Girandella Resort, Valamar Collection — Hotel in Grad Labin

We stayed 5 nights in a V level seaview suite at the end of August.||The good:|- the room was a good size. It was well appointed, the beds were comfortable. Shower decent. It was very clean (Jennifer and Charlene looked after our room well).|-the hotel site was clean and seemed well maintained.|- as a V level guest there were 4 different pool areas which we could use, 3 of which had slides that the children enjoyed. None of the pools were particularly big but they did not seem crowded. If you were staying in the girandella family hotel and only had access to the one tiny pool I can imagine it would be quite disappointing. |- The pools were heated, particularly the V level pool was a beautiful temperature even on cloudy days. |- no sunbed wars. This may have been because it was the very end of the school holidays but never a problem getting a sun lounger. Most guests seemed respectful enough to remove their towels when they went to lunch etc. |- the beaches were clean and the water clear.|- children enjoyed the football tables and the maro play area. |- food was edible, although the maro buffet was boring after a few days. ||The bad:|- Our room was sold as seaview. It was not. It could best be described as bush view with glimpses of sea. Given we paid extra for a seaview room this was highly disappointing. They offered to move our room after 2 nights but we couldn't be bothered to pack and repack.|- the concept of "all inclusive" here is not what most people would consider all inclusive and there is absolutely no clarity on the website or when you contact them in advance to try to establish what is included. Essentially there is house wine and beer and some overly sweet and disgusting soft drinks from a drinks fountain. The "cola" is the most disgusting thing Ive ever drunk. To get a proper Pepsi zero it comes at a cost of €4.30 for 250ml. You can get some cocktails, but again these were poor, and only available at one bar for a few hours in the evening. If you want a cocktail by the pool, you have to pay for it. The snacks included on the all inclusive are basically some sandwiches and the left over desserts from lunchtime/the night before. Given the price charged here is in line with places that actually provide branded soft drinks on their all inclusive, this makes this place poor value for money.|- the v level dine around is also a waste of time. You can dine once at the steakhouse on a set menu which didnt give any choice (what would the vegetarian eat). We had lunch at the sundance beach club once on the dine around, again restricted menu, and the food was poor.|- the kids club is somewhat sad and empty with few kids in it, probably because the activities sound really dull. |-the gamer lounge is a great concept but there is maybe 10-12 consoles available and no system for limiting the time of any particular child. So if all the consoles are full, then you have to stand and wait for an endless period of time until a child decides to give theirs up, this could be 15 minutes, it could be several hours. Why not have a system where if other children are waiting, then a time slot is limited to 30 minutes to allow all to enjoy.|-Rabac itself has little going for it, and in reality there is very little to see or do within an hours drive.|- Mini golf costs extra (€6 a child, €8 an adult), surely at least one round could be included in the "all inclusive".|- the aquaparks in the sea cost extra. |- meals in Momenti (v level restaurant) were hit or miss but the servers excellent |- we had issue with charging to the valamar rewards, one staff member refused to do it and another charged for the wrong thing and then refused to refund.||Whilst we had a good few days here, I wouldnt come back. The "all inclusive" concept here is extremely poor value and at times frustrating with what is available where. This affects the overall holiday experience and makes it poor...

