Evenia Zoraida Garden♡

Guest review

7.0

Las instalaciones de fuera

− La verdad la comida, casi siempre repetitiva y la habitación pequeña para 4 persona para el dinero que costo.

NOT the typical British holiday hotel!!

4.0

Just returned from a week stay at the Zoraida. For reference I travelled with my partner and our 2 year old. Unfortunately the negatives of this hotel far outweighed the positives, and we have an outstanding complaint with our holiday provider. The most important thing about this hotel, it is NOT THE TYPICAL BRITISH HOTEL. This is a hotel for Spanish citizens to go on holiday, 95% of guests are Spanish and this is predominantly what the hotel caters for. All evening entertainment is in Spanish, whenever there is announcements it’s all in Spanish. Most of the staff speak little to no English. It also starts late, the kids disco doesn’t start until 9pm. It’s thrown our toddlers schedule completely out, the disco can sometimes be going until 11pm. The food was the worst. We were all inclusive but ate out every day. Cold and dry food, meat undercooked which left me and my partner with gastro issues. And boy oh boy, we were not the only ones. We spoke to multiple families (all hated the food and some also had gastro issues.) one family even had to have the medic out to their room. This was reported to the hotel, their response as cold and defensive. Food choices is not catered for English, if you have anyone travelling with you that’s a picky eater like our 2 year old.. DONT GO HERE! We spent all our spending money getting uber eats, as did a lot of other British families. There is a nice British cafe approx 5 walk away, lovely food and service with a smile. The owner told us his business is booming over the last year as so many brits don’t like the food in the hotel and complained it was undercooked. ALL the pools apart from 1 are salt water. Not great for young kids or anyone with sensitive skin. There’s not really much to do. This is quite a rural area, it’s not built up for tourists at all. There is a shopping mall with a Primark and Zara etc.. Room was okay, no complaints although the sheets were not changed once during our stay, and one day it wasn’t cleaned at all. We spoke to 4-5 British families while we were there, every single one of them said they would not return, and were also excited to get home. I’ve visited Spain many times, and I’ve never experienced so much rudeness. Guests were loud, disrespectful, would think nothing to pushing past you and even the lifeguard told my 2 year off for having a small ball in the pool, but we’d seen SO many Spanish families also with balls in the pool all week and they were never told it wasn’t allowed. It was more of an endurance test than a holiday. If you’re a family that’s after the typical all inclusive/tourist break like you’d get in Tenerife or Majorca etc.. THIS HOTEL IS NOT FOR YOU. You’ll notice the majority of the 5* reviews on here are from Spanish, so don’t be fooled by the high ratings on this hotel.

Unfortunately disappointing

4.0

We have just returned from a week’s stay at this hotel and, unfortunately, it was a very disappointing experience. Based on our stay, we would not return. The biggest issue for us was the food. We travelled with our 2-year-old son, and the choice of food suitable for young children, particularly British families, was extremely limited. For most of the week he survived on crisps whilst we had to eat out every day just to ensure he had a proper hot meal. Even the food that was supposed to be hot was often cold, and on more than one occasion burgers and other meats appeared undercooked. Sadly, this resulted in gastrointestinal illness during our stay. Housekeeping also fell below expectations. Our bed sheets were not changed once throughout the week, and it was obvious that under the beds had not been cleaned before we arrived. Despite daily housekeeping, they still hadn’t been cleaned by the time we checked out. The hotel itself is very heavily geared towards Spanish guests. We completely appreciate that we were on holiday in Spain and would never expect everything to cater to British tourists. However, for a hotel welcoming visitors from many different countries, we expected a little more inclusivity. All of the evening entertainment was in Spanish, with nothing aimed at international guests. The children’s entertainment also didn’t begin until 9pm and regularly continued until around midnight. With a young child trying to sleep, this was far from ideal and made evenings quite difficult. The swimming pools were another disappointment. All but one very small pool were saltwater pools, which unfortunately caused our son’s and my partners eczema to flare up, leaving us with only the smallest pool to use for the duration of our holiday. Our balcony was constantly covered in bugs, making it unpleasant to sit outside. The nearby supermarkets also offered very little in terms of essentials or alternative food options. On one occasion too I went to take a plate at the restaurant and it had not been cleaned thoroughly. The reception staff were inconsistent. Whilst a couple of staff members came across as quite blunt and unwelcoming, I do want to recognise the bar staff, who were always friendly, polite and worked incredibly hard throughout our stay. One thing that also affected our experience was the atmosphere created by many of the other guests. On numerous occasions people would refuse to make space for our pushchair, often blocking walkways completely rather than allowing families to pass. Obviously this isn’t the hotel’s fault, but it did contribute to the overall experience. Perhaps most tellingly, we spoke to several other British families during our stay who shared very similar views. One family had been returning to this hotel every year since 2012 and told us that, for the first time, they would not be coming back because of how much standards had dropped. Overall, this holiday was extremely disappointing. There were a few positives, particularly the hardworking and friendly bar staff, but they simply weren’t enough to outweigh the issues we experienced. Sadly, we cannot recommend this hotel and would not choose to stay here again.

