Breakers Resort, 413 Umhlanga Beachfront

Conveniently located, fantastic facilities on the property.

Very comfortable apartment. Decent food in restaurant and good service. Kids loved the pools and slides. Mum loved the spa! Parking handy and disabled bathroom with shower was convenient when we had a late flight and had to check out early. Have stayed before and will stay again.

Floors around the pool area are a bit dirty; Rubbish, cups etc not picked up regularly; no toilet paper change in our apartment. But minor items.

I’d like to give a balanced and fair review of this unit. For context, we are a family of 4 (2 daughters aged 12 and 10). We stayed over the festive season - 27th Dec to 3rd Jan. We paid about R28 000, roughly R4000 per night. Some units at Breakers are resort-owned, and therefore have the benefit of on-site assistance, daily housekeeping and towel-changes (and restocking of toilet paper!), as well as a greater degree of interest from staff. This unit is privately owned, and the resort is basically a proxy. All concerns therefore have to be directed to the owner/managing team which can be confusing and frustrating. The resort: The resort is wonderful, especially for families. The pool area is unprecedented in the area, and the staff there are very helpful and friendly. Worth noting is that they have the winning formula with numbers of recliners and umbrellas, no matter the time of day. What more does anyone want on a beach holiday in summer? Direct access to the beach is lovely. A good schedule of activities for kids and adults. One lady at reception was wonderful, consistently (Nana?). Another was just horrible, consistently. The men helping with luggage were friendly and gregarious. The on-site restaurant is nice in terms of comfort and air-con. It’s seems very disorganised though - meals took hours to come, and were often sub-standard and even inedible (raw flapjacks, etc). The gym is dreadful. An air-less room off the underground parking, with 2 treadmills, a rower and a few dumbbells. The grounds are immaculate. The New Years Eve braai was diabolical, and a caution never to attend such functions. Far too few braai facilities, and an extraordinarily rude person overseeing the salad buffet. Left a very bad taste! On average, Breakers is a wonderful venue and I’d give it 8/10 and have and will return.

* Not serviced on Sundays or public holidays * Towels not changed (very humid climate so this becomes quite off-putting) * Toilet paper never replenished, after first 2 rolls. The owner seems to reply to such complaints that this is in the t’s and c’s, which is all well-and-good. This issue doesn’t actually matter, but it does leave a bad taste, for the 28k spend. It just seems like unnecessary irritation of guests, for a minuscule cost. * Kitchen cupboards have an extremely annoying mechanism to open, that doesn’t actually work, and perhaps shouldn’t have been installed in a high-use environment * The fridge is old, small and doesn’t cool sufficiently * The furniture is very simple, sparse and quite uncomfortable * A clock on the wall doesn’t work, and this only bothers me because, reading back on the reviews, it hasn’t done for 6-9 months * A clothes’ horse is a great idea, but it’s broken * The bathroom vanity cupboard is basically off its hinges and almost unusable * Limited shelving/cupboard space - and then one entire main bedroom cupboard is locked by the owner. A bit frustrating when staying for a longish period of time. * Tiny TV We stayed in a similar, privately-owned unit last year that was better in the sense that it had a much bigger double-door fridge/freezer at ideal temperatures. The unit had much better furniture, and also a lot more shelving, which is helpful when on holiday for a week+ with much to unpack and store items. All in, I’d give the until 7/10, and would still recommend it. Expectations do need to be managed though, and one does have to remain mindful that this is quite a basic 3* family resort. Very efforts would go a long way to better guest experience though.

The Breakers smells lovely when you arrive. The Hair Salon had great specials for each day of the week. Unit 413 had a well stocked kitchen with all the cutlery and crockery you could need on holiday. The owner approved the purchase of a smart TV when the ancient LG LED finally gave up the ghost. The lady cleaning the apartment daily was efficient and unobtrusive. The ladies at the holiday rental company (Umhlanga Holidays) were friendly, accommodating and kind. All rooms were equipped with a ceiling fan, which is useful when the aircon doesn't work.

From the cobwebs over the air vents, one could deduce that the aircon has not worked in some time. We were provided with only two toilet rolls for the entire week. The living room couch was one of the most uncomfortable objects I have ever sat on. The table in the living room appears to have been home made or at least put together by a high school student. Fortunately, we were only 3 travelers, had we been 4, there would have been insufficient bath towels and some one would have had to use a hand towel. As it was only one person had the luxury of using a bath sheet. The mattress in the main bedroom was too hard and uncomfortable for me. There was no safe in the main bedroom, only a small-ish safe in the kids room. There were no instructions on how to program the safe for personal use and we were therefore unable to use it.