Senator Mar Menor Lifestyle Collection

“Great value family holiday!”

We are on the last day of our wonderful holiday to Spain, staying for 9 nights at the senator mar menor. It's been brilliant! We are a family of 4 including two children (age 12 and 10). Here are my pros, cons and tips: Pros: *The apartment is huge! We stayed in a 2 bed apartment and it's v spaci… more

We are on the last day of our wonderful holiday to Spain, staying for 9 nights at the senator mar menor. It's been brilliant! We are a family of 4 including two children (age 12 and 10). Here are my pros, cons and tips: Pros: *The apartment is huge! We stayed in a 2 bed apartment and it's v spacious. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, lounge, dining area and separate kitchen. *The kitchen is fab, well equipped with large fridge, freezer, oven, microwave, toaster and washing machine! *We stayed self catering and had all the plates, cutlery and equipment needed to cook and eat well every day. *We had lunch in the hotel bar a couple of times. They serve pizzas, burgers, pasta and all was very tasty! Good ice creams and drinks too! *The swimming pool is great and my children (and myself and my husband) loved the water slides! The water in the pool was lovely and warm. *The near-by beaches at Los Alcazares were lovely. Shallow water, very warm, very relaxing! Cons: *The apartment could do with some updating as a few things were broken in ours! (chair covers were shedding white stuff which we found on our clothes and the floor, the bath took ages to fill (as the fill function was broken so we had to fill it with the shower head!), the dish rack cupboard door was broken (my husband fixed it during our stay!), my children's cupboard door was broken, the bathroom lock was broken, the kitchen door handle was broken) *The balcony was lovely with a great view of the pool, but it was a squeeze to fit 4 chairs out there! and it's really only made for two! (but we did manage to all eat outside a couple of times with a bit of a squeeze!) *I had a weird experience one day with the waiters/bar staff in the hotel bar who basically ignored me and only spoke with the Spanish guests. However, I think it was a one off as on all the other days, there were v nice staff behind the bar who were happy to serve me. *The pool table in reception was great for my children! but it often didn't release the white ball (!) and there was no triangle to line the balls up. Tips: *We hired a car and I would recommend that! We used the car most days for day trips out and about. We hired the car from centauro and they were very good. Booking in advance from UK gave us better rates. *There are jellyfish in the water around most of mar menor but they are harmless. At the start of the holiday we were all a bit wary of sharing the sea with the jellyfish, but by the end we didn't care! My children were picking them up, putting them in their fishing nets and playing with them! The fried egg shaped ones really mean you no harm! *The water in the mar menor is lovely and warm, almost hot. It's also more salty than the sea, so you can float about! It's very safe for kids because it's so shallow, and the high salt content makes it very hard to sink! The high salt content is also very healing (so I was told!!) *We went to a few beaches around mar menor. The ones near Alcazares and San Javier are mainly peaceful with some nice cafes and restaurants. The beaches in the north (near playa de villananitos) were lively with shops, beach bazar shops and they also had an inflatable aqua park in the sea which my kids loved (it was 10 euros per person for a go on the inflatables, but worth it!) *There are a few supermarkets v near-by to the hotel, about a 5 minute drive or 20 minutes walk. *We went to Ciudad Quesada water park for the day which was only about 35mins drive away. It was great fun! Less stressful that the busier aquopolis waterpark. *I recommend taking a boat trip from la manga. We took a swim and chill boat trip from solaz lines which involved a short boat trip to an anchor point, where we could swim and snorkel for an hour, before the boat trip back! Snack and drink includes in the price! *There's some nice free snorkeling (bring your own snorkel - loads of fish of different varieties to see) to be had at cala del barco! Beautiful views and a VERY nice (but expensive) seafood restaurant by a gorgeous little rocky cove. *Back to the hotel - the cleaners and reception staff are very nice. Our room was cleaned every day (which we weren't expecting) and fresh towels provided, but speaking to other guests not everyone seemed to have towels. *Watching the 10am dash to the sunbeds is quite fun! Everyone all lines up and at 10am when the pool gates open there's a big rush to bag a sunbed. We actually saw a few arguments unfold over the best sunbed spots! We weren't too bothered (or up in time) to join the dash, but if you want to spend the day by the pool it did look important to get down there early and join the 10am dash. Otherwise, sunbeds could be hard to come by! We went for afternoon swims on a few days and only managed to get one bed for the 4 of us. *There is a kids club and the timetable of events on each day looks good, but I can't comment on what its like as my kids didn't use it. *There is no kettle in the apartment. We used a pan to boil water but bringing a travel kettle might be helpful. *There is nothing provided in the kitchen on arrival, by way of tea bags, washing up liquid, washing powder, sponges, so you will need to buy everything from the supermarket on arrival. We arrived very late, but surprisingly some small local supermarkets were open til 4am and sold coffee, bread and milk! I couldn't find tea bags anywhere at that time of night and had to wait til the day time to get my tea bags from a bigger supermarket! I'd advise bringing them with you from home! *Some reviews have commented on the length of the queues in reception. We did not experience any queue when we checked in and check-in was very straightforward. I'm expecting to queue on checkout tomorrow, but judging by what I've seen of reception during our stay, it really is hit and miss whether there will be a queue or not. I guess busy times will have a big queue, but that's to be expected. Overall, we've had a great time! Nice pool, nice apartment, nice reception and cleaning staff and fun things to do in the area! I'd recommend! Great cheap summer holiday for a family!

less

“Great hotel for a family holiday”

We had a suite, which was beautiful and spacious. It was very clean and our family of four loved it. The hotel amenities were great with a kids club, large swimming pool with slides. The hotel is a little isolated but a short taxi ride into town, where there is a beautiful beach and many restaurant… more

We had a suite, which was beautiful and spacious. It was very clean and our family of four loved it. The hotel amenities were great with a kids club, large swimming pool with slides. The hotel is a little isolated but a short taxi ride into town, where there is a beautiful beach and many restaurants.

less