Hotel Aurora Plava Laguna, Affiliated by Meliá

“Holiday in glorious heat!”

As usual, I had a good read of a lot of negative reviews before we booked and ignored most of them . Hotel is a bit old fashioned in places but it’s kept so clean you don’t mind. People complain about no sun beds but I’m writing this pool side in 30 degree heat and there are plenty of free beds if … more

As usual, I had a good read of a lot of negative reviews before we booked and ignored most of them . Hotel is a bit old fashioned in places but it’s kept so clean you don’t mind. People complain about no sun beds but I’m writing this pool side in 30 degree heat and there are plenty of free beds if you get out of bed before 10! Staff at front desk are as friendly as any I’ve met and if you actually take time to engage with some of the others it’s the same. Food, yes it’s busy at peak hours but if you don’t like it busy, eat outside these times. Some have commented the food is the same but you get a good choice all day. My only negative comment would be the aircon in the bedroom wasn’t good and I couldn’t sleep but would just have a long nap poolside. So if you come here and look for negatives you’ll find them but as I’m here on holiday I thoroughly enjoyed the positives.

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“Nice holiday - because of beautiful see”

Nice hotel ( old but nice ), with own garden, beautiful see, pool, bikes......Hotel is old and would need a renovation, but it is clean incl. hotel rooms. There is nobody cleaning the garden ( full bins the whole day ), nobody cleans sun beds and umbrellas....Restaurant is huge - meal is not very g… more

Nice hotel ( old but nice ), with own garden, beautiful see, pool, bikes......Hotel is old and would need a renovation, but it is clean incl. hotel rooms. There is nobody cleaning the garden ( full bins the whole day ), nobody cleans sun beds and umbrellas....Restaurant is huge - meal is not very good - quite a good choice of everything, but cooked in very bad way ( all the meat - even a tuna fish - is very tough and dried....), the restaurant staff is very unpleasant ( there was just one older man - do not remember the name - that was very nice and a lady called Elena - she was the only one who was able to make a good coffee at the lobby bar ), the rest of the fb staff ignores you, never smiles and starts cleaning and closing part of the buffet 40 min before the end of dinner.... the reception staff and housekeeping is very nice and kind.

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“Value for money ”

Location- excellent. This is old (socialistic) design - spacy! Hotel is tucked in pine forest. Other hotels are far apart, and hard to see from thick forest. very rare "commodity" these days. Beach is not from "dream beach "pictures , since in entire Istria there is no natural beaches, so , long … more

Location- excellent. This is old (socialistic) design - spacy! Hotel is tucked in pine forest. Other hotels are far apart, and hard to see from thick forest. very rare "commodity" these days. Beach is not from "dream beach "pictures , since in entire Istria there is no natural beaches, so , long time ago, someone just made a - concrete block. Sing level, looks more like dock, than beach . But it works. As long as you want to be roasted. If not, there is little crowded pool area, with mix of natural and sunbrella shade, or , natural, pine shade huge area. actually an entire park ! Amenities : whatever you want . From bike to almost all water toys Hotel : built long time ago, but properly. Hotel is refurbished, (estimation) in the begging of 2000's but, partially. For example: door-wing is new, door-frame just painted ! Cleanness : excellent . Even walls are fresh painted ( no foot marks, splashed bugs..) Rooms: correct. Furniture is new , simple but sufficient. Bed quality- average. Balcony : big enough . But! Not even a piece of cord, rope to dry swimsuit! I was forced to improvse with car tow-rope! It is so often in Croatia, that look like some (insane ) EU recommendation ! Bathroom. Spacy, correct, clean, with tub (!) . But , some extra shelf and few hooks more will be nice . Staff: Excellent ! Most of the staff is young, season-workers and/or school students on summer practice . But , they work hard. In dining room you do not need for clean table more than 30 seconds. They speak languages, basically. On both bars (cocktail and beach) staff are pro , and multilingual . Food: average. If you looking for a la carte dine , with sommeliers, and flying waitress-forget it .This is vacation, family hotel , with average food, an d self service. But it is All-Inclusive. sodas and beverages from drink-o-mate are fake . But kids do not care anyway. On the other hand, beer (Ožujsko) is great , white vine is fine, red- not so good. Food quality : can be better. Too much ready-made industrial products. But, if you are not typical western tourist ( looking just for pizza, pasta, grill, pancakes and filter coffee ) with some imagination, you can make your mix. visiting almost all Istrian hotels for decade, my reference for kitchen is -fish. And fish is correct , even good. Cakes- nice, with reduced sugar ! Fruit- fresh and of good quality ( I never try cherries so sweet!) AI: comparing with some ( Turkey, Tunisia) "AI" where you need to pay for drink, Aurora is real AI. Not of higher class ( sodas are not original, cocktails are made by cocktail-o-mate ), but coffee on beech is excellent ( real espresso machine) . And service starts at 7a.m. and have one short break of only 1 hour (10-11 a.m) . At 11 a.m. beach bar is open, and around noon they bring some light lunch , if you do not want to go to main dinning room. end of service is at 23.00 when cocktail bar close. Entertainment: during day, there is some pool -fun, but not too pushy . In the evening, there is always some fun: kid-disco, and some show. OK, it is not spectacular, but it is different every night . If you like, few minutes walking are some night clubs. if you want to go in Umag ( serious walking distance ) you can go by car ( enough parking) or by tourist train ( quite expensive 4EUR adults/ 2EUR kids, in one direction) -but experience is great. Also, hotel offers own fleet of bikes, free of charge. Summary: Pros: -location, -complete service (wallet-less vacation), -staff, -spacy -clean Cons: - food should be slightly better - partially refurbished, so " year of production" is visible - lack of something (anything!) to dry swimsuit Special note: during my stay, with temperatures seriously over 33 degrees, central A/C broke down! Luckily , you need room just to sleep over, but hotel was full of small kids, babies, seniors too . For that categories, sleeping in hot room, without possibility to make some air circulation ( all hotels rooms are single side oriented) could be unhealthy . Hotel staff do they best , concentrating remaining "power" to dining room. Eventually, they could help us opening fire-escape staircase , allowing air to circulate . But, this note is not addressed on Aurora, but on Plava laguna and their maintenance staff. Probably outsourced.

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