bamboola

Thanks, Winger and Bondiboy, for the helpful information. I'll take the easy way (hotel car) on the way in and will probably opt for the more adventurous way back to the airport.

Bondiboy - Want to trade my rate for yours? I assume you are staying during the week, rather than the weekend.

The Winger

I thought I would leave a note for anyone else who stumbles across this thread in the future looking for info on this property.

We really enjoyed our 6 day stay at the Le Meridien Lav, Split. We had a seaview room and the room itself was very spacious, with a fantastic balcony which we enjoyed dinner on a few times. The facilities were all top notch, fantastic beach location, friendly staff and very reasonable prices for dining and drinks (especially compared to Italy).

I did have 1 complaint though, we had made previous arrangements for a driver to pick us up at the airport and when we arrived we waited for about 30 mins before I phoned the hotel. When I phoned they had no clue so we just took a cab, which cost about 300 kuna (about $60 cdn). Other than that everything was perfect and I would highly recommend this hotel for some relaxation and family time.

CCFlyer17

Was wondering if anyone else who has stayed here has any impressions of the rooms, and whether upgrades to suites were available when they were a guest?

360guy

We had a 4 day award stay at this hotel in June. As a platinum, I was give a ocean view mini suite. The hotel is only 8 months old and the room looked brand new. I would not be surprised if we were the first guest to use this room.We were very impressed with the room, staff and hotel.The hotel is about 40 minutes from the airport, and the taxi cost is 35 euro. The hotel is also about 15 minutes to the town(Split) and a taxi cost is 20 euro each way. After 2 days, we rent a Hertz car at 35 euro/day. Hertz will drop off the car at the hotel. The hotel also has a great spa.

bigguyinpasadena

Thanks for the trip report.
Do you recall how much parking was at the hotel?
Are the drivers in Croatia pretty wild?

360guy

The parking at the hotel was free. We drove two weeks in Croatia, and the roads and drivers were great. Almost everyone in Croatia speaks English.They love Americans.

CCFlyer17

Did you try using the hotel's shuttle service? Do you know how often it ran?

360guy

In June it ran every hour .

bamboola

It is a small 8-passenger van. Arrive early to avoid being disappointed. Once 8 people show up, the van will take off before the scheduled departure time. The rest will have to pay for their own taxi ride into town.

The shuttle goes to Split at 9:00, 10:00, 12:00, 1:00, 6:00 and 7:00. It is about a 15 to 25-minute ride.

It is rather inconvenient that there are no shuttles between 1:00 and 6:00.

Blue is the Colour

We had a similar experience in July. The hotel is fantastic in many ways but service is a little haphazard.

We had a similar issue with a booked Taxi (rang up from Split about where taxi was eventually discovered the guy who had confirmed booking had been fired!) I had assumed cheaper to pre-book (block hotel transfer rate but taxi fair was same cost - I checked afterwards!) Taxis are quiet expensive - almost London prices. It is only about 30 mins out of rush hour to airport the other side of Split.

We did not drive - but told expensive to hire car. The comment above about danger of drivers. All younger Eastern Europeans drive is similar way - it is just worse when get on main highways when drive faster. It is not worse than Paris, Rome etc.

One downside this Hotel suffers from is the difficulty in actually getting directly to Split even from the UK and some of Europe. It is a new venue - falling between commercial, package and low-cost airlines. Airport and facilities are not much (so don't suggest arrive very early - opposite to London airports), e.g. we are in Prague in late Sept and wanted to go on few days sun after - but even bearing in mind the largest single group of people holidaying in Split & Lav outside US, UK were Czechs - it is impossible to go directly - cheaper and as fast to fly back to London and travel between London Airports!

The people are very friendly and speak very good English (more often the American version because local TV is subtitled and not dubbed.) The staff at hotel try hard but its principle problem is service not because they don't try but expecatations are different. It is not that long ago that the country was behind Iron Curtain and with the War hardly have a level to aspire.

The staff are keen, suspect poorly paid but what the hotel really needs is managers who can mentor and stress what service really is. Try going to the Four Seasons (not part of the 4 Seasons Chain) in Cyprus to see what service really should be - Four Seasons even offer free Cava for breakfast, encourage use of main dinning facilities with proper (and cheaper than Lav) theme nights and shows!

The hotel really need to do something about the shuttle bus - a small mini-bus is not ideal. Some pushy US family queue barged us out despite people arriving first. It can only have got worse as peak Summer went on!

The hotel facilities have Five star prices and little choice for snack by the pool. The bar overlooking the marina is great to watch sunset etc. An additional food place by tennis courts was being finalised (well over run really) when we left. Something we discovered rather late in visit was cheap Pasta / Pizza place about 100 yards left of the main entrance.

The Spa is very good and cheap! Marina some great boats and extremely peaceful.

The hotel has great potential and we will go back (may be next month!)

