Melia Dunas Beach Resort & Spa

We chose this hotel because, on the EasyJet holidays website, it appeared to be of high quality, with attractive photos and a good overall impression. However, the reality was very different. On the day of travel, after a long 6-hour flight from London and having to wake up 3 hours earlier to prepare and arrive at the airport on time with children, we arrived at the hotel and were informed that our room wasn’t ready. We had to wait some hours hours despite being extremely tired. Our youngest was so exhausted and couldn’t even rest upon arrival because the room wasn’t prepared. When we finally received the keys and opened the door to the apartment, I felt like I was entering a low-category guesthouse. The apartment was outdated, with tiled floors full of stains, old furniture with paint marks, and damaged doors. It was clear that no proper maintenance had been done for years. Around the doorframe, the wood was already rotting, and the bins were rusty. What I thought would be a dream holiday turned into a nightmare. We couldn’t enjoy the leisure we expected—it was constant stress. Some of the window blinds were broken, and we had to keep them shut all day. We had no water starting one evening at 8 p.m., (20/07/2025 lasting until 06:00 am on 22/07/2025 .This caused a terrible smell in the bathrooms, making the environment unhygienic. We couldn’t shower or flush toilets. We constantly had no towels or missing towels. We complained, and it would take a full day to receive clean towels. We also found cockroaches in the bathroom and living area, as well as lizards crawling on the floor. One cockroach was even found on clothing hanging in the wardrobe. The hotel simply gave us insect spray, expecting us to deal with the pests ourselves. I couldn't sleep thinking if the cockraches might crawl over me. The fridge was unhygienic, and the experience became a matter of survival, not leisure. The outdoor parasols were destroyed, with no straw left to provide shade. The sun loungers were broken , and the swimming pool had missing tiles, creating a hazard. I personally injured my back and elbow due to this. The food at the buffet was repetitive and low quality. I never saw salmon, shrimp, or steak. The options were always chicken, tuna, or mackerel. This was not what we expected from a five-star resort. The hotel is not family-friendly. There were no snacks available for children throughout the day. Packaged ice cream had to be purchased separately. There were no chocolates, crisps, or treats for the children included in the package. Housekeeping did not clean the apartment daily, only every other day, which is unacceptable in a five-star hotel. They should at least check supplies and make the beds. I have stayed in much lower-rated hotels with far better service. This experience was a complete disappointment on all levels. I will never return to this hotel. What should have been a relaxing and enjoyable holiday became a stressful

Location of this resort is great, employees fine too but maintenance of infrastructure is really bad. 5 stars should mean more than what we have got.

Stayed at the Melia Dunas in Sal for a week in August. 7 people in total over 2 rooms. The good: Our room was cleaned regularly. Lovely big room with two bedrooms, two bathrooms (one en suite) and lounge area with direct access to the pool from the sliding doors. Green spaces were well maintained. Resort kept clean. Lots of pools for variety. Activities around the main pool for those that wanted to join in. Our friends who arrived a few days earlier than us were able to book us as a group into the different restaurants which was great for variety. Managed to get sunbeds but did have to be there early (we made use of them immediately and didn’t leave towels for hours). Bars around pools offered quick service and regularly collected glasses which avoided wasps being an issue. Really lovely beach at the base of the resort with lots of sunbeds. Water slides and football pitch for the kids. Always managed to get a table quickly for breakfast and lunch. Close to airport for quick transfer. Staff friendly if you chat to them. Leaving tips helps. Brilliant air conditioning in the rooms. Strong showers with hot water. Friendly chaps on the beach who arranged our turtle watching trip and island tour (mirage, sharks, salt lakes etc) which was great. Lots of wardrobe storage. Hairdryer in bathroom. Good variety of drinks. I didn’t see flies on the food and there was enough variety for us. Bottled water provided regularly in rooms and extra brought by messaging the WhatsApp number. The bad: Towels left on the floor for replacement were taken but not replaced and we had to chase to get them. Pool umbrellas provided no shade due to gaps which is bad in such intense UV. Mosquitoes - just part of the island and can’t be helped. We kept our room doors shut and used lots of repellent and wrist bands and only got a few bites 3 of us came back with ear infections (€150 the night before we flew home to see the on site doctor who was actually great). All of us have had upset stomachs whilst there and since we’re back. No water for over 24 hours - not the hotels fault but the lack of communication from them was. Showering with a bottle of water and having to use the pool water to flush the loo. Would have been good to get an email/text to keep us updated. Some pools have missing tiles. Difficult to change beach towels (already gone or no one at the towel room. No dressing table in the room. Burst pipe when the water came back on in the night which meant my children woke up to over 1cm of water covering the bedrooms and lounge area and due to the lack of storage for suitcases (simple case stands would have avoided this) had been absorbed by their suitcases and clothes (they didn’t fully unpack into the wardrobes). This was fixed quickly by maintenance which was good. Reception always busy. Lack of air conditioning in main areas and restaurants. Lack of labelling on foods in buffet restaurants (needs dairy, meat, eggs, gluten, shellfish

