I was with my wife and my children of 8 and 11 years and enjoyed the stay. From the reception, very friendly and efficient, through cleaning, simply flawless, even the meals were exquisite, varied and of excellent quality. Just 10 minutes from the beach walk, has a free shuttle train that piece by the late hours of going to the beach. Pools good and clean. Room large enough for four beds, perhaps in need of some minor repair. 5 floors with lifts itself sufficient fast. Anyway, all fantastic and excellent hotel for families! But best of all is the superb animation team of the Hotel Carabela. For them I want to go back there!

We stayed here for a week mid-May. The weather was excellent and you didn't have to rush out to the pool at 9am to get a sunbed. You could wander out at 11am and still get a sunbed, people tended to sunbathe later and the swimming pool area was still very busy at 7/8pm.

It only took 50mins to get there from Seville Airport (I think our taxi driver knew a shortcut!)

The buffet food at breakfast and dinner was excellent with a good choice. There were themed evenings i.e. Italian one night and Seafood another. If you sat outside for dinner there was a very peaceful and relaxing ambience.

There were quite a few children there, we had a 10 year old who only wanted to read and swim. The Hotel was a paradise for him.

We went down to the beach on the mini train (it is walkable) 3 times and found the beach to be very large and really quite busy, but if you go down during siesta time it is deserted as it is mostly spanish down there. My only gripe with the beach was they didn't seem to tidy the area very well - there was rubbish around and tables weren't wiped etc. My husband didn't like the fact they served his beer in a whiskey tumbler! I would definitely rate this area as 3*. It is a good base for the beach however as you can come back and clean up then lie on the beds without being all sandy. We didn't eat at the beach so couldn't comment but we found a rather basic looking restaurant on the beach, none of the waiters spoke any English and they didn't have a menu but we managed to communicate somehow and had the tastiest sardines ever washed down with a cold beer (we went back on other days!) There aren't many places to go to eat in Matalascañas and not many shops but if you want a relaxing holiday with good food we would recommend the Hotel Carabela.