Gran Hotel Bahia Del Duque Resort

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

An exceptional stay from start to finish. The hotel offers a truly luxurious experience, with beautiful facilities and an outstanding level of service. The staff were incredibly friendly, courteous, and respectful, making us feel welcomed and well looked after throughout our stay.

Our room was well maintained and cleaned every day to a high standard. The food was absolutely delicious, with excellent quality and choices.

The hotel facilities were amazing and added to the overall experience, creating a relaxing and memorable stay. Everything was beautifully presented and exceeded our expectations. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone looking for comfort, elegance, and exceptional hospitality.

The holiday didn’t start well when my daughter’s bag including phone was stolen from her sun-bed; even though her husband was reading his book and listening to music next to it! For a so called 5 star hotel the security is poor. There is a security gate, opened by key card, to the public beach outside. However the guards never seem to challenge entry and subsequently anyone can ‘follow on’ when a real guest uses the gate. (My own grandchildren proved the point!). We were very disappointed when after contacting their lawyers the hotel refused to accept any responsibility. They did however make a small contribution against the loss of the phone BUT the damage to our holiday was far in excess of this. If you visit please be watchful of your property. We never really relaxed for the rest of our stay.

However, more about the hotel. The location is good, near to a public beach with good swimming. The beach does get very busy in the afternoons and early evenings. The hotel is built into a slope and has paths and steps between the 5 pools. My wife, who had recently had a hip operation (that we weren’t aware of when we booked the year before,) struggled somewhat. The lifts could also be a bit unreliable, and the stairs between floors were not very convenient so that proved a challenge as well. Generally, I liked the hotel, its quirky architecture is interesting and the pools are good, even though the surrounds could do with tidying up. There seemed to be plenty of beds although they were covered with towelling that was often stained and could do with replacing or at least laundering. Not really 5 star, but they did provide towels.

Restaurants. The hotel has a very good breakfast buffet restaurant which, strangely, is not used apart from first thing in the morning. All other meals are taken at separate restaurants and snack bars. Lunchtime choice inside the hotel is very limited. Basically there is reasonably pricey poolside restaurant, a burger/salad bar or the Brasserie, all with a repetitive menu that became a bit tiresome after a week or so. Don’t think to snack around the pools or you will find the pigeons/doves will be in attendance. Generally for evening meals the choice of 6 or so restaurants is good and over the 12 days we dined around for variety. Our two favourites were the Italian, and the French Brasserie which opened for lunch and supper. Both of these overlooked ‘the square’, which was the focus of evening light entertainment. This was ok but nothing like what we have been used to in previous holidays where the stage shows were quite exceptional. The atmosphere around the square quickly disappeared after 10 ish, and the indoor piano bar didn’t seem to be heavily used.

Rooms - we paid extra for a sea view, which we could just about see over the myriad of other buildings that constitute this hotel. It was adequate but there seemed to a number of much more attractive rooms available, presumably at extra cost, which on reflection might have been a better option..

Staff & service - I was very happy with both aspects, especially the staff in our preferred restaurants. They were excellent.

Other amenities - The pools are interesting, 2 fresh water and 2 salt water, (plus a children’s pool). No straight Olympic sized pool. They are irregular with a variety of different depths. We found these very good for both swimming and playing. There is also a squash court and a small (very busy in the morning) gym. I was told that the latter was likely to made larger when the squash court is redeveloped later this year.

Summary. I have been holidaying at similar hotels for the past 40 or so years and the Bahia del Duque is a quite nice hotel. The layout is such that you need to be reasonably mobile to make the most of it. The potential is there but I feel it needs a bit more effort on the catering front. Elements are a little tired, and they need to improve security to make you feel safe in the grounds. Unfortunately, in my view, it’s doesn't match up to a 5 star hotel.