SBH Crystal Beach Hotel & Suites - Adults Only

I spend a week here with a friend of mine, 09.03. -17.03.24. First I have to say: The room was beautiful, wonderful view, was cleaned every day by the friendly maids. BUT: something with the food (breakfast) seems to be very wrong here. My friend and me both got food poisoning on separate days (we ate different things, so not sure what it was exactly, but in my case I barely had anything else but the hotels breakfast when I got sick).

Solo travellers beware - on the first night you will be made to sit at the "singles table" - great if you're the sort of solo traveller who wants to meet new people, but a lot of solo people like holidaying by themselves and do not wish to have the singles table forced upon them. I immediately asked to sit by myself and was told I would have to sit with the singles for the first night but I might be able to have my own table the following evening. I wasted a lot of the next day worrying about whether or not I would be allowed my own table, luckily when I got to the dining room and asked for my own table, this time they said yes. I do understand that the singles table is a positive thing for some people - but maybe you could forewarn us about it when we check-in and give us the option of whether we want to sit with other people. I am a huge water baby, constantly in and out of the water, so for me the swimming pool was too small - it somehow looks bigger in the photos, but I couldn't do proper laps the way I usually would on holiday. If you're not that bothered about being in the water, then this is a lovely sunbathing terrace with plenty of sunloungers, astroturf, a friendly atmosphere and the most stunning view of the beach, but if you want to spend hours in the pool then perhaps look at booking one of the other SBH hotels nearby as they have much bigger pools. There are eight floors of this hotel - floor 6 is level with the main entrance. Because of the layout of the hotel there isn't one lift that goes from eight to zero, you can go from 8 to 5, but then you have to walk to another lift to get from 5 to 1. The beach is on 0, but the lift only goes to 1 so you have stairs for the final descent to the beach. I was happy to have a workout every day getting from my room on the 8th floor down to the beach, but people with mobility issues may want to consider this. I am not writing any of this to put people off, just to give you my thoughts on the hotel. I did have a wonderful time here. It is a lovely hotel full of friendly, hard-working staff. Special mentions to Alexandra on reception, Javier the evening chef, the smiley breakfast lady chef and Ana from the cleaning team. Lovely spacious comfortable room with a fridge and balcony. I was there in the run up to Christmas and it was a lovely touch to come back to the room and find a festive surprise left by the cleaner each day. The communal areas are beautifully decorated and a pleasure to spend time in, the bar staff and lifeguard are super friendly and get to know you over the course of the holiday. Food is delicious, plenty of choice at both breakfast and evening meals. There's entertainment of sorts every evening - sometimes a professional performer (loved Piko), sometimes karaoke. But if you don't fancy what's on offer here, you can go and have a look at the other SBH hotels in the vicinity and watch their evening entertainment - Hotel SBH Costa Calma Palace has a big stage so often ge