The resort was spotless. Most of the surrounding apartments were closed, I don't know whether this was due to the time of year we were there. Hotel staff told us that July and August is very busy.

There is a commercial centre just 10 minutes walk along the promenade or from the front of the hotel along the main road, which is a very quiet road. This has a larger supermarket, bread/pastry shop, a car hire shop,a bank with cash till outside, a couple of trinket shops and about 12 designer clothes/shoe/bag shops on the ground floor. First floor had two ice cream parlours, a number of fish, meat, pasta restaurants and a coffee shop. Also a take away pizza and a burger king.

There is also a cinema. Many of the commercial centre shops close in the afternoon (siesta time) and don't usually open until late afternoon. The commerical centre is very busy at weekends and after 2100 hours, as the spanish seem to eat late.

The beach was very clean and the sea was surprisingly warm for the atlantic. Just outside the hotel on the beach, you can hire catamarans, sailing boats per hour, with or without a tutor. A beach cafe was a little further along from the boat hire.

Due to the location, we hired a car for a week and visited the nearby areas of Isla Christina which we found to have one main shopping street, for the locals rather than visitors and market day was mainly clothes, shoes, bags and sunglasses. We also visited La Antilla which again seemed to be for residents and not tourism. It is perhaps the real Spain.

We went to Seville, large city, ideal for shopping but seemed like any other city in England to us.
As we were near Portugal, we visited Albufeira by car, took us just over an hour, so easy to get to and signposted.

This was much more commercialised and geared for tourists, with a wider choice of trinkets, restaurants and bars, if that is your taste.

To summarise, it was a holiday without too much noise, no large bars, mainly couples or families. Ideal for relaxing in the sun which was about 90 degrees each day. It is very Spanish and I think will be built up more in a number of years time. I would not recommend this holiday if you are looking for disco bars/drinking until early hours.

Quiet a lot of locals and no english beer louts. Supermarket, bars and restaurants but all based in one centre. No much apart from that. Use local bus to get to Seville - only costs 9 Euros rather than the tour operators trip which wil cost you 43 Euros.

Been twice & food choice was better in '03

This year all the local restaurants tried to all do same dishes etc.

Best meal in the resort was a chinese !

Still my favourite place & make sure you visit titanic bar on the front.

This fairly new resort is quite different from any other we've stayed in. I'd say, Brush up on your Spanish coz you'll need to. Don't expect too many quaint back streets, we never found them. However don't let this put you off because this was a lovely holiday. Hire a car and go to Monte Gordo in Portugal (aprox 30 mins.) General driving infrastructure excellent, roads are better than ours and NO road works.

very quiet in the evenings. a small commercial centre with some classy shops and a small shop for buckets and spades etc. a few restuarants and some fantastic ice cream parlours!

The resort of Islantilla is very much a spanish holiday resort and had the feeling of a upmarket place. Even though most of the people that come here for holiday are actually spanish we did come across lots of Irish and English. There is a Commerical Centre 10 minutes walk away, which houses many resturants, bars and shops. The clothes shop are not cheap so beware ladies! The resort itself is fast becoming like any other spanish resort and there is lots of building happening everywhere. Fortunately for us, we experienced none of this around the hotel. The promenade walk at the back of the hotel goes on for miles and it is a beautiful place to walk in the evening/night. The entertainment is centred around the hotel with the animation team putting on shows nightly and often involving the kids from all the kids clubs!