Ambiente Palace

So, after our nightmare 28 hour delay and our previous hotel The Mare Monte Resort giving our room away (see my Mare Monte Review) we finally arrived at The Ambiente Palace in time for lunch! And it was good!!! No idea what all the fuss and complaints are for surrounding the food! Yes it looked like school dinners but it tasted exactly how it was meant to taste! Plus there was plenty of beer and wine available with your food! Our room was very basic but nice enough! After all your hotel room is a base for sleep, showers and getting ready in anyway right?! A nice comfy bed and some lovely pillows meant I slept like a baby! The hotel itself was beautiful! Some of it was a bit dated (carpets on the walls anyone?!) but the places where you actually spend time in such as the bar, the roof terrace, the pool and the restaurant had lovely decor. Very stylish with white sofas, billowing curtains and amazing pink chairs! From the roof terrace you have an amazing view of the sunset, it was absolutely gorgeous! The drinks were fine, the beer tasted a lot like Stella and the wine was lovely! Some guests complained the spirits were watered down, I'm not sure if they were or not but after a few too many whose counting! The pool was lovely, if not freezing cold but beyond the two pools you have a view of the sea to die for! Absolutely stunning and where my partner and I spent a lot of time, drinking, chatting and snuggling under the stars! Very romantic! The beach by the hotel is not far but a VERY steep walk! Not for the faint hearted! There was however a shuttle bus that can take you there and pick you up which I made the most of! After a few drinks there was no way I could make it up the hill! Overall this hotel was perfect but then the problems began.... On our second day the entertainment team went on strike. Not too much of a big deal we didnt think. We don't have kids, and we don't really need to play pool volleyball or do pub quizes. But alas, some of the Brits decided to kick off about it saying that it was disgraceful that they had to make their own entertainment. Turned out the staff hadn't been paid for 3 months so all the work they'd been doing up until then had been free. Trying to explain this to a bunch of low class Brits didn't work and they drew up a petition. Needless to say this didn't go down well with the remaining staff so the next day we woke up to find we had no hot water. No big deal me and my partner thought and we had cold showers. We then went down to the pool to find the pool bar closed. Again, no biggy, we went to the restaurant to get drinks. However we arrived to find it locked. It was coming close to lunchtime and it didn't look as though we would be getting fed so eventually the hotel reception manager came to see us all. She explained that all the staff had walked out and she was left with only 4 members of staff. At this point a lot of angry guests again kicked off. I actually felt embarrassed to be British by this point. If anyone in the UK hadn't been paid for 3 months I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have still been working, and if they had when their "customers" decided to abuse them and tell them they weren't doing a good enough job they too would have thrown in the towel and said "see ya". Not wanting to ruin our holiday we phoned our holiday providers straight away (something the majority of the Brits in the hotel hadn't thought of doing!) and told them what the situation was. We then went down to the beach to enjoy our day! The beach was amazing! Quiet, chilled and beautiful! They had pedalos, waterskiing and boat tours for those who wanted some fun, otherwise it was pure relaxation! The Taverna on the beach was equally beautiful! With cheap drinks (Malibu and Jack Daniels were a must!) and gorgeous gorgeous food (Swordfish was SUPERB!) it was a perfect way to spend our day. We arrived back later that night to find no food, no drinks and no water. We were warned that the hotel would be shut down in less than 24 hours and luckily our holiday providers had found us alternative accommodation (our 3rd hotel in as many days!) We left that night, as did a lot of other guests. It's sad that the hotel came to this messy end. I truly enjoyed the couple of days I spent here and would have loved to go back. It was cheap, cheerful but the views were out of this world and with natural beauty like that I don't think you can complain! However, I'm glad we left when we did. The next day the hotel shut down completly, the guests were barracaded in the hotel as the now ex staff protested outside the hotel, and eventually the police had to rescue guests. Such a shame and I'm pretty sure we can thank the ungrateful cheap Brit's who signed the petition for this. Our next hotel was The Aquis Sandy Beach so see my review on that too!