A long review of a great stay!
I’m going to write this review hopefully covering everything that I was looking for when I was reading them. It will be a long one so grab a drink. Location: Yes, this hotel is at the top of a big hill. It’s across the motorway. We are a fit and active family with teenagers and we happily managed the walk down before 10am in August, in the middle of a heatwave. Walking home however, we only did once. It’s very steep, and in August heat it just wasn’t accessible. It was way too hot. I can see the only time I’d do that was at 7/8am. If you are going outside of August, you’re reasonably fit and active and the temperature was sitting 25 or under you’d be fine walking back. It’s 25 minutes from the hotel door to the beach at Fañabé. I would take shoes that are flat and have a strap at the back. Sliders won’t work. I saw lots of people struggling up and down with open backed shoes. Taxi wise we paid between 4.50 euros and 7 euros for straight down to the bottom or straight up. Take cash for taxis. Most take cards but they charge you more. If you’re using taxis set off in the evening an hour before you’re meal reservation, wherever it is, because getting a taxi from reception can be challenging. They don’t take any room numbers or names, and so people take your taxi in front of you. This system doesn’t work so well… When using taxis keep a close eye on the amount. It miraculously jumps. Particularly in the evenings. Question it. We did feel ripped off a few times. Cleanliness and maintenance: The cleaning and maintenance teams are forever present. They’re a main part of the hotel and I honestly can’t believe how hard they work. It seems like they never go home. Whatever time you’re walking about you’ll see someone from cleaning or maintenance. The pools are the cleanest I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been to lots of hotels. They’re cleaning them both from 7am each morning. The handrails, the outside edge, the walkway. All are very clean. The rooms are very clean. I have extremely high standards. The fridge could have done with an extra wipe, and the inside of the wardrobes, but I appreciate they have limited time. We noticed 2 cockroaches in our second week in the room. I thought that maybe the cleaners sprayed with the spray under the sink when they did the first room clean, and then after a week we got another clean, and I think they may clear the spray away. So we sprayed again one evening before we went out and all was well for the rest of the stay. We stayed 11 days and had one room service included with jet2 around day 6/7. That suits me well. I prefer to not have people in each day. Bins are plentiful for clearing your rubbish and recycling. Rooms: Our two bedroom apartment had a full sized fridge and freezer with 3 drawers, a dishwasher, washing machine, kettle and cutlery/crockery, a table inside and outside for 6, 2 sunbeds on the balcony and two lounge chairs, a large main bathroom with shower and bath and a small en-suite with a shower only. A sofa bed, and a dressing table. It says ‘sea view’ on jet2. That’s a little bit of a stretch for the room we had. We could see the sea but behind the adult only bar. The balcony also wasn’t quite the size they lead you to believe, but I think maybe we were unlucky. I was concerned about the noise from the adults only bar but be reassured that it is very quiet and peaceful music. With the patio doors closed we couldn’t hear it. Both pools have a lifeguard on and you can’t swim without them. The pools open at 9.30am, so if you’re a ‘get up and do 50 lengths’ person before 7am this isn’t the hotel for you. The toilets by the pool are immaculate. The cleaners go in every 45 minutes. They’re the cleanest toilets I’ve ever seen near a pool. Breakfast: We added breakfast on because it saves money with 2 older teenagers, but I wouldn’t do that again. Be aware it doesn’t open until 8.30am. That’s too late for excursions and for lunchtime flights home. There’s no flexibility. I asked if we could go in five minutes earlier on the last day because we were being collected at 8.55, and I got a flat ‘no’. They offered me a picnic bag at reception. I’d paid £45 on top of each day for breakfast with my holiday. I don’t want a picnic bag. I also felt when we were going to Siam park we would have been better missing it. The pool bar next door sells breakfast. We should have done that. Breakfast at Zachery’s really needs to open at 8am. Zachery’s: We ate here for breakfast every day and in the evening a few times. Breakfast was pleasant and things were clean, but the lids on the dishes really made the food unpleasant at times. Condensation builds up, and no one wants soggy hash browns or sausages. The toast machine needs 4 passes to get brown toast. The quality of the food though is great. They have fresh pastries, meat, cheese, fried eggs (but my 16 year old said quite rightly that if they were sitting in that hot container they really needed to be scrambled, and don’t do fried), sausages, beans, hash browns, mushrooms, tomatoes, various breads, brown and white toast, fresh smoothies and juices, hot drinks machine, fresh fruit. Dinner was a pleasant affair again, the food was nice, and reasonably priced. But again they are inflexible. They said they didn’t have any tables inside one evening, so we needed to sit outside. Perfectly fine, but many tables for 2 were available. Perhaps they could have pushed two together. They have live music each evening which was very pleasant and relaxing. The staff are very nice. Pool bar: Lots of food options here including wraps, toasties, fries, ice creams, drinks, breakfast, even jacket potatoes! it was a good vibe