Predominantly Spanish hotel, good pools for kids

8.0

Just got back from a family trip to the Evenia Zoraida Garden. Overall it was a good holiday, but there are a few things worth knowing before you book. The rooms were fine—nothing spectacular, but they did the job. We went all-inclusive and were pretty happy with it. The snack bars were good, and there was always a great choice of drinks and plenty of ice creams for the kids. The pools are definitely the main highlight here; there's a brilliant choice of slides and a really nice lazy river. The staff were also lovely and seemed to appreciate our attempts at speaking the language. On the food front, it was okay. There wasn't a massive variety, but we always found something to eat. One big thing to note for British families: the meal and entertainment times are very late. Dinner starts at 7.30pm and the evening disco doesn't start until 10. I totally get that we're in Spain so that's the local culture, but Jet2 really should warn people beforehand when you're booking with young kids. There were a couple of major downsides, though. First, our balcony looked directly over a shop roof that was absolutely covered in filth, which wasn't a nice view to wake up to. My biggest gripe, however, was the lifeguards. They were incredibly quick to blow their whistles and tell us off for going down the slides with our 3-year-old (it’s strictly one at a time, apparently). But at the same time, they said absolutely nothing to the tons of Spanish kids climbing up the slides the wrong way, bumping into the toddlers, and climbing all over the rocks to jump in—despite 'no jumping' signs being everywhere. It was really frustrating being singled out for trying to keep our toddler safe while other kids were left to run riot. Overall, it's a good spot for the waterpark features, just be prepared for the late nights and keep your wits about you by the pools.

Guest review

8.0

Lo mejor, lo zona exterior de toboganes

− El bufett había comida muy rica, pero para mi faltaba un poco de más variedad

Fantastic Holiday! Don’t let poor reviews put you off.

10.0

We’re just back from a week at Evenia Zoraida Garden. I wish we’d have booked longer, it was brilliant. Staff were lovely, from those on reception to the cleaners, and although we didn’t have really small children, the animation team were phenomenal, the kids just seemed to love them. Our junior suite was spacious, clean and well maintained. Towels were replaced daily and the floors mopped, bins changed etc. The safe box in the wardrobe was €12 plus a €20 deposit which was returned when you returned the key. The amount of times I forgot to even close this was ridiculous and nothing disappeared! Food in the restaurant was what you’d expect from an all inclusive. Mostly fish and pork based meals but also chicken and beef/steak on the odd nights and always a veggie option. Plenty of salad and veggies, rice, pasta and potatoes to add to your meal and a choice of desserts including a chocolate fountain that was a hit with the kids. The snack bar was good, burgers, hotdogs, pizza, paella etc, queues were a bit hectic mid afternoon but we ate at English times where possible and found it ok. The choice of snacks included in the all inclusive was brilliant, cakes, biscuits, muffins, crisps, nuts and a really good selection of branded ice creams and lollies. Drinks wise, there’s a good selection too, I don’t drink alcohol but the coffees and Kas kept me going, my daughter will tell you the chocolate milkshakes were the best! We took refillable cups and they were always happy to fill those. There are also refillable water stations everywhere. I see a lot of complaints about it being very heavily Spanish and I agree, it is, I’d say about 85% of the guests were Spanish and you barely here an English word but we really enjoyed having to use our Spanish to ask for things and it really didn’t spoil it. The majority of the entertainment is in Spanish and you’ll only here a little bit of English if they need to move people to make room for the entertainment for example or if they are inviting parents to join in, but the entertainment is a 45 min mini kids disco and then some form of visual show. You follow along anyway. What will say is that we went over a Spanish holiday and it was really busy for 2 days, groups of people all celebrating and not a lot of manners when it came to queuing or pushing you out of the way, blowing smoke right in your face etc with no regard for anyone’s personal space but it went back to a peaceful atmosphere after that. The slides are fantastic for kids up to older teens I’d say, we had an 11 and a 12 year old and we barely saw them, they loved the variety of pools, slides and the river was a massive hit. They weren’t put off by the saltwater (after the initial shock) and we realised that the tots areas were in fact chlorinated pools. We were a bit worried the kids would be bored with the no Inflatable in the pool rule but it really wasn’t a problem. The surrounding area is beautiful, there are a couple of shops over the road, all selling clothing and souvenirs, a bike hire shop and a supermarket, but it’s a 10 min walk (in either direction) down the esplanade to the busier areas where you’ll find a castle and kids funfair type place and more shops/bars etc. There’s a bus stop outside the hotel that takes you to the shopping mall Gran Plaza for €1.40 and theres a land train that takes about 50 mins if you want a little tour of the area. It was €7 for an adult and €3 for a child, every half an hour and a hop on, hop off if you wanted to. If you stay in Garden, you can use Park and visa versa, we did go to Park but in honesty, it was chaos… we much preferred the calmer atmosphere of Garden. We only went once! In all, it was absolutely fantastic, we will definitely return, we’ve already picked next years holiday but seriously considering a return in ‘28!