Butlin's Bognor Regis - Ocean Hotel and Restaurant Reviews, DineAround Explained

Butlin’s today is a far cry from the self catering caravan holidays I remember as a child in the 1980s. Today there are smart hotels, apartments, and a range of on-site restaurants including an American diner and Papa John’s. You’re sure to find something to suit everyone - but if you are considering a stay at Butlin’s how do you decide? Which hotel is best or should you self-cater at Butlin’s, what are the dining options and how does DineAround work?

In September I went to Butlin’s Bognor Regis and have tried to answer all these questions and more in a post on my other blog, MiniMoo Life. If you want to find out more, hop on over there!

Review: Club Cala Romani, Majorca

 

At the very end of summer I went on holiday with two girl friends to Majorca. We wanted a cheap and cheerful week (or almost week) in the sun, and with three of us wanting to fly from different airports, returning home on different dates, with different budgets and different requirements in mind, it was never going to be easy!

We found Club Cala Romani on lastminute.com and agreed to book it; I'd been quite busy at work at the time and didn't want to hold the others up as there were only a few rooms remaining, so I said go for it - and only read the reviews afterwards.

There were some OK but not great reviews on Trip Advisor, a few from people who loved it who go there every year - and some really, really terrible reviews. I've never gone anywhere with such poor ratings before, and my heart sank. So what I want to say right away was: it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was expecting!

OK, it wasn't a great hotel -and I don't even mean by comparison with some of the amazing places I've been lucky enough (and I mean really lucky) to stay, like the Fontainebleau on Miami Beach. Even based on much cheaper self-catering holidays I'd had in my 20s to places like Greece and Cyprus, it was somewhere that had its pros and cons, but overall I had a nice holiday, it surpassed my (low) expectations and it's the sort of place I think children would really enjoy.

We were three lone females travelling without children, but going in the school holidays as one of my friends is a teacher, which did put us in a very small minority. This is definitely a family resort and I don't think I remember seeing anyone else without kids!

I will go through some of the pros and cons in turn, also addressing some of the main criticisms I read on Trip Advisor which were really off-putting and not necessarily what I experienced.

area next to the hotel pool

The airport transfer
Booked as part of the package on lastminute.com though provided by a third party called MTS Globe Spain. It was advertised as 90 minutes but I had seen several people on Trip Advisor saying it took three hours. It actually took me 2 hours 35 minutes on the way there - I got a taxi on the way back but that's another story.

It's easy to find the desk at the airport then they tell you which number bus to get on outside. The coach has air con and the journey was fine though Club Cala Romani was the very last stop.

I was flying home a day earlier than my friends and was worried that my transfer pick up time was four hours before my flight - it's not a big airport but I had seen a lot in the news about long queues so wanted to get to the airport two hours beforehand, but as it took more than two and a half hours on the way - and I'd seen one review where someone said it took 4 hours on the way back - I was a bit worried.

I spoke to the hotel reception and they said they could book me a taxi, though I would forfeit the money I had already paid for the transfer. The receptionist told me it was a 75 euro flat fee to the airport and since I hadn't needed to spend much money on holiday I decided to do it for peace of mind. But when it came to leave and my taxi was 20 minutes late, I went back to reception and the receptionist - a different person to the one who booked the taxi the day before - called the company and found that there was no record of my booking. They said they could send another taxi right away but that took another 20 minutes, though I still arrived at the airport in plenty of time. When we arrived the taxi driver charged me 86 euros - when I argued and said I'd been told there was a 75 euro flat fare he said there was no such thing! So if you are going to get a taxi instead of a transfer then I would watch out as it isn't as straightforward as you might think!

The hotel - checking in
I arrived with one of my friends while the third was arriving later. At reception we asked if she was in an adjacent room and they went to look her up - and found they had no record of her booking! We were in a bit of a panic but luckily the hotel wasn't full and by the time she arrived and we met at reception, they had allocated her a room - and we saw her name hand-written onto the bottom of a printed list! I'm not sure how that happened as we all booked through lastminute.com, albeit separately.

