Santa Catalina, a Royal Hideaway Hotel - Gran Lujo

Helpfulness of Reception Attentive staff

The standard restaurant was not very good - decor, ambience, food

Decor is beautiful.

Location a little out of the way. Still, it's a small city.

The room and patio exceeded expectations. The breakfast spread was fabulous! The flower arrangements throughout the hotel was breathtaking. The private pool on the rooftop made a huge difference for us as well. The turtles during brunch were a lovely unexpected surprise.

Need Roku for tvs so we can watch Netflix

We don't really eat breakfast so we did not book. We understand from other reviews that it is good but expensive.The bed was very comfortable with good quality linen, and our Junior Suite had a lovely, large terrace, although it is only private if you stay near the door from your room otherwise, you are very exposed. The hotel is beautiful in its construction and well maintained. The gardens are delightful front and back but very few places to sit and enjoy them, they are also open to the public. The rooms to the front of the hotel only have sun on their terraces until late morning.The Wellness centre and main pool are a walk away outside the hotel's main building over a marble floor which is slippery when wet. A lot of the floors are made from beautiful marble. We ate in the 1890 La Boedguita Restaurant which was a delight, beautiful food and attentive, charming waiting staff. The concierge was most helpful and polite.

Generally the hotel is not quiet, there is noise all around. The streets outside have constant traffic, and the sports club opposite is naturally quite noisy, with players shouting and whistles blowing. The service in the bar downstairs and at the roof top pool bar is not great. Several times I had to go to the bar to ask for service. The waiters are very polite and helpful when you do have their attention. Our bedroom had a small wardrobe, which was surprising. Only 2 tiny drawers in the whole room to put things away. None in the desk area, none beside the bed. The tea, kettle area is in a narrow cupboard. The kettle is supposed to be plugged in there but then you have to lift it down which is dangerous, we took it out and put it on the narrow desk. No milk is supplied. The 2 bottles of water left in the room on arrival were not replaced during the whole week we were there which is odd as you are not supposed to drink the tap water. The bathroom is very modern but it may as well be open plan to the room, every sound comes into the room, there are no solid walls only glass and sliding blinds which make a lot of noise when moving them. Our room 133 seemed to have the plumbing for several other rooms in our wall as it did wake us up in the night.

Wonderful location - equi-distant from the old town and the commercial centre and beaches. Classic grand hotel set in splendid grounds - terrific experience all round.

The hotel is really elegant and charming, the staff is very welcoming, polite and nice. Breakfast is of high quality and with lots of delicious options. The service is exquisite. The deluxe room is spacious with a lovely balcony overlooking the Ciudad Jardín. The spa is well equipped, quiet and relaxing. The air conditioning and fan properly working. The rooftop bar offers a great view too. The gym is outstanding.

The deluxe room could use a bit more storage space and places where to hang towels.

The room was spacious and spotlessly clean. The rainfall shower was excellent with a separate bath and toilet. Good choice of tv channels. As we stayed in a suite we had exclusive access to the rooftop pool and bar area until 5pm. This was brilliant ~ very quiet with lots of sunbeds, towels etc. The pool was heated and had great views over the grounds of the hotel. The bar service was great and the club sandwich they served was the best! The hotel grounds were beautiful, extensive and really well maintained. The breakfast was absolutely excellent, an enormous choice of everything you could want.

The room was very dark. We had 3 windows which had wooden shutters on the outside, this meant we had to open the shutters to let the light in the windows and this would not have been an issue if there had been a way to secure the shutters back. This was not the case and they kept blowing closed and banging on the window frames every few seconds. This meant we had to rely on the lighting inside which was inadequate. Housekeeping let us down 3 times and did not make up the room despite the fact we asked at reception.

Lovely hotel, beautiful historic building. Fantastic service.

The hotel itself is stunning however you don’t really want to walk outside the hotel, as Las Palmas is not very nice.Next to the ground level pool, there is a children’s school, so break times can be rather noisy. 3 restaurants on the property. 2 of them being Michelin star and extremely expensive.

