We were a bit worried about staying at these apartments after reading the reviews but we had a really good first foreign family holiday .

We stayed at the A side of the complex and contrary to what others have said, our apartment was spotless, well furnished and not at all grotty. The maids cleaned the apartments well and linen and towels were changed regularly.

Security was good with guards patrolling the apartments on a regular basis throughout the evening.

The pool at A side was excellent for young families, it was quite quiet but spotless and well kept. Sunbeds could be found at this pool throughout the day. On many occasions, we went to the beach in the morning and still managed to find sunbeds when we got back to resort in the afternoon!

The Irish bar on side B was much quieter and less crowded in the evenings but still had a good atmosphere and very suitable for families for young children.

We were unimpressed with the pool at side C. It seemed very over-crowded and often quite "rough". We were disgusted by the mess on the pool following one night's entertainment - sunbeds thrown into the pool, cups full of rock thrown into the pool!!!!! The staff at this end of the complex were often quite rude, especially in the Med. restaurant where the food was often quite literally "thrown" at you. Even though the food was good at this restaurant, we only visited twice as we found the atmosphere quite awful.

The "swim kids" instructor - Linda was excellent. Our son (aged 4) had a block of five lessons with Linda and was actually simming by the end of them!

The resort is situated about a 10 min downhill walk away from the beach and the centre of Caleta. A landtrain was available from the resort and ran every half-hour costing 1 euro per person for a one way journey.

Car hire is definitely worth a go. We hired a car through Avis for two days and visited the dunes beach (a must) and the waterpark (go on a Saturday, it's quiet as lot's of flights go out then!!).

My family had a superb holiday, but I don't think you can give much credit for it to the hotel. We went self catering and we are so pleased that we did because we spoke to a number of All Inclusive parties and without exception they had at least one person amoungst them who had been sick; time and again. The sickness was blamed on the hotel food. I must say that our little experience of the hotel food (we had 2 pool side bar snacks during our stay) was not great - refried fries and hamburgers which were literally ham patties in dry buns! No relish, salad or anything!

The soft drinks available from the pool side bar were also poor vending machine fruit juices, often minus the fruit. We spent a number of days by the pool and took our own bottles of water or went back to our accommodation for something to eat. The kids absolutely loved the pool and slides although I was a bit concerned about the lack of cleanliness. I dare say you could criticise the guests for leaving paper cups or plates about, but the actual standard of cleaning was poor in my opinion. Time and again, I saw cleaners use one bucketful of water to mop huge tiled areas near the pool and around the complex; this is an interesting way of moving dirt about!

Our accommodation was basic but comfortable. The kitchen was decently equipped and the bathroom was good. There was fully walled in area at the back with a clothes horse for drying clothes and towels. We did have an ant problem inside and at one stage it was so bad that we reported it to Reception who obviously had received similar complaints from other guests. Reception told us that the apartment would be sprayed but nothing seemed to get done. We resorted to dribbling washing up liquid wherever we saw them coming out of a wall and that helped ease the problem. Again, I'm not sure that the apartments were as well cleaned as the could be; after chasing a cockroach in the bedroom, I found a clump of dust with long dark hairs under the beds - none of my family have dark hair!

The resort is literally directly under the flight path. The planes are coming into land at no more than 200 metres above your heads. Obviously noisy. I don't think that we would have booked the holiday if this had been mentioned in the First Choice catalogue.

The Reception staff are knowledgeable, eloquent and friendly. All the other staff that I met are friendly.

We only had one interaction with FC main reps, which was to book an excursion. They were efficient without appearing that interested in what they were doing or bothered about you being there.

The entertainment around the pool was ok and water polo was a giggle. The entertainment rep (Jo I think her name was) got stuck in to that to make up the numbers.

I don't think we would go back to Club Caleta Dorada.

We went to Club Caleta Dorada on the 23rd August for a week. There were four of us, parents and 19 and 10 year old girls.

Overall, we enjoyed this holiday and it has been the best one we have been on yet.

The hotel was divided into 3 parts which gave it a spacious feeling to it, allowing you to go to different restaurants and bars, so you were never bored by being in the same place.

Cleanliness of the hotel/apartments:

We are clean and tidy people and our worst holiday would be a dirty one! however, this was very clean. the cleaners came every day but one (as stated when we booked). the hotel, bars and restaurants were really clean compared to previous reports, so it appears they have acted upon the negativity. the workers cleared tables and threw rubbish away as soon as they saw it. they never had a break and worked constantly to keep it clean.

Food
The food was a bit repetitive e.g. chips, fish, but there were a couple of new options every day so we were happy with the food. there were 3 places to eat. 2 needed pre-booking a day before, but were available the same day if we wanted so it wasn't a problem.
My dad said that the beer - Tropical - had very little alcohol in, but that didn't stop him drinking it!

Location
Close enough to walk to the beach and town. aircraft noise was a worry but when we arrived, we hardly noticed it at all.
There is also a small gym located under the C pool, if you felt the need!