The worst Hotel we’ve stayed in for 30 years. Came as a family with our grown up children and partners and honestly don’t know what to say, staff did say it’s very badly managed and they need to sort it out quickly and that is blatantly obvious from the point of check in, Level is a waste of time & money in this hotel, rooms are very tired curtains hanging off rails, bathrooms dirty, also they put the level rooms right above the entertainment area so the most noisy spot which goes on very late into the night, stayed a week and 3 times no towels one night the housekeeping let themselves into the room at 11.30pm to drop towels off and woke us up stood at the end of the bed. Food is diabolical and the Al a carte ones are no better at all, cold, hard food that seemed like it had been cooked in the morning stored in the fridge and served direct from fridge to table of an evening, flies all over the food in every restaurant Tui rep said this is an island thing all over, funny didn’t happen next door when we ate there or in previous hotels we’ve stayed in. Level breakfast we were served gone off food, asked to speak with management and they arranged a time the next morning we waited and they didn’t show, we had what’s app for them so messaged and they said they had gone to a meeting and would message in around an hour and meet then, that was 9.30am they messaged at 5pm we explained we had dinner in two hours so could meet in the next two hours at any point and never did hear back from them after that. In order to eat decent food we had to do a second upgrade to VIP (they try and sell this to you at check in) and with that we could eat in the next door hotel which is lovely and bikini beach bar . Tui rep that is at the hotel daily was useless and doesn’t listen (to be fair she was inundated with people with complaints daily) this is definately not a 4/5 star hotel it’s more 2/3 star and having stayed in other hotels on Sal Island am comparing like for like here not going by other countries. Avoid!!

Had a lovely holiday in Melia Dunas beach resort. Check in was simple, had to wait to 3pm for the room but was given wrist bands for the all inclusive on arrival. The room was spacious and the bed was nice and comfy and the room was really clean. The staff at reception are lovely and are helpful with any questions you have. You also get given 2 1.5L bottles of water each day your room is cleaned which is a nice touch and the bathroom includes shower gel, shampoo and conditioner. The food in the buffet restaurant is very basic, but there is a self serve ice cream machine which is great. You can also book an a le carte restaurant as part of the all inclusive so it’s definitely worth making the most of, we did the Italian restaurant and it was nice. The hotel is about 15 minutes from the airport in a private transfer. The hotel has also got a private beach which is absolutely gorgeous and is one of the best beaches I’ve seen. Melia Dunas is really big, but it has a nice layout. Make sure you bring plenty of suncream as the sun is very strong and if you run out you’ll have to pay up to €30 for 1 bottle of suncream in the hotel shop. There isn’t anything around the hotel so it’s perfect if you’re planning on doing nothing. The cocktails are nice and I like the fact they have Prosecco as part of the all inclusive. As a whole it was a nice hotel and I would stay here again at some point in the future.