We all know that I love a good hotel. Everything from diving head first into that meringue nest of a bed at the end of a long day of exploring to the promise of an absolute feast every morning in the shape of an unlimited buffet breakfast (you will usually find me hanging around the pastry section with a plate piled full of croissants and pain au chocolat). I would go as far as saying that a hotel can make or break a holiday for me. So, with that in mind, I was slightly dubious about booking our stay as part of a package deal online. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much but BQ Apolo turned out to be the best hotel I think I have ever stayed in.
The room
I had seen pictures of the rooms online before Isaac booked the deal he found through Opodo but I never tend to trust those professional photos you see on hotel websites because of the amount of times I have booked somewhere expecting a gorgeous room to find out that the picture was actually of an executive suite costing a cool £500 per night. But, let me tell you, this place was just as luxurious as the website suggests. The room is a beautiful turquoise colour with white details and it came with a balcony – which, I assume, all of the rooms do. It had a nicely decorated slate grey bathroom with a reasonably sized shower and all the toiletries you could ever need (including everything from a mini toothbrush to a shoe shiner). The room also came with a fridge but, unfortunately, no tea and coffee making facilities (although the bar staff were more than happy to provide us with hot water and milk for Ava whenever we asked free of charge). The best thing about the room had to be the TV though. It had BBC1, BBC2, ITV, and CBeebies on it which was an absolute godsend as it meant that Ava could fall asleep watching her favourite programmes which greatly decreased her tantrum count.
The food
As part of our deal, we had breakfast included but I can fully say that we would have upgraded to half board if possible. There were so many options for the breakfast. You could have everything from churros with chocolate sauce to scrambled eggs and chorizo. And that is not even scratching the surface of the options. There was so much fruit, so many pastries, at least 6 varieties of milk for my diary-avoiding pals. And there was something new everyday. My favourite had to be the boiled potatoes with herbs they served one morning as my morning sickness was playing up but those potatoes soon settled my stomach. I honestly can’t think of anything that was lacking at all.
One evening, we opted to pay extra and have the buffet dinner. It was $20 per adult but I can honestly say that it was worth it. They had a huge variety of veggie, meat, and fish dishes as well as a huge salad station and a whole corner dedicated to desserts and cheeseboards. I really went in on the cold foods whilst Isaac devoured a whole lot of rice and curried veg and fish of every kind.
In terms of drinks, there were a good amount of options at the bar. As I can’t drink and Isaac chooses not to, we didn’t really explore them very well but we did give an alcohol-free Pina Colada a go which, if I remember rightly, costed about $5 each. It was lovely and fresh and fruity but maybe a little sweet. I wouldn’t have minded trying out their alcohol-free Mojito or San Francisco either.
The facilities
The hotel itself isn’t the hugest in comparison to many hotels and resorts you will find in Mallorca. It had 6 floors, a bar, a restaurant located downstairs, a luggage room, an indoors pool, and an outdoors pool with sun loungers dotted around it. My one issue with the pools were that they were absolutely freezing! I guess, they don’t heat them but rather let the sun heat them. As we travelled at the start of the season (May), the sun hadn’t really worked its magic yet. As Isaac put it, the indoors pool was like something out of a bushtucker trial. Ava loved the indoors pool though. Despite the coldness, it was quite nice to have a dip and, most days, we had the pool entirely to ourselves which was nice as it meant no-one had to see me wincing as I lowered myself into the icy pool or hear the words that I uttered as I lowered myself into said icy pool.
The atmosphere
I think one thing that every parent worries about when travelling with a toddler is how the hotel is going to react to said toddler. I mean, you never know whether people will treat your child running around like a nuisance or if they will be accommodating to the additional needs a child brings. But, I have to say, the staff at BQ Apolo were what really made the trip – especially the restaurant staff. I have never seen people go out of their way to make such a fuss over Ava and make her feel really special – especially when she has already approached them at least 50 times that day to say ‘hi’. The staff, in general, were just so lovely. As it was my birthday on the penultimate day of our trip, they gave me a big slice of cake with a candle in it at breakfast and, when we returned to our rooms, we found a bottle of Cava and two chocolates had been left for us with a note (in German but that’s not a problem for this German speaker *hair flick*) wishing me a very happy birthday. Although I couldn’t drink the Cava (I left it with a note in Spanish for the housekeeper to take home), it was such a lovely touch and made my day even more special.
Location
The hotel was located just off of the Can Pastilla beach and had lots of little shops and restaurants nearby. There was also a bus stop about 5 minutes walk from the hotel that could take you into the capital city of Palma within 20 minutes. The hotel was 10 minutes taxi journey from Palma Airport. It was really nicely located as Can Pastilla isn’t overly hectic or wild like Magaluf but it is close to Palma and has so much to do nearby too.
Honestly, I can’t say enough good things about this hotel. There were very few things that I would change about our stay and the staff really went above and beyond to make our stay special which means so much to me.
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