I have just returned from a weeks holiday with my husband and little boy who is 18months at the Puerto Azul Hotel in Puerto Pollensa and would recommend it to anyone. I was so glad that I had found this site before I went or I might never have booked which is why I felt I had to come on and leave a comment.

The hotel was exceptionally clean, they never seemed to stop cleaning! Our room was cleaned every day and we were given fresh towels every day.

The food was fantastic, always a good choice of evening meals, and the kids buffet was excellent to. It was the first time I had ever gone half board and I expected to end up eating out every night, but we ate in the hotel each evening the food was so good.

The hotel I thought was in the perfect location. Only a 2 min stroll to the beach, shops, bars and restaurants. There was a really nice restaurant on the front next to the beach (Piscallo's) where we used to go for lunch, excellent food and really good value.

All the staff in the hotel were extremely friendly and helpful, and especially loved babies.

The entertainment was fantastic there was no need to leave the hotel if you didnt want to. During the day there was lots going on around the pool (I liked the whirlpool every morning great excercise!) The evening entertainment was really good fun, also at 8.30pm every night there was a kids disco for an hour before the entertainment started and my little boy just loved standing at the front of the stage gazing at the flashing lights and the reps dancing!

I would say to anyone thinking about booking this hotel to book it! I have to admit I am used to staying in 5* hotels and I was really worried about staying in a 3* so had prepared myself for the worst. The hotel room didnt have any of the normal 5* luxurys but to be honest it made no difference we spent so little time in the room. The bed was comfortable and it also had a seperate living room/dining room which was really spacious. We had a fantastic view which overlooked the pool with the mountains as a back drop, which was really beautiful, I would recommend requesting a pool view when you book and if possible ask for Block A which is the block we stayed in.

Enjoy your holiday.

Overall, fantastic holiday but hotel room a bit disappointing, especially the kitchen, if that's what you call it.

Hotel was very clean

Food was a bit repetitive towards the end of the two weeks but plentiful and usual choice for kids. My daughter (2 at time) preferred the adults menu!!

Hotel staff were fantastic, so friendly and went out of their way to ensure you felt welcome. They love children.

The reps, BIG MENTION to Baby Ben!! a.k.a. Barbie Ben. He is fantastic and needs a pay rise!! They work their socks off to ensure the kids (and adults) are fully entertained. My little girl loved Ben and Thomson the dog.

In summary, great family holiday and would return.

Puerto Azul was an absolutely fantastic hotel! Everything about it was excellent, and you could not fault anything at all! We all had a very enjoyable holiday there and would highly recomend it to anyone thinking of visiting as the standards are very very good!

Hotel: Very good impression as you arrive, smart looking, good location, very close to the beach and local facilities such as the shops! Greeted by the friendly hotel recepcionist in a spacious, welcoming reception.

Rooms: Brilliant! Best room we have ever had whilst on holiday! Large, airy, and clean. Have basic facilities such as a small kitchenette (obviously from when the hotel was apartments), and we rate it better than any other holiday apartment we have stayed in! Very clean as well! Cleaned at least once every day. All rooms have balconys (or terraces) and they are great to. Most of them are overlooking the main area with the pool which is very nice indeed.

Staff: All hotel staff are very friendly and polite. Are always willing to smile and talk to you, which is very nice. The restaurant staff are fab too! They especially like children and love babies to bits! The reps are great and work very hard to keep all the guests entertained and happy! Ben, Sophie and Ray are brill reps!

Pool: Excellent! Large and split into three sections, baby pool, shallow childrens pool and larger pool! Have lots of things going on suring the day such as water aerobics, water volleyball (watch out for the wall of shame in this game!!!) and basketball! A great thing is the whirlpool that the reps organise every morning! Theres plenty of space around the pool and lots of activities to keep you entertained all day! Or you could just relax if you wish!

