We flew out of Manchester on the 7th of October. We had to get up at 4.15am and left the house at 4.45! We made it good time across the moors and parked about 6am. We got through security and didn't have long to wait before we boarded the plane. We set off about 8.15 and landed in Palma just before 1pm. We had a bus take us and others to our hotels - we were about an hour before we got there but it was fine! We checked in to the hotel and then had time to get some lunch before it closed at 3pm. We went down to one of the pools after lunch and enjoyed some sunshine before the pool closed at six pm. Then we had showers and got changed for tea in the hotel too.
It was a really early start but that meant we got there early so had time to enjoy some of the day rather than it just all being lost to travel. This was really good! We had booked all inclusive, too, but it turns out that the Balearic government have banned that in El Arenal and other parts of Mallorca to try to cut down on antisocial behaviour. Instead you can get three alcoholic drinks with lunch and three with tea, and that's it. In our hotel, there was just wine and beer available. Before we went I was a bit disappointed by this because I wouldn't have booked this if I had known this rule, but there was nothing I could do. As it turned out, I had some alcohol with my tea each night, and then a drink afterwards in the bar that we paid for. It wasn't too expensive - less than 6 euros each time, which doesn't equate to a lot! But it's something to bear in mind if you go to Mallorca and want to go all inclusive as it just doesn't mean that now (all soft drinks were included though, which was good for us as Lee doesn't drink and I obviously need soft drinks too!) It did mean we spent a little bit more than we would have done otherwise, but all inclusive hadn't cost us that much more than half board, so we decided not to worry about it. Quite a lot of people were properly kicking off at hotel staff, though, which is just disgusting as it's not their fault!
I will also say that the hotel complex was a bit tired. We think it must have originally been two if not three separate hotels that had been made into one complex. It had four pools, all of which were available to us. We were in the top building, which must have been separate at one point. On the website we were told that there were three restaurants, one of which was in our building, but this had closed earlier in October which meant there was only one restaurant, down in the bottom building, available. It's not a big deal, but it is a bit of a shame. The whole place was a bit run down, too. I can't overly explain it, but it all needed some maintenance and some TLC. Like the paths, and the areas round the pools, and the lifts inside the buildings all could have used some work.
But! This didn't spoil our holiday at all really, it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
The other thing was the food. As you know, I'm vegetarian, but vegetarian offerings were really thin on the ground in the restaurant. So I took the decision to just eat some fish for the week because I needed to eat SOME protein at least. I do eat fish very occasionally at home and think it's fine to - I eat vegetarian 99.9% of the time and find this is what works best for me. So on that first night I had some fresh, cold tuna, and it was really delicious!
After tea we sat in the bar for a while, which was outside near the bottom pool. We went to bed quite early though as we had been up so early (although we had both napped on the plane). Lee had taken my Chromebook too and we managed to get Netflix working on it so we had something to watch.
It was a good first day!
Just boarding the plane at Manchester
Here we are just before we took off. I don't like flying but it's always fine when we do it
The airport at Palma just as we got on the bus
Just outside our hotel, at the top of the steep hill we walked down and up a ton - you'll see that photo later
We had a really nice room - it was big, and had a nice bathroom with a gorgeous shower, and it had a huge balcony which was on the corner of the building. This was the view from the balcony! We had air conditioning too which is really good because Lee overheats quickly so we had it turned on most of the time when we were in there. The building on the left was where you checked in, and the restaurant and bar were further down the path, round past a useful shop
This top pool was where we spent most of our time - we did try the other pools but this was the best one. I'll show you more later!
So by 3.30pm we were on sunbes by this pool. It had a shallow bit and then a red cord across before a deeper bit which was just about shallow enough for me to stand up in. It was lush! The weather was about 28 degrees which was just perfect for us!
The top of the pool, which was shallow and really warm
Here I am on that first day, wearing a halterneck swimming costume that I had last year in France too. I also always wear a scarf on my head while I'm sunbathing because I tend to burn my head badly if I don't and I hate it!
This is later - the sun was setting over the sea (which we could sea from the balcony) but the trees were in the way!
Tequila sunrise cocktail
The pool at night as we were walking back to our room
The top part of it
And most of the whole of it! That building on the left is where the restaurant was, and the bar just in front of it
I was wearing this Yours dress which is perfect for a holiday - really light and floaty for when it's warm!
And these sandals were from Evans about 8 years ago, I really only ever wear them on holiday! You can see my Hello Kitty tattoo really clearly, too, isn't she cute?!
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