HL Paradise Island

The good point: The free bus out of here. Seriously, one of the only redeeming features. And even that had flaws. It's leaves twice a day, returns twice a day. No seatbelts. Bus driver very unfriendly. The bus drops you in a random carpark, no landmarks, I asked was this the beach, he said "last stop, everyone off". I asked again, "is this Playa Dorada?" He said "last stop". Also, the resort is quite well set up for buggies or wheelchairs, a lot of ramps around. Daily cleaners were good. Self service launderette on site. 30min hot wash for €6, I think the drier is €4, very handy. Shower has good pressure, hot water. There are some photography staff around, they are really friendly and take lovely family photos which you can buy (no idea what price). The onsite supermarket. It's not cheap but at least the kids will eat something. Bad points: Everything else. We paid €1150 all inclusive for a week in December. Private transfer from airport, expect to pay €60-70 each way. We arrived just after 9pm. Our flight was delayed so we were anxious that we had missed dinner (kids were starving), taxi driver reassured us that most good hotels would keep track of late arrivals and have a platter put aside for them to take to their room (considering we have paid for a full day of all inclusive)... nothing. Check in desk is painfully slow. Seems to take at least 10mins per check in, but if there's 6 ahead of you in the queue, with one staff, that's a long time. Esp if you've all arrived off the one flight. Swimming pools are the only real facility here. Kids do enjoy them but they are definitely cold, esp when it's overcast and the breeze hits. Inflatables and toys are allowed, so kids love that. Dinopark big slides looked good, no queues in December. The smaller pool looked good, but very slippy around the edge. Lifeguards are on duty but not sitting poolside so you seriously have to keep eyes on your own children at all times. Staff are not the friendliest. The photography staff and some cleaners greet you, the rest barely acknowledge you. I have emailed reception on 3 occasions about different issues, and never received a reply. Make up your own mind about the food. Personally I found nothing terrible about it, nothing was undercooked or burnt, it just wasn't appetising at all. I never once looked forward to any meal, not the queues, the chaos in the restaurants, and definitely not the food. Very very repetitive. Everything tastes very bland. My kids didn't like anything here so I had to constantly buy them different meals. The teas, coffee, juices are disgusting, we couldn't drink them. Ended up drinking water, total waste of money paying for all inclusive. Check plates and bowls when you pick them up, more than half of them are filthy, grease stains under the plates, looks like they were just rinsed with water after last person. The hotel must use tens of thousands of paper cups each day, all thrown away after a single use. Why not get strong

Paradise Island...nothing Paradise about it, On first sight the apartment looked really nice and spacious,but after seeing tiny bugs scurrying on the bedside cabinet we took a closerto look and found them on the headboard and picture above the bed.after checking the beds further we found them to be dirty.We went to reception to report the bugs and were told someone would come to spray so after being at the pool all day we expected the bugs to have gone but no..they were still scurrying round . Food is very repetitive and they tend to run out of stuff too.Snacks are served daily from 12 to 5 and either run out or are left out all day. Drinks are watered down (I don't normally drink at home but like a couple of cold beers on holiday)but the beer is lacking any alcohol content. If you want a cheap hotel with cheap people who don't clean up after themselves then this is for you. If you prefer somewhere cleaner then certainly don't visit here