Cala D'or Hotels and Apartments P - Z

My wife and I have just returned from a holiday lasting a week half-board at the Rocamarina.Firtly ,the good points about the hotel:

It is a very efficiently run hotel.It is extremely well appointed, with exceptionally high quality fitments in all areas--bedrooms,bathrooms,public areas and in the restaurant.

The cleaning service is the most thorough we've experienced ,the receptionists are extremely obliging and the arrangements for a courtesy room ,if one is being picked up for a late flight, are good.The pool area is well serviced ,and there is plenty of shade under trees for those wishing to avoid the sun.Also, inside the hotel, is a large conservatory with a huge television for those wishing to keep up with the latest football matches!

The problem with people bagging sunbeds,mentioned in earlier reviews, seems to have been solved,as there is an enforced policy of removing towels if beds are left unoccupied.Indeed ,clients are told to remove the towels themselves and to put them in a basket provided by the hotel. The behaviour around the pool during our stay was very civilised and we saw no evidence of sunbed snatching! There were also different areas for sunbeds away from the pool.

Now for the bad points,which unfortunately,in our opinion,would prevent us staying there again.I would stress that many people we met,though,were on return visits and found the hotel extremely agreeable.

I have entered this review under Cala D'Or,but ,in fact, the hotel is at a small cove called Es Forti ,adjacent to Cala Egas, which is, at least, a half-hour walk from Cala D'Or. This is a pleasant enough walk,down past a large marina at Cala Longa,then uphill for a half mile to Cala D'Or.To give the impression that it is almost in Cala D'Or is misleading . This can affect one's holiday, as there is not a great deal in Es Forti or Cala Egas--a few restaurants,shops and bars.There is a motorised train which runs past the hotel,but the last one out of Cala D'Or is at 8.30 which is not much use for a night out.Cala D'Or,incidentally, has a nice atmosphere and literally masses of open -air restaurants. The shops ,however,closed at 8.0,(this was May) so if one is not eating there isn't much to do and one then has the walk back.

We found the most disappointing thing about the Rocamarina was the incredible monotony of the food in the evenings.The quality was excellent,but virtually the same menu was put out every evening,although there were slight adjustments-for example, instead of pork at the single carvery station,there would be beef.There was a selection of cold salads and vegetables-carrots,broccolli,cauliflower chips,mashed potato and various meats-chicken ,fish ,lamb chops. The dessert course consisted every single night of apple crumble,bread and butter pudding,ice cream and a selection of cold puddings.Biscuits and cheese was available too. This sounds great,but after four days we could hardly face it and considered eating out.If you stay for two weeks it could be a real problem.There was virtually no attempt to provide anything other that British food-no Italian,no Asian,no other European foods, and amazingly no Spanish!There was supposed to be a Spanish Night and, on Saturday, a Gala Night,but these were so tokenistic as to be almost unnoticeable.Other hotels we have stayed in of a similar standard(the Rocamarina is officially rated a Three Star by the Spanish by the way)have had "foreign"foods regularly on their evening menu and frequently "Theme Nights"every evening. The Rocamarina caters for the kind of British holidaymaker who it assumes is quite happy eating just as at home .The age of the clietele was overwhelmingly elderly when we were there--I would say many were 70+ ( we are in our 60's ourselves!),so maybe the management has found that just giving them British food is what they want. Certainly, the apple crumble went down a treat,but if you want a more Mediterranean experience this hotel is not for you.

Another unusual feature of the hotel (mentioned in some earlier reviews) is that the efficiency of the staff is matched by a rather "do what you are told"attitude by the management or owners .The staff are only doing what they are directed,but this can cause what I consider to be unnecessary friction between holidaymakers and the waiters .There is a system whereby you are either allowed to sit on the outside terrace for both breakfast and dinner, or you are given a numbered table inside.You are not allowed to sit outside for breakfast and inside for dinner.We wished to do this, as it was very pleasant in the morning,but quite chilly in the evening.(the mealtimes by the way are good.(7-10 a.m and 6.30 -10 p.m.)Anyway we were told this was impossible,but, as my wife pointed out ,there were tables laid on the terrace without anyone sitting at them and many spare tables too.She suggested at a pinch we could bring our cutlery from inside outside and use one of the spare tables,but we were told firmly that this would open the floodgates as everybody else would want to do the same! This, in spite of the fact that everybody seemed quite happy where they were.This ended up with us just plonking ourselves down anyway.Nobody occupied the other tables and for the rest of the week we did this feeling slightly uncomfortable ,but having "won" our point.In all that time there were spare tables and they could easily have laid more if required.This system seemed quite bizarre and silly. If they just let people sit where they wanted on a "first come" basis there would have been no need for the waiters to keep their lists of who sat where.This seems a fairly trivial issue,but, whilst appreciating that the hotel must have systems,it somewhat tarnished our holiday experience.

This area is unlike other parts of Majorca in that the coastline consists of rocky coves between inaccessible cliffs,so it is impossible to walk from one Cala to another.There are no long promenades as at Puerto Pollenza or Arenal.The only way to get to places is by local bus (they are excellent air- conditioned coach type buses) or you can take an excursion on a catamaran-type boat which calls in at the coves.This,though,is expensive and you can find yourself stranded waiting for the boat to come back if the place is quickly explored. This happened to us when we took a trip to Porto Columb (19 Euros each-6 Euros each by bus) and we were left for two hours to look around.To our dismay, the town had only one long street without anything much to do-the advertisedold "fishing port"was completely vanished.Our fellow travellers spent the last hour waiting with us for the boat under some trees, trying to escape the midday sun!

There are ,however two very picturesque places near the hotel --Puertopedro and Mondrago-which can be an energetic 5 mile walk or you can take a bus .

To conclude:the Rocamarina is a good hotel if you just want a lazy holiday and to eat only British food,but if you want a slightly more energetic holiday,with an awareness of being abroad gastronomically, I would go elsewhere.Also,if you are not the compliant type when things are not quite to your liking I would avoid it, as you might have arguments!

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Hotel Rocamarina - Cala D'or

Operator and Date: (Thomson Holidays Direct) Thomson Holidays Gold Sept 2006