Hotel Landmar Playa la Arena

TLDR - Amazing hotel, great food, would deffo return! Info about gluten free at the end.

We were completely amazed when we got to the hotel. It was dark in the evening but the hotel is absolutely stunning. We were surprised by how high end/luxury it felt. The facilities are great and always really clean. Really nice clean pool areas (2 main pools) with daytime pool games throughout the day. Plenty of sunbeds around both pools, didn't see any "reserved" with towels without people around. Was never too busy as they are spread out. Toilets were clean and didn't have to queue once.

The variety of drinks was really good, a small selection of cocktails were included with the all inclusive as well as your typical beer, wine, spirits, sangria etc. There are lots of places to sit and have a drink, inside and outside including a really nice terrace outside. And the food was delicious! We were very impressed by the variety and quality of the food. I was expecting the typical all inclusive spread, but this was the nicest food we've had from an all inclusive hotel. Sometimes there were cold chips etc which is standard, but for the most part, some of the nicest dishes I've had! Especially the beef and pork. Soooo nice. Food wasn't repetitive either. Icing on the cake was that the all inclusive didn't end until 6pm on our last day, even though check out is at 12pm.

The location was also really good, not too busy but not too quiet either. It's very close to the beach (2 minutes walk) accessible from a back gate in the hotel to save you walking around. We had a great night at a nearby Irish bar called The Blarney stone, which was quiet earlier on but got busier the later it got.

Would leave 5 stars with some improvements. But a couple of things let did it down for us. The rooms were average which was fine, but the bathroom could do with some updating as they are quite tired. Dirty grouting etc. Also the wet room style of the bathroom meant that every time you had a shower the whole bathroom was flooded, with no squeegee or anything to get rid of the water. It actually flooded out of the bathroom, into our main room and out into the hallway outside after just one shower. So we were having to put shoes on when we went to use the bathroom and use our towels to mop up what we could.

And then there were some issues with the gluten free options. I'm a coeliac so travelling is always a bit of a nightmare, but for the most part, the gluten free options are really good in this hotel. I never struggled for variety and always had plenty of options at every meal. There is gluten free bread and cereal available at breakfast, and the majority of the buffet foods are labelled with all allergens highlighted which was super helpful. However, on the first day, I went to the omelette station and asked the chef about gf because I was confused by a few of the items being on one card. The chef was extremely rude and shooed us away. He didn't know what gluten was or speak much english. He also dismissed a waitress that tried to help us, but she went and got another chef who was super nice and ran through everything with me. I think her name was Carolina (?). She also informed me that you could order gluten free pancakes for breakfast the next day (must be a day in advance). I did and they were really good! After this I was much more confident but this was really disappointing. They will also make you a portion of chips to be gluten-free at mealtimes if you ask to avoid the cross contamination. There is a 24 hour fridge of sandwiches, but there is no gf option there which was a shame. The snack bar is also limited to pretty much just salad as the other options all contain gluten. But when I asked if there was a gluten free option, she said they had pizzas in the kitchen (gluten free margarita). So that was great! They also had lots of milk alternatives at breakfast including soya, rice, oat, coconut, almond etc.

My wife and I have just returned from a 10 night stay this was our 2nd visit staying platinum and just like our first visit it was great our room was on the fifth floor as I had requested a room with a bath via email which was given.On arrival reception gave us a warm welcome gave us our wristbands and told us to go straight too the restaurant as it closed in 15min then go back too be given our room.Room was spotless right above the terrace.The staff at the hotel are all very friendly and always smiling Patricia at the hello bar and show bar was absolutely fantastic never got flustered when there was a lot of people waiting to be served.The chef at the view bar done a fantastic presentation of the food which was always fresh and tasty.The only negative I have is that on 1 morning having breakfast we saw a lady sitting on the platinum terrace feeding a cat the staff also saw her but done nothing to stop her just kept walking past I personally found that disgusting where other people were sitting eating would that stop me from returning definitely not as we are looking at booking again for next year and I would also recommend the hotel to all family and friends.