Iberostar Playa de Muro Village

On day 1 I thought to myself, 'I will give this resort 5 stars on trip advisor, add lots of photos and add a fantastic review. After 13 days I have mixed thoughts on the overall experience. To people travelling from the UK, I'd manage your expectations by saying that this is a nice/clean resort but I would not say it is 5 star. Having been to many 5 star resorts - this is not 5 star. I'll try to explain in sections: (1) Location - this is fantastic. The beach is very close and the cocktail bars are very close as well should you wish to get off the beach and go for a refreshment. The water is shallow for children as well. The only down side is that you need to pay the local town hall approx 17 Euros a day for a sun lounger/shade unless you take your own. The beach is a public beach. Id give the location a good 8.5 out of 10. (2) Food - we had the all inclusive option. The food is amazing. Lots of fresh fruit available and many choices for main meals there is always something to choose from. The chefs are friendly. Id give the overall food available a 9 out of 10. (3) Accomodation - corridors look a little dated upon arrival but you soon forget that. The rooms are pretty basic for 5 star but functional. No issue with the house keeping they did their jobs well. Id give this a 7.5 out of 10. (4) Childrens entertainment - not a lot compared to other we've been to. There is a small group called 'Star Camp' for small groups but if your thinking of taking kids here and having them entertained all day (if you dont want to it yourself) then have a think about this. Id give this a 6 out of 10. That said, there are shows on during the day and a kids party in the evenings. Only scored this a 6 as we've paid much less and there has been more for kids at other resorts. (5) Resort Staff - I've added this in as they deserve a mention before I slate the hotel staff! The young ladies receiving guests for breakfast,lunch and dinner were amazing. Very friendly and always asked if we needed anything. They always looked positive (even though its a tough job dealing with un-appreciating europeans all day!) but we really noticed this plus they engaged with our children. (6) Hotel reception!! Here we go. TERRIBLE. I am not one to moan and always give people the benefit of the doubt (they may be having a bad day or the hotel possibly might be struggling to recruit) but come on!) Day 1 on arrival - we where met by a lovely lady (more mature than the others) who went through everything we needed for check in and at this point I thought 'Ok, this is good. They seem to be nice and polite (like 5 star!). From this point onwards it was like faulty towers. If you go to the reception desk during the day for any reason its like they look at you as if you have 2 heads. We went to book a taxi (a simple 2 taxi trip request no police escort required just a taxi!) and the gentleman (tall, brown hair, glasses) huffed and puffed as if it was far too much work! The young girl stood next to him just stared at me and shrugged her shoulders at me. When I asked him to see if the taxi firm could bring a child seat he put the phone down and said ' I know the taxi firm we use dont supply this' so theres not much we can do. Give me a local taxi number maybe or a least try and help?? In the end we found a blow up booster seat ourselves and used that. If he had said, 'sorry sir we can only use one taxi firm and they dont supply seats' Id have more than accepted this. But to just put the phone down as say' tough, your own your own' was not very 5 star. At this point I just thought its one those things and didnt complain (about the attitude not the lack of transport support). Then, this is when we were all amazed. My 2 year old got his fingers jammed in the rotating door. He was terrified. I held the door from the inside whilst my wife ran out of the side door to get hold of him from the other side. The main receptionist started laughing. As my wife took my soon into the Green Cafe (Coffee area within the hotel entrance) to get ice for his hand my sister in law wanted to go for this guy on reception but I managed to calm her down as there was no point. The amount of noise my son made would make one think that he'd been slapped across the face. The screaming filled the hotel reception area. Not a single person working on reception came to do the 'customer service' thing of asking if everything was ok. Instead they all just stood behind the counter with the tall guy (same guy as before, brown hair, glasses). It was not busy with customers. I took his name but assume I cant use it here. On another occasion I needed to go and refresh the magnet on the room key. The rooms use swipe cards and sometimes they stop working which is normal. I went downstairs to find 3 staff on reception. Testing the 5 star claim, I stood 1 metre from the desk to see what would happen. Nothing. Its almost like the staff dont want you near their 'domain'. I had to literally tower over the counter to get one of them to acknowledge me. So, as you can see its a mixed bag and far from the 5 star claim. Overall, we had a good holiday and if the majority of the reception staff get sacked and new staff properly trained we would come back.

Amazing hotel wonderful beach couldn't get any better for families with young children. Staff professional, helpful, polite and fun at all times, they really seem to enjoy working there. Two suggestions NOT criticisms - the hotel has gone along way to be green already - don't double pack individual tea bags in cardboard and give out reusable water bottles at the beginning install water fountains to refill them. You could even advertise your hotel on the bottles and let people keep them at the end of their stay. Thank you to all the staff for a wonderful weeks holiday..

We had a great week at the hotel and it is brillianty set up for famlies. The rooms were well equipped and the swiming areas perfect. The evening meals and breakfast were both fantastic and varied. Entertainment was an added bonus.