Club Esse Cala Gonone

We stayed there for two days. Highly recommend not only for the good service, facilities, but also for the dinner buffet which is wonderful!

Whilst the accommodation was reasonable and situated in a lovely location, albeit very hilly, our overall experience wasn’t quite what we expected. We were on a bed and breakfast basis and even arriving at the restaurant at 8.30 am there were lots of food items in short supply and not being replenished. There were often no dishes available to use for cereals/spoons to eat with/cups for coffee. No warm plates for hot food. To make matters worse, the staff on duty didn’t seem to know why basic items were missing. We were a party of 6 adults and made do with what we could find. I would have hated to have children to feed as the food options were very limited. Our overall experience with staff around the complex was not very friendly, apart from at the reception. One male member of the housekeeping team came over as very aggressive and in fact was reported to reception as after delivering extra blankets to 2 of our party he stood in their room demanding payment for having delivered the blankets! Very strange and odd behaviour! The Cala Gonone area is very scenic with plenty of restaurants, coffee bars and shops to visit.

The hotel is pretty old and needs serious renovation, especially bathrooms in the rooms - vary small, not comfortable at all. Rooms are also not spacious and furniture is outdated. Don`t forget to throw your wet towels on the floor in order to get them changed. If they are on the hangers they won`t be changed. If you want to get your bed linen changed you have to request this at reception. Food is average but you still get to enjoy some prawns, pork and chicken meat, fish, sveral types of salads, pasta of course and some local desserts but nothing exceptional. +++ Staff is great - polite and helpful; coffee is awesome; and the pool but you need to have a cap to enter it - don`t worry you can get one at reception for 3 Euro. Animation is good for kids (there`s aqua gym ot 5pm for adults) but mainly for Italians which is normal as 99.9% of the guests are such ;)

We stayed just for the weekend, we had breakfast and dinner. The menu had different choices, the staff was very friendly. We had a chance to speak with the manager and the front office manager, who helped us with a problem with our transport. Reception staff very helpful, they suggested us some beaches to visit. We appreciated the service of the train that goes down to the beach!

A beautiful location, but sadly everything is designed for Italians. There was no English speaking entertainment at all. The village is very remote, lots of steep hills, so isn't disabled friendly. The food queues were long, 1 server for 4 foods. You queue for one item then if another item is with a different server you have to queue there too, which means food is cold. Pay as you go meals are 25 euros each per meal (lunch or dinner) but food is of much better quality at the seafront, cheaper and no standing in big queues for cold food. But the returning shuttle up the steep hills stop at 7pm, so limited time frame when out. The hotel have made it where you need to be there and have to pay for what they have. They charge 1.80 for a small water that is only 0.39 (exactly the same water) from the supermarket at the beach. But with limited transport you have no choice but to pay the hotel prices. No uber, no taxis and steep hills. However, many of the local workers were so friendly, the shuttle bus driver was lovely and helpful, many of the bar staff were great and so was a lifeguard. The scenery is stunning . If you aren't bothered by being remote and aren't hoping for entertainment then it's the perfect place.

The hotel complex is nice, with a lot of greenery and big pool. It is located on a hill and walking between pool / restaurant and your room involves walking up and down the hill. This hotel is good for vacation but if you want to travel around and explore the island don’t stay there - you need to travel via narrow mountain road with a lot of steep and sharp rounds every time to and back. It takes an hour in one direction to get to a normal road and then depends on where you are going another 1-3 hours. Food - not good at all. Has nothing to do with the local cuisine. Tasteless, not fresh. Staff is not nice. If you travel and need to get a beg food - better don’t. For breakfast they put a bottle of water, 3 cookies and jam. For dinner, when we come back later and they were waiting us to serve “warm” fresh food, they served a slice of mortadella, cold rice, a red pepper and half boiled potato also cold. Rooms desperately need refurbishment. Not quite clean. Small ants are on the night table. Bathroom is big but shower is so tiny and small you can’t turn around in. Staff is very unpleasant and not supportive. When we arrived by buss, there were 4 reception desk open but they worked so slowly that it took more than 15min per person to check in. Then we had to wait a single golf car to take each one of us to our villa. We had to talk to the manager as one of the rooms was under the stair case with 3 air conditioning units under the window and was very noisy so we asked replacement. The receptionist said that they will check tomorrow. We asked for the manager and he said the same - today they are fully booked and will check tomorrow. When I asked why tomorrow, they know what they have booked, he said he’s busy and can’t deal with us now. Then they never called and we had to keep that room till the end.