Playazimbali

I stayed at the Zimbali Playa Spa hotel with my wife from 9-19 September 2023. We both had an excellent holiday here and enjoyed our entire stay. The hotel and grounds are beautiful, we loved the African traditional style of the architecture and the well-maintained gardens, plants and trees. The staff provided excellent service, they were friendly and always willing to help. They spoke excellent English too, so we never had any problem with communication and being understood. No surprise that most of the guests were Spanish, there were a few Brits too and we had no issue with the entertainment being in Spanish mainly, we didn’t stay up late anyway! Although it was busier with locals at the weekend, the weekdays were relatively quiet. The room was spacious and comfortable with a big balcony, huge bathroom and quiet air conditioning. The food was fabulous and varied, on many occasions I had to try several different dishes in one night so I didn’t miss out! As others have said, the pool area is really first class and it’s the best pool I’ve encountered at any hotel, I absolutely loved it. Loads of sunbeds, water slides and a short walk (30 seconds) to the huge beach across the road! If you walk along the beach towards Garrucha there are lots of beach bars and most have sunbeds too. One of the other big factors for our enjoyment on this holiday was that we were lucky enough to have a hire car, Ford EcoSport which was ideal for us. We flew from Bristol into Murcia and drove for about 80 mins to the hotel using the toll road (which was really easy, so few cars and great to see the evolving landscape en route!). During our stay we were able to drive to nearby towns (Garrucha seaside town nearby, Villaricos which was very smart and immaculate, Vera a few miles inland with several attractions, a bullring even and Mojacar which was amazing to walk around on the hillside – here we found an old house which had been turned into a museum, the hosts spoke excellent English too). We visited historic buildings, castles and used the quiet bays further along the coast (near to Villaricos) for swimming. In the quiet bays near the rocks, it was fabulous for snorkelling and I’ve never seen so many Med fish in one area, many varieties and very pretty to look at. I’m struggling to think of any negatives, just little things like a temporary issue with my room key – reception were very helpful and resolved this. We’d have liked to have water available with evening meal without having to order via waiter perhaps. Minor ******* really, on balance this was a great holiday and I’d like to thank all the staff for making it so!

2nd trip here. Hotel staff are fantastic and so welcoming when you return. Weve recommended this hotel to others and they are ever regular goers. Premium drinks great , swin up bar great music , water dance, games and entertainment(although all in Spanish) Staff are great fun. Staff don't know much English so Google translate is your best friend and eventually they remember your order. Amazing pool and lovely hot outdoor jacuzzi. Food is great fresh good variety and hot. Amazing cocktails and good processo and wine and soft drinks , and snacks. Stunning and very clean well maintained grounds. Indoors could be seen as outdated but it is a theme that works. Location on the beach is beautiful. Only downside is not enough staff at reception desk both visits now and it's a nightmare to be served this needs looking into. Otherwise we love this hotel! A very good 4 star.

We have been coming to the Zimbali Hotel on and off since it was constructed circa 16 years ago. In fact we watched it being built whilst on a trip to view houses in the area. The Hotel is not for the feint hearted Brit who loves the comfort of Benidorm or Torremolinos. It has 98% Spanish clientele which we love. The facilities are great with a Spa, gym, beautiful pool and plenty of entertainment albeit all in Spanish but music & dance is international BUT, it is also extremely noisy. Initially we loved staying here but since lockdown, when it became "all inclusive" the atmosphere has changed. It is quite difficult to get a drink at the bars at certain times of the day, the Bar in late afternoon is like a bear garden, the said bar is swarming with people, around 6 deep, the same in the evening. We were on a B & B basis and were told several times we couldn't have a lollipop & certain other items of food because "they were for Imperial" even though we could have paid on our card. The maid service this time round has been abysmal; no bathmats left, no cups washed, no toilet rolls left; we had to resort to "stealing" toilet rolls from the public toilet. It goes on and on. The broken safe took 2 days to be repaired and could only be rented a week at a time so the whole fiasco started all over again in order for it to be rented for a second week. There has been next to no WiFi for the whole 2 weeks of my stay, the key card only worked intermittently therefore a long trek to reception was needed to get it fixed. Overall the hotel has been a bit like Fawlty Towers and is getting tired. I must mention Tatania on reception and the waiters in the bars, especially the two Moroccan brothers as giving exceptional service. Unfortunately, after 16 years this once wonderful Hotel has lost its charm for us.

My children and I had a wonderful time at Zimbali Spa Hotel. There wasn't a dull moment, plenty to eat and drink, my boys took to the gym and jacuzzi. The indoor jacuzzi was lovely and I had a treatment in the Spa which was very relaxing. Highly recommended 👌🏾

