Firstly we had an excellent all inclusive 7 day holiday. We to make our own way from the airport so hired a car from Carjet, which turned out to be an great idea. We arrived at the hotel at 10.30pm, to be informed that a meal would be ready for us at 11pm in the main dining room. Our first room was 007, which was a garden facing room smelt damp, ? from the A/C. We asked for a change of room in the morning, to be asked for 4 euro per night for a sea view room, if you are booking ask for this in advance!. This was well worth it, as we moved to room 132. We had a lovely view of the entrance to the port and fort. Yes, this hotel is in a quiet area, but we visited other parts of the island which was much buiser, with tacky shops and British style pubs, I much prefered the Esmeralda hotel. The hotel is very well maintained, and very clean. The staff were all very helpful and friendly. There was activities through out the day, and entertainment ranging from, mini disco for the younger kids, Spanish dancing, Mr and Miss Esmeralda, a quiz night with a a twist.
The food was very good on most days. We booked a picnic the day before, as we planned to explore the island. Remember to book the other restuarant the day before, as it is very cool and more comfortable. We would have used it daily, but closed after day 2 for some reason?
The hotel had a lovely mix of guests, from British and Spanish..always a good sign I think, if places are used by their nationals.
On the 1 day it rained we got into the car an went to explore. Most days we went somewhere for a couple of hours. The island is full of interesting historical sites. The kids enjoyed everywhere we went to.
We are planning to book again, as we had a great time, and the all-inclusive deal was great value.

This was my first holiday abroad alone with my children and I am so glad I ended up at the Esmeralda. I initially booked self catering allocation on arrival but was upgraded for an extra 120 euros at the airport. All inclusive turned out to be real freedom for a single mum. The Hotel is in a lovely positon right by the sea. Every day we sat in the lovely airy dining room and watched the boats bobbing on the azure sea as we ate. The front of the Hotel is very well maintained. The gardens are lovely, full of exotic plants and the pools are clean and attractive too. The rooms are well decorated, modern and spotlessly clean. The few nights I did stay in the hotel in the evenings were good. The Brazillian dancers were wonderful, and me and my girls had a good dance at the disco. The cosmos run kids club was great and my four year old loved the reps who were very friendly and warm in manner. In fact I cant fault the staff.

We travelled with cosmos on an all inclusive basis, i had heard that the resort was a little bit quieter that i was used to, but to say we expected to see tumbleweed blowing down the main street would not be an exageration. This is an o.k hotel in possibly the quietest place i have ever stayed in....purely residential, with not a sign of the usual shops or bars you would expect to see in holiday resort, and a lot of building work still ongoing. The nearest bars are three days camel ride into the marina, and as such they are mainly fish orientated and quite pricey.

The hotel itself is ok, the food leaves very much to be desired, undercooked and signs of the chef's creative recycling policy were in evidence.
There is a small play area for the kids, but this is tucked away at the back of the hotel where it is imposible to see the kids unless you sit with them, in no shade and difficult if you are with more than one child.

The entertainment was pretty poor (not if you enjoy bingo/karaoke and mr and mrs style entertianment that is), but i do object to paying a lot of money for an all inclusive holiday and than being expected to entertain myself!!!

That said the hotel entertainment staff work hard and during the day serve up some laughs (mainly David),and the cosmos kids club is run quite well although you have to pay for some of the activities, and the creche if you want to take advantage of that is quite expensive!

This is an ideal location if you are prepared to stay by the pool for 8 hours a day then again for 4 hours a night, or if you are really into looooong walks in scorching heat.The better options are the neighbouring resorts of cala n bosch and cala n forcat/blanes, 10 mins away by bus, where we ended up spending a lot of our time courtesy of the free bus tickets provided by the hotel.There is no beach at all at cuitadella, although there is one mentioned by the rep which is no more than a patch of wasteland 20 mins walk fron the hotel.

OH and it rained for three days, meaning you couldn't even use the pool, and nothing was organised for either the adults or the kids!!

We have just got back from a 1 week stay at the Esmeralda. We all had a great time and could not fault the hotel at all. The only point to be made about the hotel is that Ciutadella is very quiet but we were expecting this before we travelled so were not dissapointed, also the salt water pool is a bit of a shame as this sometimes irritated the eyes.

The hotel is very clean and well maintained and rooms are very spacious. The Sea and Pool views are fantastic.

The entertainment team were fantastic for the children and the atmosphere within the hotel between all staff and guests is very friendly.

The food in the hotel was fine, despite some other peoples views........I think some people go abroad and expect pie and mash ! Both restaurants are buffet style and there was always a good selection of food for most tastes......we went with a 1 year old and always found something for her and my husband who is very fussy was never hungry. Granted I expect if you are there for more than a week things will be repeated but I suspect that would be the same for any hotel. But in all honestly I don't think that you could complain about the food it was always hot and plenty to choose from for both adults and kids.

