Hotel Garden Istra Plava Laguna

For a seemingly “nice” resort, I would never stay here again. Our cycling group came here for two nights. Air conditioning never worked as I believe the temperatures had just changed and the hotel simply didn’t want to get the system to work at the expense of its guests. Oof it was hot. Food options were terrible. A giant buffet akin to cruise food. Coffee machines were broken and even the toaster. Our room was ok but on the second day we didn’t have service. I had to go to the front desk because the phones weren’t working. Lastly the icing on the cake. My partner was sitting outside at dinner with friends. He scooted back his chair only for it to tip over into a back garden area and for him to fall into bushes and barely miss a rock. Had he been one of the elderly clientele he would have been severely injured. So all in. Not a holiday. Never again.

We spend there 2 days with our 9yo daughter in summer time. Hotel is very nice. At that time was packed with guests. Room was claen ad nice aldough the view was not spectacular... Food was wery good ad deliciuos. Hitel has a several swiming pools and has a nice sandy beach like 100m away. On the beach you can find very good restauraiunt and not very expensive. Overall stay was very nice.

- Large and clean room. - Great amenities: swimming pools, Children's animation, Aqua Park with slides.... (be aware it closes at 5 p.m.!!) - Great breakfast and dinner (with wine and beer included) - Easy car park - The sea is a short walk. Avoid the small sand beach and walk for 5 more minutes and you’ll find clear water.

My family and I stayed for three nights and had a disappointing experience. The most important issue was that the A/C was not working properly. We visited in July so the temperature outside exceeded 30 degrees Celcius. Therefore, it was very concerning for us to find out that the temperature in our room was 28 degrees Celcius when we went to sleep. Moreover, I woke up in the middle of the night because the A/C was so noisy that I thought there was a thunderstorm outside. Next morning I contacted the reception and they said that they would reduce the temperature and that the room would be cooler when we returned from the pool in the afternoon. That was, however, not the case. I was in the contact with the reception on several occasions that afternoon/evening and in the end, at 23:15, they offered us to switch rooms. At that time our kids were sleeping so we agreed to switch the following day (our final night). We were told that we got the coolest suite in the hotel but at night the temperature in the sleeping room was 26 degrees Celcius and very humid - so we had another hot night. When I stay at a so-called high-end 4-star resort then the A/C MUST work flawlessly and the 10% price reduction we received cannot make up for the disappointment. In addition to the A/C issues we had all sorts of other bad experiences such as a dirty pool and the fact that we were refused access to the aqua park facilities even though that was emphasized as free in the hotel description.

The front desk people were anything but friendly with the exception of Petar. After checking in we were disappointed with the room. The view was terrible, looking at airco (they mean parodiée?!). The room wasn’t clean on the floor, veiling with dirty stains. Linen and laundry was also with stains. And so the reception couldn’t do anything! So we decided to check-out earlier, this was impossible for us to stay 10 nights! Breakfast: the quality of the products was very low!! No orange juice, never seen that before. The coffee was disgusting. Very industrial. Very very disappointing to stay there. My wife cried about it and really not nice to have such a leave that you look forward to for a year… never again!

My boys (6 and 8) were extremely happy with the animation and thoroughly enjoyed going to the kids' club. I can highly recommend the hotel as the price/value ratio is great. We had an amazing time as a family.

The staff, on the whole, were very friendly and eager to help but I'm not sure how good the training is and they seemed to be woefully understaffed. We last visited this hotel 7 years previously and I'm not sure much maintenance has been done in that time. The hotel, and our room looked scruffy. Our room was not properly clean on arrival and not cleaned properly once during our 9 night stay. We requested a mattress topper as we could feel the springs in the mattress and were given a whole additional mattress placed on top of the original one. This was rectified the next day - all with a smile. The towels were small, old and rough. The staff in the restaurant were generally great, apart from the dragon lady. Unfortunately the staff don't seem to wear name tags so feedback on individuals is impossible. The food in the restaurant was fine but nothing special - the salad bar could have been more robust and more fresh rather than frozen vegetables would have been nice. One of the most challenging things was the heat in the hotel. As is normal in Eastern Europe, the air conditioning in the hotel was still on "heat" and this made the whole hotel an unpleasant temperature...the rooms, meeting rooms, conference room and restaurant. I can imagine that it has been really tough on hotels during Covid but I won't be in a hurry to return.

We booked this hotel because it’s rated very good on many portals. The Hotel itself ist huge and has a great pool and Bay Area. The room are also big, but unfortunately very old, dirty, if you look closer, the bathrooms have mold and are poorly cleaned. The food was the worst. The buffet has a good variety of choices, unfortunately the quality is very low. The Personal is not very friendly at all. There is no help with the luggage, no information when checking- in. No recommendation!

Really beautiful hotel