Me and a group of 7 of my girlfriends travelled to Palma Nova for a week and stayed at Ola Club Panama in July 2014. We booked the trip through Thomas Cook who had previously recommended the hotel to us for a girls holiday for which we explained we wanted for the nightlife of Magaluf. The holiday was good however the hotel ruined the experience for me slightly. It was a family based hotel for starters with mostly Geman, French and Scottish people and there were few if any groups of teenagers (so if you're looking to socialise round the pool as we did, you won't have any luck). Speaking of the pool, we planned to sunbathe around it day in day out yet the size of the pool is nothing as it looks on the pictures- it was tiny and always packed with children and their floats with few sunbeds that were constantly occupied. We therefore sunbathed on the roof all week which I would recommend- music was played and lots of space and sunbeds which was relaxing and got us away from the families downstairs, however the heat can be intense so I struggled to sunbathe long without the use of the pool. When we arrived at the hotel and were shown to our rooms we were placed on the basement floor at the end of the corridor at an unsightly area- amongst cleaning cupboards, a fire escape and with hardly any light (not to mention an off putting smell) we found our rooms. The rooms, facility wise, were ok- everything we needed except a missing mirror on the wall was there which is all we paid for really. However the room had clearly not been properly cleaned from the previous people- there were long black hairs in the shower which were not cleaned all week!! Personally that was the worst part for me as cleanliness is all I required and I didn't get it. Our friends next door had an ant infestation and we had a grasshopper in the hallway that was never removed (Alive for half the week, sadly dead for the rest of the duration yet still very present by our rooms). Our rooms being on the ground level were also very noisy as they were right by a tennis court and due to the close proximity and shadows it often sounded like the people were right on your balcony! So if like us you're going on a girls drinking holiday and need hungover lie ins, it's really not ideal at all. Our shower was also broken as it wouldn't stay in the stand which was the case with a couple of the rooms so the hotel is certainly in need of some touches to fix up. Shampoos and soaps were also missing, whereas our neighbouring rooms had these. The wifi situation is ok- it's slow and costly but it works, however only in reception and on the roof despite the hotel advertising wifi at all areas of the hotel. The staff vary- some are polite and helpful (in fact very much so) however others were often rude and bias against English people it seemed. The food is below average- bring money with you to eat out! We ended up doing so several times as the food was bland and really not nice if there was any flavour at all. My friends are all meat eaters and the meat was often questionable so they shied away from it, whereas I am a vegetarian so I stuck mainly to salad which was ok but often dry, and mostly chips and plain pasta all week long. It struck me as a European continental style food which the English are less used to, so for us English girls we struggled more than the rest of the guests. Back to the room situation, there was also no hair dryer so we luckily brought this with us and there was a fridge but it barely worked, we kept chocolate and drinks in there but they were luke warm and melted all week so don't rely on this. There is also a big mosquito problem in the hotel- it is understandable in a country like Majorca in the heat of summer that Mosquitos are hard to combat and the hotel cannot particularly be held accountable, however in the reception there were countless numbers of them and I was bitten fiercely so I doubt they had put in any implications to prevent the amount of mozzies. The location is good- only a very short walk from Palma Nova beach which is clean and fun (cafés and pedalos and if you're anything like my friends you'll be happy to know there is a close by McDonald's with free half an hour use of wifi). It is also only a short walk from the strip- about 15 mins or less. To conclude, I wouldn't recommend the Hotel at all especially not for the holiday we were looking for, perhaps if you are a European family it would be more suitable and enjoyable. However the location is good so do look at other hotels in the area!