The room
I had a double room to myself which was a good size, basic and simply furnished but nothing wrong with it. My room would have overlooked the pool but I was on the first floor so I actually looked onto a flat roof that was the top of the restaurant below, so couldn't see anything at all.

my room

The room was supposed to have air con and there was a temperature gauge on the wall but no sign of an air con unit; instead there was a big fan on the ceiling. The lowest the temperature gauge could be set to was 23C which was a bit worrying as it was the end of August, but strangely the room actually seemed OK with the ceiling fan on. I did speak to some people who were staying in the family apartments on the other side of the hotel and they said there was no air con in their rooms at all, they were having to pay to hire fans and it was still unbearably hot - apparently the hotel is installing air con in those rooms in 2018!

view from my terrace - with a child's rubber ring on the flat roof

Walls are thin though - I could hear people upstairs banging around and at one point hear the conversation the people next door were having.

The pool
There are actually two main pools next to each other - one is supposed to be for adults only and the other for children but nobody seemed to pay attention to that rule. There's also a baby pool a short walk away.

Neither main pool ever seemed that warm - even though it was August, it was cloudy most of the time and even sunbathing we were rarely in direct sunlight, I never felt particularly hot and I never really got a tan - and when there was a breeze I felt quite chilly!

I'd read several reviews on Trip Advisor saying the pool was sometimes closed because a child had pooped in it, which sounded disgusting - though my friend who has a toddler assured me it can happen even if the child is wearing swim pants (like nappies but waterproof). I still thought it was pretty unpleasant and I've never been anywhere on holiday where that has been a problem, so I was half expecting it, but my heart still sank one day when I heard this announcement at 3pm: "The pool is now closed until 5pm. We would like to remind parents that babies should wear Pampers swim nappies in the pool, which are available in the shop." The most annoying thing was it was the larger adult pool that was shut for two hours - where there weren't supposed to have been children in the first place!

I found the sun loungers by the pool really uncomfortable - rigid plastic with no cushioning and most of them couldn't have the head propped up so you had no choice but to lie completely flat. They gave me back ache after about five minutes so I spent most of the time sitting on one of the chairs from the bar by the pool.

The food
The hotel is all inclusive, so all food is included other than anything you want to buy from the on-site shop. It has a main buffet restaurant and a small snack bar that is open between meal times. The snack bar was very disappointing - it looked like a cross between a cheap café and a school canteen. When we arrived in the afternoon, not having had lunch, we went in with high hopes, only to find a coffee machine that had a 'not in use' sign on it, a self-serve machine for juice that tasted very watered down, and a self-serve tap for red wine and white wine (not sure how you stop the kids from helping themselves, even though they have different coloured wristbands!).

buffet station

The food choice in the snack bar was the same every day - bread rolls, butter, ham and cheese - I suppose it's filling but also cheap for the hotel to do, and I couldn't help wondering about the reviews I'd read where people speculated it was the meat and cheese left over from breakfast or even the day before put out again.

The main restaurant isn't bad, I thought it would be a bit school dinner hall but it actually looked ok. There are three long serving stations all with the same food - or so we thought, we realised after a little while that the one at the back of the room was slightly bigger and always had something extra the other counters didn't have, like pizza or a whole joint of roast pork.

roast pork

It's self-serve buffet and children under a certain age aren't supposed to go up unattended; you need to be careful though as people do push in, or pile too much on their plate and spill it - one day I slipped and nearly went flying with my plate after stepping in a pile of spilled spaghetti on the floor.

The dining hall was busy but we never had to queue for a table whatever time we went.

lamb and potatoes

There was a fairly large choice of food with most things changing each day; always a couple of types of pasta, lots of salad stuff, and three mains - e.g. one day was fish (I think mackerel), lamb and lasagne, but only one hot vegetable to go with them  which bizarrely was Brussels sprouts! Then there were two types of potatoes plus chips and pizza cut into squares, so something for everyone - and the lamb which I had was pretty good.

fish in white sauce, croquette potatoes, plain rice

Another day I had pork, fried potatoes and cauliflower, which like a lot of the food I found under-seasoned, though there is salt and pepper on every table and that was probably the worst thing I could say about the food.

One evening none of the choices looked appealing, and just as I was about to give up and have pasta with tomato sauce, I spotted the extra serving station down the far end, where someone was carving roast pork, which I had with roast potatoes, and gravy when I eventually found it. It might have been Majorca in August but a nice bit of roast dinner was lovely!

dessert station

dessert plate

There's a separate buffet station for dessert, where there were three choices every day, all cake-based eg swiss roll or a creamy vanilla cake. The fruit is good - I often had a huge slice of watermelon for dessert. There's also a freezer chest of mini tubs of ice cream but they are generic and only basic flavours -if you want a proper ice cream you have to buy one from the shop. You can help yourself to water, watered-down tasting juice or wine, or get a drink from the bar in the building next door.

