THe Mirador Papagayo

Extremely Disappointed – A Distressing End to Our Family Holiday

This was, without question, the worst holiday experience we have ever had.

We travelled with our son, who has Autism, ADHD, OCD and an intellectual disability. His conditions were declared before we travelled, and he was medically fit to travel. At no point before or during our stay were we warned that there were any concerns about his behaviour or that the hotel felt unable to accommodate his additional needs.

Instead of trying to work with us or offering support, we were suddenly informed that we had just one hour to pack our belongings and leave the hotel. We were left shocked, embarrassed and devastated. Being asked to leave in this manner, especially in front of our children, was humiliating and incredibly upsetting.

To make matters worse, we also had our four-year-old son and one-year-old daughter with us. The impact on our entire family was enormous. Rather than helping us find a suitable solution so we could continue our holiday, Jet2 representatives arranged flights home, effectively cutting our holiday short.

The most frustrating part is that the rest of our travelling party were able to remain in Lanzarote after finding alternative accommodation at their own expense. This raises the obvious question: why wasn’t that option offered to us? We were given no real opportunity to resolve the situation or continue our holiday elsewhere.

Families travelling with children who have disabilities deserve understanding, compassion and reasonable adjustments—not to be made to feel like a problem. We left feeling discriminated against, unsupported and completely let down by both the hotel and Jet2.

This holiday, which should have created happy family memories, instead became one of the most stressful and upsetting experiences we have ever endured. I would strongly urge anyone travelling with children who have additional needs to think very carefully before booking.

We just returned from an 8 night break staying at the Mirador Papagayo. The location was great, quiet and peaceful, well located for families and a short walk down to the marina where there's a lovely sandy beach (Playa Dorada) and lots of shops, restaurants. We are a family of four, with two kids and had the all inclusive stay. We're vegetarian.

We were given a family room in the annexe, overlooking the lovely family pool and palm trees. The room itself is more like an apartment with a kitchenette and comfortable sofa beds with a separate bedroom with two single beds converted into a king size. The beds were very springy but mostly okay. I have suffered from sciatica so saying that the mattress was okay is a big deal. As you walk into the room, it's clearly cooler than the outside due to the AC being on, but crucially it's not cool enough to sleep comfortably with a duvet. I still felt the need to kick the duvet off and sleep under the sheet every night. Not a massive issue but it would have been nice to have cooler temperatures at night.

The beds were made up everyday without failure but shampoos and towels were not being replaced. We had to ask the cleaners for these at least twice.

The bathroom is dated, mouldy in places and the tub looked filthy. We didn't use the tub and stuck to the shower, which was missing a vertical seal on the door, so water was splashing everywhere and the riser bracket for the hand shower was broken and "fixed" with cable ties.. Not good enough unfortunately. Water pressure and temperature was fine. Only body/hair wash gel is provided for showers and hand wash is there in a pump (although was empty when we arrived).

The room largely was comfortable, plenty of storage for luggage and clothes.

Being vegetarian we found a limited choice of food. The kids were mostly OK with chips and pasta every evening with the odd salad. Once or twice there was cheese pizza which kept them happy in the evenings. Deserts were probably the highlight for us all, lots of options.. Adults had a selection of salads and breads but we always found something to eat every night despite some of it being repetitive. There was a lack of drinks options for kids so every night I asked for orange juice and it was provided but I have no idea why they don't leave it out for us to take ourselves.. Odd but we got through it.

Breakfast was great, lots of selection for everyone to choose from.

The big let down was lunch at the pool bar. Cold chips and uncooked pasta mostly which was repetitive. There were some meat options but didn't help us. Mostly meat pizzas too apart from once or twice.

We requested on multiple occasions for cheese pizzas for the family. It was hit and miss depending on who we spoke to.. There are a couple of grumpy staff who just say "no".. But the helpful ones (Mahendran, Juan, Duvan) were super and asked the chefs to provide vegetable pizza for us on two occasions.. That was a lovely gesture. I feel like lunch overall could be overlooked, nothing special or exciting there. Repetitive food.

If you're vegetarian, you'll find something or other to eat, kids should be happy too. If you're vegan or have allergies then avoid.. The labels for the food are horrendous.. Some are just in the wrong place, some were absent and some had crab and fish markers which we later found were incorrect. They also have a little old lady in the central cheese section who can't speak a word of English so when we ask for help.. We were stuck. It wasn't easy so we ended up avoiding some foods as we weren't sure what it contained.

The entertainment team were lovely and helpful, people like Michael, Irene and Andrea from the kids club were helpful, fun and engaging throughout the day. The inflatable slide and foam pool party was a hit and we loved the bingo as a family which I won on the last day.

Evening entertainment was surprisingly great, especially the magic show and Argentina dancing. Great fun to end the evening.. But the auditorium is incredibly dated, every chair looked dirty like people with muddy shoes have been jumping over them. The carpet looks dirty and old. Need a revamp and a good clean..

We loved the pools, had a lovely swim every day. The sunbeds were "claimed" by selfish people early on everyday despite the hotel policy stating that this is not allowed.. And nothing was done about it. People would throw their towels on, and then go back to sleep or go and get breakfast etc. Really unfair but on a couple of occasions we did manage to secure a few.. You have to dart for them as people leave. The hotel should really do better with this..

The spa was amazing, we visited twice and both kids had a children's massage. It was peaceful and really nice.. The flotation pool was great. We had discounted rates of €10 for 90 minutes since we booked kids massages too. That for me was a highlight. The spa is for people over the age of 16 so both kids stayed in the kids club and enjoyed it.

The view was beautiful, staff were great overall. Few let downs with the rooms and lunch time meals, but overall we had a lovely break and didn't want to leave.

The hotel claims it's a 4* but in truth I think it's more closely aligned with a 3*, maybe a higher end 3* because of the spa and pools, with entertainment. There was no sense of luxury, no higher end comforts and the poor bathroom / AC was not nice, but we didn't let that affect our stay.

On the last day after check out the hotel provided towels and access to the courtesy rooms to freshen up before our evening flight.

I would not return to this particular hotel in the future but would happily try another LIVVO hotel if the option to do so arises.

If you get a good deal on this hotel, then go for it. But don't pay expecting a 4* hotel. If half board is an option to avoid the poor lunch then I'd advise on doing that. Interestingly the all inc option was cheaper than have board on this occasion.

Expect a 3* with good entertainment, nice pool areas, decent breakfast and dinner and you'll have a lovely time.

I hope this helps. Have a lovely holiday.

Hardly any air conditioning in any of the hotel, to the point we had to go buy a fan. They just said they would tell them engineer. Of course nothing got sorted, Just the usual fob off. Every other plate in the restaurant was dirty. We told them and again nothing changed. From the time we got here everything is just a shambles. There is no signs anywhere to say the pools are salt water so be warned.