Staff
They are the quickest and hardest workers we have ever seen and were always polite, calm, happy and approachable. they were friendly towards all kids and made them laugh. The bar manager in the C side, Omar, was working there day and night and was still happy and friendly, playing football with the kids!

Entertainment
Best for young kids, but the evening shows are fun for all. the entertainers worked hard and were pleasant and happy all the time.

I would like to go to this hotel again...better than we had expected.

Do Not go to this hell hole or you may wish to escape to Africa!!

I don't know how they can sell this as All Inclusive as we spent most of our money eating out because the food was that bad you would not want to eat it.

In the main restaurant there were flies all over the food, the 'hot' food was nearly always cold no matter what time you went there.

If you like chips you will be OK because chips are served with everything, we had potatoes twice in the two weeks we were there.

The snack bars were the same chips with everything! the burgers were pre-cooked and when you asked for one they were then put in the fryer with the chips to heat up and then put on the hot plate to brown off.

The rooms are death traps, live wires hanging out of the walls. cracked and dirty tiles on the floors to cut your feet on. Plug and light switches falling off the walls when you try to use them. the bath was disgusting with hairs, mould, staining and we didn't even have a plug to use for a full week.

If you survived that then you had to watch security at this place. Back doors are really easy to open, and we had to wedge the coffee table up against it for the whole of the two weeks.

The bedroom window could be pushed open from the outside so we tied it up with washing line in the inside. An apartment next door to us got burgled, and the men got in through the main patio doors by just lifting them even though these doors were locked.

There is only one security man for the whole of this complex and it seems that break-ins have been going on for years at this complex so why are first choice not doing anything about it??

We only had our sheets changed once in ten days until we complained about this, and you only get clean towels every few days. The maids do very little to clean the apartments and they use dirty water to mop the floors.

It is approx 15 Min's walk into town and it is not on a slight incline as the brochure would tell you it is built into the side of a mountain and it is very steep.

The hotel staff just shrugged off any complaints and the first choice reps were not interested. Over 40 families left this complex whilst we were there, paying to go to other complex's. The first choice reps just saw you as pound signs to sell their trips.

Around 50 children that I know of contracted rashes that itched and burnt in the genital area an children and adults had bleeding nipples. People seemed to think this came from pool side c.

We cant comment on the entertainment as it didn't start until 10 o clock and if you didn't get there by 7pm you would not get a seat.

The only good thing about this place was the wave length reps Wez and Shaun, my daughter Lucy had a brilliant time with these too and I feel sorry for them having to work at that place, they deserve to be somewhere better.

This place needs to be knocked down I would never ever recommend this place to anyone! There is one place that would be a little bit worst than this...its a little bit warmer...and below the earths crust...commonly known as hell!!!

We went for one week to this complex, we are so glad to be home. Why are First Choice still sending people here?

Burglaries every night, everyone here has had sickness bugs.

Swimming pools too deep, unsafe for children no lifeguard, very very slippy floors near pools and in restaurants. This is a death trap waiting to happen.

Food dull, dirty plates and cutlery, staff have bad days when they refuse to serve meals if they cant be bothered at the pool bars.

No air conditioning, you daren't leave windows open at night because of all burglaries. Just sheer hell!

We would never stay at this complex again.

FOOD. The food was just dreadful. My husband tends to be the type who will eat anything but even he found it difficult to find anything he enjoyed! Furthermore, most of the "hot" food was luke warm at best or burnt. We strongly suspected that some of the meat left over from the lunch time buffet was re-heated & served again at the evening buffet. The cutlery & drinking glasses were none too clean either.

AIRCRAFT NOISE -- A plane spotter's delight !!! Unfortunately we are not. Right on the flight path, aircraft screeching right above us from 7.15 in the morning to 10.30 at night -- No chance of a lie in !!

ENTERTAINMENT -- Very loud ! As all entertainment took place outside around at pool bar there was no chance of having any quiet time at all. Our apartment was not even near the entertainment area but we could still hear it loud & clear. During the day time very loud music would be blasted out from the pool bar.
GLAD TO LEAVE COMPLEX & GET DOWN TO THE BEACH !!!

I've just read some good & bad things about this hotel, so i'll just add my own bits. Please note, I have never complained about a hotel before and we were in Section "B" of the complex.

Good Points
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1. Only a 7 minute transfer from the airport
2. The breakfast's were very good
3. Most of the entertainment team were good fun
4. The resort was nice & clean with lots of bars and restaurants

Bad points
-----------
1. Most of the young children, including my son had open sores between their legs and under their armpits which was caused by the swimming pool in the "C" area. When I told the reps about this we were advised to keep our son out of the water for a "couple of days". Also, there were children who has bleeding nipples. NO children had this problem in the "A" or "B" pools.

