Insotel Cala Mandia Resort

Just returned from a stay at the end of the season (22-29 October) in this wonderful hotel resort. We are a family of 4 (kids 7 & 9) and travelled with 3 other families with kids too. We booked a garden room (ground floor) in Area C (family area). I had read some pretty awful reviews before travelling and was nervous about what to expect. Fortunately, those reviews seem to be the minority with most staying here having a positive experience. We landed in Palma around 5:30pm and it took around 1 hour to get off the plane, go through border control, collect t baggage and find the TUI transfer bus. Keep in mind there were toilet stops along the way for kids etc. The transfer took us around 1 hour from Palma airport to the hotel, but we were the first to be dropped off. We arrived around 7:30/8pm and checked in. I had forgotten about the tourist tax but no big deal. We were advised that we could beach hire towels for the pool for €20 per towel, you can change these for fresh towels twice a week and on return, you get your €80 (4x towels) back. [Tip: keep the receipt for hiring the towels as you need that for getting the refund. You pay for the towels at reception but collect at the info centre at the entrance to area C.] After checking in, we went to the room to drop off our luggage and then to the buffet restaurant for some dinner as it closes at 9pm. Our room was lovely. It probably is due a wee upgrade in decor but wasn’t too bad. There was a separate bedroom for parents with 2x single beds pushed together. Lots of wardrobe space and space around the bed to get unpacked and luggage stowed along the wall. Kids had 2x single beds in the living room space. We had doors leading out to a patio undercover with table and chairs and two sun loungers in the garden. The air conditioning was good throughout the holiday. There is a small fridge is the room if required. The bathroom is spacious and has a shower over bath and our towels were changed daily. We stayed in room 2006 and it was right across from the splash park and a very short walk down the stairs from the pool - would highly recommend this area to stay in. In area C there is the Insi splash park with flumes and small pools and there is also a baby pool and bigger pool (max depth 1.3m) and a small pool near Insi kids club. There are a few different parks and tennis courts too. There is the Surf restaurant which we used for buffet lunch most days and it has bar service too. Food was fabulous! Kids can help themselves to ice cream. Drinks are generous with half gin / half tonic - beware! :) [Tip: drinks are served in small plastic cups or small wine glasses. Being yourself a plastic pint glass or gin glass etc on holiday for larger serving] The hotel has a spa (€), arcade for kids, indoor play room, indoor pool (€), and some a la carte restaurants. Due to it being the end of season, quite a lot of the a la carte restaurants were closed. We did fine at the Fifties diner one night for free whic

Our first weeks holiday was a Marella cruise it was faultless then we picked this hotel for our second week what a let down the restaurant was like a cattle market and the food was cold staff were not very friendly , the animation team were very friendly the bedroom was okay but one day I went on the balcony and a bird had messed which I know this is normal but when it had still not been cleaned up after three days was not good also a table in the dining room was dirty I asked for it to be cleaned but with no response, would I stay here again definitely No

Staff were great especially reception, food was fine drinks ok not much variety in cocktails. Room was disappointing loose mosaic tiles in shower the actual shower not very good one minute ok next boiling. Vents to air con dusty.Balcony pretty bleak would class that actual room as 3*