Garden Suites by Melia

Highly recommended: beautiful grounds, beautiful pools with lots of loungers/beds, excellent staff. Beach is a short walk away, and has a great restaurant/bar, loungers and towel service. Thoroughly enjoyed our stay.

This resort, being fairly new (new branding) needs little things to be a true 5 stars. Rooms are large, very comfortable but had little things here and there that were off - we had a master swim up. The air conditioning in the suite part did not work, but since the bedroom one did it kept the other area comfortable (not cool like the bedroom). This should have been verified BEFORE opening for every rooms. Also, although the room was cleaned every day, the patio door handles to go to the swim out were black with grime and dirt. Minibar did not come every day. We had to reach out to the person that was « assigned » to make our stay enjoyable by WhatsApp to get some water. By the way this person, Yohandy was fabulous for any request we had, including reservations at the restaurants and more. Even made sure to deliver a birthday cake to the restaurant we were eating the evening of my birthday. But these person also have their day off, which is understandable but when trying to reach for scheduling included transfer to the airport, since he was not there it was a bit more difficult to find the answers. Finally I was driven by golf cart to the Paradisus to arrange with the Optium agent Staff is 50/50. Some amazing, some don’t care (we were told the Finca Cafe was closed by someone who did not want to be bothered when it was only 7 PM…they close at 8 PM). Found another employee that managed to find the barista to make us a coffee. Some worth mentioning for going all out: Esther, Sharosky, Laeticia and more that I might forget. Also during our 10 days, both my husband and I found that we would often see employees either at the gym (3 together), in the bathrooms, taking time out on their phones📱 !!!! Food was the biggest disappointment for us. At the buffet, there is a good enough variety BUT since what should be kept cold (seafood, raw fish, etc) we’re not kept on ice, we chose not to take a chance in trying a lot of stuff. And what should be hot were not. Whether it was the scrambled eggs at breakfast, meat and vegetables at lunch and dinner, everything was warm at best. The a la carte are hit and miss. I would say Volcan, the steakhouse, when they cook the beef filet as specified ( medium rare for us) it was delicious - we got it right 1 out of two. The other time was overcooked. And again, sides were cold (fries and rice). No salt or pepper at any restaurants unless you ask. Same with butter for toast at breakfast. All in all, we will wait quite a while, until our return so that hopefully they work out all of these things that does not make it a 5*. And lastly, with a resort this small, all others we had been to in the past, this size (less than 200 rooms such as Zel) we had always seen the manager(s) walking around, introducing themselves, asking if everything was ok. Here never a sign of him. I think that might be the start of making the resort better…getting a pulse from the customer, being visible to the staff (for those hiding in the gym and bathrooms) and lead his team.

Very beautiful resort my room was luxurious i really enjoyed it. The food was not good they over cook the fish,chicken,and steak but under cooked my hamburger

So disappointing! One of the worst hotels/resorts I have stayed in based on overall quality of food & service. Really disappointed as I had high expectations with this being a 5 star resort with fairly good reviews online but it is far from it. I would say it is more like a 3 star resort based on UK standards yet they are charging high UK prices to stay here which is not reflected in what you get. If you are from the UK or Europe I would highly suggest you don’t book this resort/hotel as it will not meet anywhere near the expectations in terms of quality, service or food (The chef didn’t even know how to cook eggs & served it raw on multiple occasions which was the final straw). The staff are untrained & don’t know how to properly serve tables in a professional manner (There are exceptions with some members of staff however the general members of staff were poor). I’m not someone who writes reviews often however as this experience has been so bad I want to make potential future guests aware so that they consider booking elsewhere. Don’t waste your money staying here! On a positive note the hotel grounds were very nice & tropical however it’s such a shame that they don’t have the service / quality to go with such a beautifully located resort.

The hotel is very nicely done and the rooms and grounds are lovely. The staff is very polite and helpful. Not right on the beach but a few minute ride in a golf cart to a private area of the beautiful beach with a good restaurant. Zel is new and they are just ramping up, so it was quiet and relaxing. Not many excursions available. Only disappointment was that there was very little nightly entertainment.