Insotel Punta Prima Resort & Spa

We have recently had a family holiday to the Insotel Punta Prima and here is our honest review. We arrived on the 3rd of May and were overall impressed on first inspection of the resort and room. We had our first day eating in the Magon restaurant and literally walking around the complex to find out where everything was situated. We watched a bit of the evening entertainment and turned in for an early night. Myself and Husband and Our 2 and 4 year old Daughters. By 1am (5th) my youngest awoke with horrible vomiting that continued all through the night. 3am my other Daughter also started to vomit all night. By 6am both girls were exhausted and in a lot of pain with their stomachs. Then at 6am the diarrhoea started and did not stop. Medical help was needed by the early afternoon as we could not physically help our Daughters as they were just too poorly and in immense pain. The call out Doctor arranged for our girls to be taken to the private hospital in a taxi. There we spent the next two nights. My eldest had a blood test and was put on IV fluids as she was dehydrated. Her blood results came back positive for Norovirus. My youngest was given oral anti sickness medication and hydration fluid. They took a stool sample. Both girls were so poorly and we was extremely worried and scared for them. It is very frightening to be in hospital when you are abroad. We stayed on the hospital until our girls were no longer vomiting although they were still extremely week after their ordeal. A couple of days after this was spent in the room as they were on a strict no fat no sugar diet with lots of rest required. My concern regarding the Norovirus/ Gastroenteritis was the cause. It had to be from the food as if it was air bourne there would be so many others with it including myself and husband and we were absolutely fine. We ate from the adult buffet were my children ate from the kids buffet. They had exactly the same meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner out of exactly the same buffet containers. I was reluctant to let my girls eat from the restaurant anymore so I bought food from the supermarket and we dined out along the beach front. I now know there has been 6 other families (that I know of) who suffered with vomiting and diarrhoea and some of these ended up in hospital. My children have good hand hygiene and always wash their hands before eating. The food situation has really disturbed me especially with the number of sick people. Other points to mention. Cons.... Room had a really musty smell and had visible damp along the bottom of most of the internal doors. Rooms a bit dated. Leaky shower head and toilet flush. Dirty shower cubicle with awful wear to the base and door. Lots of ants in the apartment even on the kitchenette. Reported this and a cleaner came to sort the problem out (temporarily) by spraying them with Raid and brushing the dead ants up. Raid on top of the kitchen surface is really not good! Ants returned soon after. No bottled water available. You had to fill up your own bottles from the machine which is not very hygienic. Cold food in the buffet. Not kept the a safe temperature in my opinion. Pros..... Beautiful views. Excellent animation team who works their butts off. Good facilities. Staff overall good. Conclusion.... I would not recommend the Insotel Punta Prima. My children have returned home after a two week holiday looking pale and thin. My oldest is very clingy now and is scared to go away anymore due to the whole experience. Myself and Husband feel drained and were so happy to leave when we did. Such a shame as we had been looking forward to this holiday for over a year.

We have just returned from 10 days at the Insotel in a family party of 7 - all adults and 1 3year old. Here are my pros and cons; PROS: - waiting staff in restaurant and bar work SO hard, you are never left waiting for a drink or service for too long. They clearly work long hours and should be commended - buffet food isn???t bad for an all inclusive with plenty of choice and some delicious fresh meats, although sometimes can be a bit cold (see cons) - hotel itself is nicely laid out and cared for (I have seen some complaints about it being hilly but it???s really not that bad) the top pool is always quieter than the main pool and much nicer in my opinion! Although pretty cold in May! CONS: - the entertainment in the evening is pretty poor unless you are a child. The singers (with the exception of the Motown group) really were awful and the comedy acts just a bit cringe. We left a couple of times as the sound was so bad it gives you a headache. Although our 3 year old loved running around with other children - the rooms need a lick of paint and an update unless you???re in a more expensive room. One of our group paid extra and the room was much nicer than ours. Our room (3603) had an awful shower which leaked all over the floor and smelt horrible. The door keys don???t work properly and just spin round in the lock (this was the same for 3 of our party) - but for somewhere to lay your head it???s ok.... - there is very little to do in Punta Prima - a small beach and few restaurants and that???s it. We hired a car which I would highly recommend to see the island. We would have been bored without one unless your happy sitting round a pool for 10 days - although a good variety, some of the buffet food is pretty cold (scrambled eggs in the morning stone cold - yuck) Overall a good holiday and I would return to this hotel if it was a better location in Menorca as the island is a dream!

