Melia Dunas Beach Resort & Spa

Fantástico!

We chose this hotel because, on the EasyJet holidays website, it appeared to be of high quality, with attractive photos and a good overall impression. However, the reality was very different. On the day of travel, after a long 6-hour flight from London and having to wake up 3 hours earlier to prepare and arrive at the airport on time with children, we arrived at the hotel and were informed that our room wasn’t ready. We had to wait some hours hours despite being extremely tired. Our youngest was so exhausted and couldn’t even rest upon arrival because the room wasn’t prepared. When we finally received the keys and opened the door to the apartment, I felt like I was entering a low-category guesthouse. The apartment was outdated, with tiled floors full of stains, old furniture with paint marks, and damaged doors. It was clear that no proper maintenance had been done for years. Around the doorframe, the wood was already rotting, and the bins were rusty. What I thought would be a dream holiday turned into a nightmare. We couldn’t enjoy the leisure we expected—it was constant stress. Some of the window blinds were broken, and we had to keep them shut all day. We had no water starting one evening at 8 p.m., (20/07/2025 lasting until 06:00 am on 22/07/2025 .This caused a terrible smell in the bathrooms, making the environment unhygienic. We couldn’t shower or flush toilets. We constantly had no towels or missing towels. We complained, and it would take a full day to receive clean towels. We also found cockroaches in the bathroom and living area, as well as lizards crawling on the floor. One cockroach was even found on clothing hanging in the wardrobe. The hotel simply gave us insect spray, expecting us to deal with the pests ourselves. I couldn't sleep thinking if the cockraches might crawl over me. The fridge was unhygienic, and the experience became a matter of survival, not leisure. The outdoor parasols were destroyed, with no straw left to provide shade. The sun loungers were broken , and the swimming pool had missing tiles, creating a hazard. I personally injured my back and elbow due to this. The food at the buffet was repetitive and low quality. I never saw salmon, shrimp, or steak. The options were always chicken, tuna, or mackerel. This was not what we expected from a five-star resort. The hotel is not family-friendly. There were no snacks available for children throughout the day. Packaged ice cream had to be purchased separately. There were no chocolates, crisps, or treats for the children included in the package. Housekeeping did not clean the apartment daily, only every other day, which is unacceptable in a five-star hotel. They should at least check supplies and make the beds. I have stayed in much lower-rated hotels with far better service. This experience was a complete disappointment on all levels. I will never return to this hotel. What should have been a relaxing and enjoyable holiday became a stressful

Melia Dunas Resort was a complete mixed bag of negative and positive effects but full clarity that this is definitely not a 5* or as advertised. Being a reasonably well travelled person on family and friends holidays I know that all the small differences make a 5* not just what they say on paper. Although very tired, loose tiles and all non working fountains the pools has to be the best part of this hotel, they all have walk-in access slowly taking to varied levels and spread out so they never really feel overcrowded. Unlike the restaurant and bar areas which have limited suitable seating. Main buffet Restaurant feels like all of someone’s left over furniture cobbled together outside which is the most popular area of seating demand due to restaurant having no air con on with all doors open for access and fans provide no relief for hot and busy restaurant. Cats are frequently around your legs on the outside area too. The main issue is food choice in this buffet restaurant it is constantly repetitive which you could probably get by with for a week only, 9 days was too much, so sick of same food, for children the choice is same Lunchtime and night and very limited. We did try Rancho by booking in advance although satisfactory nothing to write home about and cats walking all over tables. You really need to upgrade your vip if you want any choice but we really felt €50 per person per day was not reasonable on top of original holiday cost with a child in the package, I am sure young adults would benefit with access to other bars and restaurants. The complex has a couple of shops that are purely gifting no snack choices and snack offers in between restaurant times are restricted by accessibility and choice, not as a normal all inclusive does which impacts children, no ice cream without additional payment off site. Bars onsite often run out of gas for soft drinks, juices for cocktails and drinks in the buffet restaurant are definitely always a challenge, limited machines that work or cups or glasses by drinks stations. The start of our holiday 3/11 was not too bad but with 5 days you could tell the hotel was much busier and the buffet restaurant was challenging, food presentation and delivery along with quality and choice became very tiresome. Pasta each day had no taste, variety or meat was just sauce added, also vegetables were the same morning noon and night and when there was a space created for more variety cake was placed on display to fill up the area. Basic condiments and fresh unsweetened bread unavailable. All of which is down to choice so may be great for others just not for our group of 5ad, 1ch. Through the stay I had to ask for clean towels, for one of the days after emailing customer services due to no responses to asks at reception for in room milk requests that was when you got to revelation for the knee deep ques for checking in/out, which was horrendous when trying to personally check in&out. Poolside towels are €20 on

Please don’t believe the negative reviews that have been posted about this hotel. We are staying at the hotel at present and I can only assume that the negative reviewers have their own agenda. The hotel is very comfortable. Beds lovely and rooms are cleaned every day and kept spotlessly clean. We have had absolutely no problems in booking any of the a la carte restaurants. Food is excellent and drinks very nice. The buffet restaurant is huge and has everything that you could think of for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Good quality and food always hot. The staff are very friendly and obliging. Perhaps enquire how they are from time to time and you will see their hospitable and friendly characteristics. There are certain things that could be improved, which is true of all of the hotels that we have stayed at around the world. The sunbeds could do with being updated and there is some maintenance work that needs doing if you look close enough. I suspect that such work is scheduled for the offseason as we have seen various work being started. There are mosquitoes here as with any dry, arid and hot location. We have seen nothing in our room, so the comments that they are infested is nothing like true in our experience. Please don’t worry if you are booked to come here. You will have a great time and will feel very welcomed.

We stayed here from the 17th-24th of September, it was an absolutely fantastic vacation. Me and my partner got engaged on the beach at sunset, it was stunning, and absolutely beautiful! We stayed as Level guests, and were in the main reception building, our room was perfect, and cleaned every 2 days as promised! We had water in our rooms, good air con, and a tv that worked! We had no power cuts or no water cuts. Why people are complaining at every other day cleaning, I don’t know, you wouldn’t change everything at home every single day!! They inform you of this at reception when you arrive! The food was lovely, and the restaurants that you book into were delicious, we were served politely with happy staff at all times!! The Level pool was gorgeous, and right by the beach which was nice and relaxing with drinks and food served to you throughout the day! We had a beautiful holiday and one to remember please don’t worry about the reviews before your holiday like I was! Could it do with a lick of paint and some new umbrellas here and there? Sure! Did it ruin our holiday? And did we go looking for reasons to ruin our holiday? No!! It would maybe be a 4* hotel in Europe etc but Melia was still a stunning hotel & Cape Verde was a delight to visit! ☺️ The only down side that I would warn others about - Mosquitos!! They are everywhere, and it doesn’t matter what you do they will bite you! Is this the hotels fault though and reason to complain? No! You’re in Africa.. it’s to be expected ☺️

The level pool was great good service. The drinks and snacks were great. Thank you Vanice (hostess) The some sunbeds need an upgrade