Oh dear. I have had previous holidays at the Don Carlos that have been truly wonderful. We booked again because of the previous high quality of service and accomodation, unfortunaltely unable to take our grandchildren as they are now "barred". What you have now is lots of our older generation either gloating how great it is without under 16s or new residents not realising what it was like before. The sounds of children playing by the pool or sounds of glee at the mini disco starting have now gone. Portland, Thompson what were you thinking please reconsider the potential of this family hotel - it is now like an old folks home.

Foods still wonderful. Rooms as usual, but there is now no atmosphere. Even the staff are depressed and do not agree with this no kids saga which I hope is only temporary.

We will not be returning to this hotel until the decision is reversed as there are many higher quality cheaper gold hotel accomodations available. We have filled in the Fiesta survey forms to air our views. I understand it isn't Fiestas fault and simply the tour operator insisting on this daft arrangement for whatever reasons.

Anyone thinking about it? Don't bother you'll be bored stupid playing doms and cards.

Whoever at Thomsons who made the decision to turn the Don Carlos into an adults only hotel has got the vote of the predominantly older guests many of whom return year after year.

The hotel was being invaded by the 'lets take them out of school' brigade who then proceeded to try and take over the generally sedate daytime entertainment, none of which was aimed at children.

In truth, the Don Carlos has always catered mainly for adults so the transition was easy. Other than this welcome change little else is different. Same good food and staff.

The hotel's wonderful location sells itself, and I spoke to new guests who will definately be returning. The entertainment has never been the hotels strong point, and this has not improved, but with so many nice bars in the vicinity, it has certainly never been a priority with me.

Long may the adults only status remain! It makes a very good value alternative to Thomson Gold.

This was our second visit to the hotel. And yet again we had a fantastic holiday. The hotel is great with lots to do. Activities for adults and children are ongoing all day. The food in the restaurant is always fresh and well presented with excellent choice. The hotel is very clean and staff are friendly and polite. The rooms are cleaned every day.The pool is also checked daily and cleaned. The rooms are nice and quite spacious and we had a sea view room.The entertainment at night was great and the staff work very hard in getting people up to join in with the entertainment and activities/quiz's. The location is also great with many other amenities nearby. Would strongly recommend this hotel.

This is our 3rd visit to the Don Carlos. Again another great holiday. Food excellent as always with show cooking, fresh fish including swordfish. Hotel room cleaned regularly. Great views of the sea. This is a family hotel and provides good entertainment for adults and children but it is not in your face like Thomson holidays "kids clubs". There were a lot of older people here this time but to be honest it is a family hotel. The hotel is about 10 min walk into Santa Eulalia and is a nice walk into town down to the marina.

Accommodation - Family suite excellent, yes the fridge hums, but so do all fridges, yes the air-con hums, but so do most air-con units, yes there is a TV and yes most channels are Spanish.

Food - My family did not have the same meal twice as the range of food is still excellent. Breakfast choice huge, full Monty fry up or an omelette to a nice continental choice of croissants and cakes, toast, cereal and anything else you can think to eat for breakfast. PS steal your lunch by making up nice cheese and ham rolls with a donut, everyone else does!

Dinner - MMMMMMmmmmm!! Well labelled up in numerous languages so you know what you are getting. If they have forgotten to put the labels on ASK THE STAFF!

Beat the queues and race to the outside eating area by either 1) throwing your child over the wall to the seating area before the doors open or 2) sending them to queue up and run for the seats easily beating other eager adults.

I thoroughly recommend, duck and orange pate with mini toast followed by onion soup. Fried Cod with whatever range of potatoes they have and a vegetable cake washed down with a litre of house don Simon rose wine, finishing with a range of cheeses and salted crackers.....mmmmm

Entertainment!! - For all you repeat residents expecting the great Wim and Co unfortunately he is no more. Replaced with the wonderful Silvio, Federica and Janine. These 3 are more child and family orientated than other entertainers in the past. So if you are young adult females looking for a flirt or a group of miserable old people looking for a quiet game of French boules forget it, family entertainment is back in town!! Brilliant with the young ones ensuring everyone from the age of 2 to 80 get involved. Sand castle competitions, painting, drawing, games in the small pool is the name of the game. If the kids want to play in the adult activities, Silvio lets them! hurrah for FAMILY entertainment!! (did I mention Thomson do gold holidays for older people who don't like children, SAGA cater for similar as well).
The 'elder' residents tried to get children banned from French boules and other activities whilst we were there and event threatened to boycott a boules tournament if children turned up. pathetic!

Evening entertainment? Typical FAMILY fiesta fun, Mister Don Carlos, Miss Don Carlos, Zapping, Games, Karaoke, naff parrot show, Its the same every year! To enjoy it you have to get involved, not sit on the other side of the pool hundreds of yards away playing dominoes! None of you joined my conga no matter how much I tried...I despair. During our holiday a 'more mature elder' on holiday tried to get children removed from the entertainments area after mini disco as they quote 'had had there time and now it was the adults time'unquote SAGA!! Entertainments team well done with your advice in reply!!

