Firstly do not confuse this hotel with 4* hotels in England as in my opinion it is only 3*.

I have mixed feelings about our 2 weeks at the Hotel Iberostar. The weather was great as was the beach (all 7km of it) but beware on strong tides all sorts of sewage etc came ashore along with some pretty weird jelly fish.

Although many have complimented the food here we found it poor. For example first night "Steamed potatoes" were available..mmm yummy..basically raw cold chunks of spud. Breakfast next morning mmm steamed potatoes were served again, actually the same ones,,no thanks. That night steamed potatoes with paprika sprinkled on them..get my drift. The freshly cooked items like the carvery etc were nice but many items were either over or under cooked many of which in the trays were cold. Plus hands up who likes last nights sprouts, soggy broccolli, green beans or cauliflower for BREAKFAST!!. Usual weird fatty boney bacon, rubber eggs, cold baked beans and sausage, that I have never tasted the like before, was normal fare in the mornings. I could ramble on forever about the food but it was not to our taste -sorry. One funny thing though the very second you ate the last mouthful off your plate a waitress grabbed it away from you. Plus if you wanted a drink with your meal at night it was quite expensive unless you were on all inclusive. No coffee etc was available in the dining room in the evening. Seemed to me conveyor belt stuff..in, feed ,out.

For a 3 year old Hotel it was quite run down and it looked like if anything went wrong it was either bodged back together or ignored. The lights in the corridor outside our room were not working when we arrived or by the time we left despite many complaints to reception. In order to open the room at night we relied on our mobile phone light..not really 4* quality is it. The stench of sewage in the area and the room was overpowering at times, it seemed the air conditioning brought it in but generally the awful smell was everywhere. The solution from the hotel was to put bleach down the toilet..did not work. If we had a long shower in the nice roomy bathroom, the metal plate by the toilet flooded the room and I dread to think what was in that water.

The tiny ants infested the wardrobe and even the mini fridge and as the Hotel is built by swamp land the mosquitoes were unbelievable. My wife and son in particular were bitten so much they were covered in lumps and rashes but by the sights at the poolside we were not alone. At night for us it was immpossible to go out to the pool bar or the walk way at the back of the hotel as we were constantly bitten by mozzies. Not so bad during the day, only the wasps and flies bothered us then.

Nightly entertainment was 45 minutes in a sauna known as the show room mainly by the in-house team but a couple of nights by professional troupes such as Flamenco dancers who were superb. This ended between 10.45pm and 11.00 pm after which it was mozzie pool bar or bed. You would not believe how many went to bed by 11.00pm. Bars were shut by midnight anyway. Daytime animation teams were good with various kiddies clubs and archery, shooting, water polo, volleyball and beach football being the main attractions.

A good pool but even though there were a lot of sunbeds, the towels were going out by 7am so get up early for a good spot.

The gym was downright dangerous from my point of view, with no aircon, no water and broken equipment plus it was unsupervised and any child could have walked in and hurt themselves. The indoor pool was only open on 2 days out of our 14 (technical reasons???).

We were lucky and had a car so trips out were the order of the day for us. Seville on a Sunday was a great trip out about 140k each way. La Rabida the monastery where Columbus lived for many years was superb. Cartaya had a good go-kart track and a slightly run down waterpark next door. We found Ayamonte pleasant and very Spanish which we really liked although the Saturday market was.. well poor.

Canela was very quiet with a few restaurants, bars and a supermarket in the marina but mainly the area was a fishing village and they were very active early morning.

Nicest thing about the area is that it is a yob free zone and very safe to walk around at night..mozzies apart. The place is in the middle of massive building projects . From the walkway behind the Hotel I saw over 12 giant cranes, at least 4 part built hotels and one that was a shell and had been for a few years was next door but one. That said, even though the builders started about 7am where our room was, we heard very little noise etc from the sites.

All inclusive at the hotel was by wrist bands and there was a good selection of drinks available so if you want to spend 2 weeks by the pool you would get value for money but if you want to travel around maybe half board would be a better option.

I can only relay our experience at this hotel and resort and must say Andalusia has great potential with many interesting places out and about and a good road structure. If all those shells of hotels turn into cheap self catering apartments and the tone is lowered it will be a shame so if you want total peace and quiet, nice multi national easy going people and be in bed by midnight this is for you. Bring loads of insect repellent, get a car and go native and you will get the best out the place. Sorry about this novel length review but it is how we saw it.

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Hotel Iberostar - Isla Canela

Operator and Date: (Thomson Holidays Direct) Thomson Holidays - May 2006