Aminess Vival Grand Azur Hotel

Great location. Beautiful scenery and very quiet. Arrived last week in September. Many places had already closed for the season and many others closed on 1st October. The resort was almost deserted. Hotel was quiet first week then on 3 separate occasions the hotel hosted school parties of 30 or more kids. The first were the youngest and best behaved. The second 2 parties were of teenagers who on the most behaved well but 30 teenagers descending on the restaurant all at once made mealtimes extremely stressful and very noisy. Restaurant staff simply could not cope. Not their fault just understaffed. Not at all the restful holiday I had signed up for. So my advice if you are thinking of going here is go before October and if you're looking for a restful holiday, GO ELSEWHERE!

We have just returned. Def not a 4* hotel. There’s very little around the area if you fancy a change but you can walk along the coast and it’s very picturesque. Very much felt like a place closing for the end of season and that maybe it had been a long demanding one for the staff. Room was small and a bit dated but clean, bathroom small and basic, you couldn’t fault the view over the pool and sea and maybe that’s why it was tagged as a superior room. Power kept cutting out in room. Food was ok, lot of pork dishes on offer and beef soup, salads were delicious though. Drinks were only available while dining in the restaurant and it seemed like there was always a surge to the restaurant as it opened for lunch and dinner and I guess getting the free wine/beer quota in. The hotel paying bar closed at 10pm. The entertainment was bingo (one night only) and a pub quiz that never happened despite staff confirming to guests earlier that it was. Guests were left to draw their own conclusion. It just felt a bit like the place was on shut down. I wanted to buy a soft drink at 11:30am and was told to come back in 15 mins, the person was having her break! Had the feeling of the job would be great if it wasn’t for the guests! Checkout was 10am. We asked given the low room occupancy if we could keep our room on as we had a late flight and was told we could until 6pm and that it would be €50 then was told the next morning the room had been booked. They did however allow us to keep the room on until 1pm without charge but staff came in to the room at the chime of 1pm when we were just finish dressing! Probably more of a shock for them to be fair! Croatia is lovely and it’s really easy to island hop by ferry. Korcula is a cheap 15 min ferry ride away and well worth a visit. Getting around by car is really easy and you get to see places you may not otherwise experience. All wine, fish, olive oil and bread is really great but expect prices on a par with those in the UK.

The location of this hotel is absolutely beautiful; unfortunately, that is where the positives ended for us. The room was okay to an extent. It was clean and the bed was comfortable, but there were a significant number of issues. The shower water pressure was barely more than a dribble, and whenever someone nearby flushed their toilet, it would loudly gurgle through ours. The hairdryer would switch off after around 30 seconds. We initially thought it was broken, but after speaking to other guests, we were told that staff had apparently explained this was a "safety setting", which seems completely impractical when trying to dry your hair. The wardrobe also doesn't have a bottom runner, meaning the doors swing around rather than opening and closing properly. The air conditioning dripped some sort of substance onto the carpet, turning what was originally yellow into a rather disturbing grey. The lamp next to the bed repeatedly flickered unless you physically held the plug in place. Now onto the food. This was possibly one of the worst selections of hotel food I have experienced. A lot of the food was tasteless and soggy, with the pasta and risotto being about the only consistently enjoyable options. Breakfast was particularly shocking, with chicken nuggets and leftover lasagna being among the options. The one exception was the olive oil, which was absolutely delicious! There was also one waiter whose behaviour made us particularly uncomfortable. We were two women travelling together, and he would specifically come over to talk to us while we were getting food from the buffet, and then repeatedly interrupt our dinner to speak to us without being invited. We noticed that we were the only table he behaved this way towards, and it was particularly uncomfortable as we were two young women without male company. Eventually, we chose to sit as far away from him as possible to avoid crossing paths with him. The pool looks lovely, but once the sun hits it, there is an incredibly strong smell of drains, which really put us off swimming. Most of the pool also loses the sun by around 4pm. We also tried the aqua aerobics, which was particularly dull and consisted mainly of walking around in the pool. The beach itself is absolutely beautiful, but despite being advertised as a private beach, it isn't really private as there is a public footpath running through it. On top of this, the hotel charges €20 per day to use the sun loungers. I have never experienced having to pay extra for sun loungers at a hotel I have already paid to stay at, and considering the limited space available to put your own towel down, it felt particularly unreasonable. Unless you want to sit directly on a pile of pine needles, there aren't many alternatives. In fact, we ended up catching the ferry over to Korčula several times during our stay simply to enjoy a nicer beach and have some good food. The location and surrounding scenery are genuinely beautiful, but unfortunately, we found too many issues with the hotel itself to make this a stay we would recommend. Based on our experience, we would not return.

Stayed here for ten nights in September. It is a long transfer from airport, two hours. Welcomed at reception at 2300 and were asked if we were hungry as they had some food plated for us in the restaurant. A great touch. Hotel is kept spotlessly clean by very friendly cleaning staff. Sometimes a rush for sunbeds but we always managed to get one. Pool area good and well looked after by a friendly attendant. Lovely having a swim in the nearby sea as well. Only fault we thought was the very expensive prices at the pool bar, it would be used more if lower prices. We had a superior deluxe balcony room which was very good, lots of space. Air conditioning a little noisy. Food in dining room was decent but a little repetitive. Sometimes it was a little chaotic so we normally waited till 2000hrs for evening meals and always got a table out on the terrace where it is a little quieter. Getting drinks in the dining room is very awkward as the drinks stations are situated with the glasses in the same place as the food. I would suggest moving the drinks to the back wall at the entrance, it would save a lot of congestion. Staff worked very hard in the restaurant! Marija was exceptional and always smiling and happy. A lovely walk into nearby Orebic, and ferry to Korcula very easy. We enjoyed the hotel apart from the issues in dining room and I would hope that the hotel management can see this is a problem as well and start addressing the issues. May return in the future.

The hotel was very clean (if a little dated) but that didn't bother us. The food is generic hotel food and we did not go hungry, it did the job and there was plenty of choice. The location a short walk from the marina and just around the corner from a chilled sea front bar, ten minutes stroll from a supermarket we thought was superb. The hotel having a pool overlooking its own beach was a big plus and the pool was well designed so you could wallow in the shallow bits if you just wanted to cool off without a swim. We also loved not being hassled to buy stuff all along the seafront like in other countries. The hotel was very chilled and the beach front bar was very idilic. Background music down low in the bar and none around the pool was also a big plus as in other places we have stayed in have played it really loud and spoiled the tranquility, glad to say this was not the case here. Another big plus was the corridors outside your room was carpeted unlike some tiled noisy hotels we stayed in before. I would definitely stay in the hotel again.