HG Cristian Sur Apartments

"Review number 115. The worst place I have ever stayed in Europe. JET 2 need to hang their heads in shame selling family holidays to the Christian Sur complex. The best part of this accommodation was handing the key cards in when checking out. We paid £2,500 for a weeks stay in a two bed room apartment including one free child place, this was for two adults aged 66 and 68 and two grandchildren aged 8 and 11. We checked in at aprox 10pm where we had to pay for the safety deposit box and WI-FI, the 20 euro wi-fi charge only covered two connections and we had to pay another 20 euros to cover the kids devices. We were given the keys to our apartment and a map of how to get there. Our room 409 was quite a distance from the reception and there was no one available to help us find the rooms and carry three suitcases up the 36 stairs to our apartment, with a broken handrail on the first flight of stairs. Once we opened the door to the top floor apartment we were hit by a wall of heat and I really mean hit by a wall of heat. The apartment was like an oven with no ventilation and only two working fans to try and cool down a two-story duplex apartment. When I took the kids up to where they would be sleeping via a very steep and not very wide spiral stair, the heat was even more unbearable. I had brought two fans from home, but really, we were just circulating hot air. I had pre-arranged delivery of an AC Unit for the next morning the complex weren’t happy as I sourced it from outside at 70 euros for the week, when they rent them out for a 100 euros a week if they have any left. The whole AC set up is a money-making scam the same as the wi-fi situation. Having a portable AC unit helped to bring down the temperature of the main living area. In hindsight I should have rented two units. As we were self-catering there was a small kitchenette area in the apartment. The cooker was disgusting and it would have been to hot to cook in there anyway. We only had one small cupboard for storage of tea/coffee etc. With regards to storage the kids had to live out of a case as there was only a small cupboard for them to put clothing in upstairs. And for us downstairs we had a cupboard and no drawers with nowhere to put empty suitcases. From the top bedroom we had access to a good sized balcony which was completely empty no sun beds no chairs just a big empty space. It must have been too much effort to try and get them up the spiral stairs. The bathroom was a sauna as soon as anybody had a shower. The mastic around the small bath/shower was disgusting and full of mould with a plastic shower curtain. The toilet seat was completely loose, and the door frame was held in place with large nails and had been patched up. One evening the toilet would not flush at all , I went to reception to report this, but between our complex and the Tenerife Sur hotel there was no body available to fix it until the next day. I asked what would have happened if all the electric went off but they just shrugged their shoulders. On the day we were due to leave we had to be out of the apartment by 12.00 but were not getting picked up until 18-30 to go to the airport. They do let you keep your accommodation until later for a fee of 40 Euros but as the complex was completely full this was not an option. They do however provide a shower room down next to the laundry area, to get showered and changed before heading home. The problem with this is that everybody who is leaving that day has access to your luggage and I could only imagine the mess in there between families and the sauna like conditions. We did not use this facility.. The Christian Sur complex is over thirty years old and owned by the HG hotel group. This is the same group who own the Tenerife Sur over the road. The Tenerife Sur looks really modern and is more up to date. There is no comparison between the two with all the focus being on the Tenerife Sur. The Christian Sur is a large complex but a large number of the apartments have been sold off to private owners. What then remains is the apartments owned by the HG Group which no body wanted to buy, These are all dated and mainly on the top floors and with no views and no will power or budget to bring them up to date, or even try to put any effort into them. In my opinion it is just an over flow for their sister complex over the road. A private rental company within the complex Atlantic Horizons, manage over 50 of the sold off apartments and charge between 500 and 700 Euros per week to stay in a modernised and fully furnished one bedroom apartment in good locations. One of the downsides off a mixed complex is the apartment owners mainly on the ground floor all claim the sun loungers around what few umbrellas that are available around the pool and the tourists as we are called are left with the unshaded areas. To make things worse some of them claim areas in the sun for later in the day as well. Guests at the Tenerife Sur can also come over and use the pools in the complex… This is sun bed wars on a whole new level. While around the pool you only need a quick glance to see the apartments that have been sold and are well looked after and the dregs that are left over for the travel companies. Another downside is when your neighbours are constantly smoking weed on their terrace means you can’t even hang your towels out to dry while they are there due to the pungent stink lingering over everything, bearing in ming that smoking weed is not a crime in Spain. There was nothing at all to say that JET 2 used this complex even the Rep was based over the road at the Tenerife Sur, maybe they are actually embarrassed to have their reps seen in such a run down set of apartments. The good points of this holiday complex was that the kids loved the pool areas, the staff in the main were really good but you could tell by some of the conversations that they were just frustrated hearing the same issues being raised. and the location is really good with lots of good places to eat out within a short walk. In summing up if budget had not been an issue I would not even of unpacked but room changes were not available due to being fully booked, and I will repeat what I said at the start of this review that JET 2 SHOULD HANG THEIR HEADS IN SHAME ,selling family holidays to this complex."

"We stayed at HG Sur Cristian Apartments as a family with two young children (aged 2 and 8) and were forced to check out after three nights because the conditions in the room were completely unlivable. We arrived after 11 PM to find our apartment sitting at a stifling 27.8°C. There was no air conditioning and not even a single fan provided in the room. Because our kids were sleeping on the pull-out beds in the living area right next to the balcony, leaving the balcony door open overnight to let air in was a massive safety risk we obviously couldn't take with a 2-year-old and an 8-year-old. We paid a deposit to get two fans from reception and even hired a portable AC unit out of pocket the day after to run day and night. It made almost no difference - by morning, the room was still sitting at 27.6°C, and late at night it hovered around 27°C. The AC unit had a hot air vent that needed extracted. During the day it would vent out to the balcony, at night we would vent it to the bathroom. Sleeping in that level of heat is dangerous for small children, meaning we had to stay awake checking on them continuously instead of getting any rest. On top of the heat, the maintenance in the apartment was shocking: Broken Extractor Fan: The bathroom had zero ventilation because the extractor fan was broken and stuffed full of rubbish and cardboard debris, turning the bathroom into a total sauna every time someone showered, and was a constant hot box. Dangerous Bed: One of the pull-out beds was mounted on caster wheels that didn't lock. The moment you tried to step off or onto the bed, it shot away across the floor, which was an obvious injury risk for the kids. Unusable Kitchen: The ambient temperature in the apartment was so high that turning the oven on was completely out of the question. If you are travelling with young children or visiting during warmer months, be aware that these rooms trap heat with no built-in way to cool them down. Between the safety hazards, the broken fixtures, and the suffocating room temperatures, we had no choice but to pay for alternative accommodation elsewhere to finish our holiday. I'm also pretty sure that the pictures used on the website have had an AI influence over them."

"The location of this hotel is probably the few advantages. You are close to the beach. The vibe is very brits abroad. The room, was a litral hell box. No air con, no air flow and the fans we were proveded with after a deposit just circulated the hot air. We had a baby room thermomitor that showed the room was sitting at 27 degrees this was at 11 at night. It was unbareable. To the point we only stayed 3 out of the 10 nights. The children couldent sleep and to make matters worse or yougest had cockroach bites on his face from sleeping on the floor. We have also contacted JET2 about this as we booked a package. The hotel is not safe to stay in, in the summer. We found the pool area to very slippy and as an adult i struggled not to fall. The staff we met were all lovely, and obviously its not their fault the hotel is sub par."