Valamar Amicor Resort

“Lovely family holiday”

Perfect spot. Great pool, slides, perfect for kids. Kids club, good food and nice quiet beach

“Perfect family and fitness stay”

We are staying here for a week and half way through and so far having a lovely time. We are here as a couple but with friends and their 2 children, who are 18 months and 5 years old. The resort is lovely and very well catered for young families. I wouldn’t come back without children as it is defini… more

We are staying here for a week and half way through and so far having a lovely time. We are here as a couple but with friends and their 2 children, who are 18 months and 5 years old. The resort is lovely and very well catered for young families. I wouldn’t come back without children as it is definitely catered for families. The area is lovely with fitness really high on the agenda. There is an outdoor gym (no indoor gym with cardio equipment) but a full programme. Aurel is the main man for all things fitness, with aqua aerobics, morning workouts keeping the whole family active. There are tenmis courts, beach volleyball, basketball ball and bikes, kayak and SUP to do as well. Food is lovely. My husband has a nut allergy and puddings are definitely off the menu due to cross contamination. Rooms are great and all ecological and very focused on being green

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“Great holiday but needs a more secure kids club”

Agree with all that has been said before about the setting, tranquility and layout of this resort. Definitely a place for families. If we were without kids, Stari Grad itself would have been much better suited. Our most recent holidays have been in all -inclusive type hotels and so initially we … more

Agree with all that has been said before about the setting, tranquility and layout of this resort. Definitely a place for families. If we were without kids, Stari Grad itself would have been much better suited. Our most recent holidays have been in all -inclusive type hotels and so initially we missed the choice of restaurants, multiple pools, more structured kids entertainment etc. There's no hint of a sports bar etc, and the bar is basically the restaurant and everything closed down at 9pm. It's not a party hotel! However, actually, not having all that choice made everything simpler and so, more relaxing. Our experience was as a party with kids aged 1 and 3. Linked to this, our greatest disappointment/ surprise was the kids club. In itself it's brilliant, with an impressive variety of equipment, loads of gaming screens, ball pit, trampoline, engineering stations and other computer based activities. The staff were all friendly and it's open long hours. The system of green or red bands to show which kids could leave unsupervised and which had to be collected was good. However, we quickly realised that there are so many gaps in the process that it would have been incredibly easy for our 3 year old to sneak out, or even worse, be taken out. As such, we stayed with her at all times and it seemed all other parents of younger kids did too. It was easy for anybody to walk into the area both through the main door and also a door by reception. The staff were often called away from the reception desk and there is free access for anyone to enter / leave without signing in - which we as adults often did. Other clubs we've experienced have far better security systems and I'd encourage the management to review this. This wasn't an issue at all for us to stay but it was just a shame as a few tweaks to the policy would create an amazing and secure club. For example, there should be a secure door between reception and the ball pit room as opposed to the open net one (or the door into the toddlers room from the ball pit one should be secured), so kids with red bands cannot possibly leave unescorted by parents. It should not be possible to enter via the reception door either. For older children who can be left to their own devices though, the facility is excellent. Dining wise, the food was good. A bit repetitive but enough choice to vary it up over the days. We found it odd there was no plastic plates / bowls etc for kids, meaning lots of unnecessary breakages! Drinks prices were a bit punchy (including being charged 6 euro for a small can of orangina), but fridges in rooms meant a trip to the supermarket sorted that. The above points didn't hugely impact on the quality of our stay but were things that stood out to us as examples of where the resort falls short. The location is great, a scenic 1km walk / run into glorious Stari Grad, with a boat taxi option too. Plenty of sun beds and the option of using the pool next door. The water slides were good and different sizes for all ages. Felt strange there was no lifeguard though. Amazing sea swimming too. This review perhaps unfairly highlights the negatives, which were certainly less than the positives. We'd stay again.

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“A parent’s review: beautiful setting, great for kids, but a few important things to know!”