Food: Lots of variety to choose from in the large buffet and often have specialaty nights! Thre is a seperate buffet for children too. The afters buffet is a must! Lots of icecream and little cakes, and pastries and fruit things! They are all delicious!

Entertainment: Great! All the reps put on an ace show every week and there are lots of variety! The kids club songs they sing every night about 8 are very catchy too! You will soon find yourself singing along to them, especially Thomson The Dog!

Recomended: I would say to anyone to go on the Thomson Superfamily day out on Tuesdays to the waterpark! It was great! And if you go, don't forget to see the diving show! It was out of this world! The divers are so talented!


Overall, it was a great hotel, ideal for families, clean, tidy, friendly environment, lots to do and very inviting! We would definately like to revisit and can virtually guarante that you will have a great time here! (If you do go, can I come with you please!!!!!!!!!!)

First impressions on arriving at the Puerto Azul were very good, nicely laid out reception, friendly staff, etc. Rooms are very clean and well maintained with their own air-conditioning controls which was very welcome.

In general though, the hotel grounds and facilities seemed to be rather cramped and didn't seem quite big enough for the amount of guests there.

We chose this hotel because it was a Thomson Superfamily Hotel and as we had 3 young kids with us we thought there'd be plenty for them to do, unfortunately this wasn't as we expected.....there was the pool, kids playground, arcade machines (and pool tables) and the kids clubs.....and that was about it.

The pool.....well, a promising sign was that the sunbeds were locked up over night and there were signs asking guests not to reserve sunbeds.....but when we came down for breakfast each day we found people had pulled chairs over from the snack bar area and tied them up with towels to reserve a spot and were waiting there for the beds to be unlocked! Given the fact that space was limited around the pool, by the time we came out from breakfast and gotten changed we only managed to get 2 or 3 sunbeds (between 7 of us) on 3 days out of 15.....I refuse to sink to the level of reserving sunbeds when I complain about it so much....I'm not a hypocrite ;-)

The kids clubs......very good, the kids loved them....but didn't get to go as often as we'd have liked because they didn't have the capacity and often you needed to book a place the day before.

The Entertainment......I guess we arrived right at the beginning of the season so the entertainment was very hit-and-miss for the first week while the reps found their feet and settled in.....but again, due to the lack of facilities there was also a lack of daytime entertainment......it generally consisted of a 'mat game', a pool game, aquarobics and a quiz.....they did french boules a couple of times, and this was held in the small kids playground in the sand!

Food......the usual kind of fare on offer....nothing wrong with it but a bit boring by the time you get half way through the fortnight.....the kids buffet was a bit disappointing, the first day the kids had a choice of veal meatballs (tasted like dog food LOL) and battered Squid!

All in all we still had an excellent holiday and there was nothing particulary wrong with the hotel or staff, it's just that nothing was exceptionally good either

Russ

We chose Thomson as we felt that from friends reports and experiences that they were the best tour operators. We were not disappointed! The holiday they gave us was excellent and we will definitely be using them from now on.

Anyway onto the Hotel.

When we arrived at the Puerto Azul I thought that the reception area looked slightly mid eighties style and got that deep down feeling of "oh well we'll see". However after checking in and walking onto the pool terrace there appeared to be lots going on for all the family and my two children aged 8 and 6 immediately headed towards the childrens play area. This area has slides and play houses and has sand on the floor as its base. So it's ideal for digging!!

Rooms - Apartment blocks three storeys high - could do with lifts. The first thing that we saw in the corridor was a maid cleaning, this was to be a regular sight alomost round the clock as the hotel is absolutely spotlessly clean. The rooms are basic but comfortable. There is a double bedroom and a sofa that converts into a double bed (which our children slept in). There is also a kitchenette from the hotel's apartment days but this is not really usable except for the sink. There is a fridge which is centrally controlled by the reception staff and if you wished to make use of this (which of course you have to in hot weather)they will turn it on for 24 Euros, which to be honest I felt was a tad cheeky. Putting this aside though the room has a table and four chairs and also air conditioning which is free! We used to buy food at the supermarket and eat in here at lunch times. The rooms are cleaned daily and towels changed daily if you put the dirty ones in the bath for collection.

