Hotel Riu Palace Nautilus

Returned from a two week stay two weeks ago. The hotel is nicely decorated. All the staff were very friendly and efficient. Our room was a sea view room and the view was great, it’s well worth paying the extra. The rooms are quite small but are adequate . Breakfast was superb, lots of choice and well cooked. Evening meal , the food was good but spoilt by the chaotic crowds around the food service and this spoilt the meal. The sunbeds and umbrellas were excellent but quite heavy to move, this caused a lot of older people concerns. There were no staff around to help older people, there was a towel man but he never came out of his hut. This is definitely one area that the hotel needs to address. Apart from the chaotic evening meals and lack of assistance with sunbeds for older holiday makers we enjoyed our stay.

This is the first time that we have ever gone back to a holiday hotel. We had stayed here 4 years ago when it was just the RIU Nautilus. The refurbishment has certainly made the place look plusher. It was noticeable as soon as we entered reception. Some of the changes are improvements but just as many seemed detrimental to me. Our room was spacious and comfortable with plenty of hanging space but 3 wide drawers wasn't enough for a 10 day stay. The safe (free) was the best in any hotel in which we have stayed. We had the side sea view which we had booked but we ovelooked a road at the back with a busy building opposite which generated lots of noise. Not least when the bin men came between 6:30 and 7:00 every morning. The redecoration and reorganisation in the restaurant meant that it was quieter than before and there was more room for the buffet food to be laid out. But there were still frequent traffic jams in the buffet area particularly at breakfast. The food was OK with only a couple of really good meals. The bar hasd been shrunken for a large U shape to a small L shape and the bar lounge appeared narrower. The terrace on which we used to enjoy sitting overlooking the sea had the semi circular area cut off and used for sun beds. An outside stage has been added and as a consequence many more chairs and tables had been added making the area feel crowded. Drinks prices and drinks service were very good. In fact all the staff were very good. I dithered between a 3 and a 4 (7 out of 10 would be about right). But I went for 3 becasue the hotel fell short of our expectations second time round.