We stayed at The Sands as a couple and booked into a Junior Suite in the Seaside Wing. The room was absolutely lovely and spacious and very clean. Just a few niggles with it! The toilet paper - it felt like one-ply and so it really wasn't very nice! The other, being a Junior Suite, we felt that the balcony furniture was old, dated, uncomfortable and the paint was flaking from it. The balcony table never got cleaned either and we ended up doing this every few days.
Other niggles - going as a couple, we knew from the start that this hotel was more geared up for families. It's a very large hotel. But we chose The Sands as it stated as having an adults-only pool and gardens. It did, however the pool was never monitored for children and so occasionally children did use the pool and the garden area. There was absolutely no shade at this pool either. There were a few parasols next to the sunbeds, but no parasols on the grassed areas. Even though there were trees for some dappled shade, parasols were also needed.
There are two swim-up bars at this hotel. Both of these are within the family areas, one within the childrens'water park and the other down by the beach area, which didn't seem right. There was no swim-up bar in the adult-only pool. The nearest bar to the adults-only pool was The Mango Bar. This opened at 12 noon and closed at 9pm. Again, absolutely no shade, no parasols whatsoever. Nobody could sit out and enjoy a drink as the weather was far too hot. If parasols were provided then there would be no doubt that people would spend more time at this bar. Also, on a few occasions, the hotel would erect a large pink inflatable bouncy castle right next to the adult-only pool, so it could get quite noisy. The adult-only pool also closed earlier than the other pools around the hotel.
The adult-only breakfast area was in The Mantaray Restaurant and this was located right next to the childrens water park and infant swimming pool. This hotel simply is not geared up for any adult-only areas. The breakfast area would be far better placed in The Talay Restaurant, near the beach and away from the water park. There wasn't even an adults-only area on the grassed sections near to the beach. So, if you're looking at a bit of peace and quiet, it's definitely not happening here. The hotel is lovely for families though and definitely geared up for them.
We ate just once at The Floating Market and unfortunately wasn't impressed with the food, nor with the price; needless to say we didn't eat in the hotel again - well, actually we did! We had a couple of take-away pizzas and the ham and mushroom were to pretty fabulous.
On our last evening, we booked for a golf-buggy to collect our luggage and ourselves and take us up to the reception area in readiness for the airport transfer. We booked this for 5.10am (the Seaside Wing is furthest away near to the beach). Unfortunately no one arrived and we ended up taking our luggage, getting hot and sweaty by the time we got to reception, and then to find our airport transfer was waiting for us.
Would we stay again? Unfortunately not. The hotel is just way to big, and there's absolutely no proper adult-only areas for some peace and quiet. This, perhaps, is something that could quite easily be resolved.
