Ystad Saltsjöbad

There are no words to describe how much I love this place. Cozy, charming, excellent services, delicious food and nice beverages. The hotel has an excellent spa area with outside and indoor swimming pools,m and saunas. Moreover, you can swim in the Baltic Sea and walk around the sandy beach.

Our room 306 was nice and comfortable; however, we did notice a few details that could be improved. There was some dust present, so a more thorough cleaning would be appreciated. Additionally, the decorations on the shelves were not centered, and the picture frames on the wall were misaligned, which slightly affected the overall presentation.

It was good, but there were minor issues here and there which accumulated. A long line at breakfast to even be seated, unruly guests that just roamed without issues, a lot of maintenance going on, vaccuming from a early time, etc. But the pools were nice, staff very friendly and overall an enjoyable stay.

Lovely and large spa hotel. Lots of beautiful places, and the size is not a problem. You always feel close and comfortable. Excellent spa with many pools both indoor and outdoor. Lovely food. Excellent breakfast buffet.

Like many other guests, we have been her before, years back, and loved it - but were disappointed this time around. It seems to us that this hotel suffers from too much success and has grown arrogant. At every little turn, they charge extra. That is never a good sign and in our experience, everything tends to go downhill from this point. ||The nice things - some of them - are still here, of course: the location is beautiful, the rooms are fresh, clean, and very pretty and the common areas like restaurants etc are also as a rule lovely, with thought out designs and that Hyannisport feel to it all. ||BUT - and that is a very big but - the service is not up to scratch. ||From the booking experience to the checkning in, it was downright terrible at times. They have devised a kind of time slot scheme for their guests that is just awful. They herd and hector their guests around as if we were cattle. Wait here, pay there, the room is not ready kind of thing. We had to pay a considerable amount to check in at three in the afternoon, which is late-ish in any hotel in the world. ||Notwithstanding paying a lot for spa treatment (mediocre) and access to the pool (seriously overcrowded) and access to our expensive room (paid extra to get in!), nothing worked smoothly. One - and only one! - nice receptionist tried to help us to get to our room but was scolded by a colleague. You wait! Room is not ready. (Turned out the one nice staff member was new at his job, Figures. At least he wanted to help, but of course it did not work.)||There's not that many rooms and they are soo tiny! Many of them are empty between 10.00 am and 17.00 pm (because of the extra charge to check in at 15.00 or stay until 11.00, you see). How on earth it can be this impossible to get access to the room I will never know. We had to sit and wait alongside with dozens of other unfortunate guests, all of us surrounded by tons of baggage. It felt like sitting in a train station where every train had broken down. At breakfast, it was so crowded we could hardly eat. There must have been multitudes in there. Checking out, the same: multitudes, stress, constant mix ups. Not very nice staff. And why? Beause of the appalling slot system. All of the guests had to access and vacate at certain time slots. So, of course most of the guests hurried like crazy to get some breakfast before checking out - it was either that or pay extra. ||In a well run hotel you will get access to your room when it's ready. It will not take hours to clean a tiny room (yes, the rooms at Ystad Saltsjöbad have always been very small). And, most importantly - the staff will be accommodating and not act like annoyed head masters towards the customers. ||The restaurant is beautiful. The food at dinner and breakfast is very good, mostly. But again, the service is not good. This is the kind of place where the rules are more important than the guests. And, again, the breakfast was so overcrowded because of the rigorous check-out system, that we almost panicked and left long before we had eaten up, just to breathe. The waiting staff at breakfast were hard pressed to keep up with hundreds of customers. The indoor pool was so crowded there was standing room only. If the hotel had let the guests in when they arrived, there would have been a natural flow of people in the rooms, the restaurants and the pools and not these suffocating crowds. ||The lunch, sadly, was the worst. Terribly rude staff and inedible food. ||The room - pretty, but very small. The bathroom was so tiny there was hardly enough room to turn around, the wash basin almost sitting on top of the toilet and so close to the shower that a big person would hardly have fitted in there. There were not enough towels, no plastic bag for your wet swim suit (this is a seaside hotel with several pools) and no safe! The bed was wonderful, credit where credit is due.||The final touch was the foolproof sign of a badly run hotel - the cleaning staff banged on our door and yelled "housekeeping!!" well before our check-out time, and in spite of a DO NOT DISTURB sign on our door. All over the world, this means "badly run hotel". Sorry, Ystad. We've enjoyed your spa and hotel many times the last twenty years, but no more.