breakfast buffet

At breakfast there was a fairly big choice of food, but on the first morning the sausages were mini hot dogs (not to everyone's taste and I couldn't eat them since I was pregnant) and the 'bacon' was the same type of sliced deli ham we'd seen in the snack bar yesterday but fried, and curling at the edges - I did wonder if it was exactly the same ham! There are also croissants, and different types of biscuit or cake things every day, bread, porridge and quite runny looking yogurt and fruit. Another day there were real sausages and bacon and even churros with chocolate sauce.

breakfast selection

There's a pizzeria only open at lunchtimes (the main buffet restaurant is also open at lunch). It serves pizza - always plain cheese and tomato when we were there, cut into small squares - plus hotdogs, burgers and chips, and each day a couple of random things that I assume are what they are serving in the main restaurant, e.g. spaghetti and mixed veg. The pizza was actually quite nice and gooey but the burgers nothing special.

pizzeria lunch

We ate there a couple of times, alternating with the main restaurant at lunchtimes. The food there at lunch was similar to dinner - though not the same thing on the same day. I often didn't fancy meat and potatoes at lunch so had pasta  a few times which was a bit plain but OK.

The drinks
The pool bar has self-service soft drinks and there were wasps circling the taps constantly which wasn't very nice - you have to take your chances to get a coke or lemonade.

There is a two drink limit per person on alcoholic drinks and they come in small plastic cups - I suppose it's one way to make sure guests don't over indulge. If you have wine then the plastic cup isn't a bad size but if you are drinking beer it's tiny. Some people on Trip Advisor were complaining about the two drink rule - I suppose it's a pain if you want to get drinks for yourself and your family at the same time - but you probably can't easily carry more than two of the plastic cups at once and it does reduce wastage - if you are by the pool and having soft drinks you need to drink them quickly because of the wasps which are flying around constantly. I found they left me alone if I ignored them (and put my cup in the bin when I had finished) but my friend did actually get stung by a wasp which wasn't nice.

There are two bars open in the evening, one in the theatre (where the entertainment takes place so it's lively, quite noisy and busy) then a quieter bar near reception. The queues in the theatre bar weren't bad anyway, and both have the same choice of drinks covered on the all inclusive: vodka, rum, gin and one other spirit I can't remember with mixers, plus wine, beer, slushies and a limited list of cocktails, so you can't ask for just anything, though the cocktails seemed to cover most of the well known popular ones. There was even a non-alcoholic cocktail on the list that was great because I'm pregnant, though it was bright pink and a bit sickly sweet! My friend who had the gin said it tasted awful but the other drinks were apparently OK.

The entertainment
The hotel offers activities throughout the day, some for children, others for teenagers and some for the whole family, ranging from Spanish lessons to rifle shooting to aqua-aerobics and face painting.

activities board

There's a theatre with a show every night but not until 10pm (lasting an hour) which is surprisingly late for a family resort, especially when dinner runs from 7-9 and most people with young kids seemed to eat early. There seemed to be some sort of kids club activity in the theatre from 9 (involving getting parents to do embarrassing things on stage, then a kids disco) then the main entertainment varies every night (for two weeks at least then I imagine they repeat).

One evening the entertainment crew (who also run the activities during the day, and seemed popular with the kids) were miming or possibly singing along to different songs while dressed in character, e.g. Barbie Girl, YMCA, the Baywatch theme etc. It was quite cringe-worthy at times but over the course of the week I decided they were fairly good entertainers, we just weren't their target audience at all. Kids loved it, and parents enjoyed it because their children were enjoying it (or because they'd had a few drinks). Childless and sober (due to pregnancy) I wasn't exactly getting into it in the same way - but there was literally nothing else to do in the evenings!

Outside the hotel - the beach
The beach path is well signposted from by the hotel swimming pool and it's about a ten minute walk to some steps down to the beach. If you walk along the parallel path higher up you get to a little town centre which has some other restaurants and bars, souvenir shops and places you can book excursions.

the beach

We went to the beach one day when the pool was shut due to poo-gate; you are supposed to pay 4 euros 20 for a sun lounger and another 4 euros for an umbrella but it was already mid-afternoon and there was nobody around to pay.

There's a snack bar (nothing to do with the hotel so you have to pay) and toilets up at the top of the steps, and you can hire pedaloes. The water was quite warm and really clear; you can see fish even without a snorkel and I could hear people by the rocks (the beach is in a sort of cove leading out to the sea) saying they could see jellyfish.

