SBH Crystal Beach - Only Adults

“A thank you to Ana”

I would like to personally thank a staff member at this hotel for her support. We arrived on New Year's Eve to be told sorry the hotel is full. My heart sank, we had researched and set our heart on the Adults Only location. Ana on reception advised we would be moved to Costa Calma Palace hotel. S... more

I would like to personally thank a staff member at this hotel for her support. We arrived on New Year's Eve to be told sorry the hotel is full. My heart sank, we had researched and set our heart on the Adults Only location. Ana on reception advised we would be moved to Costa Calma Palace hotel. She reassured us this is a lovely hotel, it did not disappoint us. We had a lovely week at the Palace but needed to return to Crystal Beach to be picked up on our return to UK and Ana assisted us again. Thank you for your excellent customer service and support!!

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“A lovely hotel and a fantastic beach”

Solo travellers beware - on the first night you will be made to sit at the "singles table" - great if you're the sort of solo traveller who wants to meet new people, but a lot of solo people like holidaying by themselves and do not wish to have the singles table forced upon them. I immediately as... more

Solo travellers beware - on the first night you will be made to sit at the "singles table" - great if you're the sort of solo traveller who wants to meet new people, but a lot of solo people like holidaying by themselves and do not wish to have the singles table forced upon them. I immediately asked to sit by myself and was told I would have to sit with the singles for the first night but I might be able to have my own table the following evening. I wasted a lot of the next day worrying about whether or not I would be allowed my own table, luckily when I got to the dining room and asked for my own table, this time they said yes. I do understand that the singles table is a positive thing for some people - but maybe you could forewarn us about it when we check-in and give us the option of whether we want to sit with other people. I am a huge water baby, constantly in and out of the water, so for me the swimming pool was too small - it somehow looks bigger in the photos, but I couldn't do proper laps the way I usually would on holiday. If you're not that bothered about being in the water, then this is a lovely sunbathing terrace with plenty of sunloungers, astroturf, a friendly atmosphere and the most stunning view of the beach, but if you want to spend hours in the pool then perhaps look at booking one of the other SBH hotels nearby as they have much bigger pools. There are eight floors of this hotel - floor 6 is level with the main entrance. Because of the layout of the hotel there isn't one lift that goes from eight to zero, you can go from 8 to 5, but then you have to walk to another lift to get from 5 to 1. The beach is on 0, but the lift only goes to 1 so you have stairs for the final descent to the beach. I was happy to have a workout every day getting from my room on the 8th floor down to the beach, but people with mobility issues may want to consider this. I am not writing any of this to put people off, just to give you my thoughts on the hotel. I did have a wonderful time here. It is a lovely hotel full of friendly, hard-working staff. Special mentions to Alexandra on reception, Javier the evening chef, the smiley breakfast lady chef and Ana from the cleaning team. Lovely spacious comfortable room with a fridge and balcony. I was there in the run up to Christmas and it was a lovely touch to come back to the room and find a festive surprise left by the cleaner each day. The communal areas are beautifully decorated and a pleasure to spend time in, the bar staff and lifeguard are super friendly and get to know you over the course of the holiday. Food is delicious, plenty of choice at both breakfast and evening meals. There's entertainment of sorts every evening - sometimes a professional performer (loved Piko), sometimes karaoke. But if you don't fancy what's on offer here, you can go and have a look at the other SBH hotels in the vicinity and watch their evening entertainment - Hotel SBH Costa Calma Palace has a big stage so often gets magicians and acrobats, Hotels Taro Beach and Monica Beach (they are situated on either side of SBH Crystal Beach) also have different shows each night and you can go and look at what's on for the week to plan what you want to see and where. It's a wonderful beach, usually the sea was very calm to swim in, occasionally it was a bit choppy. Very happy sunbathing on the sand reading my book. The hotel has its own free sunloungers, not on the beach but on the sand just outside the hotel, a pleasant place to spend the day, you would just need to walk through the dunes to get to the sea. You can pay for sunloungers on the beach if you prefer. If you walk along the beach to the nearby rocks you can see chipmunks scampering about. Went snorkelling on the beach in front of SBH Costa Calma Beach Resort - this seems to be the best spot because there are plenty of rocks here which the fish gravitate towards. Saw lots of different colourful fish. There are two Spar supermarkets about 10 minutes away, near the SBH Costa Calma Palace Hotel, these are much cheaper and have more variety than the supermarkets opposite Crystal Beach, and there are other shops to visit as well near the Spars. I had a wonderful time, love the beach and I do love the hotel, but next time I would choose one of the other SBH hotels, just because I like to have a bigger pool to swim in. I would still highly recommend this hotel to others.

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“Lovely Adults only hotel”

Lovely adults only hotel. Pros and cons below, don’t let the cons put you off, just so you know what to expect. PROs Spotlessly clean, bright hotel. Rooms very good size with large balcony (830), 2 double beds. Food was good, some items could have been a bit hotter, but a large variety buffet s... more

Lovely adults only hotel. Pros and cons below, don’t let the cons put you off, just so you know what to expect. PROs Spotlessly clean, bright hotel. Rooms very good size with large balcony (830), 2 double beds. Food was good, some items could have been a bit hotter, but a large variety buffet style with good choices both for breakfast and dinner. Staff were magnificent, very friendly and helpful. We didn’t visit the beach, hotel split over levels. Road/reception is actually level 6 with 2 floors above, then other rooms on lower floors reached via steps/lift down to beach level. Lovely views over sea from swimming pool area. Fake grass made walking around pool area comfortable. No issue getting sun beds, but hotel was nowhere near full and we were slightly too early in the season to dine in bookable restaurant which was a shame, it was only open for lunch and we were on half board (breakfast & dinner). CONs Breakfast you could sit anywhere, but evening meal you were allocated a sitting (6 or 8 pm) on the same table. Found this a bit restricted as 6 bit early and 8 a bit late. Also we sat at the same table every night (as instructed) but was disappointed as it was never set for 3 of us, even though they knew there were 3 in our party. Relatives booked for 2 nights on all inclusive basis, but turns out they ended up with quite a bill as all inclusive only covered drinks taken with meals and NOT those from the bar. Bar staff said this was an issue they had to try and explain to many guests. Supermarkets very close to hotel for water, drinks etc, but prices were very expensive. There was water, tea bags and coffee sachets in room, but a charge of 1 euro for a tea bag or coffee & 2 euros for water. This was very disappointing. Overall very nice, quiet hotel. Evening entertainment was limited but you could always visit the sister hotel next door. After full day in the sun we were happy to climb into comfortable beds early!

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