and the guy that runs this works very hard and it shows. The food is also very nice. Takeaway or eat at the tables. You can tell when the guy who runs it is not there. The staff relax somewhat… Accessibility: It does have lifts, but they’re small. The size of a wheelchair and one person I’d say. They have a pool lift I noticed, but never used. Because it’s built into the side of a mountain it needs lots of lifts. For example it was two lifts from reception to the fifth floor, and so I could see it being a laborious process if you needed lifts. The pool sits halfway down the complex with the adults pool on floor 4 with a long ramp. Reception: This is very clean. The staff are hit and miss. Some of them are more pleasant than others. The older guy was lovely. One of the ladies was extremely condescending on the last day asking for pool towels when I checked out. I hadn’t taken pool towels. One of the ladies was a little rude when I was explaining that we needed another taxi one evening as someone had taken ours, until the older guy interjected for me to explain. This same lady was a little cold on check in, and that’s the first point of contact for guests, and so should be a little warmer and friendlier. Activities and pool: the entertainment team work hard. Inflatables are only allowed in the shallow section of the pool unless it’s a ran activity by the team, which we saw twice on our holiday. To be fair I agree with this. It’s dangerous for small children with a pool full of inflatables. But, I think to allow people to jump off others shoulders, and other dangerous games etc is hypocritical of the hotel. Let’s keep it safe in all respects for swimmers and small children/babies. They have a pool table, outdoor chess, table tennis table. Deposits to be paid for equipment hire and one euro coins needed for the pool table. They have a book swap in the entertainment team area. Quiz, bingo, darts, french bowls, table tennis competitions, water polo, were all available if you wanted to participate. Towels can go down on sunbeds from 9.30am. I’m a little torn about this. It’s a great idea in theory, but everyone stands next to the sunbeds they want and then the pool attendant nods and they put their towels down. It stops the 6am crowd, but it’s so odd to all stand next to the beds you want. You then have to sit there whilst he makes his way round, and then tags your sunbed. Again, this means you’d need an early breakfast if you’d paid in advance, because it can be 10.15 before he’s got round to everyone. I wonder if a queue would be better. For example, one at a time you see him, he gives you a tag for 4/5/3 etc and then you go to the bed you want. If you leave your bed he folds your towel up and leaves it at the side of the beds you’d taken. Again, a good idea in principle, but as we experienced, you take the beds that have been made free, and then the people come back and aren’t happy. They think you have moved their towels when all you have done is taken the empty beds. This makes guests feel uncomfortable. Perhaps a better idea is to put the towels in a central location so that the grumpy conversation can be had with the pool attendant rather than the guests. I’ve seen reviews about whistle blowing lifeguards, but I didn’t hear a whistle once. They were very pleasant and I had a laugh with one on occasion. I wonder if they’ve changed things based on previous reviews. They were very relaxed, but like I say perhaps at times they needed to be a little more on top of silly games. We managed to get sunbeds around the main pool most days at most times, and we went in peak season. Only one day did I have to lurk until someone was leaving. The adults pool had sunbeds free most days until around 2pm. Overall, I would stay here again, and I think it could easily be a 4 star accommodation with a few tweaks. There’s no evening entertainment apart from the singer in Zachery’s. We don’t like evening entertainment on site, so perfect for us. If I had small children I’d hate the taxis every night. It’s an ordeal with prams etc. What this hotel is really missing is a mini bus shuttle. Every 30 minutes there and back from 9am to 10pm down to Fanabe and this would be the perfect accommodation. I would return time and time again. I do like the out of the way location to retreat back to. A couple of tips: Try X-SUR for food. They have small eateries part of the venture group if you can’t be bothered going out properly. I’ve never had a bad meal at any of the venture eateries. Xsur is walkable there and back in the evening. Uber does run in Tenerife but it’s executive cars and expensive. Worth it though when you can’t get back from the beach, or Siam park and you’re hot and tired. Uber Eats does deliver to reception. Just meet them there. Lots of options if you can’t be bothered to cook or go out after a busy day of excursions. The private transfer from Jet2 worked very well. I was very impressed, and the drivers are like the executive Ubers. They drive calmly, and have excellent customer service. Our driver arrived 5 minutes early for our 8.55am pick up. It was seamless on the way there, just speak to the jet2 rep at the airport and they’ll direct you to the private transfer area. Transfer times home (for us) were available in the jet2 app before we’d even set off for our holiday. Order your food shop from Mercadona before you go. They were early and reception called us to say they were on their way up. The driver put all our water and heavy things where I wanted them. Cheaper than the small onsite shop, (which closes around 4pm), and you don’t want to be carrying water up those hills and steps! Not to mention melted ice creams by the time you get back!