We really enjoyed our stay at this kid friendly place and would definitely recommend this to all families with young kids. everything looks neat and very well maintained. beautiful sea views. We’ve seen dolphins from our rooms balcony. very friendly staff. We felt welcomed our kids loved all the entertainment and spend hours at the kids club. Lots of activities for young kids. gaming room with ps5 and new games beautiful clean beaches. No trash around. beautiful and well maintained gardens with lots of blooming flowers comfortable, clean and heated pools. We see staff doing regular checks of the water quality of the pool which is always a good sign. nice spacious room with sort of separate kids room good quality food in buffet restaurant. Way better than expected. good coffee lego in the room and a daily candy surprise on the bed. It was too warm in our room and we were unable to control the rooms temperature. Aircon was unavailable and heating seems to be centrally managed and set on 24 degrees in May. We found our rooms temperature uncomfortable. Didn’t sleep well during our two weeks stay due to the temperature in the room Bed had an uncomfortable hard mattress In general the ‘included’ buffet restaurant was an horrific experience. The buffet restaurant was way too crowded. It’s like one of those David Attenborough documentaries where hundreds of ‘parents’ fly around to feed their offspring. Pfew its chaos theory 3.0 out here. Acoustics in there are bad with that amount of children. Strongly recommended to eat late, like around 20:15 when most of the young kids have finished. The restaurant is relatively small for the amount of guests. The food quality is pretty good tho. And the staff is working impressively hard to serve everyone. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea tho. Water temperature of the shower was unstable. Going from normal to very hot in a second almost burning your skin Too many people smoking cigarettes at all public spaces or right at the entrance of the so called non smoking buildings making it smell nasty literally everywhere, also inside the buildings. Also people smoking on their balconies so even in your room you still smell cigarettes till late at night and you also wake up with cigarette smell. It’s smokers paradise out here. Also many vapers at the pool area who think that is not the same as smoking and assume it is allowed everywhere. Smoking is out of control here Price for charging your EV car is ridiculous. Their fixed charging fee is just very strange. No matter how much you want to charge you pay the same fee. So relatively cheap if you have a big battery capacity in your car but ridiculous if your car only has an average battery. There are only few alternatives in the area around Labin. Ev driving in Croatia is years behind the rest of Europe with only few charging possibilities in towns. For example Rovinj had only two ev charging points. Be aware of this in the high season when there’s lots of tourists with...

We spent our holidays at the Valamar Girandella hotel from July 22 to August 3, 2023, we were three of us in a triple room, a family with a child. First time at the resort. Very beautiful and well-groomed territory of the hotel, incredible views from all over the territory and crystal clear sea are unforgettable. Rooms: the ones we stayed in were quite comfortable for a long stay, cleanliness was high, excellent beds, pillows and everything you need for comfort. The only comment - please solve the problem with the flow of water from under the shower door to the outside, because. gum doors do not fit snugly and when the child bathed, the water always flowed out. We liked the breakfasts and dinners at the Marblu restaurant, they cooked delicious and varied, special thanks to the young cook on omelettes - we were delighted with them), a large selection of dishes for dinner and the quality of cooking pleased. Our child really liked the Maro kids club - the Lego space and the PlayStation room are organized super cool, for the younger ones there are fun discos and a playroom. Great kids pool and slides. Beaches: very clean, well maintained and comfortable, cool bars on every beach, Family beach is very interesting for sand building and safe for small children. I did not have enough lifeguards who would monitor safety in case of an emergency. I would also like the entrance to the beaches to be only for vacationers in Valamar hotels, so sometimes the sun loungers and places on the ground were occupied by outsiders, obviously not from the hotel, who were located in large companies, as a result, several times the child and I could not find a free place on the beach, which looks very unfair to me (I think that everyone who comes to the hotel counts on a place on the beach), this is a very important point. I would like to have enough sun loungers and umbrellas for all guests. In conclusion, I want to note that the complex has a high level of service and organization, all the staff are incredibly friendly and smiling, speak several languages ​​and helped a lot: I would like to note separately the waiter Malio from the Marblu restaurant for his friendliness and the most delicious coffee, the guys from the reception: Tala for help, Ljerka for help and souvenirs for the Son, he was delighted - now his favorite T-shirt, Dino also for help, the guys from the Sun Beach bar, from the children's rooms - all great fellows, it's noticeable how hard everyone tries and works hard and thanks your efforts made our stay really enjoyable, we definitely recommend this hotel to families especially with children! Everything was great, thanks! P.s. : we went to the hotel for 4 days, and stayed for 12 - I think this speaks...