We also went out for a day trip which I will review separately, to the Cuevas del Drach (dragon caves) and Porto Cristo.

Overall I didn't have a bad holiday at all - the people at the hotel were actually quite friendly and quiet, not the sort of rowdy drunk crowd I had been expecting given this is a pretty cheap all inclusive - probably because most of them were there with children. There are plenty of activities, the food isn't bad at all and offers something for everyone, the accommodation was fine, and while there were some issues like the poo in the pool and the entertainment not being to my taste, it was a lot better than I was expecting. I wouldn't choose to go back, but for the price it wasn't bad at all.

Travel review: Galapagos Islands and Finch Bay Eco Hotel Part 2

Part 2 of my travel review of the Galapagos islands, where we were based out of the Finch Bay Eco hotel in Santa Cruz.

Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz

Thinking that the sightseeing might be quite tiring (it was) we had decided to leave ourselves one day free to chill out in the hotel. Unfortunately there was never much sun at the hotel (though when we walked around other islands it was blazing hot – it all depends on which island you’re on) so I didn’t go in the pool but we enjoyed ourselves reading and just lazing around.

We took the water taxi into Puerto Ayora at lunchtime, thinking we would wander around the shops and find somewhere different to eat (I’m not used to eating in the same hotel all the time, and it was expensive but a lot more convenient). What I didn’t realise is that most of the shops closed between 12 and 2! We did do a little bit of souvenir shopping and had a nice lunch at a place next to the harbour called Café Hernan. There was a big menu with a lot of choice including a large selection of pizzas and even a ‘create your own’ pizza section – so my husband had a margherita and I created a prawn and tuna pizza which was delicious and really hit the spot. It was a lot cheaper than eating in our hotel restaurant as well!

 

That evening we were still so full from lunch that we didn’t want a big dinner, and there wasn’t really anything on the bar snack menu my husband would eat – the one thing this hotel is missing is a mini bar or a place to get snacks!

Santa Fe

 

After our day of relaxing in the hotel and exploring Puerto Ayora, I was a bit nervous about the boat trip to Santa Fe but the seasickness tablets seemed to work. We left straight from the hotel dock on the Sea Lion and sailed for two hours –it was a bit choppy but not too bad – and we did a wet landing onto a beach.
 

 

As we approached the beach in the panga I could see what looked like a lot of large, smooth rocks along the shoreline… as we got closer, I realised they were sealions! There were so many and they were right along the beach where we were stopping; we hopped over the side of the panga (barefoot, carrying our shoes) and waded through a foot or so of water to get to the sandy beach.

 

 

There, some of the sealions turned in our direction, decided we weren’t particularly interesting and went back to sunbathing, while a few bounded merrily in our direction. They tell you to stay 6 feet away from the wildlife in the Galapagos  but they don’t tell that to the wildlife! So these friendly, curious sealions frolicked among us in the waves, stole someone’s trainer and started to play with it, and generally seemed quite happy to see us. It was amazing being in such close proximity to the animals!

 

 

 

When we could finally tear ourselves away, we walked along a short track to another part of the beach where we saw some iguanas, a species that can only be found on Santa Fe, then went back via the beach to the panga.

 

We went snorkelling, off the panga again, but I knew what to expect and this time had a mask that didn’t leak, so I really enjoyed myself. We snorkelled along the rocks around the island and were joined by a few sea lions who were swimming backwards and forwards between us, it was brilliant!

 

I came up at one point to clear my mask and saw the panga, which had been quite close by, speed off towards another group of swimmers – I wondered briefly if they had forgotten about us and were leaving then realised the swimmers were just getting into the boat. The panga then came over to us and I figured we were done snorkelling and had to go back, so I went to get in. They tell you every time to take your fins off before climbing up the steps and every time I struggled, which happened again; they didn’t seem to have any sense of urgency and my husband was still in the water behind me so I was shocked when I got into the panga and was asked if I had seen the shark – what shark? Apparently the guide had spotted a bull shark swimming right past him – they are known to be very aggressive and responsible for most shark attacks on humans, so he made everyone get out of the water. I’m glad he hadn’t panicked us but wished he had told us we needed to hurry up as I was taking such a long time to get my fins off, I probably risked coming back from my honeymoon a widow! I don’t think we were ever in any real danger but bull sharks are not seen every day and it’s really not a good idea to be in the water when one is nearby!
 

