Jalsa Beach Hotel and Spa

I am extremely disappointed with the recommendation and inclusion of this resort by TUI UK. It is described as a 4-star resort with excellent amenities, but I highly advise staying away. Upon arrival, the staff were friendly and polite, which was commendable. However, this was the only positive aspect of the resort. If you have mobility issues, it's crucial to avoid rooms on higher floors, as the elevators do not function. So now you got your room at the ground floor, great, just make sure that you keep all the windows and doors shut if you dont want to wake up with a stray cat or a few stray dogs in your room. Never mind, you like dogs and cats, even if they are strayed, so you decide to turn on your 32in flat TV to chill after your long journey, wait what? i only get 5 working channels, one in english, two in french and the rest in hindi? Its ok, grab something from the mini bar, so you go to the mini fridge to grab a ice cold drink, hold on a second, the fridge is empty. So you go to have a shower and realise that there is a black thing going around the corners, and you decide to look closer and you realise that its mould. But you are wet now so you get out of the shower and grab a towel to dry yourself and for some reason the towel seems to be the one that you use to dry your dog after a long wet walk, and its also stained. But you decide to push trough and ignore all the bad reviews about this place because you are on holiday and you got all inclusive, so you go at the pool bar to grab a snack when the bartender tells you that for those snacks you have to pay, yes you do have all inclusive but this is not part of the all inclusive. If you want a snack between lunch and dinner, @ 15:30 there is a lady behind the pool bar that serves vegetable samosas and pancakes every day, and no tomorrow its not going to be something else, the same samosas and pancakes. Well, you're not that hungry anyway so you decide to wait until dinner, for now you grab a cold drink and decide to go on the beach, but wait, where is the beach, hmmm, thats the beach, that patch over there, okay. So you grab a seat to relax and look at the beautiful lagoon when a stray dog approaches you and another, so now you panic a bit as you don't know how the dogs are going to react, but you think back and remember that TUI said that there are security guards who take care of the dogs, so you wait for someone to come and send the dogs away. But no, nothing happens, nobody comes, and you look to your right and you see a chaiselong that its not used, and it had a topper on it so you decide to move there, maybe the dogs wont come any closer there as there are a few more people. But when you get there you notice that the topper is chewed by dogs and the back rest is screwed by someone so you cant lay back, but wait, you see a hammock, thats definitely the deal, so you go close to it quickly before someone grabs it and you noticed that its covered in moulds. Push it trough, you say to yourself, tomorrow ist all going to be better, lets go to dinner. At the restaurant you're all dressed up and you're looking forward to those nicely dressed tables that you seen on TUI app and you're thinking of all the good food. So you grab a seat to a table that is not dressed, because there are no dressed tables, so you go to try the food, looking around to decide what you want to try you see the food containers being held together by screws, rusted screws, with condensation that its dripping from the lid, to the screws and on to the food. So you decide to grab something from the containers that don't have a lid or screws, not many to chose from since there are only 5 containers, and you get your food back to the table and eat. Disappointed you return to your room and go to bed, and you wake up in the middle of the night because a bunch of stayed dogs are barking outside and you're also having stomach cramps, you turn on the light and you see a bunch of reptiles/lizards on the ceiling and your heart starts to race, but so its your stomach, so you decide to go to the toilet where you spend the rest of the night because you got food poisoning. Breakfast is all the same again and the options are identical every day.

OK folks, its not a novel. Its fact. When i have approached the Food and beverage manager about the screws, he seemed surprised that i am bothered by the fact that since 2017 he is using the same food containers with the same screws. He asked me to ask the chef to cook me something if there is something that i want, but if thats the situation in the restaurant where the customer can see all this, i wonder how are the conditions in the kitchen.

The food is stale and of no quality, its left uncovered, birds come and serve themselves at breakfast at the omelette station as the cook leaves the station and doesn't cover the food. The cook never changes gloves no matter what food or other surfaces he touches, the other cook, doesn't uses gloves.

So in a nutshell, No i do not recommend at all this resort.

I urge the Food and Beverage Manager to visit the nearby Radisson Blu and witness the standard of food presentation, freshness, and quality upheld there.

Date of Stay: 22-27 Oct Rooms: Room on arrival 22-24, Deluxe sea view room 24-27

Room On Arrival: Our first 2 nights, we opted for room on arrival. Room was good and spacious and well organised and clean. It does not have any view abut have a balcony. Our room was at ground floor. Bathroom was also clean with Hair dryer. They provide small shampoo and body was bottle everyday of your stay. Room was cleaned on daily basis by their staffs. In room, they had electric kettle along with tea/coffee/milk/sugar pouches which is refilled everyday. Water bottle is available as need basis. All things mentioned here are without extra charges.

Deluxe sea view Room: For last 3 nights, we stayed at deluxe sea view room. The room/washroom size is similar of earlier room but it was at 2nd floor and has a nice view from room and balcony. All other amenities/facilities are same as room on arrival.

Food: They have a nice big restaurant there in the premise. The restaurant is well decorated and looks nice. A-la-Carte cost is little higher. We opted for buffet breakfast and dinner which was included in our hotel booking. Buffet breakfast timing is 7:30am-10am. Buffet Dinner timing is 7pm-10pm. Both breakfast and buffet has lots of delicious food, well cooked, not so spicy. We both liked the food. they have 4-5 items in starter/main course/dessert in dinner. in breakfast, along with other items, they have live counter where you can get your customised food prepared instantly.

Staffs: Thanks to all the staffs for our wonderful stay there. All the staffs are very helpful, well mannered and organised. Special thanks to Farhaan from reception to show us around after we reached the hotel. Also thanks to Jignesh who was trainee at the restaurant for taking extra care during breakfast/dinner.

Amenities/Facilities: They have their own private beach which is always accessible to the guests. Also they have facilities for different water activities like snorkelling, kayaking, glass bottom boats, paddle boats etc and the best thing is, all of this are included in your booking, No need to pay separately. They have a nice swimming pool which is cleaned daily. They have a big parking places (for around 20 cars), so in case, you have rented car there, no issue with parking.

Overall, it was a very nice and wonderful stay. The rooms and amenities were very good and satisfactory. Food is also awesome. Definitely, I will recommend this hotel to others.

TUI should be ashamed of themselves advising such a poor standard of accommodation. They advertise it on the website as a 3T plus , not a chance , we’ve asked to move hotels.

The first room we had had ants and sockets didn’t work, They moved us to a better room which it is , but again the bedside sockets are not working, I ve told reception but still nothing done .

There’s a lot of good reviews on here for this place, and maybe my standards are higher , but the standards here are low especially the food.

The photos on the website are around 5 yrs old , which to me is false advertising, The beach is held up with sand bags , there’s only one little spot near the boat house where you can safely get in to the sea .

Every one who we have spoken to is complaining about the food .

It’s not good enough it’s really appalling , we eat out now which means spending extra money , but I’d rather do that and enjoy a meal ,

First & last trip to this island unfortunately. On a positive note the staff here are lovely and helpful.