Melia Durres – A Review

We stayed at the Melia Durres for 7 nights at the end of October 2023. Thank you for coming to read Melia Durres – A Review.

Hotel Style

* The design of the hotel is stunning, like all Melia hotels it’s sleek and elegant, very tasteful and beautifully decorated. We enjoyed the colour palette and the furnishings were all beautiful, without being impractical. They manage to combine style with comfort. We appreciated that there was ample places to sit throughout the hotel.

Cleaning

* The cleaners work tirelessly. They are everywhere mopping, sweeping, wiping. All day every day, the whole hotel has not one single hair out of place. As a stickler for cleanliness, this is a big plus for me. The only (and really only) problem I had was I noticed they didn’t clean our toilet floor that well. However, we had daily housekeeping in our room, which was appreciated and really helps when 4 of us are staying in one room.

The Level

* We paid a little extra for The Level which meant, amoungst other things, we got breakfast in an exclusive lounge just for The Level guests. Breakfast was without a doubt the best meal of the day for us. Pancakes, pastries, fruit, breads, cooked breakfasts etc. The breakfast did stay largely the same throughout the week but it was nice enough that we didn’t mind. It was also really quiet in The Level Lounge where we had breakfast which was a nice place to start the day.

** We loved the snacks and drinks available at The Level lounge during the day – such a little piece of luxury. We’d often sit there to relax for an hour or so. There was one day when it rained all day – the Level Lounge saved us from being bored as it was a great place to go, and it was such a lovely day just relaxing.

Swimming Pools and Beach

* There’s a number of pools and the beach is right next to the hotel (and it’s a private lifeguarded beach). Take a bucket and spade for the kids, ours would sit for hours just playing. There is a large indoor pool which was great on rainy days. There is a pool only for The Level guests but it was adult only so we couldn’t go as we had children with us.

* The outdoor pool was so so cold, in October it was hard to stay in it for long. Take thermal swimwear for kids if you do plan to go out of the hottest months.

* Whilst the beach is nice, with plenty of deckchairs, the area to the right is pretty untidy and has stray dogs running around. I know how hard Melia is working to improve this though. The beach bar was a nice place to relax and enjoy the sunset. We would get a drink from there before going to sit on the deckchairs. It was never too crowded on the beach and we could always find somewhere to sit.

Hotel Room

* Our room was big and adequate for 4 of us for a week (the girls were on a sofa bed). The bedding on the sofabed was initially just a sheet, so we asked for duvets for the girls which was provided quickly and with no issue. There was a large rainfall shower and freestanding bath in the bathroom. A super comfy bed for us adults and a great big open wardrobe. Our room was on the ground floor and opened onto a terrace and small lawned area. We could walk from the terrace straight to the pool.

Food and Drink

* We ate at the buffet restaurant most often and the food was probably pretty standard All Inclusive food. The girls enjoyed the pasta and chips. They also LOVED the chocolate fountain.

• We got a pizza takeaway from the Italian on our last night – you can ask for a margarita and it was delicious.

* The vegetarian options at all the restaurants was poor. There was rarely a vegetarian option at the main buffet and meagre options at the Italian, American and Mediterranean restaurants (in fact no main meal vegetarian options at the 2 later ones). This was not really good enough when such a proportion of people these days choose not to eat meat/don’t like meat.

* Every time I ordered a Coke Zero from the pool bar it was flat as a pancake. Later in the week Coke Zero seemed to run out altogether. Which leads on my other drinks based view – the choice for non alcohol drinkers on the all inclusive is really bad. No mock-tails and I only saw non alcoholic beer once in the level lounge.

*The food in the buffet got repetitive. You might not feel this if you were a meat eater.

* My husband liked the beer on offer. If I were a drinker I would have loved the wine and cava set up at the main buffet.

Misc.

* The hotel was full of very old clientelle which was a bit of a strange vibe. It seems there is a deal made with a large German tour agency. Not many families were at the hotel – which is fine but we sometimes felt we were on the ‘older peoples’ holiday.

I have tried to give a well-rounded view and I am being very fussy with my cons, and only because it’s a 5* do I expect such a high standard. Overall we had a great visit. Kruje is 💯 worth a visit and we also enjoyed Tirana, we were really pleased we hired a car as the hotel is quite remote.

Thank you for coming to read ‘Melia Durres – A Review’. I hope you found it helpful! For more information on the hotel, check out their website here.