St. Regis Mardavall

For years I wanted to stay at the St. Regis Mardavall, as it is more or less the prime sampel of a luxury resort in Germany. So of course I had to try.

Prices at Mardavall are pretty high, during my stay a Grand Deluxe Room without view started at 580,00 € with 4 for 3 available. At high season it starts often at 900,00 €. With a Best Rate claim I reduced the price to 340,00 € per night for a Grand Deluxe. I thought long about booking a Junior Suite but I coudn´t see a big differnce and price differece was over 100,00 € per night. Grand Deluxe is 56 sqm (48 sqm room + 8 sqm balcony), Junior Suite 66 sqm (52 sqm room with 14 sqm balcony/ terrace). On Oyster you find pretty good pictures of both room categories. On this pictures you can´t also see a big difference between garden view and sea view (all rooms face the ocean side).

3 days before my arrival I got an email I could upgrade my room to a Junior Suite with Sea View for 30,00 € per night. OK, with this price-difference I said yes to secure a Junior Suite. 2 hours later I got an email, that no Junior Suite with Sea View is available – OK, no big thing but why do they send this standard e-mails out? Not very luxury-like. Really funny was when I got a second mail, that they can´t fulfil my wish for an upgrade. At this time I sat in the garden of the St. Regis and hat already slept one night at the hotel. Shameful!

When I arrived at the hotel the big iron gate opened and I found myself in front of the entrance.

A doorman helped me with my lagguage and I was escorted to the lobby. The lobby is a nearly round room with a big staircase in the middle and a nice ceiling.

In the basement you find a model of a ship.

At the reception I was told they do the check-in at the bar and I was offered a welcome drink. I took a place on the terrace and ordered a fruit-cocktail. It came with nuts, olives and chips.

Back to the reception I had to sigh the credit-card authorisation for the stay and was told I got an upgrade to a Junior Suite with garden view. Nice! To be honest I wasn´t totally surprised, as they have much more Junior Suites than Grand Deluxe rooms. I was told they could fulfil my preference of a room on a low floor. OK, my preference are rooms on high floors, but that´s not really important. Later I saw that I really asked for rooms on low floor in my SPG-profile, so they did everything right! Also my preference for pillows without feathers was honored.
I was escorted to my room (369) on the 3rd floor, which is in fact the ground floor. The Junior Suite was bright and in a good condition. It had a good sized hallway with 3 cupboards.

The room itself had a king bed (unfortunally 2 mattresses), 2 chairs, a desk and a recamiere. I would have preferred a sofa, but at least on the walls were nice art.

The terrace was furnished with a sunchair (only 1!), 2 chairs and a table. You even had some kind of sea view.

The bathroom was big enough with a tub, 2 sinks, a nice shower and seperated toilet + bidet.

While I generally liked the bathroom I was disturbed by a long blond (or grey) hair in the tub. Otherwise it seemed to be clean.

I did a little trip though the hotel. First I visited the snooker and smoking room which is connected to the bar.

Over the terrace

you reach the garden

which you enter over the prominent flight of steps.

In the garden you find the outdoor pool (not heated, technically 3 pools)

You also find funny signs,

the kids club

big lawns

and many sunchairs (really, the picture only shows a few).

You have a more or less direct sea view which is a little bit limited by a fence.

The hotel doesn´t have direct beach-access. You leave the hotel-ground by a card-controlled gate

and you are on a public beach-walk.

You can reach a small beach which is kind of attended by the St. Regis. During my visit it was dirty and not very inviting.

The highlight of the hotel is the SPA. They have a Jaccuzzi (relative cold), an indoor and (heated) outdoor pool,

a relaxing room with heated loungers

several saunas, a cold room and a warm salt-water pool.

The saunas and the salt-water pool are located in a seperate adult-only area which is clothes optional. During my visits all guests wear clothes in the pool. Only some people were nude in the saunas.
 

The fitness-area made a pretty good impression and was always highly frequented.

Breakfast was served at Aqua restaurant from 7 to 11- It was pretty standard with a cooking station. Quality was OK, also I wasn´t really impressed. I would call it mediocre, not more.

On they way to the restaurant you find some nice decorations.

On my first evening I had dinner at Aqua, the St. Regis main restaurant.
When I arrived I was greeted professional and I was offered an apperetif. Suggestion: Champagner, as usual. I don´t drink alcohol so it´s not an option, but what a boring drink. Can´t understand why it´s so popular..... I was told they had one non-alcoholic cocktail, the one I knew already from the arrival. OK, I took it. Was OK again.
They offer a 4 (65,00 €) or 5 course (75,00 €) menu, but 2 courses contained meat, so no, thank you. I took the crustacan soup with asparagus panna cotta (12,50 €) an starter, the fresh pasta filled with cream cheese and lobster, beurre blanc and truffle (22,50 €) as main an an ananas carpaccio with nougat-parfait (11,50€).

First I got bread with olives, aioli, tapenade and olive oil. OK

Next came the soup. It was totally overspiced, the panna cotta tasteless. A terrible dish! One of the worst soupt I have eaten this year!

The pasta was tasted over all good, but I wasn´t really enthusiastic.

Dessert was OK, but nothing to write home about.

