Melia Tortuga Beach - All Inclusive

hotel - not complete luxury but still very lovely! very nice, villa cleaned daily, bathrooms clean and good pressure from showers. comfy beds and pillows. shampoo, body wash and conditioner included, conditioner is soooo good. a few extras provided, e.g. razor, shower cap, mini sewing kit, cotton wall pads, etc. two main pools, one lively with music and one quiet. loud pool has a swim up pool bar! shout out to ricardo and bruno, very good bartenders. tiles missing from pool but really not as issue unless you just want to be miserable. also two kids pool, one undercover. sun beds and umbrellas are good but can be hard to find as they are reserved early. no deposit is actually needed for the towels and they are easy to get from the towel hut by the pool. resort is beautiful with trees and flowers and lovely cats who we invited into the villa. aircon in living room of villa but not all bedrooms, but keeping bedroom door open in enough to control temperature. no problems with villa. two little gift shops with cute key rings, jewellery, soap, clothes etc. do not wait to get to the hotel to buy sun cream!!!!!!! one bottle is £20, so get it at the airport or bring it with you. beach is very nice, clean, but with limited sun bed. you can use sunbeds from neighbouring hotels 50 meters away, they don’t care. tropical fish in the water and opportunities to dive and snorkel. there is a man with a monkey! very cute. some staff a little rude, but mostly very friendly and enthusiastic. shoutouts to fabio from the spa, little willy from the pool, and the zumba/ darts man (forgot his name). all staff by the pool were lovely and fun. little willy asked for my instagram. food and drink- a few cocktails to chose from with the all-inclusive, along with a wide variety of other drinks, soft and alcoholic. cocktails were delicious and bartenders are happy to add more alcohol if you find them weak. bars are at the pool, in the lobby, and at the beach. restaurants are the buffet, an italian restaurant, a japanese restaurant, the beach restaurant and the secret garden. i recommend the last two, but all are nice experiences. a la carte restaurants are included but you need to book them, you can book all nights at once at the start of your holiday. be careful with the buffet or eating any fish or high risk food, a lot of food poisoning complaints but can be avoided. can’t be sure but looked like a lot of left over food was used the next day at buffet and sat out for a bit too long. secret garden has lovely steak and other grilled foods. food wasnt amazing overall, but some choices were great, and the a la carte restaurants were generally super good. very good variety considering it is all imported. water is good, a lot of bottled water provided. if you run out just ask at reception. entertainment- daily activities including water gyms and aerobics, pilates, yoga, zumba and dance classes, darts and beach volleyball/ football. there is a timetable in recepti

But, shouldn't have worried. Will admit that we had a problem with our allocated room (aircon unit leaking). Asked to be moved, and ended up in a lovely room. Staff were very helpful. The hotel seems to get a lot of criticism re the food. We found that especially in the main dining room there was so much choice you could always find something to eat, and the desserts are really yummy. Only complaint would be that the air con in the restaurant and main building needs to be more efficient. Always book the speciality restaurants when you can, gives a bit more variety. The beach is wonderful, and a short walk to the safe swimming beach. I think people need to be aware that all of the food items are imported and as such may not be available on the menu as expected. All in all we enjoyed the holiday.

January 2025 Our holiday booked 12 months in advance to the Melia Tortuga beach club in Sal was cancelled by TUI apparently because of over booking. We were notified 6 days in advance of departure. During multiple conversations with the pre flight department which I suspect is situated in Portugal, the representative did not seem to understand our situation only to read from a script that was in front of her, she suggested that she would write to another department to see what could be done and wait another 72 hours for the outcome. I duly did this only to be told again that there was overbooking of the rooms and we could not have our holiday, this was days before our departure. No compensation was offered and that she was sorry for the inconvenience. I will think long and hard before booking with TUI again Written 17 January 2025