Playa de Palma Hotel Guide - 2 stars Hotels in Playa de Palma, Spain

El Arenal is dirty cheap silly commertial non-Spanish area l, which you will love it if you don't know what to do in life, and if having beer and saussage, listening to awful pop-folk music is your idea of fun (and yes, every second place is mini market, yes you can buy water mattres and flip flops). In addition, if you don't mind dodgy faces in evening, cement-like ugly beach (advertised as famous) and 40min+20min wait bus connection to beautiful Palma, then El Arenal is fine. As much I now despise El Arenal, hotel was fine, and staff was nice, and this saved me! Do yourself favour, be openminded and cosmopolitan, and run away from El Arenal to -everywhere else on Mallorca. Palma centre, Soller, Valdemossa, Deia, Alcudia (not silly souless Port Alcudia), Colonia Sant Jordi, to experience the beauty. No plasma TV, but you have this at home anyway! Holla to Karmen and staff ar hotel, bye bye to El Arenal!:-)

The hotel was very good overall. The price was decent and we were a two-minute walk from the beach. On the first day, we lost the room key at the beach and the reception staff replaced it without a fuss despite our stupidity. Reception staff were happy to call us a taxi whenever needed and give us local information. The only two criticisms is that there is no lift, so it can be tricky to get cases up three floors and also there is no air con in the rooms (but it's not really a problem if you keep the balcony doors open).

The hotel is just a short walk from the beach with supermarket type shops on your doorstep. It's worth including breakfast into your stay at the hotel, as we found this saved us money and was prepared to an acceptable standard. We also found the section of beach the hotel was by to have better shops and restaurants than the other sections of the strip. All the staff were friendly and helpful, and the hotel was clean. I highly recommend the bar/restaurant Bonito which is fairly close by! Now for the bad bits - the pool is tiny and is in the shade for most of the day (July), with only a few sunbeds to lounge around on. This isn't a problem if you are planning on going to the beach, but if you want to spend your holiday around the pool I would look elsewhere. Furthermore, the hotel is mostly (if not completely) used by young German party seekers that can be very noisy during the night. I am a heavy sleeper and was not effected, however my partner is not and her sleep was very disrupted. The final point I would like to make here is that the hotel does not have air conditioning. If you like to be cool at night then an electric fan provided by the hotel is the best you are going to get. In conclusion, we were happy with the experience at the hotel - for the money that it cost. If you are willing to put up with a few things its really not bad. However if you want something a little more luxurious I would dig a little deeper into your pocket and look elsewhere.