Golden Bahía de Tossa & Spa — Hotel in Tossa de Mar

We stayed here 5th - 12th September: Party of 4 - we had 2 rooms on 2nd floor overlooking the pool. The hotel is in a convenient location - walking distance to shops, the beach and the lovely old town. There were some good and some not so good things about this hotel which I have broken down into sections:||RECEPTION AND CHECK-IN|Reception was clean and tidy; check-in was friendly and efficient.||ROOMS|The rooms were clean, lots of storage space. There was a double bed and a single bed in the room - the beds were comfortable but as we're used to a king-size we found the beds a bit small. There was a TV, safe, fridge, tea and coffee making facilities and a decent number of sockets. The bathroom had a shower over a bath; the shower was very powerful. In one of the rooms there was an issue with the shower suddenly going scalding hot and then cold but there was no problem in the other room. The balcony was a nice size. There was decent air-con and the wifi signal was good. There is no smoking on the balconies - I have commented further on this below. Soundproofing was not good - you could hear everything from above, the rooms next door and the corridor.||POOL AREAS|The adults only roof-top area was really nice and peaceful. There is a bar and 2 small pools in this area and plenty of sunbeds. It was a nice area to relax. The main pool area was also nice. There were plenty of sunbeds and apart from the occasional water aerobics and games, it was fairly quiet and didn't feel crowded even though it was quite busy.||RESTAURANT|We had some really nice food and some bland and not so nice - I had the best chicken wings I've ever eaten; salmon was very good and there were some really nice rice and potato dishes. The salads were also very good. However, more often than not, the food was tepid. This is never usually a problem for me as I don't like scalding hot food but it was even tepid by my standards! There was a microwave in the restaurant but not everything microwaves well. The other issue was the trays of food weren't replenished very quickly and sometimes not at all. There were many times when some of us had to choose another dish as the wait was too long - not because we were impatient we just wanted to eat together. They would regularly run out of crackers for the cheese and when they did these were never replenished. We have been to many all-inclusives and know what to expect and none of us are fussy but, taking everything into account, we would say the food is just average. Nothing was inedible, it was just a bit hit and miss. There was also a long wait sometimes for the drinks order to be taken. After being shown to the table some staff would take a drinks order straight away or return in a couple of minutes but some staff members would just wander off and not return. This means you don't want to go and get food and miss the chance of ordering completely! Most of the staff appear to work really hard though and a special mention for Raul - he was always friendly and attentive.||BAR|Bar area was pleasant. The drinks were waiter service and there was sometimes a long wait when they were busy. The bar staff were all friendly and worked very hard. The alcohol in the drinks was extremely generous!|With regard to entertainment - some good, some not so good but what pleases one person won't necessarily please another. One thing which wasn't so good: there was a room adjoining the bar which I believe was a children's entertainment area. There was a sliding glass door which was quite good at keeping out the rather loud music from this area. However, as people were going in and out constantly it was open more often than not, so in the bar where there was also entertainment you would often be listening to two lots of music at the same time which wasn't pleasant.||SMOKING POLICY|The hotel is very anti-smoking - Note to the Hotel: If you're going to restrict smoking in areas where most people enjoy smoking it's fine, I understand it can inconvenience some non-smokers, but please make this clear in your advertising for the hotel.|Smoking is not permitted on the room balconies and there isn't a seating area allocated for smokers in the outside bar area. There is a small raised smoking area towards the back of the pool but from the bar, or for anyone with mobility problems it was more convenient for them to stand outside by the entrance and there were always people standing around smoking which doesn't give a good impression. Anyone who smokes usually likes to enjoy a cigarette with a drink or be able to enjoy a cigarette on their own balcony. I'm not sure if the fault is with the advertising from the travel agents or if the hotel doesn't want it stated but I really feel that it's important to ensure people are aware of the rules on this before booking. I am a non-smoker but 2 of our party are smokers so we wouldn't have booked this hotel if...

A tale of two halves... Great hotel for families definitely, but as a couple was OK...ish

Great selection of meal choices, fresh produce and meats. Buffet style and also cooked in front of you. Small children’s hot buffet and dessert wall/area. However, for the sweet tooth, desserts were bland. Meal times are bedlam! Don’t leave your table empty between courses if you want to keep it. We had to get our own wine on two occasions in the evening. We used the Tapas Bar one evening and enjoyed the meal. definitely worth a try, Pepe and staff made us welcome.

Public areas are always clean! Staff were helpful with the few issues we raised....