Let´s say some words about the service. At this evening service was simply bad. Dishes weren´t explained, they seemed to be rushed and missed every kind of hospitality. The icing on the cake was when one waitress added a second table to mine and started to open the wine-bottle for the neighboring table on it. Hey, I like to bothered by something like that.
Bottom line: I was very unhappy with my meal. Food disappointing and service subterranean – no, that´s not the way I like it or I´m used to.

Second evening I wasn´t really hungry, so I decided to eat a small bit at the bar Es Vent. I ordered a diet coke (0,2 l – 6,50 €) and got chips, nuts, almonds and olives. To eat I ordered first the tuna sashimi with scallop, salad and avocado (25,00 €).

The scallop was nicely done, but half of the tuna was still frozen. Not so great.
As dessert I ordered 2 scoops of homemade ice-cream (7,00 €) which were nice.

Again, at max a mediocre meal.

Even if I were disappointed on the first evening I tried Aqua again on the third, as I liked 4 courses of the menu of the day.
This time another service-crew was in charge and I was greeted friendly. As they could only offer me the well known fruit-cocktail I skipped it. As starter I got the usual bread.

Next came beetroot carpaccio with salad and goat cheese – fresh and solid.

Second course was gnocchi with pumpkin-sauce.

Gnocchi were a little bit dry, the sauce a little bit tasteless. Let´s say mediocre.
As 3rd course they served fish (not absolutely sure which) with mushrooms and potatoes.

It´s 5 days ago and I can´t really remember. Must I say more?
Dessert was almond-tiramisu which were quite good.

Service was much better this visit, food again far from great. No, not a big Aqua fan....
For the last day I had booked a table at Es Fum, the Michelin-stared restaurant at the St. Regis. To be honest I was a little bit sceptical after my experiences at Aqua and Es Vent.
The restaurant is located at lobby-level and I was greeted very friendly and they asked to begin, which language I prefer. I was shown my table and was offered a drink. Again champagne or the fruit cocktail. No, thank you! Just water....
You can choose between 3 menus. 6 courses (130,00 €), 8 courses (146,00 €), 10 courses (156,00 €9 or 7 courses vegetarian (110,00 €). They also offer a 5 course kids menu (66,00 €). I took the 10 course menu without meat. It´s a „suprising“ menu.
First they offered 4 different kinds of butter and flavoured salts, different breads and a cheese-filled „stone“ (in the middle of the stones). A nice start.

Next came 3 different tapsas.

After they served it they mentioned, that the beef-tatar isn´t quite the right for me. So they changed against something else.

First course were spring salad leaves, fruit puree and smoked aromas. A solid start.

Second came red prawn with sea bottom. It was a seaweed mouse with a sea urchins butter. Was interesting, but only one prawn with many butter. The you had to eat it alone after a few bites, so perhaps not a perfect combination. Taste was also not my favourite, but not bad.

3rd course was cold and spicy ramilet tomato soup with anchoives. It tasted good and I liked it.

Next I found sea scallop, red cabbage, red onion, anise and kohlrabi on my table. A nice dish!

5th course was an old friend. The fresh pasta with cream cheese, lobster, beurre blanc and truffle. It tasted slightly better this time.

Now they served a sorbet. Normally it was a mojito-sorbet, but as I don´t drink alcohol they serve me a good passion-fruit sorbet.

After the sorbet I got a dish called rice-codfish-cauliflower. Not the greatest creation I ever tasted, but also not bad.

7th course was wild gilthead, shell cream and sour tomato gel. Tasty!

Main course was monkfish cheeks in dill-tarragon velouté. My favourite of the day.

As I love white chocolate I wished to get white chocolate soup and macchiato caviar. It was a soup with coffee perls. I liked it.

Last course was red berries and seasonal flowers. An interesing dessert and a good final.

Es Fum was another world than Aqua and Es Vent. Servic was polished, food good.

Service at the hotel was over all good. It was funny that the staff mostly talked to me in English. It isn´t a problem for me, but as you can read my English is far from perfect and I speak with a strong German accent. I did the game 2 days, after it I spoke at least in German with the staff, who were German natives.
The other hotel guests were mainly from Germany and mostly eldery people. No where you can see so much bad but expensive dressed people. You also could survey the gust-type „Nervensäge“. It´s this type who things, it´s very important. One guy with his wife (she not English-speaking, he very urbane (at least in his own fantasy) and a big self-titled wine connoisseur) at one evening was all the time entertaining the whole restaurant. He was talking on and on very loud the last rubbish. Very unpleasant. You had a above average rate of this false noses. They also talk to every staff-member in German and continue doing so even if it´s obvious the particular staff-member doesn´t speak German. They are even incensed, that not everyone IN SPAIN speaks German.
Also be aware there are conferences hold at the hotel. One evening it was incredibly loud in the lobby as a big crowd was in the basement and was talking in an incredible loudness. It´s not a silent resort! But on some days they had some nice live-music at the bar.
 

The St. Regis Mardavall is a good resort with a great SPA. Neverless it wasn´t my favourite, as it´s a relative big hotel with many guests who suffer under hubris. Apart from that you can´t say much against the hotel, they didn´t much wrong during my stay. I can generelly recommend it especially with kids (they seems to do nice childcare).