All in all I would say the Esmeralda and it's staff are very diserving of there 3* Plus rating. We had a great time and the only reason we would not go back is because we always like to try somewhere different.

Just returned from 1 of the best family holidays we've ever had. The kids were constantly entertained - and lets face it, if they're happy the parents are gonna be happy.

Was put off before going as there seem to be lots of negative comments on this hotel. All I can say is some people just want too much. The hotel is right on the front with superb views and the kids (and us) loved watching the boats coming into the harbour.

The staff could not do enough and were always friendly and helpful even at the end of a long day. The hotel was spotless and a lot of attention seemed to be given to hygiene.

The food was typical of most all inclusives, nothing special but certainly good enough and I would agree with other coments that booking the newer restaurant each day is a good idea as it is nice seeing the food freshly prepared in front of you. Never had any problems with the cosmos reps and the kids fell in love with the kids club reps.

The daytime entertainment is good fun, David, Lili & Enara are great. The evenings aren't brilliant but again just typical of this sort of package - a few drinks and meeting a good bunch of people makes the holiday anyway.

Already looking forward to going back again in the future.

As per comments before,the location was totally residential, no holiday atmosphere at all once outside the hotel grounds, until we actually got into Ciutadella town, which was a beautiful quaint town.
Beautiful harbour with gorgeous restaurants lining it, we found this out as we had to get away from the food in the hotel and pay for a meal outside.
Can't really fault the staff they were good especially David and Lili who tried with sheer desperation to keep everyone happy day and night, this being the problem entertainment wise, they were our entertainment!!!
All said the kids had a fantastic time met a lot of friends (as did we adults), this is a very safe hotel we were very happy to let kids roam around alone inside the grounds.

Hotel Esmeralda is situated right by the end of the harbour and mostly overlooks the sea. It can be windy so take something warm to wear. The food was fine. A mixture of Menorcian cooked slightly english style I feel. Breakfast was excellent and there was plenty of choice. The entertainment wasn't too good but bear in mind we went only 2 weeks into opening, so rightly or wrongly, things hadn't got going properly yet. The resident entertainer/coach for the various football, rifle shooting etc. (David) was excellent. The pool is fine, but the beds are hard and flat ie no back rest for sitting and reading etc. The rooms were clean, quite large and very clean. The staff were excellent. Very friendly and helpful. If you have trouble walking then this is not good as the harbour with lots of shops etc. is a little too far for comfortable walking. We would not return only because my husband cannot walk too far and we need ideally to be situated somewhere closer to shops etc. there is also no beach to speak of, not the usual coves you expect from Menorca.

Well we have just returned from what must rate as the worst holiday ever. This hotel is by no means a 4 star, it might just scrape a 2 star. As for all inclusive we have ended up eating out for 50%+, as the food in the hotel is awful. OK so we went at the start of the season but the hotel was no where near ready for opening. There were only 35 people in the hotel and yet it took them 5 days to move us to another room as our toilet did not work!!

The hotel staff do their best under the circumstances and should not be blamed (except for the Chef). There
was no entertainment for the first few days at all and
this was compounded by the fact that the weather was
very bad and so people were bored.

We have just returned from a lovely week in Menorca.The Esmeralda is a lovely hotel,but in a strange location,right on the sea-front but surrounded by residential properties.Not an area that should house an establishment that encourages screaming,unruly kids,whose parents seem to think it totally acceptable that they should be running around the bar areas at almost midnight!!
The Esmeralda could be upgraded to be a 4/5 star hotel with the correct management.
The chef should be sacked on the spot,as the food is awful.
Menorca yes,Esmeralda no!!

It was a lovely hotel, ideal for families to go on an all inclusive holiday as you can eat, drink and have as much icecream as the children can eat without worrying about your money.

Nice clean hotel and a seaview is a must! if you dont get one straight away ask at reception and you can upgrade with a small fee when a room is available and its worth the wait.

The hotel has got two restaurants both are nice but the upgraded one is worth booking into (24 hours before at reception) as most of the food is cooked in front of you by the chefs so its nice and fresh. We went to the beach a couple of times on the free bus to Cala'Bosch and the hotel provides a free picnic on request to take with you which saves you money on buying lunch while you are out the hotel complex.

The hotel is about a 15 minute walk into Ciudadela but if you just want a small shop its 2 minutes down the road. There's a small shop on site that opens up 2 times a day selling papers, ciggies etc. The staff are very friendly especially David and his wife Lillie who are the entertainers for the hotel and do very good job of it too!(especially with the children and the night time entertaining). There is a children club open different times every day but the only draw back - I don't think they are experts at looking after children and some of the club activities they did charged a stupidly high fee for the children to pay before,(and when you have got 2 young children it gets very expensive).

Overall the hotel is really lovely the swimming pool is nice and although it is sea water it didn't bother us at all, in fact we are going back in 2004!