ROBINSON ESQUINZO PLAYA

A truly wonderful private resort. The team of staff were extremely helpful and very courteous. Nothing was too much trouble. The location is superb with the beautiful beach accessible via a short 5 min walk. The grounds are stunning with beautifully kept flowers and trees. The views from our hotel room was simply gorgeous. The various pools are exceptionally with choice for all kinds of water activities. The food was of a very high quality and plenty of choice each day. The entertainment was great, although mainly in the German language. Everywhere in the resort is clean and possesses a unique charm. We will definitely come back again!!

I’m going to mention the vegan bit first because we are and that has to be forefront when booking holidays. We came last year and the vegan station for breakfast changed most days. This year it’s the same lukewarm breakfast every day. One of those is much too spicy for breakfast. Do not bother looking for a cooked breakfast as they don’t do tofu-egg or vegan sausages (yet they offer eggs every way). If you eat meat and eggs you have 40 choices for breakfast, if you’re vegan you have 4 (but nothing hot). Lunchtime there is an amazing curry at the vegan section with the same condiments each day. There is also a poke bowl option but you have to cover the floor for get all the options in the dish- but well worth it. The vegan desert has only one option- ever. No icecream, no sorbet, no vegan cream, no vegan custard. But also remember, if you want the cake, get it quick as they only put one out and it quickly disappears. Dinner time (last year offered 2 different vegan options, this year you only get the one!!!). There will be another type of vegan curry along similar lines to lunchtime. They have a lovely looking fresh pasta section but the bolognaise only ever offers meat, they do meat burgers with no variation. They could do so much more with just a little effort. It’s so frustrating when there is so much food about and so little choice for us. The alternative milks are out in the mornings for breakfast, but at lunch and dinner time they are in a tiny fridge at the front of the restaurant. They run out of soya milk regularly, so you have to ask and wait for someone to bring more to you. I gave up bothering today so used the almond milk but it had separated so couldn’t drink it. The hotel is well run, clean and tidy. Rooms cleaned daily. Robinson is a German company so everything is in German including all the leaflets, classes and signage. Pity the paperwork we were given wasn’t in English as that would have helped. They have a pool for children which is never used and a pool for swimming lengths in which is full of children playing. Because parents don’t go in the small pool, the children hardly go in. It’s a steep walk down to the beach but lovely once there to get in the sea. I thought this would have been one of our annual holidays but as the vegan options have actually diminished since last year, sadly this will be our last time here.

IMPORTANT TO READ BEFORE YOU BOOK. This hotel was chosen on the back of advice from a TUI in store travel agent. I was looking for a holiday to recover from a bad 6 months and was seeking total relaxation and solitude if I needed it . I was extremely shocked and disappointed to find on arrival that I had basically been dropped into what is essentially a German hotel. 98% of the guests at my time of visiting were Germans (they were as surprised to see me there as I was in staying there - but possibly not as distraught!! The TUI reps visiting the hotel could not believe that I had been advised to go to this hotel as they say it is widely known throughout TUI that the Robinson chain of hotels etc worldwide are really for the Germans). The signage was all in German - instructions and information - shows and entertainment were all in German. A lot of the main dishes in the buffet restaurant were in German and they could not easily translate what the meat or flavourings were when I asked as they were served by German's or Spanish people who knew mainly snippets of German rather than English. The management structure was German. I missed out on several dining experiences as I did not see they were going on as I could not read the advertisements. Yes, a lot of Germans have a very good command of the English language but are not always inclined to use it entertaining one of the only English guests staying. There were a few extremely friendly ones. In addition to this they have a particular "concept" for dining whereby most tables are laid for 8 people. This is quite a squash when all seated and of course that meant I was then forced to be spending every meal time in complete silence being ignored or trying to make small talk with Germans. To be honest it was their holiday also so they should not be forced to be speaking in English for my sake. There were very few smaller tables (if they were they were in amongst the family dining which quite frankly was like feeding time at the zoo I asked if I could reserve a small table somewhere but you are only able to reserve tables if you buy their more expensive wine! It did not matter one bit how uncomfortable I was, they would not budge. The hotel on my arrival misplaced my luggage for up to 2 hours - I will not detail in full the conversations I had with German managers regarding how this was handled and how they did not seem to value me as a guest when I complained - in short they were very defensive and rude. Don't get me on the manner of the Guest Services manager when I was talking to her; looking past me interacting facially with other guests during our conversation and then breaking into German to speak with the rep about the situation when her English was perfectly fine and therefore precluded me from the discussion which was so rude. They had offered a (half) bottle of wine which I declined as I was all inclusive and had all the wine I needed and I also declined the offer of one of t