I quickly put the close encounter out of my mind as they were serving lunch on board; we had chicken and spaghetti and I managed to sit on the top deck enjoying the two hour sail back without feeling sea sick, though I was so tired that I had a nap when we got back to the hotel! Once again we decided to opt for convenience and eat dinner in our hotel, I tried the beef steak with chimmichurri, which was really good.

 

Santa Cruz – Charles Darwin Research Station and El Manzanillo tortoises
 

The island that we were staying on is home to the Charles Darwin Research Station, which I really wanted to go to – Charles Darwin went to my Cambridge college and there’s a big statue of him in part of the gardens, and it’s pretty cool to think I am sort of following in his footsteps.

There isn’t actually much to see at the Research Station in terms of the work that is being done in the Galapagos – there were a few signs and videos to watch, and a surprisingly small museum and gift shop. The first thing you see in the museum is the giant skeleton of a Bryde’s whale, which our guide Fabien pointed out to us. Then we noticed a small photo of the young man, a research ship captain I think, who had discovered the dead whale about 20 years ago – and realised it was Fabien himself!

The biggest attraction for most tourists at the Research Station is the giant tortoises. They have a breeding programme and are trying to bring a particular breed of tortoise back from the brink of extinction. The most famous of these, Lonesome George, died in 2012 at the grand old age of over 100 (so it is believed). He was the last Pinta Island giant tortoise, a species that is now extinct.

 

Diego now rules the roost as the most famous inhabitant; he is a 130 ish-year-old Espanola toirtoise, who was found in San Diego zoo in the 1970s and returned to the Galapagos islands. He is estimated to have fathered about 1,700 children, so not much chance of that species dying out!

There are a few enclosures with different giant tortoises and they are really interesting to watch close-up, though we did also get to see them in the wild later.

 

We went there on a guided tour from our hotel and Fabian was very good but it’s worth knowing that you can visit the Research Station without a guide as there is plenty of information and it’s walking distance from the town centre of Puerto Ayora.

 

 

 

But even if we’d found this place ourselves, I don’t think we’d have found our way to the El Manzanillo ranch, where Fabian took us afterwards. We drove into the highlands of the island and turned along a bumpy track, which took us up to a ranch. Along the way we saw what is apparently the only ‘tortoise crossing’ sign in the world (to add to my collection of ones I’ve seen for deer, cows and ducks!) and a couple of giant tortoises ambling along by the side of the road!

 

The ranch was once for breeding cattle but they have now given over a lot of their land to giant tortoises (a different breed to the ones at the Charles Darwin Research Station, which I don’t think are endangered) who are able to roam free. You can walk around the woods – but I wouldn’t do this without a guide as we’d have gotten lost I think! We saw several giant tortoises and got some great photos, then went back to the ranch for lunch.

 

 

We were served plantain chips and iced tea, followed by vegetable soup, then a choice of chicken or fish – I had yellowfin tuna with potatoes and vegetables, which was lovely. Dessert was chocolate cake or tres leches (three milk) cake which was so moist it was actually wet from the milk that’s soaked in. Finally we had tea and coffee, and were finished by 1.30 – when I’d booked I thought this was supposed to be a whole day trip not a half day, but the fact that it was only the two of us rather than a group probably sped things up. For the amount we paid though I was a bit disappointed it was only a half day effectively.

 

Having gotten quite comfortable hopping on and off the water taxi we decided to go into Puerto Ayora for dinner. We walked up to the fish market and saw some pelicans and other birds trying to steal bits of fish, and a sea lion sleeping on a bench nearby.

 

 

For a change we both fancied Italian for dinner so chose La Dolce Italia. Service was very slow – we ordered drinks and then food, and when our main courses came 20 minutes later we still hadn’t received our drinks. I told the waiter but we had finished eating our food before the drinks came! My husband had pizza and I had lasagne, which was very nice but a fairly small portion. We had wanted dessert but didn’t fancy another long wait for service – and getting the bill took ages too!

 

 

Puerto Ayora definitely livens up a bit at night – there were people playing volleyball (or basketball, I can’t remember now) on the harbour and we enjoyed wandering around eating an ice cream from Café Hernan after dinner.

 

Coming back in the water taxi in the dark was great as the dock is lit up and you can see lots of small (harmless) sharks – no more than two feet long or smaller – swimming around in the water! We also saw a large sea turtle one day right by the docks and after that every time we were waiting for a boat I was scanning the water for marine life!

 

 

Arriving back at the Finch Bay we found the point at which you exit the water taxi was lit up but we did then need the torch on our phones to walk back to the hotel.