2. Most of the hotel came down with a stomach virus. We were told by the reps the bug was "all over the island". When we were well enough to go to the water park (which was great by the way) we spoke to various people from different areas who had no idea what we were talking about.

3. The toilet in our room broke on a daily basis and we were unable to flush the toilet (imagine the smell when you have 2 people in the family with diahorrea and vomiting). After the maintenance man had been in for the 4th day running, I asked him how to fix it. He showed me, so I fixed myself from the on every day.

4. The sprinklers were put on in the morning as people were going to breakfast. Due to the smell of untreated sewage, people were running in and out of the restaurant holding their noses.

5. Day 7 - It only happened once, but when I turned on the tap on my sink unit, sewage came out of my bath plug hole (to be fair this was dealt with quite quickly, but the fact is it shouldn't have happened at all).

6. Day 8 - When I showered, the bathroom/living room was flooded. Water was coming out from a metal plate between the bath and the bidday.

7. We were unable to swim in the sea as there was oil being washed up from the boats in the small harbour.
8. When we went to the water park, we had a 15 minute walk to and from the pick-up point. Everyone else got picked up from outside their hotel. Not very good for the elderly or young children.

9. Most of the hot food in the restaurant was luke warm, if not cold.

10. The doors and windows on the apartments could have been forced by anyone. It was pure luck we never got burgled, but a family a few rooms away were not that lucky.

To be fair, I saw inside a few of the rooms in area "C" and they looked really nice, so I'm not sure if it was just area "B" that was shabby.

If asked if I would go back to the hotel I would definately say no, it was the worst holiday I have ever had, which is a shame as it is a nice resort.

Well when we arrived I had doubts after reading some of the reviews on here, but thought give it a chance to find out for myself. Found the complex bit confusing to see where it actually ends!

Pools all looked lovely, but within two days of being in the pool my son had a blistering rash between his legs. So we had to keep him out of the pool for the rest of the week to clear it up. Tests later showed that there was no chlorine in the pool. Wasn't happy that they had no lifeguards either at any of there pools!!!

The room was a electrical disaster waiting to happen, wires hanging out of the walls, plug sockets hanging off!! Ants everywhere!!! After one week we had to move rooms as our toilet was leaking. Three rooms later we finally settled in a room, so we lost a whole day moving.

We heard of three break-ins within four days, and they where braking in while the people where sleeping, so we had to have our son sleeping in with us as it was not safe for him to sleep in the lounge alone.

The food well, if you want to catch the Club Caleta Dorado bug then fine, after four days we were all ill, with sickness and upset stomachs. They moved ten families to other resorts because it was so bad, over 70 families had the bug within one week of being there. We ate off the site ten days off our 14 day holiday. Can recommend Lins cafe and The Ranch.

Went on the 16 Aug 2006 had a dreadful time over 50 families were sick and loads of children had rashes on the legs and groin area.

Full of ants and cockroaches

Had such a bad time their we had to move hotels.

Got fed up with the low flying air craft there's nothing to see or do outside of the complex.

General state of complex is filthy.

The food at the complex is disgusting, the food at the snack bar was cooked on the out side and raw in the inside

The pools are not treated possible you could get ill

Bedlinen was disgusting rooms were not properly cleaned.

If you want a kid den don't pay because they haven't got a kids den no play station TV in kids room did not work

Reception on main TV was rubbish most days could not get picture the only good thing about this place was the kids entertainers.

My advice do not go there ..

As already stated about this complex its built a the bottom of chipmunk mountain, so you do find yourself having a nice 15 minute downward stroll on your way down to the main resort, but its is a bit of a climb on your way back to your apartments.

Now for the complex itself, We stayed in B section right on the edge of the complex and found our room was very nice and on arrival was spotlessly clean. We did have a large fan already in the bedroom that just about made the night heat bearable.


Now we were worried about security and as stated by previous guest and yes the windows and doors didn't look the most secure either but we did have the pleasure of meeting Sam the security guard who certainly made us feel more secure as he made his regular patrols.

Food. We found the breakfasts were very good and certainly had no problems with cold or reheated food, the evening meals were also good and the choice did change every day, so you did have a bit of variety all be it limited so overall we were happy with the main buffet restaurant.

We also tried the two other food outlets on the complex and did had mixed reviews. The Chinese was the by far the worst on the complex so I would avoid at all cost. As for the med restaurants what can I say except the food was very nice and the experience was only spoilt by the waiters who did practically throw the food at your table and then just as we finished our main course and as were awaiting our deserts we found the doors slam shut and the staff disappear with ourselves and a few other diners left without finishing our meals.

Staff

Well what I was happy about was most of the local staff(except the staff at the med) on the complex were superb and very hard working but always took time to made our kids feel very welcome'

Although we never went to any of the entertainment we we found the reps were nice and helpful.

Overall.

I suppose I was expecting the worst from this complex after reading a lot of the reviews on this site before leaving, but I was happy with my stay in Dorada and along as your not expecting 4 star quality you should not be disappointed with this complex.