"Just returned from a weeks stay here for the February half term holiday, two adults and a teenager. It’s a nice hotel, a very large complex, the best bits being the pools, the entertainment and the room. Unfortunately the food was not good.
Pools - there are three large pools and a kids pool. They are set within some lovely gardens which are well maintained and there were plenty of clean and comfortable sun beds. There is a small waterslide however a rubber dingy is required to use the slide but the hotel don’t provide them and they don’t have a hotel shop to buy them so if you want to use the hotel waterslide you have to go outside of the hotel to purchase a rubber ring or dingy which we though was a bit strange!
Entertainment - the staff were very friendly and enthusiastic about the entertainment, both through the day by the pool and in the evenings, but they were not too much either and would take no for an answer if you didn’t fancy taking part. They were all very friendly (as were most staff at the hotel) and great with the kids. There was the usual aqua aerobics, darts, bingo, a quiz during the day and some fairly good shows in the evenings such as dancers, live singers, bingo, a magician.
Rooms - we had a one bedroomed apartment which was very clean and spacious. Twin beds in the bedroom and a sofa bed in the living area with a TV, a small kitchen area ( not much crockery though) a microwave and a table and chairs. We had a lovely pool view from our balcony which was lovely.
Unfortunately for us we were on the ground floor which isn’t our preference. When we checked in the reception staff said our room was up stairs on the first floor but upon following directions we discovered it was actually on the ground floor. We went straight back to reception to ask if there was a chance to move upstairs but were told there was no other room available which was a shame. As we were directly overlooking the pool and we were the first room after the entrance to the block, we had a lot of human traffic walking past our balcony and our front door which was noisy and we had to keep curtains closed a lot due to lack of privacy. We were room D110. The bathroom had a large double shower which we prefer to a bath.
There appeared to be a staff storeroom very near to our room and we were woken every morning approx 6am by staff gathering there a chatting loudly. We could also hear the constant sound of the cleaning or maintenance trollies being pushed up and down the corridors over the tiled floors. It sounded like a train running on its tracks and it really was constant early in the mornings!
Food - this is where the hotel let itself down in our opinion. We are well used to 3/4 star Spanish all inclusive hotels but this was the worst we have experienced for food. In fact the whole dining experience was awful. The pizza and pasta did not look appetising at all which seemed to be the only kids options, there was a lack of salad options, everything seemed to have the same smell and taste! A lot of the food looked like slop! There was repeated pork and fish dishes and even though we are not fussy, we struggled to put a meal together quite a few times. There was not the usual fruit and yoghurt options at breakfast, the fruit that was there looked like it had seen better days and nothing was replenished quickly enough, we found we were always having the scrape the last of the food out of the trays, dessert spoons never available. All food was either cold or Luke warm at best.
The same guy was cooking omelettes each morning, there were tomatoes, onions, cheese and ham to choose from but he used the same tongs for everything, there were even bits of ham in the onion bowl! This should not be allowed as it is cross contamination and made us wonder what other basic food/hygiene rules weren’t being followed.
The dining room is far too small to accommodate the large number of people, all of the tables a crammed closely together, we really had to squeeze into our seats! The queue for the jugs of juices at breakfast was directly behind the hot drinks machines which were crowded and where there was another queue with no room for people to flow between so people are turning around and pushing past people with hot drinks, it was very dangerous.
The show cooking of pancakes at breakfast or fish and meat in the evenings meant people were hanging around for the cooked food to be ready so others then could not get to the other hot foods on the same servery such as the bacon or fried eggs in the morning as everyone was lined up waiting. The whole layout does not work and there was a lot of people pushing in. There is a second room to sit and eat but it had plastic garden tables and chairs, not very comfortable. The main dining room felt like an American diner or a cheap cafe.
On our last evening a small child of another family was unwell and threw up at the table and we watched the staff help to clean it up but then used the same cloth to wipe down other tables!
Playa Arena is a nice little resort, small and quiet. The hotel is a 5-10 minute walk downhill to the beach. The beach is very small, the sea is rocky and the waves were strong. There were a few typical shops along the walk to the beach selling the usual beach towels, T-shirts, fridge magnets etc, a couple of small supermarkets and a superstore that sold pretty much everything (a bit like a B&M). We didn’t explore much outside of the hotel so didn’t see anything else.
We had a lovely week here, the weather was beautiful but the food was a big let down for us. Also the noise from being on the ground floor wasn’t great. We would return to Tenerife in a flash but not to this hotel."
