Spa Village Hamat Gader — Hotel in Emek HaYarden Regional Council

We arrived to celebrate my wife's birthday on a day of peace and quiet at the Spa Village Hotel located within the Hamat Gader Park. We paid NIS 926 for a full day including entrance to the park that includes the Taninim area and other animals, a breakfast at the Blue Bar restaurant, spa treatments and an optional massage and use of the hotel facilities. Since the park was quite crowded with people, we decided that it was enough for us to enjoy the hot pools inside the hotel. We were greeted at the hotel by the receptionist Antipat who forgot how to smile, even "good morning" he could not get out of his mouth. I did not get what I was told on the phone at the time of the booking, but the place itself was clean but not properly maintained, my wife sat down on a broken chair and when we looked for another chair it turned out that a few more chairs were broken.the breakfast was small and very low in food, the rolls were cold and dry, Which seems to have been severely abused by the chef, the cheese tray had only one knife for several types And all the cheeses were smeared on the same knife, most of the tables were dirty and they had filthy plates and no worker bothered to evacuate them, in the front of the restaurant they put glass glasses on the stairs and a peacock who walked around the place just played them with his beak. He looked at me nervously and said he was already finishing a cigarette and bringing it to me. I went back to my table but of course he did not bother to come. I went back to the restaurant counter and there was a spoon waiting for me on the dirty counter. The coffee corner is indeed as it is called, a coffee corner, only! There is indeed a thermos for hot water but no water and replaced by a teapot full of limescale. There were only two kinds of tea in a box that looked like it used to have a lot more flavors. In this corner there are two faucets, one for water and one for orange juice, cold water. One giving water and the other drinking orange water (at least they would change the flavor display to taste water). In the coffee corner, many people smoked in spite of the signs, and not a single employee asked them not to smoke. The hotel's lockers are clean but the lockers are not in the best condition and do not give a feeling of security that your valuables will be kept there. The animal corner, especially the crocodile farm, is beautiful but there is nothing to pet in the petting zoo and all the animals are there in cages. The massage was obviously unprofessional and more felt to me like a boxing kickboxing exercise on my back instead of a massage. My wife came out with severe back pain. There is no doubt that the place is not worth NIS 926 per couple for a whole day, really does not provide the return for such a high amount and I have no doubt that I will not...

My wife and I took a one night room, we decided to take new rooms which were built only a few months ago, the rooms were very very nicely designed, they featured a new hot tub with mineral water, a nice and spacious shower with clean drinking water and also had a nespresso machine and teapot and an empty minifridge. The room was clean and felt great.

the village itself is really nice, quiet with calming music that gives great atmosphere. 2 semi private pools (only for the spa visitors, so its quiet and relaxing unlike the "public" pools). there is also very decent buffet which I enjoyed.

So its almost perfect, the cons are not something that should make anyone from considering to get a room, but I will list it here anyway so the owners could amend this and future guests will be aware in the private hot tub in the room both faucets were blue colored and were not in the usual formation of left hot - right cold so it was a bit confusing at first. lighting around the complex at night was inadequate which felt to me a bit unsafe - when I reported this the day after I was told it was a malfunction that should be fixed. in the morning - the restaurant was understaffed and it took my coffee about 25 mins to arrive, the only person on the scene was extremely busy and did her best to serve everyone. it would be nice to have mini milk/milk alternative in the minifridge to go along with the coffee stand in the room there seems to be designed along the pavement in the spa village a small stream, it was dry and it felt a bit out of place and missing. Too bad it was not filled with water as it probably should be. pool table cue sticks were missing the tip which made the game a bit annoying (which is a shame since the table is a top notch one)

So these are the only downsides. the hotel still gets 5 stars EASILY. its expensive but its price is well deserved, I came out super relaxed and happy.

I will definitely come...

Overall we had a delightful quick getaway. But here is a more detailed review of the hotel:

Rooms: we booked the junior suite which is okay. Nothing too fancy. Don't expect a 5 star hotel style room. It does have a neat feature of a private balcony with private bathtub with the water of the local spring. Alas, the balcony is closed in a rather dark room and all of the windows are closed without any possibility to open them. Same goes for the doors. So vibe coukd have been better (and air would've been nice).

Food: we had breakfast which had a variety of mediocre food. I guess it passes in European standards.

Service: bad. I actually came to the reception twice without anyone being there. No way of calling them either. Just standing there like a jerk and then moved on. When I called them they weren't very polite. So low availability and so/so attitude.

Facilities: I wanted to use the sauna in the morning. 8 AM. It wasn't working. Tried to call the reception - they're not there (see above the service part). Eventually they got there at 9 AM and said that they usually don't open it before 10AM. BUT WHY? It is crazy hot outside after 10 in this area in this time of the year. If anyone to go to the sauna given this heat, it's probably later at night or early in the morning. And why not saying that in advance? Or just being present in the...