 

Bartolome and Pinnacle Rock

 

Our furthest boat trip was about two and a half hours to Bartolome island – this was partly why we spent 7 nights at Finch Bay as it was the only way to cover all the islands they offer trips to. Bartolome and Pinnacle Rock are perhaps better known from the movie Master and Commander – for one view in particular. The main attraction for me though was the penguins!

 

On the way, the sea was a bit choppier but I was taking seasickness tablets so I was OK. About half way, we were treated to a fantastic display from a group of dolphins swimming alongside the boat who decided to leap into the air and show off!

 

Bartolome is a very barren volcanic island with very little wildlife on land, but in this case you go for the view. It’s a steep climb to the top, but there is a wooden walkway (partly sloping, partly steps) with a handrail in place. The heat did make it a difficult climb but we were soon at the top admiring the amazing view. If you’ve seen the Russell Crowe film Master and Commander you will recognise it!

 
 

We returned to the panga and circled Pinnacle Rock, where the penguins can sometimes be found – these are the only penguins to live north of the equator. I was expecting quite a lot so was surprised to be told there were only six nesting pairs (apparently most of them live in Isabella, an island that was too far for us to go to from Santa Cruz) – luckily we did get to see five or six penguins hopping around on the rocks! I had read (or thought I’d read) that we would be able to snorkel with penguins but they weren’t keen to join us in the water.

Even so, we had what was probably my favourite snorkelling experience – so many fish of different sizes and colours, and at one point I came up out of the water to check my direction and when I looked back down, I was literally in the middle of a huge school of fish! The best part was that our guide spotted a few giant sea turtles – I was never quick enough to swim over to where he was, but at one point an absolutely huge one swam right past me, I’ve never seen anything like it! My husband also swam over a huge one sleeping on the ocean floor, which he was able to film with his underwater Go Pro camera.

 

I managed to cut my arm on a rock underwater, and didn’t even notice until someone pointed it out when I was back in the boat (I still have a 2-inch scar a month later) – it may explain why I saw another one of the small harmless sharks we had seen previously, but our guide was surprised there had been one around here. I was just glad this hadn’t happened the day before when the bull shark had been spotted or I might have been shark food!

 

They had alcohol wipes on the boat to clean up my cut but it occurred to me that if you do hurt yourself on one of the uninhabited islands, you are miles from anywhere – and we were told there was only one rescue helicopter in the islands and it was currently waiting repairs! Having said that, if you are careful there’s no reason to think anything will happen.

 

 

We didn’t get back to the hotel until 5.30pm – we’d left at 7am so this was our longest day trip by far and quite nice that we’d done it last. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant – we’d built up quite an appetite so both had the burger again, and my husband wanted the chocolate volcano for the third time – and this time they gave it to us on the house because it was our last night. I tried the lemon and lime tiramisu which was nice but pretty cold and solid in the middle, like it had just come out of the freezer.

 

The next morning we checked out after breakfast and returned to the airport the way we had come, flying back to Quito where we would spend one last night before returning to the UK via Miami. Visiting the Galapagos islands was an amazing experience and an incredible privilege, something that will remain with me forever and mean that whenever I go to a zoo or aquariums and see sea lions, sea turtles, penguins and iguanas, I will remember the time when they weren’t behind glass or a wall and I could walk freely among them as Charles Darwin once did.

 

Restaurant & travel reviews: Quito, Ecuador

After spending a fantastic few days of our honeymoon in Miami, we flew on to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Our final destination would be 8 days in the Galapagos Islands, but you can’t fly direct to the Galapagos – and all the flights from Miami into Quito seemed to land just after the flights to the Galapagos took off. So we decided to take the opportunity to spend two nights in Quito and do some sightseeing.

 

We landed in Quito just after 1pm and by the time we’d gotten through security – which took a fair while – and collected our bags, we were pretty hungry. We decided to get something to eat at the airport before heading to our town centre hotel an hour’s drive away. In the arrivals hall we saw something called the Amazonia Café and a TGI Fridays… so I’m slightly ashamed to announce that our first meal in Ecuador was at an American chain restaurant that we even have in London!

TGI Fridays
 

The meal wasn’t particularly good but it was fast and filling – at least, once we had the correct order. I don’t speak Spanish but thought I’d done a fair job of ordering two cheese and bacon burgers and cokes (we both wanted the same, and after an early start and a plane journey I just wanted something simple and familiar). My attempt to order obviously wasn’t a success though as the waiter brought us two cokes and one burger, which he seemed to think we wanted to share.
 

