Hotel review: Melia Dunas resort, Sal, Cape Verde

When was the last time you sat in the sun, feeling utterly chilled out? Maybe had time to read your own book, enjoy your drink and just relaaaaaaaaaaaax. If you’re anything like me, the answer is probably rare enough to stick in your mind.

It’s not just the fact that I have a four-year-old with an equally miniature attention span, it’s also the fact that I love to pack my trips full of exploring. But while I love seeing the world, taking a zillion photos and juggling a small person’s needs at the same time, it doesn’t always leave me much time to slow down.

Don’t worry, I’m not asking for any sympathy. But everyone needs a break sometimes: which led me to Melia Dunas Resort, Cape Verde. I wanted sunshine, a destination that’s just a bit different, a bit of exploring – this is what we got up to – and a lot of pampering. Five-star, all-inclusive, family-friendly pampering… Sound good? Here’s my Melia Dunas review.

Melia Dunas review: Vital statistics

The resort itself is split into two: Melia Dunas and Sol Dunas resort – but in practice a lot of the facilities are shared between the two. You’ll end up with different coloured wristbands, depending which side you stay – plus a special adults-only option, called The Level – which may restrict some of the places you can eat (although not a lot else based on our experience).

If you’re trying to decide between Sol Dunas or Melia Dunas, the biggest difference is whether you want to be by the beach (Melia is closest), by more of the pools and waterpark (Sol Dunas is closest) or the restaurants (the Melia Dunas hotel side seemed to have the better selection and is the one I’d choose again).

With the reception for both in the middle, we stayed on the Melia side which has most of the restaurants, including my favourite Atlantis, the main pool and the beach (plus The Level adults-only areas).

Sol Dunas is around a 10-15 minute walk away, depending where you stay on the Melia side, and has most of the pools, the waterpark, kids’ club and playground.

Small buggies are available to help you get around, although in practice it’s only worthwhile calling up for one if you have luggage or need assistance, and somehow it never feels quite as huge as it is, with leafy gardens around the paths. The resort has various different room options from a deluxe room up to a five-bed villa, all with terrace or balcony.

It’s also worth knowing this isn’t the only Melia, Cape Verde also has the adults-only Melia Llana on the island. Not one to get confused if you’re visiting with kids.

Melia Dunas, Sal review: The good

The room

Cool, spacious and decorated in monochrome shades of brown and white, plus a few splashes of colour from the art on the walls. It’s all quite low-key but lovely, with all the facilities you’d expect including aircon.

Having booked a two-bed family room, we were actually greeted with the news that we’d been upgraded to a five-bedroom beachside villa so we not only had masses of room to spread out – including three bathrooms for the three of us, plus a terrace – we had our own small plunge pool with loungers overlooking the beach.

Once I’d picked my jaw up off the floor, we decided the only explanation was that I’d joined the Melia Rewards programme and we’d booked direct rather than through, eg TUI. Who knows, but has to be worth a try?

Interestingly, the website shows that the villas (both three and five-bed) are all over-16s only but we were far from the only family in them.

The food

All-inclusive is always a bit of a gamble. Not here however: with four main restaurants to choose from, we had some truly delicious meals, none of which cost a penny extra. A couple have a charge, including steakhouse Rancho, but we were enjoying the others so much we didn’t bother booking it.

Sahel, which also needs booking, has Indian food on the menu (plus humungously big pizzas on the kids’ menu) but while this was nice, we quickly settled on Atlantis and Aqua as our favourites, and never even got around to going into the main Spices buffet (which no longer seems to be listed on the site).

Both had buffets to choose from, which was helpful with a hungry daughter, as well as a choice from the menu (which stayed the same every day) and live cooking stations which changed day to day.

Aqua specialised in Italian food and had more that Minnie liked, Atlantis focused on seafood (although also plenty of fish and non-seafood options) and was easily my favourite.

They both had great breakfast options, including omelettes, and waiters topping up wine, water and juice as well as taking other drinks orders, plus lovely outdoor seating (take a scarf for the early morning/evening breezes).

There’s also a separate cafe with specialist coffees plus a mini ice cream parlour which you do have to pay for. The same goes for drinks at the champagne bar, for example. We didn’t bother with any of those except the ice cream (a few Euros for a gigantic cone so not too expensive) as there was so much already included – not least cava and ice cream in the restaurants.

The facilities

Where to start? A spa, which sadly I didn’t get to try, tennis courts, pools (they deserve their own section), a kids’ play castle area (it always seemed a bit hot whenever we tried to visit), activities for kids and adults, watersports (off-site) and the kids clubs. The age range goes from six months in the Baby Club up to 17 in the teens club, spread across three areas with their own programme.

Minnie, at four, was one of the oldest in the Baby Club, and while I was worried she’d be bored with the little ones, it was actually just right for us.

She felt grown up enough to be happy to go solo (whereas I suspect she might have been less keen as the youngest in the mini club), they had a little shaded play area, drawing, books and more. The younger ones can join in some of the activities at the mini club if they’re accompanied by an adult: we tried one but they are probably better for older kids.