We visited as part of a large family group of 11 adults and 9 children June the June half term. After reading reviews about this resort being a Spanish resort and not catering for the English, we were apprehensive. However we are glad we didn't take these on board as the holiday was amazing. Yes the hotel is Spanish and a lot of the staff had limited English but it wasn't difficult and there we ways on communicating. We had no issues with communication during our stay. Hotel - Hotel is gorgeous, very clean and friendly and the rooms are a very good size. The grounds are also lovely and the pool was amazing! Gorgeous free flow pool with various sections and then the bonus of the slides. The is a life guard on duty at all times which is fab. The pool area also has a swim up bar section which was good and toilets poolside. Food - we went half board so attended the buffet breakfast every morning and it was amazing, much better than previous resorts. Kelloggs cereals available every day, fresh fruit, all parts of a fry up, fresh pastries, meats and cheeses and a chef making omelette to order and fresh pancakes every day! We sampled most things over our stay and the omelettes were the best. I personally didn't attend the evening buffet but family members did and said it had a good variety and they enjoyed it. Entertainment - There was poolside entertainment daily which was fun , activities like running along mats on the water and then the usually dancing and music. The evening entertainment we only attended once or twice and it was good, again just your usually dancing and sing along type. Surrounding area - there isn't much to do outside of the hotel, we walked down the road and there are some restrauants, a pharmacy and a supermarket which was handy. We visited a restaurant called bombard tacos and it was soo good we ended up there every night! The owner was a lovely man from Birmingham and the food was incredible. Ranged from pizzas, Indian curries, fajitas, tacos and more. We ordered curries frequently because the quality was fantastic and he also made custom orders for our picky eaters which was lovely. It was very well priced and I would return 1000%. The supermarket was large and stocked everything, we bought some beers and water and stored them in the fridges in the room. We caught a bus to garrauche which was OK, lots of souvenir shops and places to eat along the front and we found a tobacconist which was handy. Beach - the beach is directly linked to the hotel, there's a gate at the back of the pool that opens onto the sand. It's not a commercial beach there aren't sun beds so yoi would need to take your own but it's beautiful, the sun was lovely and yoi are able to walk a fair distance out. No good for snorkeling but it was nice for a sea dip. We had one negative experience while there and this was a Spanish family eho claimed we had taken there sun beds we had been on them since 9am and it was 2pm at this point and there we no towels pre

BEWARE - Anyone looking to stay here be very careful when booking. I booked my stay through booking agent stayforlong.com which fraudulently made me two separate room bookings when I only made one and debited me twice taking around £1,400. When booking I only entered my card details once and went through to the confirmation page once. Since trying to get my money back I have contacted the hotel directly and stayforlong.com but no one responds to my emails. I am a single mum who wanted to take my 7 month old baby on a holiday on a limited budget but was in fact charged for two rooms (one room I DID NOT BOOK AND I DONT NOT STAY IN). I am now being ignored. I called when I realized the issue and asked stayforlong.com to rectify this with the hotel and called the hotel but no one confirmed back if the second room was cancelled. I gave more than enough time for the hotel to re-sell this room so I would assume they made double on that room for that week. Terrible service, completely unresponsive, very frustrating and upsetting. No one seems to care about their customer they just want the money. I have been charged £1,400 for one room. I would appreciate it if the hotel to could respond to this review to arrange my refund.

So the hotel was nice but they charged me for two rooms when I only booked one for me and my baby son. They have since ignored me when I have contacted them about this! I booked through stayforlong who are scamming people so really I would expect the hotel to deal with this. I would like them to reply to my emails and then remove stayforlong from allowing people to book their hotel. I have never had such a bad booking experience and now to be ignored is insulting. No regard for their customers!

We loved everything in the hotel, food (we were half board), very good. Room excellent and comfortable. Everywhere is clean. Staff were exceptional. The only real problem was. I went to the bar to buy a couple of 1.5 litre bottles of water. I was charged 3.10 euros per bottle, that is 6.20 euros total for 2 bottles. That is more expensive than any airport. If you walk down the road for 10 minutes you can pick up the same for at least 80% cheaper. WHY?

Have just arrived home after a week here. Staff are hardworking, polite and helpful. We had a lovely massage in the hotel's spa, rooms are spacious, bed is huge and comfortable, air con is on constantly unless you open the balcony/terrace door, housekeeping happens every day and the rest of the hotel and gardens are kept immaculate! The pool is fab with lots of sun beds available, gets quite noisy on weekends with children but for us that wasn't a problem! It's def geared and aimed more towards the spanish but we didn't have a problem being understood and to be honest as they eat so late at night didn't stay down for the entertainment! the food, breakfast was a mixture of a continental and a spanish version of a cooked breakfast, which was perfect for us, the evening meals were quite repetitive most nights, there is an option to go to the chefs station and have some fresh meat, pancakes, omelettes cooked, although it's then just put on a tray and does tend to go cold. Most of the dishes in the evening are either lukewarm or cold which doesn't make you feel like wanting to eat. We wanted to book a trip out to the Oasy's mini Hollywood, which we could of done €30 euros cheaper than what TUI offers the trip for but the draw back was we had to get ourselves there in our own car as the young lady on reception told me, due to it being 45mins away! Nevertheless we opted to take a stroll down to the few shops and bars approx a 10min walk from the hotel, we managed to catch a bus (an experience in itself) for a couple of euros each and spent a lovely few hours in Mojácar. My advice if you stay here would be to hire a car if you are wanting to get out and about, had we have known how far out we were I don't think we would have booked here. The beach is accessible via a gate at the back of the gardens, there were no sunbeds available on the beach so we didn't stay there for more than an hour, also be aware that part of the beach is nudist so expect to see naked men/women wandering past On saying all this we totally managed to relax and recharge our batteries in the sunshine!