Delightful staff. Excellent restaurant and beautiful grounds. Convenient for sightseeing

Spacious bedroom, bathroom, shower and balcony. Very comfortable super king bed and pillows. Great shower with luxury toiletries and lovely fluffy towels. Fridge in room was very useful. Ask at reception for the concierge’s list of recommended restaurants. We ate at several of them and were very impressed with all. Those on the marina are a 15-20 minute walk away. Those in the old town or the beach area are a bus or cheap taxi ride away and bus line 1 stops almost outside the hotel. Excellent breakfast with everything you could wish for. The staff are all lovely and very helpful.

Cupboards not very well designed as plenty of room but lacking in storage space.Water only supplied on first day.The sun beds are fine for lying in the sun but no good if you want to read a book as the backs don’t raise far enough. For that reason we didn’t spend much time around the pool.

Michelin starred tasting menu Room fantastic. Huge balcony

Beautiful building located somewhat 'between' the older and newer parts of town. Rooms were immaculate and comfortable, poolside was largely good and the gym and spa facilities were pleasant and generally quiet. Room facilities were re-stocked daily.

Its a picky point only but we wanted to arrange an excursion via the hotel but this didn't seem possible. Other 5* hotels have local contacts and will happily arrange this even at short notice. Eventually we found a excursion for £14 but it would have been convenient to arrange via the hotel.

Beautiful hotel on a great location. Staff were great, very helpful. We were welcomed with bottle of bubbles for our anniversary which was a lovely touch. Amazing selection of restaurants. 2 restaurants with michelin star. We managed to try only one as the other one was fully booked during our stay.

You were only able to use the pool on Ground Floor, access for the rooftop pool comes with a specific room type which was a shame. Also you do not have access to wellness as a hotel guest. You need to pay extra for that, however we did receive 1 free access per person during our stay.

We had a suite which gave access to rooftop pool/bar are plus the wellness centre , the negative points were a very small balcony with 2 small uncomfortable chairs in the shade all the time and just a view of other rooms across courtyard at rear of property. If staying again I would specify room at front with balcony you could actually enjoy. The room was modern but no storage however when we asked the maintenance team quickly brought up a chest of drawers from storage so appreciated issue. Again in bathroom little by way of shelves but size of room was good with lovely walk in shower with 2 shower heads and good pressure. No replacement water bottles to room each day☹️ which is poor and not we have found at other Barcelo. So the dark suite was not what we had expected. On positive side the concierge S was very good fixing car hire auto vw and suggesting restaurants in old town and booking for our first couple of nights. Staff at breakfast great but some fresh fruit eg bananas and apples etc would be useful (again at Barcelo in Tenerife they do this) . The bar staff on ground floor terrace and rooftop great and quick service. Location of hotel midway between old and new helpful and taxi and no1 bus easy to catch to visit cathedral/museums etc.

Hotel is marvelous. Location is perfect. Staff is very friendly and helpful. Only issu is parking. The hotel parking is open to public and you despite being a passenger in the hotel, may find yourself without a parking space.

Fantastic locationNice view of the portGreat pools, bars and restaurants

Nothing really

Old world design. Clean. Very friendly and helpful staff. Michelin restaurant on site outstanding.

Right between old town and beach area. Everything a short cab ride. Pool a little small.

I liked the hotel grounds and architecture.

The cleanliness of the towels was terrible and not at all worthy of a five star hotel. Our package included a massage, but despite requesting a reservation, they did not contact us during our stay and after returning to Madrid we were contacted to do the massage.!!!!

Excellent throughout.

The location is not within walking distance of main sights and restaurants (requires short taxi rides).The other niggle is a €20 daily parking charge, but the garage leads directly into the hotel.

Building was beautiful

Bathroom offered no privacy. A room has walls, not blinds.Coffee/tea facilities inaccessible. One coffee pod per person is insufficient.Housekeeping was unpredictable. Not all towels were replaced: wash clothes missing.