Santa Elena Golf Resort & Spa

Apartments, although very spacious, are very tired & neglected from a maintenance point of view. On arrival the cleanliness of the apartments were not up to standard - it looked like they hadn't had a thorough clean since the last occupants. No cleaning pack left so we had to use our own wipes to clean the surfaces. No hairdryers in any of our apartment's (its advertised as having them) and when we enquired we are told we had to pay a deposit. We experienced various issues with the doors either not locking or not being able to open them when trying to get in! Washing gel bottles in the bathrooms were empty when we arrived and never got replenished. Contacted reception on numerous occasions using my own phone. Suggest more communication when checking in as we were basically just handed our keys and told it was a 15min walk to the apartments .... when we got there one of the apartment doors wouldn't open so I had to call them on my mobile phone ... even a label on one of the room phones advising "dial 9" for reception would of been handy. Balcony's were large but again not maintained very well- old broken wooden planks covering various areas. Not safe looking and again needed swept and cleaned. The public areas around the resort all looked abandoned ... we only found one pool with water in it but there were no sunbeds or chairs to sit on. The hotel & staff in the clubhouse restaurant were nice and the food was good. The Golf shop staff were very unhelpful and slow. Issues booking buggies one day then the next being told by a different member of staff that we hadn't booked and there were none left ... yet the garage shed was full of buggies before and after the round. Overall the resort lacked care & maintenance and is not somewhere we would go back too nor will we be recommending it to anyone else.

The hotel overall was a bit shabby and dated. Our superior double room was in fact a twin room. If you stayed three days or less, you did not get your room serviced. We had glass on the floor of the room, hairs and a blood stain on the floor in the bathroom. I took the glass to reception to show them and asked if someone could at least sweep/hoover our room - that never happened, in spite of the man at reception saying that he would get room service on to it straight away. Only the club house bar was open and the service was very slow and the menu very limited. The location of the hotel restricts you to only those facilities in the surrounding urbanisation.

Good price, and a comfortable apartment but thats about it.

Our booking did not exist but the staff went above and beyond to get us into an apartment However we still had a job to get the golf booking sorted

Wouldn't send guests here, it's a ghost town. You can tell the whole development and course used to be good but it's had no love for years. Most bars and restaurants on the site are shut down, swimming pool area and spa were closed and there seemed to be no guests at the hotel. Nearest towns with signs of life are all 40 minutes away and around 50/60 euros each way in a taxi. The only positive is that it's cheap so you get what you pay for..

Hotel was lovely. Staff were friendly and accommodating.

Upon arrival we were told our room was quite a distance from the reception and they offered to call us a taxi at our expense. The guys English wasn’t great and he gave us a very long winded way to get to our room that needed a vehicle so we got our golf buggies for our round and used them but if we were given better directions we could easily of walked. Also the maps they gave us didn’t have any of the restaurants, supermarket etc on them. We literally had to find our own way around. When you are only there 2.5 days you need to hit the ground running not be wandering around trying to find everything. The place has lots of potential but it was almost deserted. Where the place s so isolated it really needs all the shops/bars to be open more hours.

Resort could be amazing however let down by a lack of staff who do their best

We arrived early in the morning and was given a map to find our accommodation in the dark . Needless to say we had to return to the hotel reception and as google maps couldn’t connect we had to roam outside again . We arrived at 1-30am and found our apartment at 2-45am after climbing over a Fence and wandering lost with our cases etc . This is not acceptable and I would suggest an apartment to be allocated nearer the hotel if you are arriving in the dark or more importantly an escort to take you there . Apart from that the holiday was enjoyable and we both enjoyed playing at the golf course

The course is designed by Dave Thomas, it is very long with too many bunkers. We spoke to 2 members, who said the course has been mismanaged, the grass is too long resulting in lost balls just off the fairway. There were no other visitors playing the course.

This golf course should not be open, no grass at all until you reached the greens , absolutely shocking, the directors of these three courses informed us that your golf travel were notified in February of the shocking condition and advised not to include it in there bookings, also trip advisor gave it one star there was eight of us and we will all take this matter further

Absolutely horrible conditions Fairways were burnt to a crisp and basically nonexistent Greens had been punched 1 week prior and were in horrible condition Worst round of golf I have experienced in over 35 years Truly atrocious Should have been told about the conditions prior Employees agreed and were as surprised as us that we didn’t know prior to our round about the conditions was Very disappointed after wasting the day on this horrible course waste of time and money on my European vacation Also only had one rental set that we had to share not even a real or complete Set had 3 different types of irons alone A truly horrible experience an I feel something should be done to compensate for the entire experience…

Great layout of the course. Fairways where like a desert with hardly any grass on them. Shame.

We played it twice as there was an issue with our booking at another course. The fairways were very dry & straw like ... maybe just the time of year and the recent weather they had had ? Apart from that it was an ok golf course. Wouldnt rush back to play it again.

Hacienda has been getting very poor reviews recently for the condition of the course (except the greens). We found that grass was very thin on the fairway and we opted to use a tee peg on non fairway lies, to avoid damage to clubs or indeed possible injury because the ground was rock solid in some places. The greens, however, were in great condition and super quick.

not been watered for months so fairways like playing off concrete. Should not have been open.

The course was in a diabolical state, obviously not well maintained at all. The fairways had no grass and were sandy and gritty. The greens were marginally better. The rough is just stone which you wouldn't risk your clubs playing off

The fairways were quite bare in places which made the long course more of a challenge. Course management was needed due to bunker placements, but I like that kind of thing. Would go back with the hope of greener fairways

Staff were utterly useless and painfully lazy all round. The course was interesting and enjoyable, but completely burnt out. More regular water on the fairways could make the place a great course. The food was also seriously bad.