Hotel Best Siroco

We are just finishing our one week stay at hotel. A few things to review.

Food/restaurant: Breakfast is a good selection lunch and dinner get very repetitive. However food is plentiful and hot. They attempt to have themed nights but majority of food is fish or pork. Avoid the restaurant on a Friday completely if you do not like fish. Queues can get ridiculous at certain times. We always went for breakfast before 9 and never had any trouble getting in but after 9 it is carnage. and lunch for opening at 1 again no trouble getting in. If you eat dinner after 8/830 then you will be queuing for miles! Once again we would get there for opening at 7 as this suited my family with a young child anyway.

Pool: The pool is nice, we always arrived to the pool for opening 10am and never had any troubles to get sun beds or umbrellas and absolutely no ‘sunbed wars’ or queueing this suprised me considering we were here mid august. You can pay if you’re over 16 to use their new pool and reserved beds. The older lifeguard is very rude and reception even told us they receive a lot of complaints regarding him. Avoid him! One of the pools is very gritty and in my opinion not cleaned to the best it could be.

Rooms: The rooms are outdated but clean, and cleaned each day however you only get new towels daily not new glasses. Housekeeping are polite and do a good job as cleanliness is okay around the hotel. We did however move rooms from our first room we were allocated on thr 4th floor, the balcony door would not close meaning no aircon was working and the room absolutly stank of stale smoke. Second room on 1st floor was better.

Staff and animation team Some reception staff are rude , but others very helpful. The animation team are in my opinion dreadful. They do not engage with any child or families who aren’t Spanish even when my almost 2 year old was desperate to get involved they did not even give her a smile. Things seems to happen around the pool but once again only if your Spanish they seemed to involve you! I would say they are the worst animation team I’ve experienced so if you have young English children do not expect much from them at all!

Overall nice hotel for what we paid but I would not return.

Great location, close to the marina, near to the shops, beach bars and bus stops. Great prom to walk along, lots of choice of where to sit on the beach!

Use the gate past the left hand side of the pool to get out onto the street-steps directly down to the beach, these are all the way along too-not just these steps. Have a good walk and explore! Turn left from the main entrance walk up a few mins turn left again and you will come to other shops bars etc.

The street market in Tivoli world car park on a Friday morning is worth a walk(about 20 mins) lots of stalls and bargains. The cable car is also near there. Buses easy to navigate-cheap too! Go to Malaga and have an explore(get off at the last stop which is the bus station-cross the road and from there it’s all well sign posted, get a ticket at the ticket office when coming back, for the way there pay on the bus. Malaga is a lovely walkable city with plenty of history, sights and museums. The butterfly world and castle are near the old town(the castle is full of insta snappers that can be a bit cringy and we felt we were in their way! It’s a lovely and unusual place that is half an hr to an hr visits at most the butterfly place is calm and tranquil again not a very long visits-do both in the morning-again easy to get the bus-ask at reception they right it down and it’s very clear. I would suggest possibly a taxi to the castle then walk up to the butterfly place-bit of a climb then bus back down-the stop is right of the butterfly park entrance just round the back takes you along through the old town and drops back down.

The hotel itself is good-the bad reviews are very unfair! We found the staff helpful, not overly friendly on reception but I would say efficient. The restaurant staff are clear and concise, housekeeping work endlessly and deserve acknowledging!

TIP:if you don’t want to queue for dinner go down around 8.30ish you can choose where you sit whereas at 9.15 onwards you will queue for I would say 10-20 mins we didn’t mind but some do, also you will be allocated seating. They do start packing up at 9.45 ish so be aware of that.

The food is plentiful, one thing would be as a vegetarian the food is very basically labelled, really obvious what was meaty of course but a mix of the language barrier and lack of clearer labelling meant sticking with salads etc which I may add were delicious so that is not a moan! Great breakfast choices. Again reviews are unfair I cannot see how people can moan fruits, continental, cooked, yogurts, waffles, pancakes etc! Don’t know what they usually eat for breakfast but there is 100% something for everyone! Same at dinner time too. You have to pay for water at dinner, breakfast is hot drinks from the machine juices and smoothies even a bit of fizz if you fancy!

The pool is small for the hotel however good for a little dunk in when hot! You cannot swim in it at all as it’s shallow, deepest part 1.5m, always a sun bed and others comments on lack of umbrellas is again unfair-there are trees that create lovely shade if you get too hot-move the bed it is not hard and after all it is a hot country and the luxury of AC in the rooms is lovely. The rooms are nice and clean we had a 2nd floor room and were very happy with the beds, shower and overall facilities. Great big vanity area, large wardrobe space-no complaints at all. Free safe was a bonus too.

If you are prepared to look past the initial look off the area, explore on your feet, take the buses etc it’s a great spot! The hotel is mainly Spanish people and as UK travellers we liked this. The animation/entertainment is all in Spanish, we liked this others may not. The sitting area for the entertainment is good, drinks feel reasonably priced. The entertainment was maybe not the best, take a pack of cards, relax and take it for what it is!

TIP:book boats trips in advance, we didn’t and unfortunately didn’t have one-my mistake!

Enjoy your holiday!

Great hotel, good location near the beach and marina. Comfortable rooms and great range of food.