First the Acapulco Playa is well run, clean, courteously managed hotel of which we cannot speak too highly. The hotel food is first class and there appears to be a good espirit de corps amongst the staff. Our room was cleaned daily and we have absolutely nothing but praise for the hotel and its staff. You can pay a lot of money for poor service and this hotel provides value for money.

The hotel was built prior to the tourst boom, and in the lobby there is an aerial picture of the hotel taken in 1958. Since then it has been extensively expanded and remodelled, but the surrounding area of Playa de Palma has been developed into the German version of Magaluf. This is where the pluses and minuses start.

On the plus side, the hotel is right on the beach, adjacent to on beach catering. There is an excellent (and cheap) bus network with a stop right on your doorstep and the surrounding area has a variety of shops and entertainments. If you pay for a sea view (as we did) you will see some lovely sunsets through the palm trees over the bay of Palma from your balcony. Priceless.

On the minus side there is no parking, and several guests with hire cars got costly parking tickets for leaving their cars in the cramped side streets. At the height of season I imagine you may be hard pressed to find somewhere to park at all! The area caters predominantly (90%+) to Germans, and therefore if you don't speak German you may want to look at another area. The German guests themselves are model citizens for the most part and we got on well, albeit in sign language! By the way the staff DO speak excellent english and of course spanish so there is no problem there.

Mallorca is a wonderful island and you can get some great deals off season at the Acapulco Playa from the Grupotel website. A good time to go would be late October and/or early November when it may still be warm, though there are risks of bad weather compared to say, the Canaries. We got lucky and had sun and 72C all week with only a little cloud.

It's worth bearing in mind that even if you don't get beach time you have some great alternatives for enjoyment in Mallorca with the wonderful city of Palma 30 minutes away by buses that run until 2am for party goers and shoppaholics, as well as the beautiful interior or Mallorca which is as pretty as anywhere I've been. Mallorca beats Tenerife or Lanzarote into a cocked hat for beaches, shopping atmosphere and variety.

We would happily go to a Grupotel hotel again and regard the choice of the Acapulco Playa this time as a great success.