Good communication, great service.
Thanks to Jim for all his help.
Jeremy Poole was extremely helpful and efficient as ever
Simply brilliant - you speak to a human being who is very efficient and competitive. The definition of service! You can't find this anywhere else…..
Immaculate service as always - nothing left to chance
Jeff has been so helpful and everything went as planned.
Always excellent service from Gavin and team
It’s lovely to actually talk to a real person about anything regarding the holiday booking
All fabulous. Your staff are amazing
Always very helpful friendly staff. I never have to wait long for someone to answer
Difficult to beat the professional and personal attention that a client receives from the dedicated staff.
As always excellent service from Elizabeth and Co
London City Airport is how an airport should be. Amazing
Tony suggested a family holiday that we had not considered but worked within our tight budget. It was a super week and we are so grateful for his work putting it all together so promptly. We’ll be back for more holiday ideas!
Just want to thank Orlando for booking us the Belmond hotel Mallorca - the hotel was absolutely amazing. Thanks for another great choice
Fantastic company to book with, will not use anyone else.
Sean Furnival was his usual outstanding self
Bruce was always available and dealt with any queries immediately. He also contacted us before travel to wish us a happy holiday
Everything went according to plan. Thank you so much Patrick
Everything was good
Professional service as always.
Ben is the best. Jeremy excellent in his absence
Arthur Francis is amazing
Our first trip abroad in 3 years. Absolutely enjoyed it!
Can’t thank you guys enough - been using you for over 20 years
Another great holiday!
As always excellent service. The hotel was very good, the staff were so nice. Only comment was the bus service from the hotel to Port Soller was very erratic and they need more restaurants other than two Spanish ones in the hotel
Friendly professional staff.
Reid is the best travel agent in the world - an absolute gem
Very good customer service
Around the cool of the pool at the Bon Sol hotel there's a favourite game that's played every year. How many times have you been here before?
'Eight!' Cries a nine-year-old girl from Edinburgh. 'We're here every summer!' pipes up a young girl from London. 'This time we're staying for six weeks!’
We may have been on only our second visit to this clifftop gem a mere five miles from the Mallorcan capital of Palma, but as long-term devotees will testify - the hotel's repeat visitors make up a staggering 80 per cent of guests - the draw to this refined yet blissfully family friendly hotel is as unmistakable as it is unavoidable.
First opened as a guest house in 1953 by the father of the current owner as a means of providing company for his lonely wife, news of the delightful views over the Bay of Palma spread fast.
It is somehow fitting that one of the first guests was Errol Flynn, whose love affair with Mallorca began when he spent his honeymoon on the island in 1950, following his marriage to his third wife, actress Patrice Wymore.
For as soon as you enter this grand old Spanish stately home complete with wood-panelled telephone booths, portrait-lined walls and a sweeping cherry tree staircase guarded by a gleaming suit of armour, you are instantly transported to more debonair times.
Spanish elegance
Elegant touches are every-where. From corridors and cosy corners dotted with antique ceramics and objets d'art to the imposing main dining room with soaring arched windows and echoes of the Savoy, this is the home of a family who don't see why having a family should get in the way of enjoying the finer things in life.
So if you want to take your little ones to a grown-up, gourmet dinner - starched linen tablecloths, heavy velvet drapes, strains of a grand piano - waiters will happily find a cushion to add a few inches height to the red velvet seats and provide children's menus with colouring pencils to match.Equally, if you yearn for a grown-ups dinner that actually requires you to dress up and lasts longer than 15 minutes, the exceptional kids' club is there to help you out.
Ably run by one of the most sweet-natured young women I have come across in a decade of childcare, it will feed your children at 6pm and keep them happily entertained until 9pm. That's right - aperitifs (for you, not them), a four course meal and three hours of uninterrupted conversation all on half-board. Worth the flights alone.
For less fancy family suppers - in shorts and flip-flops - head to the more informal beach restaurant and breathe in the sea air from the charming stone terrace perched over the bay. And vegetarians are well catered for too, with a dedicated menu.
Each of the 93 spacious rooms and 53 beach villas are bright and uniquely furnished.
Labour of love
The subtropical gardens of the Bon Sol - a mass of palms, mulberry, olive and fig trees, interspersed with oleander, hibiscus and bougainvillea - are testament to a 20-year labour of love.
They also make for a magical backdrop to the hotel's three swimming pools and waterfalls - all set on separate stone terraces that tumble down to the sea - each with refreshing salt water.
Below the patio and bar area are two more terraces lined with sun loungers which form a semi-circle above the small, sandy beach. Perfect for a bracing change of scene - or a spot of snorkelling.
Even the journey back to the room at the end of the day is a delight. Bon Sol bathers are transported back to the main body of the hotel through a series of lifts and deliciously cool underground tunnels. One contains a small, yet immaculate chapel, a reminder not only that this, at heart, is a family home but that there is a touch of the divine about it.
What makes this hotel so special is the warmth of the family who run it.
Ancestral portraits may hark back to the couple who first envisaged the possibilities of this particular paradise. But it is the charming current owner Martin Xamera and his welcoming wife Lorraine who infuse the place with the magic it has today.
Many hotels aspire to being a second home for their guests. The Bon Sol can truly say that it is.
First published in the Mail Online - May 2017
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