DON'T GO TO THIS PLACE IF YOU HAVE ANY CHOICE, UNLESS YOU ENJOY BEING TREATED AS A SECOND CLASS CITIZEN AND BEING BORED TO DEATH! The Holiday companies like to bill this place as unspoilt and the "real Spain" where the Spanish take their holidays. With regard to the latter they are correct but they fail to mention a number of very important points.

The Spanish tend to take their holidays during August - mid Sept and often take a series of long weekend self-catering-type hoidays. As a consequence the Resorts gear themselves to that pattern and Spanish entertainment patterns. The result is that the resort of Islantilla is like a morgue - especialy mid-week. It consists of about 5 major hotels enclosed in their own grounds and the rest of the development is Spanish holiday apartment blocks. The only tourist "infrastructure" is a purpose built Commercial Centre with about 10 restaurants - all of them decidedly poor-mediocre and largely with the same menu, which is vastly over-priced by comparison to other holiday resorts. Be warned also, they do not do children's menus even though this bills itself as a family-friendly resort.

There are no bars in the Centre (although restaurants serve beer) but there are two Marquee-type structures just outside it on the main promenade which are bars but the toilet facilities are decidedly poor. The evening entertainment therefore consisted of walking up and down the promenade with a host of Spanish families stopping occasionally to look at the tacky goods being sold by hawkers who are constantly being moved on by the local Police lest anyone should dare to have some fun. There are also precious little shops to distract you from the tedium. There are a handful of boutiques and one or two souvenir shops in the Commercial Centre but absolutely nothing anywhere else.

There is little or no allowance made for non-Spanish. If you don't speak the language you will find it extremely difficult to make yourself understood - even in the hotels! Worse than that is the palpable sense of not being wanted there. I have been to Spain on many, many occassions and have found the Spanish people to be very kind and welcoming even though they have to endure the most troublesome lager-louts in certain resorts. But in Islantilla and in the Oasis in particular I was shocked at the level of rudeness and discourtesy. If you are not Spanish you do not register on their radar unless there is no-one else around and they can ignore you no further.

We went to the Oasis Islantilla with Direct Holidays on a two week self-catering basis. Our party consisted of a family of 6 people (F45;M 50;M 17;M16;M13;F8) staying in two studio apartments ( we tried to get adjoining rooms but the Receptionist gave us rooms on floors 1 and 3 and made no attempt to accommodate us even though the adjoining room was unoccupied for a large part of our holiday). The hotel grounds, pool areas and reception area where very impressive. Unfortunately, the favourable impression ended there. The hotel provided no welcome pack or information pack whatsoever. The rooms consisted of a normal sized hotel room to which was added a pull-out bed-settee to make up the third bed. As a consequence the room was quite cramped for three people. The balcony was absolutely tiny and barely enough room to take two plastic chairs side-by-side. Worst of all was the self-catering equipment. This consists of a two-ringed counter-top electric hob. That's it! We waited a couple of hours and eventually a box of cutlery(3 of each - cup,plate,spoon, knife and fork -like military camp) was delivered along with a small frying pan and a small saucepan to one room but nothing to the other. There was no microwave, no kettle (electric or otherwise). After repeated requests to reception we eventually got cutlery and plates delivered to the other room but it took twelve days and repeated requests both by myself and the rep (more of which later) before we got a saucepan and frying pan delivered to the other room. Making a cup of tea or coffee involved heating a saucepan of water usually two or three times as it was too small to cope with six people.

We tried eating in the hotel but the food was poor quality and ridiculously over-priced for the quality. eg. lunchtime two small reheated frozen pizzas, three cokes at the pool-side bar = 27 Euro (approx £19); Buffet-style Breakfast 10 Euro a head (approx. £7). Evening entertainment in the hotel was no better. There was a nightly show at about 10.30pm with about half an hour of presentation of certificates and then 11 o'clock until 12 - usually the Spanish Animation team - interspersed with the occasional night featuring a magician/flamenco show -the usual sort of Spanish package fare. This was invariably delivered exclusively in Spanish with minimal attempt to engage non-Spanish residents -of which there were a fair few. People tended to sit "cinema-style" to watch the entertainment and what few chairs and tables were on the fringes which meant that if you did want to sit and watch and have a drink it was really only feasible at those tables with your view being blocked by the Spanish families who straggled in throughout the show and who couldn't get a seat. Although given the standard of entertainment it illustrates how little there is to do in Islantilla if people were prepared to stand around and watch this. The hotel also continued its policy of over pricing with drinks. A "pint" of beer (invariably three-quarters full) was 4.5 Euro (approx £3.20) a vodka 5.5 Euro (almost £4 without any mixer) a Coke was 2.6 Euro (approx £1.75).

During the day and evening the Animation team ran mini-clubs and a mini-disco and some sporting events eg. waterpolo and volleyball. But once again almost exclusively in Spanish and non-Spanish children and adults alike felt excluded. The much heralded water sports that are supposed to be a feature of the resort according to the brochures were notable by their scarcity. There was a sailing school on the beach but that was it.

