Hotel Caledonia Golf Resort & Spa Estepona

Cheap and cheerful: I stayed in this reasonably priced and very clean hotel in May 2005 while on a 3 day business trip. Anyone staying here will need either a car or a few taxis as the location is nowhere near Estepona or Marbella but smack between the two. Allow 10 - 15 minutes to get to either town. I chose this hotel to get away from the crowds but that proved difficult as the hotel's special offer upon its recent opening had led to dozens of Spaniards staying there on a cheap, all inclusive, weekend break. For some reason my room rate was considerably higher than theirs. As usual, getting a double bed in Spanish hotels proved no easier here and in fact they only had 2 or 3 rooms where the double bed WASN'T made up of two singles. WHY do Spanish hotels insist on not having real double mattresses?? On day 2, however, a suite with a real double bed became available and they were happy to move me. The rooms are in fact small apartments with a living area, bedroom, bathroom and kitchenette, so there is plenty of space. The balconies also have a table and chairs plus a little clothes rack for drying wet clothes. My room's position on the third floor allowed for a great sea view which is always nice to have. When I requested an iron I was made to return to my room to get 5 euros from my wallet to hand over as a deposit. A STUPID rule imposed by unthinking staff who had already swiped my credit card when I checked in. Were they so in need of 5 euros? The defective iron then leaked all over my suit and the staff on the front desk just shrugged their shoulders when I complained. I see that some reviews highlighted communication problems in this hotel and can assure you that despite being fluent in Spanish since childhood, I too was unable to get much of a reaction from the staff. Clearly these people are not gifted at solving problems, nor are they trained to any extent in customer service. The main bar, meanwhile, is huge, well stocked, comfortable, inexpensive and run by very friendly staff BUT in the evenings it often turns into a waking nightmare for people who like to sing "I will survive" into a karaoke microphone and in a manner that suggests they are screaming in pain, so be warned. The PA system is as powerful as the hotel's acoustics are weak. From my room on the third floor I could hear the reception area and main bar throughout most of the night, the people outside around the pool during the day (through closed windows) and also the viciously amorous couples in adjacent rooms at varying times, so bring earplugs if you are a light sleeper and move your bed an inch or two away from the wall. Breakfast is quite nice and served in a large, bright room opposite the main bar. There are less parking spaces than there are rooms so remember also to use your imagination when parking. All in all this hotel is new, clean, spacious and has a good pool and bar but its staff, soundproofing, parking and poor quality beds are no more than one should expect for such cheap rates.

We stayed here August 2005 for 10 days on an all inclusive basis.

The rooms are excellent, spotlessly clean and spacious. Most rooms have a kitchen area, lounge with sofa bed, double bedroom, large bathroom and balcony. There are some two bed -rooms and a few studios available. The room has TV with Sky news and eurosport and a PC point. There is plenty of wardrobe space and strong air conditioning. (Though the controls are difficult to understand and it's tricky to get a balance between cold and off.)

The hotel is about a mile from the main road so a car is essential if you want to leave the hotel (though there are occasional coaches from the hotel). The hotel shop is limited. Very basic food and only one English newspaper stocked (the Guardian)!

The restaurant is only full at breakfast time. The quality and choice is reasonable. The buffet (lunch + dinner) always has salads and soups (usually gazpacho!), a good choice of hot main course dishes (+ kids food section) and a good choice of deserts and plentiful fresh fruit. Interestingly only about a quarter of the hotel guests are all-inclusive, resulting in the main restaurant being half empty at lunch and dinner times. For those used to all inclusive hotels, there is the usual choice of local drinks from the hotel and pool bars, though extras like crisps and ice-creams have to be paid for. Slightly annoyingly the all-inclusive service stops early at 11 pm. For guests not on all-inclusive there is a snack bar for lunches and the main restaurant for lunch and dinner.

The outdoor pool is oxygen cleansed, so no smelly chlorine. There is a lifeguard in attendance. New sunbeds and umbrellas appeared during our stay so there are now sufficient sunbeds though there is little shade in the pool area (More umbrellas arrived during our stay but they could do with more). There is an indoor pool and gym and sauna/spa.

The children's club (ages 4-12) is spacious, cool and runs plenty of activities. They also run the occasional pool activity. The animation team consists of just two people who run occasional exercise classes around the pool and water polo plus the occasional darts or rifle shooting. There is not much activity going on during the day. The evening entertainment consists of a mini disco for the children and then a show. These shows are the weakest I've ever seen and attract an audience of about 30 people. If the music wasn't so loud you could watch them as comedies, unfortunately the noise is deafening and the desire to escape overwhelming. The hotel is very quiet in the evening, but with a car, the areas of Marbella, Puerto Banus and Estepona nearby are all worth visiting.

Overall a good value 4 star hotel.

We stayed in the hotel from June 13 to June 23 with our two little children.

The rooms are the best thing about the hotel. they are really nice and spacious.

The pool is nice but too small for all the people on the weekends. The hotel seems to make great deals on weekends therefore the hotel is crowed with no space on the pool at the weekends (the people are spanish families). Sun beds are reserved by various nations, german as well as english.

The beautiful pictures of the hotel do not show the real hotel, e.g. the front desk and the beautiful hall. You just exspect more once you see the hotel photos.

The food was ok, but not really good. There were french fries each night but no potatoes or fresh vegetables except for one sort.

English is not the language of the hotel, the staff understands spanish, but very little english and no german.

There is a golf course close to the hotel, but you see only on hole. In the advertisements you could read " surrounded by a beautiful golf course".