Sunbeds and parasols....oooh! 40 parasols for the whole hotel, not enough considering 168 rooms. like gold dust they were! Its getting worse. People sat on the starting blocks at 6am ready for the scared looking night porter to come over and unlock the doors for the fear of being crushed, leading into the false utterings of 'morning' and 'I feel so embarrassed at having to do this'....twoddle, I know its the exhilarating adrenaline rush of ensuring you get the 2 beds 3 parasols and 2 pine trees you so blatantly want!!! After 3 days of not getting a parasol and my son being badly sunburned matters were taken into hand....Hint, 1) Get up at 6.30am 2) Go out the front door of the hotel 3)Walk around the side of the hotel 4)Nip over the fence 5) Proudly parade your parasol bed and towel in front of those named above 6) Sit down and wait for them to run past you with filthy looks....Biggest offenders? You guessed it, people who have been sat on the veranda till 4am making sure no-one steals there spot. Other option is get your teenage son to hide umbrellas at the end of the night in....various places, and proudly collect them at a more reasonable hour ie 9am. I feel so dirty and guilty, sorry but if you cant beat em join em.

This has been our best holiday yet at the Don Carlos and we will be going again! Very Very many thanks to the older residents who clapped cheered and doted on my children's every move and didn't mumble and grumble.

Fiesta, Portland, Thomson...please stop advertising this hotel to the elder generation, it is a family hotel with family activities. I know you have repeat residents who have been going for 28 years but they have changed not us. You do not know how many families were upset by their persistent complaining about children this year! All the children whilst I was there were well behaved and did nothing wrong. They picked up the negative attitudes of certain older guests which spoilt their holiday.

Enjoy your hols!! Hurrah for family entertainment

A great hotel and excellent food. The only complaint I have is the restaurant closing at 9pm. We arrived at 9.20pm to be informed the restaurant was closed and no food was provided, this mean't we only had 6 evening meals. We have arrived later at other hotels to find fruit and salad waiting for us. Otherwise a great holiday.

Our second visit to Don Carlos as a group. Once again a great holiday. Hotel spotlessly clean.

Food in restaurant as good as you will get in any hotel
(hello to the egg man.

We ate on the outside verandha every morning and evening and loved it.

The staff at hotel are wonderful especially our wonderful waiters jesus, cirilho,miguel and jahoe.

The entertainment staff wim & jojo worked tirelessly with both children & adults & both deserve medals.

All inclusive drinks option saves a fortune as all soft drinks alcohol and even bottles of wine with evening meals are included.

The swimming pool is kept spotlessly clean and supervised by our very own baywatch man who is always on hand even down to plasters for minor mishaps.

So there you are another great holiday on our favourite island at our favourite hotel.

Yet another visit to this excellent hotel. Well done to Wim and Jo-Jo the entertnments staff, you two are my kids hero's. See you soon.

Our first visit to the Don Carlos. What can I say, a perfect holiday from start to finish.

Lovely room overlooking the pool.

Wonderful food, the choice was amazing.

Great staff, a special mention for Tom, how he remembered everyone's name was incredible.

We are returning next September - can't wait.

The hotel exceeded all my expectations, and is highly recommended for young families (up to age 11-12) and couples any age. My teenagers 13 / 16 found very few others of similar ages when we stayed during the peak holiday weeks of July/Aug. The guest population was probably 80% UK, 10% German and 10% everywhere else, which mirrored the resort generally.

Both staff and food deserve special mention - anyone who cannot find sufficient on the buffet to over-eat must be on a very restricted diet. Replenishment with fresh food was continuous and continued right through to the end of service. Many items were "cooked to order" in front of you.

The staff exude friendliness and do their very best to help; most have at least rudimentary English, whilst reception staff were all fluent speakers.

More than adequate space around the pool for everyone; maybe a few more umbrellas would be nice, but they certainly were not rationed.

There were two resident entertainment staff, both excellent. they seemed to work 10.00am to midnight, 7/7! They were equally competent and enthusiastic whether entertaining the tiny tots, 10 year olds or adults, and one always felt invited to participate, never pressured.

The evening entertainment was variable between adequate and excellent, but certainly no worse than many other hotels of a higher star rating. One of the visiting acts (a singing couple from the Lancashire clubs) completely missed their audience (they appeared to be aiming at people who grew up in the 1950's), but otherwise no problems.

The 10 min walk to the main resort was not particularly problematic, although anyone with mobility problems should be aware that there are several short but relatively steep slopes to ascend/descend which would not be easy in a wheelchair. The hotel itself appears fully accessible to the disabled.

We had a 14 hour wait between checking out and departure, but secure luggage storage and a courtesy room for a shower were both available. They even turned off the lights in reception to allow us to sleep whilst awaiting a 2am pick-up.

Be cautious (as usual) of buying trips from the tour operator, and check around first. Thomson wanted 30 Euro's / Adult for a trip to the water park. The hotel charged 14 Euros admission and 3.5 Euros for their own bus (which went direct instead of calling at other hotels en route). We also got 6 hours at the park, compared to the 4 we got last time we went with a tour operators trip (not Thomson).

All in all, highly recommended.