Hotel Cartago Nova by Alegria

Having just spent 6 nights here i certainly wont be returning. We never expect fancy rooms when we book a budget hotel but i do expect to be able to get a good nights sleep. The room was basic and outdated but clean. The beds were very firm and comfortable. The biggest problem here is the noise. The walls are literally paper thin. There was a fella in the next room to us having a conversation on the phone and we could hear every word the person on the other end was saying! We were woken continuosly every night by other guests in their rooms chatting, laughing and shouting. Also right outside our door in the corridor near the lift was a couple of comfy chairs. So not only are we listening to people in their rooms, we have people sitting down right outside our door chatting away till all hours. We didnt get 1 full nights sleep. We included breakfast in our booking, we tried it twice and it wasnt great. We ended up going elsewhere and managed to find a fine breakfast nearby for reasonable money. The day we arrived, was the day that Spain, Portugal & France had an electrical blackout! This didnt bother us at all as we were still able to relax outside, have a few beers etc, however we arrived back at the hotel after dark and had to use the stairs to get up to the 8th floor, thats no problem as we use the stairs a lot anyway. BUT...there was no lighting whatsoever all the way up, 8 flights of stairs in the pitch black. Our phones had no battery left and no way to recharge them so we were in complete darkness. After finding and feeling our way to the room we realised just how dangerous this was! Surely there should be some kind of backup, especially on the stairs! There was a hotel just down the road that had full backup power running, so much so that they even had a disco going! Anyway, that was our experience. We have stayed in plenty of budget hotels and know what to expect usually but on this occasion we were very disappointed.

Short Break Check in was efficient by a very friendly lady. We parked our car on the car park at the rear of the hotel. A few hours later whilst we were out I received a phone call from the hotel receptionist asking to move the car immediately. There was nothing to say we couldn't park there initially but a bollard had been put there on our return! We had a pool/seaview room which was spacious with a modern bathroom. The restaurant was sometimes chaotic with quite a few empty reserved tables and nowhere else to sit. After a consultation with the Restaurant Manager we were allowed to sit at one of the reserved tables. Food was okay. Staff friendly and helpful. We stayed at this hotel a few years ago and were on a return nostalgia visit for a couple of days. The hotel is now housing migrants which didn't cause us any issues but may be off putting to some guests. Disco could be heard on the 8th floor until 4am, lots of noise and very little sleep unfortunately!

If you are like I was and worrying about this hotel after the ridiculous harsh reviews please don't!! My partner and I were over the moon with our stay. Clean, nice rooms, fluffy comfy pillows, nice relaxing pool area, nice cocktails & mocktails choice at the bar. Yes it's basic but it's also cheap! Breakfast continental, don't expect full English in Spain!! But there is something for everyone. I didn't like the hot breakfast so had lots of toast & fruit. The hot buffet dinner the same, something everyone would eat & try new foods. Saved some money eating the buffet a couple times. Most staff DO speak enough English to talk to. We make an effort to say basic words in Spanish to them and they will make the effort back! They were really helpful. We were 6th floor and could hear the club in the background at night, along with other music in the tourist area, it wasn't overpowering and we did sleep fine, they give you earplugs in the room so not an issue. Basically expect the food not to be English, expect the people to be Spanish and expect to hear the tourist area you've chosen to go to and you will have a good holiday!!!

I do not recommend this hotel to anyone, honestly, this hotel is not worth more than 1 star, the first one, bed bugs, the music plays all night, it is impossible to get a rest, the bed is a tragedy, you will wake up like a broken person, when you report the bugs, they just say they are very sorry, give another one rooms and they give another dirty room discussed My holiday was broken!! Never back!!