CDSHotels Riva Marina Resort

“Lovely holiday”

The negative reviews on here certainly don’t reflect our experience. We were with a Mistral tour and had a great time. Our room was spacious and clean, and we’d a huge terrace with tables and chairs. The food was plentiful and good, especially from the premier platti stand, which had some wonderful… more

The negative reviews on here certainly don’t reflect our experience. We were with a Mistral tour and had a great time. Our room was spacious and clean, and we’d a huge terrace with tables and chairs. The food was plentiful and good, especially from the premier platti stand, which had some wonderful soups, risottos and pastas. No, the food wasn’t piping hot, but that’s the Italian way. It was end of season so as expected we had little entertainment, but the singer on the first few evenings was very talented. The bar did very good aperol spritzers and had decent wine and Peroni beer. There wasn’t a lot to do on site (again, it was end of season), though I did like the outdoor gym in the woods. Our excursions with the lovely Armando were all excellent - he had so much local knowledge and a lot of tales to tell! - and we had just about the right amount of relaxation time. The staff were fine - particularly Rosemarie in the restaurant who sorted out our small table problem and was always so pleasant. My only quibbles would be that the wine in the restaurant could have been much better, and everyone hated getting drinks in single use plastic glasses. So wasteful and wrong in this day and age! Please change your policy - if visitors can’t be trusted with glass by the pool, at least use reusable plastics that can be washed.

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“Met expectations”

Booked a holiday with TUI to this hotel even though the reviews were very mixed, we booked a comfort room on full board plus which means that you get unlimited wine, beer, water and soft drinks with your meals. We stayed from 25th September to 2nd October and considered what we paid was very reason… more

Booked a holiday with TUI to this hotel even though the reviews were very mixed, we booked a comfort room on full board plus which means that you get unlimited wine, beer, water and soft drinks with your meals. We stayed from 25th September to 2nd October and considered what we paid was very reasonable. This was towards the end of their season so some of the facilities were not available, ie the beach sun beds and train ended on the Sunday during our stay. Without the train it is a long walk to the beach, there are only two exits from the resort, the main one is manned but the one the train uses is supposed to be able to open with your room card but this appears to be broken so only way to get out would be to phone reception and ask them to open it for you. The description of the hotel on their own website is a resort rather than hotel, it is comprised of several blocks of rooms spread over a large area, the blocks are over 2 floors. Although we booked a comfort room we were upgraded to a suite, perhaps as the resort may not have been full at the end of the season. We were more than happy with the suite, it was very clean and spacious with two rooms and a large bathroom and a separated room with a washbasin, it would have accommodated a family of 5 although we were only a couple. (See photos). The dining room is very large as it has to accommodate the large number of guests, everyone has their own tables allocated on arrival, tours that stay here do sit on larger tables of 10 but I expect that is how the tour managers want them to be. The anti pasti course is buffet style with plenty of choice and different dishes every day. 1st and 2nd course are served by the staff from 3 different stations and although queues formed you didn’t have to wait long to be served. Desserts were available in the evening only but fruit was always on offer. Breakfast was adequate, bacon, scrambled eggs, frankfurter sausage, boiled eggs, and croissants either plain, chocolate or custard filled along with usual continental items. It’s not Michelin Star but we wouldn’t expect that with the amount we paid, we didn’t have any repetition of meals during our stay and all we ate met expectations. The staff were all very pleasant and perhaps don’t chat as they know very little English. The pool bar served drinks in plastic cups as other reviews have said, bottled beer was available and prices were reasonable. The pool was large with plenty sun beds and at the time we were there no towels reserving them first thing. Also enough umbrellas and trees for everyone to get shade if needed. We took our own towels so can’t comment on the availability of hotel ones. Tours do stop here and perhaps depending on what time of the year you visit may give you a different experience, we visited when Italian children were back at school so only a handful of toddlers there. The most coaches we saw in the car park was 12. This was our first visit to PUGLIA and wanted to be located where we could easily visit the main attractions. We booked with TUI and used there experiences for two of our trips to Alberobello and Matera which picked up from this hotel. We used a local taxi company (Dabby.it) to get us to the train station at Carovigno from where you can get trains to Lecce, Monopoli and Polignano a Mare. Taxis were very reliable, booked via WhatsApp in English.

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“Don’t believe negative comments”

When I read the reviews about this trip I was worried I needed have been. We’ve had had a great time. The trips alone are really great our guide Amando was so informative and because he was born in the area took us off the tourist beat. Yes restaurant enormous but plenty of food choice. The Itali… more

When I read the reviews about this trip I was worried I needed have been. We’ve had had a great time. The trips alone are really great our guide Amando was so informative and because he was born in the area took us off the tourist beat. Yes restaurant enormous but plenty of food choice. The Italians don’t eat their food hot the grounds and pools are lovely. The downsides are staff so unfriendly. Especially the man at the beach bar (which you reach by free train to sun Ed’s on beach and free bar. No food though) also the amount of plastic thin cups they use is a disgrace. I took my own recyclable wine glass We we’re lucky to be with a great group who helped make our holiday extra special

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