Zafiro Palace Palmanova

Tatiana at the Zafiro pool was excellent

THE GOOD: The hotel is extremely clean, and upon arrival we were upgraded to a penthouse room. This was brilliant, as it meant we had some additional space and a hot tub. The veranda was exceptional for lunchtime and had a great menu, with a wonderful selection of options for everyone. The staff were always attentive.

THE BAD: Almost everything in the hotel opens late, which is a problem if you're an early riser. The pools open at 10am, and there's nowhere to get a drink (other than from the buffet) until 10:30 or 11. This means that most families with small children will be left with almost nothing to do for the first few hours of every day after breakfast.

The 'entertainment' was truly awful. It consisted of a small wooden stage on the ground floor of the main building, where they would play cheesy, grainy projector videos while a sole member of staff dressed up as a koala bear and danced relentlessly. There was nothing more to it.

The hotel complex is very small. While it's beautifully presented, a one-hour walk around is enough to have 'seen it all, done it all.' The daytime activities were extremely hit and miss: aqua bikes, water polo, and running along a foam thing in the pool. That's about it, really. Most activities received low turnouts, other than the run along the foam thing, which looked incredibly fun.

The food at the buffet was really dreadful, to the point that it was hard to piece together a meal. As a family, we enjoy plenty of fruit, vegetables and home-cooked meals. What was on offer instead was a huge overreliance on seafood, alongside a hodgepodge of disparate items like a slice of pork belly or some sweetcorn. If you are a beige eater, or are happy to eat solely seafood for an entire week, then you will be fine. Otherwise, you will struggle to eat anything meaningful.

THE UGLY: Where the wheels really fell off was at the children's splash pool. My mother-in-law suffered an injury while looking after my daughter: a grade 3 hamstring tear that left her unable to move. The pool was open, with a lifeguard watching, who continued to watch rather than help. I assisted her to a sun lounger and got her to lie down to recover.

She is diabetic, and from the shock of the injury her blood sugar levels started to drop and her vision began deteriorating. I rushed to get her a sugary drink from the bar van located three metres from where she was lying, but the member of staff refused to serve her because 'he didn't open for another 15 minutes', despite the dispenser being all set up. I told him it was a medical emergency. He didn't care. I managed to source a drink from another bar instead, then made my way to the main reception to ask for additional assistance (a wheelchair, for example) so that we could get her back to the hotel room.

The manager at reception told me that 'wheelchairs can be rented for 30 euros from an external company'. I explained the situation and asked if I could instead receive any assistance at all: a crutch, a helping hand, anything. He declined all of those options and left me to deal with it myself. Luckily, a fellow guest came to our rescue by lending us his mobility scooter, which allowed us to get her back to the room (while the lifeguard continued to watch on).

Refusing a diabetic a drink and refusing to help her back to her room was bad enough. But when we raised a complaint with the hotel privately, they replied defending their actions throughout, and even went to the more helpful lengths of lying about our situation, claiming:

• The pool wasn't open (it was 10:30am, with a lifeguard at his post)
• We hadn't gone to reception (so I must have invented the 30-euro wheelchair charge and the lack of crutches)
• We hadn't raised any awareness with the staff (as above, I spoke to the manager at reception)
• The pool bar truck wasn't open (correct, but there was a member of staff in there, with the drinks machine on)

Overall, this is not a 5-star hotel. Setting aside the 'leave an injured diabetic lady for dead' attitude, it would be a 3-star given the amenities and poor food. With that in the mix: strong avoid.