Camping Cabo de Gata — Hotel in Almeria

We booked 3 nights at this campsite for a small campervan.  We had previously stayed at the 2 other campsites in this area of Cato de Gato  so we had very high hopes for this site especially following the description on CAMC (CAMPING AND MOTORHOME). Driving into the campsite didn't enthuse us at all, very flat, tomato greenhouses and a bit of an eyesore all round, like wasteland with fly tipping and rubbish everywhere.  We had read a review on Google that talked about this and wished we had taken heed to be honest, as there was nothing to like about the area.

We got a nice welcome at reception  and he was very  friendly, and we were given our pitch behind the toilets.

It's a very square site with only 1  point of access via the front, so you have to walk all around to get to the beach.  The pitches are in lines with small trees, there are shades on some of the pitches but ours didn't have one.  The description  given by CAMC says 'neat little pitches separated by hedges' this is not actually the case, there are a few hedges but they are  behind the pitch but not to the side and they were waist height. One of the campsite walls is covered in graffiti which doesn't look nice.  It had absolutely no character whatsoever.

There were 2 facilities partially  open, and there were  5 toilets and showers open. Each facility has dishwashing, laundry.   The dishwashing is around the side but what struck me first was how dirty the dishwashing area  was, and some of the toilets didn't have toilet roll either.The block nearest us didn't look like they had been cleaned in months. I had to give the washbasin I wanted to use to wash my dishes  a proper clean and then use this one whilst I was here. The water was hot though which was good. The showers had good hot water and good pressure.

There is a pool, supermarket open mornings and evenings most days and a bar/restaurant we didn't use any of this.

The surroundings are not particularly nice, and it's not great for walking out of the campsite.    We don't like to drive out once we are at the pitch so we rely very much on being able to walk out of the campsite and all we can hope for is that it's in a nice area, this isn't the case.  Needing to walk our dog we  walked down to the beach, it's a 30 minute walk  past lots of  greenhouses, and on to some waste land which was covered in glass before getting to the small sand dunes and then to the track 140 adjacent to the beach.  We turned left and  walked into Cabo de Gata, had a drink in a bar,  and then walked back via calle de San Francisco to the road at Pujaire and then we took another track back to the campsite via Greenhouses and Goat farm.  It was all like wasteland, with rubbish that had been fly tipped  everywhere, it's really  not somewhere I would have wanted to walk alone.

Having been at Los Escullos and Las Negras where we could walk out of the campsite and have beautiful walks at our disposal this was not the case here.  We could have put up with the bland campsite if the area had at least been nice, but this wasn't the case so left after just 1 night.  Really disappointed with this site and can't really understand why it's a CAMC recommended one.

The icing on the cake for us was that we were not informed on arrival that there was a big group of students on site,.and they parties hard all night keeping us awake right up until 4.30am...Even with ear plugs nothing could drown out their loud voices.  In Los Escullos there was also a student party arriving on site and we were told about this when we checked in and given the opportunity to move pitches or cancel our booking and get our money back.  Had the receptionist mentioned this to us we would have left instead we had to put up with terrible noise and a poor night's sleep.. We moved on after 1 night despite having paid for 3.  I really wouldn't...

We stayed at this campsite whilst touring Spain over New Year (3 nights). We would say it was the worst campsite we have stayed at.

When arriving at the Campsite Reception told me that there was a New Year's Eve party happening that evening. Apparently it was fully booked and we could not even go to the bar for a celebratory drink. I had booked this campsite back in September and I cannot believe that we did not even receive an email to tell us about this NYE party - we would have gone!

The first pitch we were put on was next to a Spanish couple on New Year's Eve. There was rubbish all around their pitch. That evening we were kept awake until nearly 3 am (we appreciate people celebrate on NYE) but they had their television very loud in their campsite awning and then had friends around, all talking very loud. We telephone the Out of Hours Reception Service, but it was answered by a Spanish person who could not understand our complaint! In desperation my husband had to go around and ask polite if they could turn the television down - they said they would, but it went on until 3 a.m.

We complained to Reception in the morning and said we wanted to move pitch. This was done, but we were then put on a pitch where cats had done all their excrement in the gravel - it was everywhere and stunk. I told Reception about this and was told "Oh we will look into this"! We appreciate the cats are there to keep the vermin down, but surely the pitches should be kept clean.

The campsite is also miles for anywhere and you need to drive into Almeria which is a 25 minute drive.

We would never stay at this...

We took our 9m Motorhome and stayed on a Grand Comfort pitch which was good, the pitch was large and covered in a ground sheet, but not all we're and underneath was black dust so we were lucky. We stayed with our Chihuahuas who were in a pen on the pitch with direct access to the motorhome. Lots of cats roaming the site and not everyone follows the rules and puts their dogs on a lead!|The supermarket had hardly anything but was ok for daily bread and water. No supermarkets nearby so make sure you have sufficient with you. Restaurant on site, pizzas, burgers etc but at €7 for a portion of chips was expensive.|The toilets are the old style and at 170cm (5'7") were very low, my knees were on my chin! |Every shower had cracked floor tiles, the sinks were also too low for my height.|The was up area was ok, hot water but not always clean.|The drive to the site was a pothole dirt track road and si Glen width in places. The beach was cyclable with a mountain bike due to the mud and ruts. |We stayed 5 nights and paid €299, this was NOT value for money, we stayed the week before Easter weekend and left on Good Friday.|Will not be going back and honestly couldn't find anything I liked about it.|Overall very disappointed.| Money was being spent on new Chalets, and the...