We travelled to Europa apartments as a family. Mum, dad, grandad and 2 children. The room was just big enough for us, grandad had to sleep on settee. Rooms are well equipped with microwave, 2 cooking rings, fridge/freezer, etc.

We arrived at 10pm, so there was no food being served, but the staff were kind enough to make us chicken sandwiches.

The entertainment is not up to much, we went for 10 days and saw 2 flamenco shows, 2 kids parties and 2 karaokes, where no-one is invited to sing!! They play the same cd every night.

The pool was great, the kids loved it.

Take your own toilet roll!! we were only given half a roll on arrival. Towels were changed every other day but the sheets were not changed at all.

The staff are very friendly and helpful. You can only have one shower at a time and then have to wait for the water to warm up again!! there were 5 of us, so after a day at the very dirty beach we struggled.

We had a fantastic holiday, but would not return to Blanes as we found it very boring. There is nothing at all for children at nights. The beach is very dirty, not good for kids, can't build sandcastles. Luckily we hired a car so filled up our days visiting other resorts. If we had no transport we would not have enjoyed our holiday at all.

Europa is a complex of self-catering apartments but you wouldn't want to do a lot of cooking as there is no oven. The apartments were spotless and, for the price, very good value.

The location is OK - nothing spectacular. There may be a building site opposite block 'C' in the near future, so check before you go.

The staff were first class. They were helpful, inviting and went out of their way. They really made the stay.

There is enetertainment every night but we were not that bothered as we like to be totally nackered by the end of the day on our holiday.

Blanes is a quieter resort that Lloret de Mar and for us it was the preferred choice.

We would definitely go again.

PS, if you like it quiet at night then make sure that your apartment faces away from the pool as the entertainment takes place near teh pool

After reading the info on this page about the Europa, I must admit that I thought we had made a big mistake booking it .... How wrong we were.

The accomodation was clean, the towels and toilet rolls replaced three times in a week, it wasnt too noisy, the staff in reception were very friendly (especially the german, english speaking one!). Entertainment was laid on everynight, in some shape or form, flamenco dancing to film nights. The kids really enjoyed it.
The pool was clean and reasonably warm, that may have been due to the vast amount of sun they have had this year though, it does tend to get shady later in the afternoon and cool quite quickly!
Being near the bus station is useful, all buses to the station connect with Barcelona trains so you never seem to have to wait around, travel is reasonable at 8 euros return to Barcelona, children under 4 going free.
If you should go through a holiday company, read the notes about the trips carefully though! Andorra is a shopping excursion for cheap cigerettes and booze, the mountains never get a second glance!

I think the apartments were very nice and i would stay there again if it was for the cleanliness but i would definitly NOT stay there again because of the LOUD NOISE!!!Every night there was a loud disco outside of our apartment and me and my family would not get to sleep untill after 4am,Which wasnot very good when you needed to be up at 8am-9am the next morning.
Another thing is 1 of our family's video recorder got robbed,This was not stolen from the apartment but from the bar/restaurant!!!

family holiday 2adults 3 children all enjoyed it very much.thinking of going again. trip to barcelona (through reps) excellent value got to see much more than if we had gone by train.only one concern on the complex 4 apts broken into.

Having looked at this page before going on holiday, we were very despondent at the prospect! It sounded like a dreadful place. In fact, we found it to be very good. We would agree with the comments about noise - I was horrified the first night when the high-pitched voice of a rep doing a children's disco echoed around the area between the buildings and the pool "COME ON, GET YOUR AUNTIES UP TO DANCE!" - there was no escape! And being tired, I'd hoped for an early night! No chance. However, although there was a lot of noise every night, it did finish at midnight. Yes, there was other noise overnight as people returned to or left their rooms, and on the Sunday morning we were woken quite early by two cleaning ladies enjoying a laugh and a joke at the top of their voices right under our window. HOWEVER, we weren't driven to desperation by it all.

We had a two-bedded apartment and found it quite all right. There was no maid service - but they had provided a mop so you could do the floor yourself! They brought fresh towels once during our one-week stay.

The staff on reception seemed very helpful and when we went to report a fault with the cooker hotplate (which prevented us boiling a kettle the first night) they said they would send somebody round first thing in the morning and they did. The chap who came didn't speak English, but seemed very ready to help and we managed to explain the problem and he managed to fix it very quickly.

The shop next to the complex is very handy, and there are other little supermarkets around. We found it a good idea to stock up on loo rolls as we were only provided with one, and another one towards the end of the week! Also, you have to buy your own washing up liquid etc. too.

We'd not been to the Costa Brava before and I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't a concrete jungle as I had expected, and we found Blanes clean and attractive. The restaurants along the seafront all seemed to have the same menu, more or less, but there was something to appeal to everybody. We found the people in shops and restaurants very friendly and helpful.


Some kind soul on this page recommended going to Barcelona by train as it is cheaper than taking the organised tour. We found the organised tour gave a good feel for the city, but you don't get time to see anything in detail. My son and I decided to brave the train, but didn't have to in the end. We found, to our delight, that the bus depot is right behind the Europa apartments - and there is a coach which goes directly from there!! Takes you right into Barcelona. You need to have a street map with you, and be sure you know where you are when you get off the bus so you can find your way back to it, but it's worth doing. The metro ticket machines are easy to operate (and even have an English language button) and you can get across the city very easily.

I suppose it's all relative - depends what you're used to. But we enjoyed our stay in Blanes. I don't know if it's always the same, but there was a nice breeze and it never got too hot for me. We didn't notice any mosquitos at night, either - again whether we were lucky or whether that's normal, I don't know.

One last thing - it's literally only five or so minutes' walk from the beach. Nice beach, with big long promenade beside it. Great for after-dinner strolls.