More suited to families with teenage kids
30 August 2024 at 03:44:40
We got home last night, after spending 12 nights at Castell Montgri. We stayed in blue platinum mobile home and it was our first time there. We were a group of two families with 3 girls in each, ranging in age from 6 to 15 yrs old. We booked with lifestyle holidays. Here are the key positives and negatives... from our trip.
Positives
- generally, the site is very well maintained and clean.
- very good selection of food and drink options with good prices overall.
- the entertainment was generally very good
- security was visible and staff were very helpful and friendly.
- the main pool was great.
- lots of ATM's and change machines on site.
- good selection of excursions.
- good selection of places to eat during the day
- the onsite supermarket was good enough for the basics.
- good pool entertainment daily like inflatables, zumba (music needs improvement)
- lifestyle staff were great and came to help us when needed, eg to fix our washing machine and shower. Very prompt and friendly.
Negatives
- if you don't like head-banging european house/techno "music" (or pure noise as I call it); then you may not want to book here. Each day at the pool area you'll hear a lot of it from the DJ sessions to some guests bringing their own speakers. One day last week, a group were playing it all day long for everyone else to have to endure. We also didn't like the pool DJ playing some tunes with bad language, especially with so many kids in the pool.
- the site is quite hilly. Going from the main entertainment and pool area to the supermarket, lower pool with the slides or the reception is a hike, especially when hauling your food shop and in the high temperatures. It's not a deal breaker, but worth noting.
- we went to lidl, which is a 20min walk from the site. A bigger selection of goods, but you'd need a cart to haul everything back if you don't have access to a car.
- pool poo. We saw a "floater" in the kids pool one evening after 7pm and I told the two lifeguards. They immediately dealt with it, but not as I expected. They removed the poo with a net and then kids jumped back in. No chemical treatment or closing of the kids pool to disinfectant it properly. I'm no expert; but I would have assumed that should have been the process.
- kids entertainment could be improved. There is a kids club which does face painting and has a climbing cage, games, etc. In the evenings you won't find any disney shows or characters for the younger kids, but they did play disney movies on a large screen in the lower restaurant area.
- Midnight to 8am is when the site is supposed to be "quiet". We didn't always see this being respected and no security going around to monitor it from what we saw.
- the mobile home is what you'd expect, but a welcome pack from lifestyle would be good. When you arrive, all you get is one bin liner and one roll of toilet paper. In other sites, we've seen a kit with cleaning products, tea, coffee, salt, pepper, sponge, etc.....whereas here; you need to buy/ bring these things.
Overall, it's a pretty good site and I would recommend it to others on the basis of sharing the experience we had above. I would not tell people to avoid the place. It's got a nice blend of Irish, German, Spainish, UK, French and a large number of Dutch. It's a nice 20min walk into l'Estartit and the beach there is well worth a visit. We as a family won't return there however, based on what we want with our kids. We summarized the entertainment as being geared towards some parents reliving their past holidays in Ibiza with the thumping house/techno noise (which is fine of course if you like that), foam party and letting their teenage kids have fun, but its not the place if you want a more family friendly experience with a balance in entertainment and you have better/different taste in music. Also, if you want better meals in the evening; head into the town. We tried a few places based of this FB page, like San Marino (not bad), O'Malleys Irish Bar (not great TBH) and the best one was Mr. TACO'S (very good food).
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