Fantastic!

A fantastic hotel, well deserving of its many awards. Staff are excellent – friendly, helpful and welcoming. Rooms are well appointed with plentiful space, TV (featuring BBC 1, 2 & ITV amongst the usual news channels) and large bathroom which full range of toiletries. A nice touch is that small bottles of water are left in your room daily. Our balcony overlooked the pool and gardens, with a spectacular view of the volcano el teide beyond. The breakfast buffet is excellent with a very wide range of food on offer. You can also have eggs, omelette or crepes made to order. Another excellent idea is the daily newsletter you are given at breakfast which has UK/world news headlines and summary on one side and then a hotel newsletter including weather forecast, events at the hotel and recommendations for places to visit etc on the other. There is plenty going on at the hotel including putting green, golf and tennis lessons, paella, cocktail and gin and tonic making classes and wine and cheese tasting sessions – all free to join. The spa is fabulous and can be used by guest free of charge. It is huge – there is a large outdoor pool and Jacuzzi, another pool and Jacuzzi inside and a wide range of saunas, steam rooms etc as well as many indoor and outdoor loungers and waterbeds to relax on – you can easily stay for the whole day. There’s a wide range of treatments available and a hair salon which seemed very popular. Theres also a very good gym and a programme of daily exercise classes which are free for guests to attend. If you are a keen runner (I am very much a beginner) then you will be pleased to find a map of suggested running routes in the room – I thought this was a really thoughtful touch (be warned – it is quite steep!) The pool area is relaxing with waiter service if wanted. Towels are in plateful supply and we never had a problem getting a sunbed. There is a smaller children’s pool and lounger area and although children were most welcome I would suggest that this hotel is better suited to an adult audience with younger children. The town is about 15 minutes walk away (steep uphill on the way back!) and the hotel runs a regular courtesy bus during the day. Bus stops are within a couple of minutes walk of the hotel entrance and will take you into the town, or further afield to Santa Cruz, la Oratova etc. Puerto de la Cruz is a nice town with plenty to see and do, and Loro Parque (a zoo owned by the hotels owners and a main island attraction) is also in Puerto de la Cruz and worth a visit. There are many excellent bars and restaurants in the areas (I have put some separate reviews up) and if you don’t want to venture far then there are plenty within a 5 minute walk of the hotel, as well as the 3 inside the hotel itself. The botanic gardens are also just around the corner. The hotels own oriental garden (including a koi carp and terrapin lake) and beautifully maintained and lovely to sit in. There’s free wifi in the hotel (I found the holiday companies brochure to be vague on this!) and also a library where you can borrow and donate your holiday reads, which I always think is the mark of a good hotel. I have no criticism to make, other than one night there was a wedding and the music did go on until quite late, but it wasn’t a major problem. In summary, this is an absolutely excellent hotel and I would highly recommend it. We were very sad to leave!