Kids Clubs - When we were there in Mid June 2004 our children did not have to pre-book a place. There was always plenty of places and our two loved them. However, due to the amount of 3-5 year olds in the hotel during our stay, these places had to be pre-booked due to high numbers. But you could always go to the drop in centre where places were readily available. Night time clubs like "chocolate Movie night" did have to be pre-booked due to knowing what numbers to buy the food for.

Kids Club Tip - There is a "Swap shop" in the parents waiting area where departing guests take unwanted items like lilo's and buckets and spades and fishing nets. Try here before buying.

Pool - loved the pool, no problems and the whirl pool that the reps organise each morning is fab. Always something going on in the form of day time entertainment and if you are unlucky enough to win a game be prepared to collect your prize on stage that night!!!

Sunbeds - Unlocked at 9am and shan't give too much info on this as it's the same old story. Don't think there is a way round this one!

Staff - Fantastic, best hotel we have ever been made to feel most welcome. They love children too especially babies who they can't stop kissing!

Drinks - cheaper by far to buy in the hotel bar than in the restaurant( glass of red wine = 1 euro 30c. However, you can only purchase drinks in the restaurant if you are eating and not from the bar.

Food - Very good. There was around four or five choices each day and also the same choices on the salad front which I loved. The children had their own buffet section morning and night and served things like spaghetti bolognase, fish fingers, smily faces etc. Typical adult dish was soup (a bit watery for my liking)loin of pork or paella etc, with veg and then ice cream which is lovely or a cakey thing or an abudance of fruit.

Tip - bar food a bit of a muchness. Go to "Little Italy" for a pizza on the pine walk. We didn't do this but friends said it was very good.

Breakfasts are full english or continental. They do get a bit samey as the continental b'fasts were a bit limited in my opinion. The English b'fast though was very good. Cereals very mallorcan version so I used to pinch the sugar puffs on the kids buffet! All in all though we were more than satisfied and didn't eat out once. A very different story to the hotel that we stayed in last year at Calas de mallorca!!!!!!

Supermarkets - Avoid the spa like the plague as you will get totally ans utterly ripped off. Turn left out of reception and go down to the bottom of the road towards the beach and past the Oro player hotel. Turn right at the junction and Cross over the road and
there you will see a supermarket with a red sign over the door (about a two minute walk). It is very reasonable and also has a delicious bakery inside which we used for lunch time snacks to bring back to the hotel. Can of coke here = 45cents, at the spa it = 75cents! big difference for 10 yards further.

Beach - lovely and only 4-5 mins walk away from hotel.

Reps - Excellent especially Ben. My little girls Olivia loved him.

Trips - If nothing else and you have children over 5 then go to Pirates it's fantastic as they get the children involved in the show. Also went to Western Water Park and this too was fab. Last year we went to Soller on the other side of the Island and I would also recommend this one as well as the scenery getting there on the mountain road is breath taking.

Resort - lots of restaurants and bars, upmarket and cosmopolitan. No place for young single people as there are no nightclubs in PP. A good selection of chinese and Indian food too.

Conclusion - All in all we had a fantastic holiday and discovered that many guests were 2nd and 3rd timers at the hotel. We made lots of friends and we will definitely consider it for next year.

Thank you Thomson.

Hotel very average for the amount of money paid, expected bigger rooms, furniture in rooms dated could do with a revamp, they had even taken shelves out of cupboards in kitchenette so you could not use ! Hotel staff very friendly and reception staff very helpful. My son was not old enough for the kids club but we used the drop in centre for the under 3's which came in handy when it rained.

Hotel really clean, food great, entertainment staff great even got me on stage and that is a big feat.

Kids club really good, excellent holiday most staff speak English.