Halos Casa Resort — Hotel in Sal

Was there in March for 11 nights. Perfect weather to relax and swim. Hotspot for surfers.

5/5 for the staff. Everyone is friendly, helpful and kind. 4,5/5 for the location. 200m to the perfect beach and sea. 10 min walk to the city/village centre 4/5 for the cleanliness. Your room will be cleaned daily. Unfortunately very few bins and ashtrays around the pool which are not being cleaned as it seemed. Also no ashtray in my room where I stayed 11 nights. Staff must have seen me using glasses instead, but never had the idea to put an ashtray at my balcony. 4/5 hotel/room equipment. Large enough suites with a kitchenette, but with no kitchen stuff at all. no cups, water heaters, dishes, cutlery… nothing. only two glasses. Why is there a kitchen then anyways?? No hairdryer. AC works fine. TV is via internet, but the connection is not good at all, and mostly african and italian channels. the showers are way too small. You may see some parts of the hotel being older. 2,5/5 for food & beverage. Here I am more fussy and definitely expected more. I thought I would find more local, African-flavoured culinary dishes, but unfortunately it is very monotonous and more Italian than anything else. It's not a la cart, it's pure buffet. One section for pasta - the same every day (penne or spaghetti with different sauces), a salad bar, a section for over-sugared desserts, one for fruit (apples, pineapples, melons, bananas and papaya every day), one with cold starters and a final one with more hot, poorly cooked food (tough fish and meat, poorly seasoned vegetables and filling side dishes). Breakfast is equally monotonous. Fortunately, you can have various types of egg prepared. As a German, you are spoiled by bread anyway, but the bread in the hotel is really not good and not tasty! There was only one Friday dinner where they served more variety and way better food. I was very surprised and enjoyed that evening. Don't get me wrong, you'll get your fill, but it's not worthy of a 4-star hotel. I only drank water and some beer. I can't say anything about the other included drinks. After trying the coffee twice, I gave it up - terrible! I can imagine that the food and drinks were rather adapted to the mainly Italian guests. And being on an small, dry island with limited access to the mainland is maybe the reason for the poor variety and quality of food at the buffet.

In summary, it is more of a 3 instead of 4 star hotel. Price-performance is fine. It is a pity that the beach bar and the bar for the pool are not directly attached and drinks in small mini glasses, or even worse, in mini plastic cups (PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT USE PLASTIC!!!) Is served, so you would have to get up every 5 minutes to get new drinks.

Although you have all-inclusive meals, coffee and juices cost extra outside buffet hours.

I travelled for 11 nights to relax and unwind. Fortunately, I received that too. I didn't participate in the little bit of animations and didn't find it disturbing either.

The guests are mixed. From small families, kitesurfers, couples, group travellers to pensioners, everything is available.

I can recommend it to everyone who doesn't expect super luxury. Would also come...

Breakfast is the same every day (boring on a plate) and very difficult. It's not suitable for people who have digestive problems like me. There aren't many vegetables, and it's not a lot of food for people who eat a lot of vegan or gluten-free and dairy-free products, like me. I asked if they had gluten-free and dairy-free cakes, and they gave them to me, but it wasn't listed. There's also no gluten-free bread, which is a shame because eating the same thing over and over again is a bit tiring.

Dinner was in the form of a buffet, which was a really great option. I chose (as I recall) a seafood salad with vegetables, grilled vegetables, a piece of boiled white fish, a piece of grilled fish, and a small portion of cold rice. It tasted so good that I went for a second (smaller) portion of the same.

My husband had a meat soup with pasta, beef, baked potatoes, couscous, cauliflower baked with cheese, a salad (red cabbage with corn), and a few slices of ham – he really enjoyed it. For his second round, just to taste, he tried a slice of pizza, some fruit, salad, and boiled fish.

It was really tasty and light, even though we both had two portions. There’s something for everyone – ice cream, cakes, fruit, baked eggplant, spaghetti with sauces. If someone prefers, there’s also wine or other alcohol available with dinner. Everything was fresh, smelled and tasted fantastic, nothing overcomplicated – just pure simplicity, which I really liked. You might say you can eat the same at home, but here it tastes different, because the ingredients are genuinely fresh and the quality is well cared for.

The staff smiled a little too little, but overall we definitely recommend it.

Highly...

After a week of horrible food and drinks, food poisoning (70% of the crew of 2 families), blasting disco music until 11:00 pm every night, and rooms without the most basic equipment, it's hard to find positives. Even the close location to the beaches (8min walk) was overshadowed with construction work at a neighbor hotel that is in ruins and they're tearing it down, with noise during the day.

The staff is doing only their bare minimum, they're not trying hard to satisfy you. For the money we paid and expectations we had, this was a big disappointment and we don't recommend this hotel. We visited several other resorts in other countries, and this one is by far the worst.

Food was the biggest disappointment, with all 4 adults and 3 out of 5 kids experiencing food poisoning, and hearing the same from other guests. My daughter had it so bad she had to go to a hospital and get an IV - two days of the 7 day holiday wasted 😣

The dinners are not ready before 19:30, which is too late for kids (exacerbated with the time difference). They obviously recycle the food which is not eaten the days before, and you can't sit outside in a larger group than 4 if you don't pay for gold visitor or what.

Rooms are without any usable storage space (only broken cabinets without shelves), there are no hangers in the bathroom, no space to put your stuff, and the cleaning is so superficial that the apartment was smelling like s* after the cleaning lady did the floor 😣 One even declined to change the protective bed cover after my daughter vomited on it, I had to escalate to other staff to have it (and then the whole mattress) changed.

All in all, one star for this resort would...