Barceló la Nucía Hills

Booked this to celebrate my husbands 50th and our 20th Wedding Anniversary. The hotel is lovely-compact and boutique like with its roof top pool and a pretty garden with Balinese beds. I had booked a junior suite deluxe that had a small garden with loungers and a Balinese bed and it was so spacious-even the bathroom was huge with such lovely toiletries! I knew as we were only going for 3 nights location wasn’t really an issue as we weren’t planning on venturing out. The hotel had left a bottle of cava, sweets and water on arrival which was a thoughtful touch. I booked half board, and we really enjoyed the breakfast and dinner buffet. In the evening, there was a chefs cooking station, and I had delicious freshly cooked fish. The staff in the reception, restaurant and pool side bar were so attentive and polite. We didn’t use the spa on this occasion, but may have done if the weather was not so good! The hotel seemed quiet, and was absolutely perfect for what we needed. There was no issue keeping our room for a late check out which Sara kindly arranged for us. I would most definitely return here for a short break in the sunshine.

Firstly the hotel is absolutely immaculate and I really wasn't expecting it to be as good as the pictures but it actually is. We had a huge room with a massive bed and thankfully the room was lovely and quiet couldn't really hear anybody in the rooms next door which is unusual in a hotel so we were very grateful of that. The breakfast delicious and lots of choice and all of the staff were very friendly and helpful. The first few days of our stay it was really rather noisy around the pool at the hotel which we weren't expecting considering how they are pushing that it's a relaxing experience. There seemed to be a lot of groups of friends who were rather loud talking and shouting to each other in the pool and people video calling from sunbeds. I know this isn't the hotels fault but it does make it difficult to relax when you are having to listen to everybody's phone calls. I know that it isn't an adult only hotel but, we were surprised at how many very young children were there at the hotel considering there is nothing for children to do no play area no children's pool area etc. I feel the hotel would benefit from an area which is adults only perhaps the rooftop pool area and bar as the atmosphere there is very tranquil when it's just adults. The same music seems to be played in the restaurant at breakfast and the poolside bar and even around the pool out loud and although it is slow paced music it does get rather depressing after a while when you have heard the same song six times in a day but these are just little things that are personal choice. There isn't really anything around close to the hotel to do in the evenings but we did know that and we did venture out a couple of times in the car at night to restaurants in Altea. We tried one of the local restaurants about 15 minutes walk away. One evening we went to the restaurant bar next to the pool to have an early dinner and again service was very good food lovely but I have to agree with a previous review on here that it is very unclear about the opening times of the bars despite looking at the app. We were under the impression the bar closed at 8 and so we were rushing to get there in time leaving time to eat but then they were allowing people to come in well after the apparent closing time so I think things do need to be made clearer there. We also didn't realise the hotel does not accept cash payments for anything at the bar etc and we were told by one of the waiters he can only accept cash if it's his tip! Something I think that should be made clear if it is a cashless Hotel. We had room service a couple of times on our balcony which was good and again the staff extremely friendly and couldn't do enough for you. All in all we enjoyed our stay and we were very grateful of the beautiful surroundings and great team of staff.

Hotel was as we expected from the reviews. Calm and peaceful with a lovely ambiance. All the staff were superb (especially Laura on reception and Claudia in the restaurant) but all we encountered were great. We stayed half board for 6 days which felt about right. The selection and quality of food available for breakfast and dinner was excellent and was never overcrowded. Room was spotless with lovely balcony (we stayed in a junior suite). All in all a fab break and great value for money

From first impressions this was not good, arriving at the hotel at 10am being told our room wasn’t ready, fair enough wouldn’t expect this to be ready so early, but after 4 attempts of going to reception still not ready, not once told it would be late afternoon, 6 and a half hours later after a little moan it was ready, if this is the case should of been told 5pm so we could of made the most of our day. Room lovely and great facilities, restaurant not great, cold food and quite basic yet technology of a robot machine taking plates to kitchen. 4 days was enough for a chilled time away, if any longer we would of needed to ask for toilet roll to be replenished as this wasn’t done so last day we just about coped lol.