The booking was intially wrong by a day and they reissued it twice @ €30 per night more (over 10 days great deal and eventually sorted it out). When we arrived about 5 pm room not ready and despite pre-booking room longer for departure told to vacate by 12 because of group booking requiring our Superior Seaview room. I refused to pay extra and got them to store our stuff till late pm flight. Not exactly great 5 Star service!

I am in a rather unsual situation that have great deal of SPG points (transferred from Le Meridien scheme) but no status! A long story - had Plat status in old scheme just before transferred, confirmed by holiday but due to changing jobs (not travelling for work), family illness and delaying wedding (we even had to reschedule honeymoon plans weeks before wedding because I could not medically fly outside Europe) not been able to keep status over a year period. Also for those non-Americans and those that don't travel to US, the scheme is very US dominated. Also less customer focused.

That said it took about 6 attempts to get reception to allow me to us the SPG points for any purpose! By this time it was at the end of vist and upgrading to better room would have been better on Day 1! It is fair to say I am not that impressed by SPG scheme and less incentive / marketing to us than old Le Meridien scheme.

Facilties - better than average (room for improvement)
Service - room for improvement

ac777

I Have just returned from a wonderful time in Croatia. One of the highlights of the Hotel stays was at Le Meridien, Split.It is really in Lav, just outside the city. I have been most impressed by this hotel--Mrs ac777 concurs. Unfortunately I don't have any photos so words will have to suffice.

My booking was done using Starpoints. On arrival I asked where I can park the car--even before I had checked in-- the bellman offered to park it for me and proceeded to do so. There was no charge for it ( Parking or Valet )

Went to the Front desk and was greeted by extremely friendly staff who went on to explain that I had been upgraded to an Adriatic suite and breakfast was included. The Platinum Amenity was offered without asking. I was having difficulties paying attention as I was looking around the lobby. Vast open spaces--with my back to the reception I could see the Adriatic through the big glass windows. The restaurant, lounge, lobby sitting area was one continuous free flowing space with white being the predominant color and huge sheets of glass so everybody had a view of the Adriatic.

Managing to get our breath back, we made our way to the suite--bedroom, sitting room, 2 plasma TV's, a huge bathroom with separate shower (rainshower and hand held), bidet and jacuzzi tub. The double doors from the bedroom and sitting room opened into a big balcony overlooking the sea and a simply stunning view.

The dinner at the restaurant was one of the finest we had in Croatia and of course we had seats overlooking the Adriatic. Breakfast next day was simply sumptuous. But the best part was the staff--excellent service and most attentive to all the guests. Haven't seen service like this for a while.

Check out was trouble free and we left promising to return to this hotel in the not too distant future. There was nothing I could find fault with in this hotel which has been open for just under a year. If you are going to Split--definitely stay here and take their shuttle ( complimentary) to the city.
I can give 5* to this hotel any time.^^

bigguyinpasadena

Thanks so much for the trip report.If you don't mind a few questions...
Is there a beach nearby?How is the pool?Was Split interesting?How was the weather for your stay?How were prices in town?
Thanks in advance for your replies.

The Winger

Hi bigguyinpasadena, they have a private beach that is just below the outdoor pool. The beach is a pebble beach but it turns to sand just a few feet in to the water. When we were there in July the water in the sea was warmer than the pool! There is also security patrolling the beach keeping uninvited guests out.

There is 2 pools, one outdoor and one indoor. Both are very nice and quite large. The outdoor pool has a mirage effect in the deep end with a ledge so you can spend time hanging out just staring at the sea and the hills in the background. We spent a good 6-8 hrs a day between the pools and the beach with my 10 yr old who loved it.

Split itself was also a nice place to visit, maybe not as nice as Dubrovnik which we visited the year before but still very interesting. We could have spent an entire day visiting Diocletian's palace but it was far too hot when we were there (around 40-42 degree's celsius each day), so we ended up only spending about 6 hrs in total in Split. We hired a private guide to show us around the palace which was definitely worth it. Prices are very cheap compared to Italy.

We are going back next summer for a bit longer, and intend to hit many of the beautiful islands around split we were told about. Hvar is supposed to be amazing. We really enjoyed our visit to this resort, everything was incredible! English is also the predominantly spoken language, despite the many different people from different countries everyone used English as the common language to communicate.

Here is a link to the main thread for this hotel - http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthrea...hlight=croatia

ac777

The weather was reasonable--about 18 Celsius except when it was raining!! The meal--even at the hotel-was about $65 USD for the spread. The prices in the city--outside the hotel--will be quite a bit cheaper but I cannot give you any ideas. Hope it helps.

SFOAmdam

I stayed at the property and it is nice. A little far from Split but is a nice property. One night we had someone open our closed door. We talked with the front desk and they came up with an excuse or two that did not make sense (which they admitted did not make sense when I pointed it out). They indicated that they would research the matter, look at the video but never did (or at least would not tell us what they found, if they do actually have video). If you have to go to this property I would suggest deadbolting the door (there are no chains) and try to put suitcases or other items in front of the door.