The hotel ist surrounded by building activities but they are currently not ongoing.

You need a car for this hotel!!!

We booked the hotel on the recomedations from this page staying half-board, and while the hotel looks good in the pictures the real story is different.

For a start you really MUST have a car as its in the middle of a nowhere and surrounded by building works, although they are not noisey.

We checked in on a Saturday, the room was very nice, clean, modern but set up for self catering and not a traditional hotel room.

The trouble started at dinner that night. It was very dis-organised, no one seated you, no one spoke any decent English and the food (buffet style) was just on the acceptable side.

We went to our room around 10.30pm and after a while noticed that we could hear everything from all the rooms above and below us. i mean evverything, from footsteps to people using their toilet!

Later that night we also heard trucks driving arounf the hotel emptying bottle banks and this made a hell of a noise.

The nest day we had a just acceptable buffet breakfast and then went to get a space aroud the out door pool. To our diappointment there were no spaces although it was only 10.30am, it was full of kids and familys, not your usual 4 star type hotel.

We eneded up at the local beach which was nice enough but we had to drive to get to it.

The final straw came on our seconf night (19th June) when the fire alarm went off 3 times. My wife is 6 months pregnant and needs her sleep and these false alarms did not help. No one came to tell us if the alarm was for real, a test or just mistake!

The next day we decided enough was enough and transferd to the Atalaya Park Hotel down the road which while not perfect was much, much better than the Caledonia.

This hotel seems to be a weekend break hotel for locals with their kids, which is not a problem but its sold as a new 4 star hotel with all the trimings. It is NOT, I would say its a 3 star tourist hotel at best, we have stayed in many 4 stars around the world and this was miles off what it should be to justify that rating.

rooms excellent,very spacious

food average usual Spanish buffet style

need a car.

Lots of Spanish used this hotel particularly at weekends.

Hotel full must be lots of offers available.

overall rating 4 star. Spa brilliant best yet

This is a fabulous hotel. The gym is now in place (incase you are reading other comments below) and its lovely (all the usual equipment but brand new)! The indoor pool is very nice for a general swim and the outdoor pool layout and sunbeds are really well positioned.

We ate in the hotel twice, both times very good buffet dinner for 15 euros per person. (you can eat absolutely loads!)

The rooms are beautiful, the best room we have stayed in in Spain. We only had 2 problems. The reception staff were very unfriendly/unhelpful and the walk to the beach was 30 minutes. There are not any restaurants nearby either, so you do really need a car unless you want a hotel based holiday. If you like lounging round a beautiful pool, this is the best hotel to go to! But go soon, as you can get some cracking deals for this hotel at the moment.

We really enjoyed our stay at this hotel. It is in a very new / developing area with building works in progress, but once inside the hotel, there is no sight or sound of this. The foyer and dining areas are beautiful and the room/suite one of the nicest I have ever stayed in, with a large lounge (kitchenette at one end), large double bedroom, large bathroom and balconey over looking the pool. This seems to be the standard layout of all rooms. The outdoor pool was also great. Everything was very clean and new as the hotel only opened last October. I would recommend the half board option which we found great value. The food especially the dinners was delicious and very very plentiful (buffet) as my son proved, helping himself to ten courses! You do really need a car unless you intend to spend your holiday by the pool as it is a tricky walk to the beach and not served by public transport, but there are loads of interesting places within a short drive.....puerto banus, estepona, marbella, even gibraltar and ronda. There are lots of good deals online for this hotel at the moment - I suggest you go this year, as when it gets more established and the surrounding work is finished it will certainly go up in price.

Didn't quite know what to expect. The hotel is quite new and was booked on the internet. It is a few minutes drive off the main coast road in a fairly new area. You pass building work on the way, but you don't notice this from the hotel. There are lovely views towards the mountains from the entrance . The hotel is done out beautifully all the way through, lot's of seating in reception. Stairs down to the restaurant, bar, indoor pool and spa area. There is no gym as we thought. The hotel rooms are the best we have stayed in with plenty of space (The maids come in daily).

We had lovely south facing views from our balcony, which overlooked the large outdoor pool and outside bar. We could also see views of the sea and african coast in the distance. There was a childrens club for small children, but nothing for the older ones. My children are 12 and 14 and other than the pools and table tennis there was nothing else for them to do. The animation were out playing boules on a couple of occasions but they didn't advertise this. The evenings were fairly quiet, during the 10 days we were there the only entertainment were some acrobats and a few nights with someone playing the keyboard. This may get better during the summer.

The restaurant was nicely set out with friendly staff (especially Alberto and the man on the grill). Although be careful not to put your cutlery down too soon as they quickly remove your plates. The food was generally good with plenty of selection and always well presented. All in all a good hotel but they need to think about the entertainment and activities for older children.

Good Standard of accomodation but lack of essentials needed for a self catering appartment. No toaster or grill, no kettle just a basic hob & microwave.

Good Indoor pool - too cold for outdoor one! The "fully equipped gym" advertised was non existant! Friends who stayed here at New Year were promised their return visit with us in April would see the gym completed - this wasn't the case! Lovely big room though will be a great gym!

Car Parking difficult, strange system of positioning plant pots to block access!

On the plus side lovely bigs rooms, staff pleasant & helpful, good value for money!

Excellent new 4 star apartment hotel. Not really walkable to beach so car really required. Beach reached in 5 minutes by car without having to go on infamous main road - you go over it. Large indoor pool with usual spa facilities. Food better than have had in other Costa del Sol 4 star hotels. Good sized double bedroom and lounge which also has sofa which folds down to double bed.