their given areas would take your plate from you and carry it to your table, very nice little touches. Maid Service ??? Very good, towel changes twice a day if you want them, chocolates each evening on bed turn down, rooms kept spotlessly clean. Drinks- The wine menu in the restaurant was very comprehensive and not expensive. Nice touch was brand / port etc. brought round if you wanted to finish your meal in the restaurant. The bars were waiter service, great idea that you can use your room card to charge to your room, saves carrying cash around. Drinks good measures, not ridiculously overpriced, can get cheaper outside hotel, but do you want to go chasing around for a drink after your dinner? Only let down we had, we like going for a drink before our dinner, which we went into the Pub Zythum (as it also showed sport on the TV???s), but found the service in their extremely slow, as no waiter serving in there despite it being opened. Overall- We enjoyed our stay at the Lopesan, the grounds and hotel are very attractive, they are obviously refurbishing large areas of the hotel, which did detrimentally affect our holiday. Also, the Sea View room we felt let down by, yes you could see the sea, but a better description would have been limited sea view, or partial sea view, but they would not be able to charge as big a premium for that. Would we go back to the Villa del Corde, not in the foreseeable future. We have booked to go to the Lopesan Costa Meloneras Resort, Spa & Casino, which we looked around on our stay, as we did like the Lopesan experience.

This was our 4th visit and we loved it just as much as the first! We had a room in H block which had recently been renovated giving it a slightly more modern vibe. Renovation work was continuing in one block and in the poolside restaurant while we were there but this did not impinge on our enjoyment. Looking forward to our next visit.