 

We managed to make the waiter understand we wanted another, and while we were waiting we cut one burger in half and shared it. My husband had also ordered a starter of mozzarella sticks so he ate those, and then when the second burger came we shared that, though I couldn’t eat much of it as I was already full. Which was a shame as the second burger was hotter and juicier, making me wonder if the first one had been sitting around keeping warm for a while.

 

We took a taxi from the airport – as our journey approached the one hour mark I was getting worried how much it would cost but it was a relative bargain at $30. Quito is the second-highest capital city in the world in terms of altitude and the streets in the city centre are very steep and winding - I was glad our taxi driver knew where he was going!

Hotel Plaza Grande, Quito

I chose our hotel based on TripAdvisor reviews and first impressions were very favourable (until we tried to sleep that night...). The building is a colonial mansion and the hotel sits on the edge of the central Plaza de la Independencia across from the Archbishop's palace, so it's a great place to start sightseeing.

The hotel looks very luxurious even down to the liveried doorman; we were given a warm welcome and a complementary drink as we checked in, and when we arrived in the room found a bottle of (very good) red wine and a platter of petit-fours, also complementary. We had booked a suite so had a nice living room area with chaise longue, dining table and beautiful furniture made from what appeared to be mahogany. The bed was very comfortable and the bathroom very posh - unfortunately the noise from the road outside (which our second floor window overlooked) was quite loud with a constant whistling which we figured out later was a traffic cop standing on a corner directing vehicles, all day long! She stopped at nightfall but then we had music from vehicles driving past - I saw what I think is called a 'party bus' a couple of times. And I'd thought this was supposed to be the quiet part of town!

It looked like the windows weren't quite shut properly but we couldn't move them so called down to reception and someone came up to fiddle with the windows (though I don't think it made any difference) and apologetically handed us each a pair of ear plugs, which made me think they were used to guests complaining about the noise!

On our second night, not having slept particularly well the first night, we were a bit dismayed to be told by the hotel staff that there was a wedding reception taking place that evening on the 4th floor and they would try to keep the noise down. It went on until 2am - a lot later than weddings in the UK - and sounded like there was a nightclub next door. I don't know if this is a regular occurence on a Saturday night or a one-off but we felt that the hotel was too small to do something like that  - a bigger hotel wouldn't have had to have the music in such close proximity to guest bedrooms. It's a shame as it spoiled what would have been a very good hotel stay otherwise.

We had breakfast in our hotel - pancakes with syrup, fruit, one tiny piece of bacon and two poached eggs which was quite nice. They don't have 'normal' ie black tea so I had coca tea, which is meant to be good for altitude sickness; it tasted OK but I was dying for a cuppa!

That evening we had dinner in our hotel as it looked nice and we were too tired to go far. The hotel has two restaurants - one is French and my husband is very fussy so we decided not to eat there. I read afterwards it is a 1940s style restaurant with live opera! We ate in the downstairs restaurant and I had sea bass in garlic stew which came with rice, plantain and avocado (I think everything comes with avocado in Quito!). It was fine but a bit bland; service was extremely slow even though the restaurant wasn't busy and it took ages to get our drinks and then our food.

My husband was getting another altitude-induced headache so I ordered dessert while he went back to the room. There was something I wanted to try since our tour guide had told us about it - 'los Corridos', traditional ice cream served in a bronze pan by a 'typical character from holy week', ie Easter. But this isn't the Easter bunny - this is a cucurucho, who wear long purple robes with pointed hoods who parade through the town at Easter in a representation of atoning for their sins. Quite why one of them served my dessert I'm not sure!

 

 

Even though I was expecting that, what I wasn't anticipating was a near 20 minute wait and then the lights in the whole restaurant to go off, a gong to sound and the hooded figure to walk out from the kitchen holding a bowl giving off billows of smoke! It was really funny and I got some amused looks from the other diners (it was probably good my husband wasn't there or he would have been really embarrassed!). The bowl continued giving off smoke (dry ice, I think) for several minutes after it was placed on the table, and after all that, it was just a fairly boring bowl of ice cream!

Latin Adventures Tours

We booked a city tour in advance through Viator as we've used them before and it meant we could reserve and pay for the day trip well in advance of the wedding and arrive knowing all was arranged. We were met in the lobby of our hotel by Natalia and went on a 3-hour walking tour of the old town which was very good.

