Flipflops and Floaties

We visited Sol Katmandu Park & Resort for 7 nights in May 2018, our last holiday as a family of 3. We were looking for an all inclusive hotel, short flight (as I was 7 months pregnant), with a splash park and plenty to do for Ellie, who was 3 years old at the time.

The Resort

• Splash park: Open from May – September. We noticed on a lot of sites online this is advertised as a ‘Water Park’, it is definitely not a water park, it is a small shallow pool with a couple of slides, a big bucket that fills with water and empties out on top of the pool every couple of minutes, and some water guns. That being said, Ellie had a lot of fun splashing around in here for an hour or so each day.

• 3 outdoor swimming pools: These are apart of the hotel, so if you are only visiting for the day, you will not have access to these. One of the pools is a small shallow pool for young kids. The water is not heated, we found it painful getting into the pool in May because the water was so cold. Ellie didn’t have any issues with the water though, so maybe we are just a tad sensitive in our old age.

• Mini Golf (extra charge): We never actually got around to trying out the mini golf, not because we were too miserable to pay the extra money though, I swear.
• Indoor play area: Ellie only used this facility once during our 7 day trip. It is separated into two sections. One for kids under 5 years old and the other for kids over 5 years old. The video below shows Ellie in the under 5’s area, and then the area to the right in the video is for over 5’s.

• Theme Park: There is a small ‘theme park’ on site, a lot of the attractions were not suitable for Ellie’s age (3 year old), so we didn’t end up trying out all of them. Just a heads up though, when I think of ‘theme park’ I think rollercoasters, water rides, ferris wheels, waltzers etc. and they didn’t have any of these here, so I think it is stretching it a bit referring to it as a theme park. That is just my opinion of course.
• Theme Park Attractions:
  • Splash Park
  • Indoor Soft Play
  • Mini Golf
  • 4D Experiences
  • Desperados – This is a 4D experience with the addition of pistols to shoot the bad guys
  • Zombies! XD Dark Ride – Another 4D experience, this time you will be fighting zombies
  • The Asylum – A 5D Horror film
  • The House of Magic – This attraction is new, it wasn’t there when we visited but from what I can see on their website it is yet another 3D/4D experience
  • Upside Down House – We all had a ball in here, we laughed from start to finish. Ellie still talks about it a year later.

• Board Basis: Options range from B&B right up to All Inclusive. We opted for All Inclusive because we had a 3 year old with us who likes to snack every 3 seconds but never actually finishes any of her food.
• Restaurant: There is one restaurant and it is buffet style for all meals. We weren’t overly impressed with the food to be honest, it was never hot, maybe warm at best. I don’t think the heaters were fit for purpose.
• Snack Bars: There is a snack bar in the Theme Park that serves Food and Drink until approx 6pm. This is not included in the price of the All Inclusive. The food was burgers, hotdogs, chips etc. We ended up buying lunch here most days, as we did not fancy the food from the restaurant. They also serve Slush Puppies for the kids. There is another snack bar beside the 3 swimming pools in the hotel area, where you can get the usual alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks, slush puppies etc. The food served here at snack times was of a very low standard. They often had fries, but no hot plate so they were left to go nice and cold.
• Kids Clubs: The quality of the kids clubs at the hotel is exceptional. They have so many fun activities for the kids, they dress them up as pirates some days, take them over to the theme park, have water fights, treasure hunts, baking, games etc.
• Rooms: We only got to see our own room, so I’m not sure if we were just unlucky or if all the rooms are similar, but ours was tiny. You wouldn’t swing a cat in it. and the balcony was tiny too. The room had a private bathroom, a double and a single bed, wardrobe and small fridge. The balcony had a small table with 2 chairs.
• Entertainment: While we were there is May the evening entertainment was held indoor, but there is a big stage outside where the entertainment is held during peak months. We found that you needed to get down to the entertainment area quite early to have any chance of getting a decent seat. We were often stuck behind a pillar with a very obstructed view. There is a kids club on each evening before the entertainment, where they also have games such as musical statues and the resort mascot Boro makes an appearance.

Where is the resort located

The resort is located in Magaluf, Majorca, Spain. As it is in the heart of Magaluf there is no shortage of pubs, restaurants, and shops just outside of the gates of the resort. There is also a large Aldi or Lidl a couple of minutes walk away.

There is a stunning beach approx 250m from the resort. Be prepared though as we didn’t encounter a lot of lets say ‘tipsy’ people during the day, and we saw our fair share of podium dancers in the bars beside the beach in the middle of the day.

5 things we loved

1. The upside down house, this was definitely one of the highlights of the holiday. Make sure you take a peek if you are at the resort.
2. The kids club, the staff in the kids club work so hard to ensure every child has an amazing time.
3. Proximity to the beach, we took a stroll to the beach most days we were there and it was only a 5 minute walk
4. Outside area in the restaurant, it was lovely to be able to have our breakfast al fresco
5. Evening entertainment, there was a good selection of entertainment on after the kids disco each night.

5 things that could be better

1. The food, this was a big let down for us. The quality and selection of food was not great. There wasn’t a huge variation from one night to the next. The biggest let down was that the food was only ever warm at best.
2. The temperature of the swimming pools, if they were even slightly heated it would have made a world of difference. It was painful getting into the water it was that cold.
3. The size of the rooms, our room was tiny
4. Entertainment area, the indoor area where the entertainment is held in the evening could be better laid out so that you are not stuck behind a pilar if you don’t get down there at least an hour before the mini disco
5. Indoor play area, they should definitely let kids into the larger play area from age 4 instead of 5 as there is not enough to do in the younger area for them

Where did we book?

We shopped around and found that Alpharooms were working out the most competitive for the accommodation for the dates we wanted, so we booked through them.

We then booked our flights separately. Check out our blog post on booking cheap flights here.

Finally we booked our transfers through Hoppa.

Sol Katman(do) or Sol Katman(don’t)?

Honestly, it’s a tricky one. We had a great week here, but the resort is not without it’s faults.

In order for us to go back for a second visit we would need to be getting a great price, a bigger room, and we would definitely go B&B instead of all inclusive.

Let us know in the comments if you have any questions.

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