Melia Isla Canela

Where to begin? We were a party of six couples staying at the hotel and golfing in the area Hotel is beautiful. We upgraded to the Level and it is absolutely worth it. The super king bed was so comfy and the three pillow choice was perfect We all loved the hotel, the food and attention by staff was wonderful The main restaurant staff had our wine set out for us each evening and everyone was so friendly All of the staff from Reception, Bars, Restaurants were so helpful We will be booking for next year!

This was my 3rd visit to this hotel. Previously visited in May 2022 and May 2023. The room was supposed to be an upgrade yet was the worst of the 3. Overlooking the huge conservatory roof. There are no bright ceiling lights in the room, just a standard lamp and 2 bedside lamps. It was like wandering around in the dark. There are no drawers in the room, so nowhere to put underwear, swimwear, accessories, etc. We ended up bagging stuff up for the week. Our towels weren't changed all week. The reception bar has been taken out, and the reception has been moved to where the bar was. If you want a drink before your meal, it's down 2 flights of stairs to where the new pool bar is. Ok, if you're not disabled or if you're ok on your feet. There's no lift to get down. The food has gone downhill, so much so that a cooked breakfast was a definite NO! As per the norm, the toaster either warms your bread or burns it. The 'sausages' were swimming in grease. There's no real bacon. Fried eggs were either burst or the whites were only partly cooked. Every meal was tepid, not hot. In the entire week, I didn't have a single hot meal. Hubby had pork on the first night, and it was raw in the middle. Not everything that was all-inclusive before no longer is so make sure you check before ordering. Sangria, for example, was included before and is now 6€ a glass. Pool snacks are no longer in the AI now. Reception is slow, really slow. They are polite, however, when you do eventually get acknowledged. Shame to say we will not be back.

we have visited the melia approx. 8 times almost yearly since it changed from being a riu hotel. since the rooms have been refurbished there is a lack of drawer/storage space for swimwear/nightwear/underwear. we have also found the food choice/quality to not be as good as our earlier visits. we went half board and preferred to have lunch in the hotel and our evening meal in ayamonte as felt the lunch choice was better. I emailed the hotel reception. prior to our visit and did not even receive the courtesy of a response. we will return as love the area and the general ambience of the hotel and hope our future visits are. a 5star experience as they used to be

We returned yesterday from this fabulous hotel and are missing it already. The hotel is beautiful, spotlessly clean and the refurbishment has really made improvements. We were standard customers (not level) and found the service excellent. Food is plentiful, well presented and offers a great choice. The staff in all areas are amazing and so helpful. It is a quiet area but well positioned for access to the working harbour, beach and promenade. It’s a beautiful authentic Spanish resort and the local people make you feel very welcome and even try to help you improve your Spanish. The hotels strength is truly the staff who cannot do enough for you. We are already looking at when we can return.

We travelled late April 2025 for 1 week with TUI, for the price paid it was a bargain and the weather played ball, 24/28c with one cloudy am and 2 great day trips to Faro and Seville. Reading some of the recent reviews on here I wondered whether we were staying in the same hotel. We found the hotel spotlessly clean, all the staff very pleasant and prices in the bar for a Melia 4 star hotel very reasonable, €5.50 for a large beer, under €4 for a good slug of local wine, €2.50 for a coffee. We had booked a Standard room but were given a Superior twin overlooking the estuary, it could have done with more room lighting but a large ceiling fan took pride of place. Quality bedding and very large bath towels here. There is an in room fridge that only works when the key card (or a similar plastic card) is in place, so we always left one in there when we went out. Breakfast was very good, a huge choice, while in the evening the main courses could be better though with such a choice of salads, meats, fresh fruit, bread and freshly cooked options you really had to be pretty critical to find fault. Tables were quickly cleared and drinks orders promptly taken, the waiting staff in the main speak little English, but make an effort, it's their country after all, just learn a few words to order drinks etc, it's not that difficult. The Reception area is airy with large steps leading down to a huge atrium with lots of quality seating and this leads out to a lovely pool deck, turn off to the left and head down to the grassy area where another pool and sun loungers can be found for 16+, it's the quiet area and also used by The Level guests. We found a great bar down by the harbour and would head there at about 6pm and stay in the sun until 7.30pm+, drinks were cheap by UK pub standards, so I don't concur with a previous review saying the resort was expensive. A local supermaket was close by for wine, waters, crisps, beers etc for those balcony and pool side supplies! I would agree the pools were far too cold, it seems no hotel wants to heat them anymore and it certainly did not pass the 'big toe' test for me. We did notice that the hotel was much busier over Fri/Sat as many Spanish come for a weekend away and being April we were out of the busy summer months with lots of children, so I can only comment on our visit in late April when we experienced none of the queues, or crowds. We thought about AI, but TUI wanted another £550+ and being a traditional Spanish resort and previous comments about drinks prices I could not see the benefit. Plus you would feel you had to drink in the hotel rather than visit the harbour bar, we drank whenever and what we wanted and spent considerably less than the AI supplement. The Level did not interest us this time. We were at the hotel when Spain/Portugal had their power outage. The hotel was without mains power from approx 12.45pm on Monday afternoon until 06.45am on the Tuesday morning. The generators kicked in and we had

Review We stayed at this hotel for a short break, and definitely plan on returning again for a longer stay. We stayed all inclusive and the food is fantastic and wonderful selection every day, something for everyone. The drinks at the bar are all branded drinks and nice and large glasses compared to other all inclusive hotels. Also a great coffee selection available too. The pool is quite cold, but nice a refreshing in the heat. There are no sun bed wars here, plenty of sun beds available all day. The rooms are lovely, nice and modern with all the amenities that you may need. A nicely equipped gym too.