I usually got requests to go to kids club as soon as breakfast was over – we quickly got into a routine of spending the early part of the day by the pool or beach, having an hour or so at the kids’ club before lunch while I did that chilling out in the sun, then back to the pool/beach later in the day. Bliss. There is also babysitting for a fee.

The pools

SO. MANY. POOLS. I counted seven, although as most of the larger pools also had a shallow kids’ section, technically I think there are more. Melia has the main pool, by far the biggest, as well as The Level adults-only pool.

Sol Dunas has the others, including the small waterpark (for kids over 120cm), the kids’ pool – more of a splash zone, with water cannons, a pirate ship and mini slides – and three other medium sized pools.

We tended to stick to one of those as they seemed warmer and often quieter than the main pool (and much warmer than our mini pool). None are heated, although the sun was warm enough that it didn’t matter much – the beach would be a better bet on cloudy days though. You can check out Cape Verde’s weather throughout the year here.

Each has its own bar and plenty of sunloungers, including ones in the shade. Get up early and you can snaffle a cabana too. You’ll get a token for pool towels, which you can pick up and exchange at certain hours of the day.

The beach 

It’s a public beach but there was none of the hassle you sometimes get in other destinations, plenty of loungers and umbrellas, bookable Balinese beds, plus some very useful wind breaks.

Set out in the Atlantic, the islands do get strong breezes and rough seas (more so than usual when we visited) although there is a calmer protected section for older kids.

Almost all the island’s beaches are similar: this isn’t really the place for a paddle in the gentle waves!

You can also take a wander along the sand for a bit of beachcombing, including some very pretty shells and volcanic rocks.

The location

On the south of the island, just outside Santa Maria, it’s not too far from either the airport or any of the island’s main attractions. You can even walk to the small botanic gardens from the resort.

A free minibus goes to Santa Maria several times a day from reception: it gets busy and fills up fairly quickly – taxis cost a flat 3 Euros for the short drive, so it’s almost less hassle to do that.

The staff

I think every member of staff we met was smily, welcoming and friendly. Given that English is often a third or fourth language for most, we found very few language barriers during our stay (a few words of Portuguese go down well too) and soon got recognised in the restaurants.

The islands’ motto is ‘no stress’ – something it’s worth remembering when it comes to service, which is distinctly relaxed. Opening hours for towels are definitely approximate, ordering in the restaurants isn’t always super-speedy, but most of the time, what’s the rush? There are exceptions of course – read on for ours – but make the most of slowing down yourself.

Melia Dunas review: The not so good

The relaxed attitude to problems

We hit two minor issues during and after our stay. Our electricity unexpected went off one day, and it took several calls and me standing in reception refusing to leave until someone returned to the room, to sort it out. Relaxed is one thing, having no light after 6pm would have been a bigger problem.

The second was an issue with Melia Rewards rather than the resort, when one of mine failed to materialise: two unanswered emails, two unanswered tweets and one phone call later, I got yet another email address to contact and a reply saying it had been passed on, plus (eventually) a message on Twitter confirming it was down to a technical problem. This is over the course of two months and it’s still yet to be sorted.

[EDIT: It took some more chasing but the voucher did turn up – albeit about three months late]

Fortunately it’s nothing major, but as my only experience booking with Melia, it makes me wonder what happens if there is a real problem – to be fair, I haven’t actually had to test their customer service on that though.

The kitchen

Another minor niggle that’s worth being aware of if you book one of the lovely villas: the kitchen has an oven… but only basic crockery and five teaspoons in the drawers, so you’d need your own pans to use it!

We hadn’t planned to cook (why would you in an all-inclusive resort?) so had all we needed: a coffee machine with pods, plus a kettle and useful fridge. If you do want a corkscrew, pack your own…

Melia Dunas, Cape Verde: my verdict

Niggles aside, this is perhaps one of my favourite resorts I’ve stayed in recently – if you’re looking for that pampering, family-friendly break I mentioned at the start. My daughter was in small child heaven between the beach, endless pools, kids’ club and occasional ice creams.

I got to relax myself (also heaven) between some delicious meals and free-flowing wine, without the guilt of feeling that I should be visiting a string of different places instead of kicking back in the sun. Sal is lovely, and has some very fun spots to explore but a day tour and a couple of morning trips exhausted my list, which left plenty of time to chill out.

And that, as I reminded myself, is what holidays are supposed to be about…

Click here for more tips on visiting Cape Verde with kids as well as things you need to know before visiting Cape Verde

CAPE VERDE MELIA DUNAS REVIEW: PIN FOR LATER

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links – any purchases you make are unaffected but I may receive a small commission. I paid for my own stay, and all opinions in my Melia Dunas review remain my own.

Images and video copyright MummyTravels

LIKED THIS? SIGN UP FOR MY EMAIL NEWSLETTER