Overall our stay at Valamar Amicor Green Resort in Stari Grad was a very positive experience. This is a beautiful family resort with a fantastic atmosphere, quality food, excellent surroundings, and some really thoughtful ideas for children and families. Like other reviewers we definitely felt frus… more

Overall our stay at Valamar Amicor Green Resort in Stari Grad was a very positive experience. This is a beautiful family resort with a fantastic atmosphere, quality food, excellent surroundings, and some really thoughtful ideas for children and families. Like other reviewers we definitely felt frustrations and inconsistencies during the stay, and left feeling that this is a place with more potential than it currently delivers. The strongest aspect of the resort is undoubtedly the setting. The landscaping, with rosemary and Mediterranean planting throughout the grounds, fills the air with wonderful scents. The resort feels green, calm and connected to nature with butterflies, wildflowers, lizards and wildlife everywhere. The environment is so peaceful that people naturally seem to lower their voices around the resort. Rather than the loud, chaotic energy that often dominates family resorts, there’s a calmer, more relaxed feeling. It gives the whole place a tranquil quality that feels very different from more crowded or commercialised holiday destinations. Travelling in late May during UK half term is an excellent time to visit. The resort never felt overcrowded, there was no fighting for sunbeds (at least initially, but people are people and some just can’t help themselves!) and the overall atmosphere remained relaxed throughout the stay. The villas work particularly well for families: separate sleeping areas for children makes a huge difference, and the private courtyard is really useful. Family focus is a strength. There is excellent play equipment scattered throughout the grounds, and the sports and physical activity offering for children is impressive. The resort also has a wonderful garden area where fruit, vegetables, and herbs are grown, giving children an opportunity to engage with nature and learn where food comes from. It adds to the overall feeling that the resort is trying to create something more thoughtful and environmentally connected than a standard package holiday experience. The kids’ club itself is relatively small, but it is well run and includes a very sensible wristband system using different colours to indicate whether children can leave independently or whether an adult must collect them. As a parent, that system felt reassuring and well thought through. The food quality was another positive, stronger than other hotels at the same price point. Although variety was lacking and after a week things got a bit m same-y. Also, some foods would run out halfway through a meal time, meaning less choice unless you get competitive. This was a good example of the minor but frequent irritations that indicates a resort with excellent fundamentals but missing the fine detail of guest experience. The staff were never unfriendly, but service throughout the stay often felt slow, reactive, and lacking in attentiveness compared with similarly positioned resorts in Spain or Italy. There was rarely a sense that staff were proactive. Check-in set the tone for this early. After travelling, we were left waiting for a long time because of some unexplained technical issue, with no communication about what was happening. Once we eventually entered the villa, we found clothing belonging to previous guests in the room, which naturally raised concerns about housekeeping standards. No meaningful explanation was ever provided. From there, a pattern of smaller issues developed: Media-casting functionality on both televisions (useful with kids) did not work properly. After repeatedly requesting assistance, a technician eventually arrived as we were all getting showered and ready for dinner and had to fit a new TV (which didn’t really solve the connectivity issue). The air conditioning initially produced an unpleasant smell. We used room service once and they delivered the wrong food and wrong drinks. Cleaning instructions had to be quite prescriptive to get things done. Housekeeping service felt superficial at times. There were also a few strange oversights for a resort so clearly aimed at families. Small sports equipment (e.g. pools cues) for children were unavailable; small cutlery was not available, and there were occasions where glasses and remnants from the previous evening remained around communal areas near the children’s club into the following morning. In a family resort where young children are running around barefoot, that feels like an avoidable safety issue. Operational consistency around amenities also became frustrating at times. The towel exchange system occasionally ran out of fresh towels unless guests arrived immediately at the beginning of the exchange period. This created an unfortunate sense that guests who arrived slightly later were receiving a lesser experience despite paying the same price. One issue that parents must know about is poolside safety and first aid preparedness. During our stay, there appeared to be a strangely high number of children sustaining abrasion injuries to their feet around the pool (including our own son). What made this more concerning was the lack of adequate first aid provision on site for dealing even with even minor injuries. The first aid kits I encountered were utterly woeful, missing basic supplies and containing open ‘sterile’ dressings (no longer actually sterile). For a resort so heavily focused on families and children, this is well below standard. The reception team joked that there are so many injuries that it is hard to keep up with restocking the first aid kits…?! This is one area where the resort needs to improve now. One final issue was the constant prompting for tips whenever signing bills (even when fetching your own drinks from the bar!). While guests from a tipping culture like the US may be comfortable with this, it started to get embarrassingly awkward and overly transactional. I came to avoid one waiter in particular for this reason. Overall though, we enjoyed our stay here. The setting is beautiful, the accommodation works extremely well for families, the atmosphere is calm and peaceful, and the resort has clearly been designed with children in mind. What holds it back from being truly exceptional is not one major problem, but a repeated pattern of inconsistencies and missed opportunities to elevate the guest experience. With stronger attention to detail and slightly more proactive service, this could easily become one of the standout family resorts in Croatia. Even as it stands today, however, it remains a very enjoyable place to stay and somewhere we would consider again (albeit carrying a more comprehensive first aid kit and some children’s cutlery!).

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