 

For the last part we were taken by car up to El Panecillo where there is a tall Virgin Mary status overlooking the city - the view is fantastic. Natalia was very knowledgeable and pleasant, and we had booked a group tour but found nobody else had booked the same day so it became a private tour, without us having to pay the extra cost.

We then had an hour break for lunch and just wanted a snack so found a sandwich shop in the Plaza de la Independencia near our hotel. Once again I thought I had ordered us a sandwich each but when it came we only had one - my Spanish really is non-existant! I was going to go back and buy another but my husband really wasn't hungry and just wanted a packet of crisps so we took the food back to our hotel room. I was glad we did as I opened the sandwich on the table - I'd ordered ham and cheese and discovered a thin layer of mashed avocado which I don't like.

After lunch we met Dante, who runs Latin Adventure Tours, and a driver who took us by car to the Mitad del Mundo - the centre of the earth, or the equator. It was about a 30 minute drive and Dante chatted to us on the way but when we arrived at the museum he left us to be shown around as part of a group by one of their staff - so there wasn't really any need for us to do this as a tour and we could have just taken a taxi there.

We visited an outdoor museum with various huts showing how indigenous people lived (I never knew shrunken heads were something people did to deceased relatives as a mark of respect, rather than their enemies!). You can have your photo taken on the zero latitude line and witness and try different experiments like balancing an egg on a nail and watching water go down a plug hole different ways each side of the equator (it was amazing to see).

When the government built a monument to show where the equator line is, in 1979, it was before GPS and they later realised they had made a mistake! So we stopped here to take photos as well but every time I told someone we'd been to the equator they asked 'You did go to the right one - you know the monument is in the wrong place?' - so don't get caught out!

We also took a quick detour to a volcano caldera to see one of the only communities in the world living inside a caldera and for an ice cream on the way back.

Guacamole Grill, Quito airport

Before heading off to the Galapagos - and going through quite a rigorous process of having your luggage scanned and checked to make sure you are not taking any banned items into the islands - we had breakfast at a place called Guacamole Grill. I would have had something Ecuadorian but everything had plantain and/or beans, which I don't like, so I stuck to the pancakes. We had three large, really fluffy pancakes which were pretty good.



Posada Mirolindo Guest House, Quito

After an amazing 8 days in the Galapagos - which I will write about in another post - we returned via Quito. Our flights to Miami didn't match up so we had to spend a night in Quito before the next day flying to Miami then London, and as we had already been sightseeing in Quito we just wanted somewhere quiet we could get an early night before an early start the next day.

My guidebook recommended the Posada Mirolindo as the best airport hotel - but it's nothing like any other airport hotel I've been to. This is someone's home - Gabriella lives on what to me is basically a small ranch, just 15 minutes away from the airport. She collected us from the airport herself and arranged for a driver to take us back the next morning at a small additional cost.

Posada Mirolindo is beautiful, with mountains in the background and best of all (in my opinion) were the animals - three dogs, a donkey and a llama! The latter two are teathered up across the garden which is more like trekking across a field (Gabriella said I was welcome to go over and see them)- be careful where you step as my husband nearly fell down a hole! I'm not sure how friendly the animals are; they seemed vaguely curious about me but didn't look like they wanted to be petted. I love animals and even though we saw loads in the Galapagos I really enjoyed being here.

There are six guest rooms; two are little stand-alone lodges with a chair on the veranda outside where I sat for a while with one of the dogs. The room wasn't that big - basically a double room with a small chair and table area and a basic bathroom - but as we were only here for one night it was fine.

 

There isn't anywhere nearby to get dinner so they have a dining room and one of the staff cooks. We were asked when we booked the room if we wanted chicken or fish. We were given a salad to start and a fruit smoothie, then a chicken escalope with rice and plantain, and for dessert sliced apple in a warm caramel sauce, which was really nice. We were only charged $15 each for dinner which seemed very good value; I definitely recommend staying here before or after a flight or if you don't want to be right in the centre of Quito as it really is a lovely place.

Amazon Café, Quito airport

When you want a Nutella pastry and they have run out it's never a good start to the morning. We had breakfast at the airport before our flight; my husband had a ham and egg croissant which he said was fine, and as I couldn't have what I wanted I ordered a marmalade pastry. I think marmalade means jam of any kind and my best guess is that this was a fig jam - I didn't like it at all. I've never had such dry pastry - it was like it had been left over from the day before and was almost inedible and I ended up leaving most of it. A shame that our last meal in Ecuador was our worst but other than that we did have a really good time!

It looked so good as well....