Breakfast: The breakfast was served at Port. Nice breakfast options and it felt as if there were many things to choose from. Tasty, ripe fruits. The bread and the pancake seemed home-made. Nice chill vibe. We were at the breakfast 9.30 both days, and some breakfast items were not available these times and were not refilled. Lunch at Lido Lounge: Chill place. It was nice that they had a restaurant where you could come in your bathrobes. There were sofas and beds and all the tables were quite low - not super comfy for eating. The food was ok. Dinner at Port: All the food I had felt as if they were not thought through at all. Many components on the plate, which did not really go well together. The food was not bad - but not good either. The waiters were kind, but the service was really stressed (many people to take care of). We did not feel well treated. Different waiters each time. Dinner at Villa Strandvägen: Upgraded one of the dinners to dinner at Strandvägen. I would totally recommend it. Small place, with attentive staff. One of the staff seemed to have good knowledge about the wines they were serving, which was a positive surprise. The food was generally thoughtfully & well made. Both the lamb I had and the fish my husband had for dinner was great. And the chocolate cake (made with Malmö choklad) was also exceptional. Spa: 1 big outdoor pool, 3 smaller outdoor pools, 1 big indoor pool, 1 small indoor pool, 1 whirlpool, 2 saunas 1 steam room. One bright relax room. View over the sea. Some sunbeds at the big outdoor pool and some facing toward the sea. These were not available during our visit (not warm enough). The saunas were not as hot as they use to be in other places. The jet stream in the whirlpool was not that strong either. Generally chill lounge music during the days. Not that many people at the spa in the morning (8-9 am) and in the middle of the day (1-2 pm). Creek experience: 2 hour "experience" in a small group (6 people) done in following order: 1) Foot bath with salt from the dead sea and a hot scented (eucalyptus?) towel that was put over the face. 2) Face mask (with enzymes?) & steam room. Then wiping off the face mask with a cold towel. 3) Cooling with ice and then sauna. A shot of lingonberry juice was served. 4) Sitting in "lagunen" with was a lukewarm pool. 5) Hammam treatment. We were paired two by two and then scrubbed eachother's body using some foam and scrub gloves. 6) "Aroma therapy" where we took couple of breaths from 4 different boxes with variying scents. 7) Mud wrap & washing off. 8) Tropical rain & Waterfall experience with water falling heavily over you. Nice massaging experience on the head & shoulders. 9) Jojoba oil on body and hair & drying off in a warm fan room. Treatment of face & body was nice, but much of the experience was boring and it also felt as if many of the thing were already available at rest of the spa. It did not feel worth the money (595 SEK/pp). Could be better if they just skipped the experience and focues on a face & body & hair treatment using various products. Room: Stayed at room 425. Ocean view. Rather cool in the room, and it was not possible to adjust the temperature. Clean. Sliding, un-lockable doors for the shower and bathroom. They were not completely closed either, which were not good to block possible smells. Hotel: Big. Not too easy to find all the places. Cute interior in light green theme. Could sometimes smell of seaweed (smell from the ocdean). All the staff was very friendly and helpful. Gym: Considering it being possible to buy gym cards, I thought it would be like a real gym. But it was half of a gym. It was located partially below the ground and looked a bit dull. There were also various classes available - but all of them were fully booked when I tried to book at arrival. Location: Located right at the sea. Nice view and nice walking/running path with view over the sea. About 30 min walk to the "city center" and the central station.

Amazing spa! Was here with my partner for my birthday and we had an amazing time! The food, the service, the location! I have nothing bad to say besides that the breakfast buffet was a little bit underwhelming since I expected more given the outstanding service and the restaurants food. I think maybe I come from a place of privilege when I say this but the breakfast buffet left me wanting more. It was not that much of variety when it came to the warm food as well as no smoothies or “healthy” vegetarian options such as maybe vegetarian warm food or even vegetarian pålägg. Overall amazing experience, I would improve on the breakfast selection though! A special thank you would have to go to John, Pär and Björn for an outstanding service

It was our second time and we were looking forward to coming back. We were dissapointed. Not entirely though. The climate of the rooms, Salt restaurant with excellent food and long walks along the beaches with pine trees. Amazing. And food was tip top. But spa, which is probably the main reason all come here, is no longer a place to relax. No tranquility. No relax. No quiet. It is becoming more like Ibiza where guest walk with their drinks to hot tubs, sauna and pools. The music is too loud and even guests are very loud. Absolutely no classical spa atmosphere. If you do not know what I mean here please try to go to the japanese onsen. Well, I have nothing against it if only those who look for relax get this opportunity for the money they pay. Or alerted before they cash in. Even the upper floor with the open fire in the centre was loud as some guests could not accept that the other were looking for a few moments of quiet. If it is the direction of this nice place, well it is good to know. We will start to look for a new place then.