Thankfully we hired a car and got ourselves out of the place for a week otherwise I think I'd have gone mad. If you do have the misfortune to have booked, a couple of pointers might help make it more endurable. The Chinese Restarurant in the Commercial Centre is very friendly, low cost and reasonable quality. If you go out the Promenade end of the hotel and go right about 600 yards there is a small El Jamon supermarket (same as the one in the Commercial Centre) beside it there are also two little Spanish bars - nothing in them but the drinks are a bit more reasonable than the hotel - besides these two and the two Marquees there is nothing else outside the hotel complexes -believe me. Of the hotel complexes the Comforthotel has somewhat better entertainment than the Oasis but it is relative and service is abysmal. There is also a little train which goes on the half hour (depending on Siesta) past the main hotels as far as the village of La Antilla (about 30 - 40 minutes walk away from the hotel). The village has a street on which there are a number of restaurants and one or two bars - a bit more what you would get in other Spanish resorts but very limited in scope and variety although after Islantilla it will be a welcome relief.

Finally, don't depend on the rep for any advice or assistance. Ours turned up on the Saturday following our Thursday arrival (there is a Portugese minibus from Faro Airport not your usual Coach with rep). He told us that the resort was very limited (we knew that by then) and that it would probably be a lot better in 5 years time when they built the infrastructure. He explained about the Spanish holiday pattern and that how the hotels were hoping to extend their season by attracting in the week- and two week-long package tourist as opposed to the long-weekend Spanish business from nearby Seville. He knew precious little about the resort and perfunctorilly mentioned three excursions and in essence sympathised about the almost exclusively Spanish nature of the resort and its very limited facilities. Pity the brochures don't make it as plain!

We have just come back from the Hotel Oasis. All in all we had a marvellous holiday and any problems we had were bacause of the fact that we did not speak Spanish.But we will get to that later.
The acommodation is lovely. We were self-catering in a one bedroom apartment. Small but adequate.the cooking facilities are very limited,but we ate out most of the time,so that was fine with us. It is a very large aparthotel so you can get as involved in activities as you like or you can remain as anonymous as you wish. Lots of entertainment around the pool area during the day. the nice thing was that you were right on the beach,just out a back gate,the hotel has its own part of the beach with umbrellas and beds.The problem is trying to book these beds,as the guys who run the rental Speak no English,this is very frustrating.Beautiful clean beach,and totally family orientated.
The Galera restaurant down by the pool was expensive,food poor,menu limited.That would be ok if someone could understand you or even come and serve you??Same could be said of the bar,where on one occasion my husband was ignored for almost half an hour.Anyone who speaks English is treated like a second class citizen,they pretend not to understand but it is really that they just dont like anyone who is not Spanish.We found this really annoying. One lovely elderly English lady got very cross with them one night after having had to put up with this attitude for almost a week,they coulkd have cared less.
The staff at reception were lovely and the cleaning ladies were really nice,and kept the room spotless.
Even still,we do intend to return next year.I started my beginners spanish course last week, so I am organised for 2007!!!

Dee, Co. Clare
Ireland

We stayed at this Hotel via Airtours in July 2006 on a self catering basis as that was the only basis available. The room had 2 bedrooms 2 bathrooms and was fine for a hotel room but useless for self catering. There was a 2 ring hob, kettle, sink and fridge. There were 2 pans a small milk pan and small frying pan. Therefore we only ate breakfast in the room. The hotel has 3 restaurants which are expensive and below average and I wouldn't recommend using them. About 5 minutes walk there is a commercial centre with about 10 restaurants which offer better value for money (The Chinese restaurant is excellent and good value). There is also a small supermarket, banks and around 25 other shops in the commercial centre.

The hotel has a gym, tennis courts, an indoor pool and 2 large outdoor pools with lovely gardens. The daily pool towel service is excellent and free. The Islantilla area is quite new with a lovely promenade and the hotel has direct access to a beautiful beach. There are more Spanish holidaymakers than other nationalities which is unusual. We went on a Jeep Safari into the Portuguese hills which was excellent - lots of bird wildlife flamingoes etc around the salt lakes and cork and fruit trees in the hills. This included lunch in a restaurant in the hills and a boat trip back to the coast down the river which divides Portugal and Spain. I would recommend this hotel if you want to chill out on a pool / beach basis apart from that there is little else to recommend in the immediate vicinity.

Just back from a fantastic fortnight at Oasis Islantilla. 1 bed apartment was very nice with pull out 3rd bed for teenager - wouldn't sleep a tall/ heavy person. Air conditioning was inclusive and much needed. Had to ask for kitchen utensils as none in room when we arrived. Hotel staff very friendly and helpful. Kids entertainers were very good - mini-club for under 7s, maxi - club, teenagers and adult activities too, although music played round pool to announce activities was quite noisy.
Rooms were cleaned every day with fresh towels if you wanted. Linen changed twice weekly.
Hotel has 3 restaurants but quite pricey and Galera Italian restaurant not that good. We were self catering but meals can be eaten in hotel - 10€ for breakfast, 21€ for lunch buffet and dinner. There are many excellent restaurants in the resort which are much cheaper so we ate out all the time.
The resort is quite small but very busy, mainly with Spaniards, some Portuguese and very few Brits.
The grounds of the hotel are superb with a lovely garden and pool area. The hotel is right on the promenade with the blue flag beach on the other side.
A good walk (1 hour) is along the beach to the neighbouring La Antilla which has a few more shops and restaurants. There is a nature walk starting near the centre which is worth a go.
There is not much to do in Islantilla which makes it a great place to have a relaxing holiday.
As we were the only people on our flight we had a taxi to and from the airport - 1 hour - thanks First Choice.