Vista Flor

We recently stayed at Bungalow VistaFlor and came away with very mixed feelings. There are some genuinely good things about the place, but also some areas that really let it down.

We were a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 children aged 19, 18, 17 & 13). we had a two bedroomed unit & a 1 bedroomed pool view unit.

The staff: Generally excellent. They work incredibly hard and, at times, looked absolutely exhausted. The cleaning staff in particular were lovely and friendly. I was unfortunately very ill for around 12 hours during our stay and needed an extra clean the following day. The staff arranged this very quickly, which I really appreciated. I don't believe the food was the cause of my illness, as nobody else in my family was unwell.

The rooms: This is probably where the age of the complex is most noticeable. The rooms are very dated and tired and could have been cleaned more thoroughly. That said, the beds were comfortable and the air conditioning worked really well, which was definitely appreciated in the heat.

Drinks: Not great. The wine was, quite honestly, awful. Soft drinks were fine and the Amstel beer was okay. We didn't really try the spirits.

Pool & daytime entertainment: We actually really enjoyed our days around the pool. There was plenty going on and my family joined in with aqua aerobics, table tennis, darts, water polo and bingo. This was a real bonus for me because I could relax with my book knowing everyone else was entertained!

The complex is very heavily geared towards Spanish guests, so during the day expect plenty of Spanish/non-English music. This didn't bother us particularly, but it's worth knowing.

The biggest downside around the pool was the dreaded sunbed situation! You really do need to get up early and participate in the towel wars if you want a lounger — and forget about getting six together unless you're up very early.

Evening entertainment: Very hit and miss. The karaoke was more like an extension of the children's mini disco, with little ones repeatedly getting up to sing Shakira. To be fair, our own family — adults and older children — did join in and had fun with it, but the entertainment probably isn't aimed at an older crowd.

The rock singer Hannes was genuinely good, and the dancers were also very good. The magic show, however, was painfully bad and quite embarrassing to watch!

Food: The food itself was actually tasty, and we found plenty we enjoyed. The snack bar, however, was extremely repetitive, essentially burgers, hot dogs and chips every day.

But the meal times and organisation are a completely different story.

Dinner in particular is chaotic. The advertised dinner time is 6:30–9pm, but honestly there doesn't seem to be a "good" time to go. There can be queues just to get into the basement, followed by queues for the food, and the noise level can become quite overwhelming. One evening I simply couldn't face it and skipped dinner altogether.

I really think this could be improved with some better organisation. For example, separating the meat/fish station from the main buffet would probably make a huge difference. Lunch at around 1pm was a completely different experience for us, much quieter and far more relaxed.

A couple of local trips: We ate out one evening in Meloneras, which was lovely and definitely worth a visit. It was around €8 in a taxi. We also visited the Yumbo Centre during the day for some shopping. Unfortunately, we found it very run down compared with what we expected. The older children went clubbing there one evening but were disappointed.

Overall: We had a good holiday and made the most of our time at VistaFlor. The staff work incredibly hard, the daytime activities were great for our family, the pool area was enjoyable and the food itself was generally tasty.

However, the rooms are tired, the drinks aren't great and the organisation around dinner really needs attention. If the complex were given some investment and the buffet/meal system was better organised, I think it could be a much better experience.

We enjoyed our stay overall, but there are definitely things that could be improved.

We stayed here for a week on the 31st of July, we had a late flight so we got to reception at around 10:30pm, receptionist was very friendly and as we were all inclusive and missed dinner we were given a little bag with a sandwich, apple, biscuits and a drink. We stayed in a 1 bedroom apartment which has a pull out bed downstairs in the living area and a double bed upstairs. The apartment has a fridge, air-con (in the upstairs bedroom only) which was needed as we were there during a heatwave, we needed the air-con running all the time to keep cool. Overall the apartment was great. The all inclusive food was a good standard but the restaurant got busy at popular times which meant people were queuing for fresh meat/fish etc. we also had a couple of things what were clot cold in the middle which I reported. It didn’t put me off the food as overall it was nice. The pool was always really busy and it was always difficult to get loungers, there were notes in the rooms saying you cannot save loungers but no one seemed to care, after the weekend it got a little easier to get loungers. The pool is beautiful and just the right depth for everyone with a life guard on duty all day. Entertainment was ok but nothing special, there were singers on 2 night and the other nights were quiz or karaoke. The entertainment team were busy with the kids (and adults) throughout the day/night with aqua gym and water polo etc. Overall I recommend this place and we really enjoyed our stay, the only issue I had was that our flight home was at 21:40 in the evening and we had to be out of the room for 10am, I requested a late checkout 2 times and I never got anywhere (kept saying it was unlikely as they were busy) we got a place to get cleaned up for 30 mins before our flight but, being in a heatwave from 10am till our coach at 18:35 was hard going considering we had no band from 12pm, had to buy drinks and snacks from the shop onsite, I think this could be dealt with better considering we arrived late on the Friday, we only got 6 days of all inclusive (although probably paid for7). Other than the late checkout issue the staff were very friendly and helpful.