Our twin room with balcony, was nice enough, if a bit tight. Free WiFi a bonus all over the hotel although slow but as I said its free :) Was able to hook up our laptop to the TV by HDMI. Tea & Coffee facilities (did need a clean). fridge. Plenty of clothes storage. Safe (hire only). Complimentary toiletries. The issues we had with the room was only 1 of 3 lightbulbs worked. Bathroom extractor fan didn’t work. We had to request towels twice during the stay, as housekeeping didn’t leave any. Key card stopped working at one point. The shower soap dispenser on the wall was empty for the duration of our stay. On four occasions a towel was either heavily stained or had holes.

Pool areas are clean, sunbeds were plentiful, and this hotel ACTUALLY does enforce their no towels no sun beds. We saw their monitor at work a few times from the dining conservatory. As a non-parent don’t expect to use any of the pools. They're ALL over run by children with lilos, inflatables and footballs. As an avid swimmer this was very disappointing. We didn’t use the basement Spa or roof facilities.

We used the quieter lobby bar most nights. Plenty of choices of drinks and if you're 'all inclusive' then the cocktail of the day is also included (It was good just to try if you hadn't before). The down side is the quiet bar is situated on an open stretch between the main bar and children’s arcade. So, had children running backwards and forward throughout the evening. There is also a quieter Piano Bar. Only two times the whole stay did the waiter ask to get drinks. If we ordered at the bar, he was then happy to bring them over. On the evenings we popped our heads into see the main bar for the entertainment, it wasn't the best... But again, I’m sure children would enjoy it.

We didn’t have children so can’t comment on the entertainment staff or kids club, however they always seemed to be working hard all day and even provided the entertainment on one night a week. Even their mascot showed up to breakfast a few mornings.

As a bonus this hotel is in a great location, just outside of the main ‘resort area’ with great links to other resorts via the bus station not too far away. An evening stroll down the main tree lined ‘high street’ then through the narrow windy town and opening up onto the beach with the Vila Vella all lit up is a must. The night life of bars and cafes is a great atmosphere. A complete contrast to the loud and Blackpool style resort of Lloret de Mar.

We attended as a TUI UK customer and the hotel was part of their Platinum collection. We personally felt it fell short of Platinum as we have stayed in two better Gold Hotels. Laura our rep was always helpful, friendly and...

Me (50s) and my mum (70s) stayed here for the last week of September. We had been really looking forward to it, having read so many wonderful reviews. I'm delighted to say it lived up to our expectations! We booked directly through the hotel, I joined the Golden rewards club so got a bit of a discount on the price. I also think this secured us a better room as I'd only booked a standard room but we had a fabulous room that was bigger than other rooms on the floor. We were on the 4th floor and had a lovely new bathroom with walk-in shower. The room was lovely, beds very comfortable and it was cleaned every day of our stay. ||The hotel is big and every part of it is well kept and spotlessly clean. We found the staff, without exception, to be friendly polite and helpful. The pool areas are lovely with plenty of sunbeds and places to relax and the rooftop terrace is fab. The filtered water machines throughout the hotel is a lovely and welcome touch. The lounge is beautiful.||We went half board and were very impressed with the food both for breakfast and dinner. So much to choose from! It varied day by day too which was great. We had read comments about the food being cold, we both enjoy our food quite hot and we never had an issue with the temperature it was always hot and fresh. It would be nice to be able to have tea/coffee after dinner but this was not an option unless you moved out into the lounge area but aside from that I can't fault the meals. Drinks were very reasonably priced and cocktails were gorgeous! ||The old town of Tossa is just a short walk from the hotel with no steep hills and is such a lovely town with plenty of shops and restaurants. ||Our only negative experience was with the transfer (from & back to Girona airport) which I booked through the hotel website. Because I'd booked via their website it looked to me as though it was a service offered by the hotel (and I've booked similar with other hotels) but it was actually with MTS Globe and a quick google search will show you how awful they are. When we arrived, the driver was an hour late. When leaving, we confirmed our transfer at reception and were told that the pickup point was a nearby bus stop, not the hotel. I was worried about this because my mum is in her 70s and I didn't want her lugging her suitcase through the streets and also I was concerned that we might go to the wrong place. So, we got a taxi to take us to the bus stop - the reception staff ordered it and told him exactly where we were to go - we were dropped off at the bus stop at 7:35pm and waited for our 8pm transfer. It didn't arrive. When I called at 8:20pm I was told that it had arrived and we must have missed it. There is absolutely no way this could have happened. We had to pay €80 for a taxi to the airport and are now in the process of trying to claim that back from the transfer company. I appreciate it's not actually Golden Hotel's service, however we booked it on their website and this company has a really awful record so they should partner with a different more reliable transfer company otherwise their customers will continue to be let down. Aside from that, we had an absolutely fabulous time and I would wholeheartedly...