We stayed 14 nights 5th May -19th and have just returned. Reading other reviews it's clear there is an issue at the resort. Day 1 my daughter developed blisters in the main pool! only 2 but both under her big toes so they were very uncomfortable. Day 6 my daughter (age 10) had 48 hours of very severe cramping, high fever and vomiting. It's worth noting of our 3 children she is the one who very very rarely is ill and almost never vomits. We thought it was unfortunate but didn't know the cause, then the next clear day my husband met a retired couple at the pool only to discover they had both been hospitalised with the same bug when our daughter was ill. We had a nice break, we were very vigilant of cleanliness washing our hand a lot using the alcohol gel provided around the resort etc. We were cautious at what we ate, but we enjoyed a nice break and took up some Tui trip etc and apart from a disastrous trip to the local splash park when my husband and youngest were flipped out of the inflatable ring they were in halfway down a slide and were almost knocked unconscious. We still had a really lovely break. The restaurant staff are a credit and work so hard and are very friendly, we found reception to be a disaster. Tui reps were once they had finished selling you tours seemed more about liability and damage control on Tuis part than genuine help. They knew about all of our issues and not once asked how we were doing at later stages. They did some paperwork but never sent us copies despite telling us this was the procedure. On day 13 my son started to vomit at 6pm then every hour until 5am the following morning, we are now in the UK and he is still unwell. We managed to get through the coach transfers and flights without vomiting but as soon as we were in the UK he vomited again he still has an on-off fever and is unwell. I have considered many times if this was an unfortunate coincidence but on day 11 we chatted to another couple who's son had also had the same issue and they knew of others too. When we left my husband mentioned it to the reception staff when they asked if we had, had a lovely stay. He was very polite but they were immediately on the defensive giving statistics of how many people stay v's how many people get ill. When any organisation has an issue that quickly for a complaint that is so standard and scripted you know there is an issue. Of the actual holiday, Menorca was lovely. TUI don't make it clear enough there is a tourist tax which varies depending on the stars of your hotel. The tax is for very good reasons but cost us 96 euro at check in which was a shock. The hotel is not peaceful and definitely not 5 star. The hotel rooms are basic, damp and grotty with very little natural light. We have 3 children aged 7, 10 and 12 and they love little children but day 6 they shocked us that they would be happy to never hear another baby cry again. I don't mid children but this resort is designed to keep you busy from morning to night with their entertainment. There was very little encouragement to roam. Even the Tui reps encouraged tours rather than car hire as the resort had so much on offer. There is free bike hire ( great bikes) which is really awesome. The smallest bikes are still big so you really need about a 10-year-old up to use them to really get places. The resort is really pretty. Punta Prima is small but nice, and the locals are friendly. I love to cook and know how to cook well, I didn't see any undercooked food etc, you can't drink the water in Menorca even boiled, in fact, it can be worse boiled. Thankfully we knew this already. However, something is going badly wrong at this resort somewhere and clearly from the good reviews only with a certain % of guests. I was more alarmed by the resorts response. A responsible caring organisation would want to interview families with these issues to investigate what might be the common denominator so it can be eliminated. The resort seemed keener to tell us very quickly how they are not to blame. We have travelled a lot with our children and as a couple before them both through package breaks and independently, we have never had this issue before and we will not be staying with any Insotel again. This issue might be isolated to this resort but if Insotel is more about protecting itself from a liabilty perspective than actually caring when there is a problem it's not a group I will bother with ever again. Other useful FYIs very few windows in the accomdation, which is substantially damp, there is no way this is a 4 or 5 star resort. No one helps you with your bags to your room, there is no caring service, there is a charge to hire and iron and there was no kettle in our room. The cleaners do a good job of tidying but rarely change the bed linen which wouldnt bother me but in stunk. The walls are thin and we were treated to a blow by blow account of every drunken row are neighbours had about 12-1am each evening. Heating /aircon is very poor. If you dont want to sit through the entertainment each evening there is no quiet bar on site. The entertainment was varied but not of a good quality standard. The reps work so hard though and clearly have little budget. The hotel itself is about personal expectation I guess. However the illness needs investigating and the reps are glorified second hand carsales men/women.