"We stayed at Marylanza as a family of six, including two teenagers, and overall we had a decent holiday. If you’re expecting a luxury experience, this probably isn’t the hotel for you. However, if you’re looking for a clean, well-located hotel with everything you need for a comfortable stay, it’s a solid choice.
The rooms are spacious and ideal for families, with a huge balcony giving everyone plenty of room. Our room overlooked Montaña Chayofita, the road and the shops at the rear of the hotel. It wasn’t noisy or disruptive, although the view isn’t the prettiest if that’s important to you. The beds are on the firm side, and while the bathrooms are perfectly adequate, they are quite small if you’re sharing and using the bathroom to get ready.
There were plenty of plug sockets in the room, although there aren’t any USB charging points, so remember to pack your travel adaptors. The fridge was a great addition for keeping drinks cold – ours simply needed switching on when we arrived, and there was a complimentary bottle of water waiting inside. The air conditioning worked well enough to keep the room comfortable, although it never became particularly cold.
The hotel itself is clean throughout, although I’d describe it as fairly basic. Reception staff were friendly, welcoming and spoke English, making everything easy from check-in.
One thing to note is that some of the swim-up rooms are currently being renovated. We stayed in that block and heard renovation work, including a disc cutter, on a handful of occasions. It wasn’t constant and didn’t spoil our holiday, but it’s worth being aware of.
We spent time at both pools. The blue pool was our favourite but had no music playing and we didn’t notice any disruption from the refurbishment work. Inflatables are allowed there too, making it great for families. The green pool had a livelier atmosphere, but you could occasionally hear renovation work taking place above.
There were plenty of parasols around both pools and, despite the usual handful of 7am sunbed reservers, we never struggled to find somewhere to sit at 10am
One frustration was that the pool rules didn’t always seem to be applied consistently. We were told not to leave our sunbeds to go for food or drinks because towels could be removed after around 20 minutes, yet this rule didn’t appear to be enforced for everyone. Food also isn’t allowed around the pool, meaning you need to go to the restaurant or snack bar for lunch, so it felt a little inconvenient having to pack everything up each time or let a member of family stay behind
We also found one of the lifeguards at the green pool quite abrupt. She regularly nudged children into the pool. While this may have been intended as harmless fun, personally I found it a little unprofessional, as I’d rather see the lifeguard focused on supervising the pool. Again, this is simply my personal impression.
During our stay there was an inflatable activity in the pool for under-14s. My daughter was told she could only have one turn, while other children appeared to have multiple turns, which again felt inconsistent.
The food was decent overall with a reasonable selection each day, and there was always plenty of fresh fruit available. However, after a few days it did become very repetitive. As a vegetarian I found my options were very limited, often only being able to choose between salad, pizza or pasta with tomato or cheese sauce.
We used reusable bottles to fill up drinks to save using paper cups and constant trips, there is water machines through the hotel to fill up.
One area that could definitely be improved is food labelling. Some dishes were labelled, but many weren’t, making it difficult to know exactly what ingredients were included. Clearer allergen information, particularly for dishes containing nuts or other common allergens, would make dining much easier for guests with dietary requirements.
The buffet also included a couple of themed evenings during our stay, including Chinese and Spanish nights, which added a bit of variety.
Unfortunately, the snack bar was probably the weakest part of the food offering. We noticed food was sometimes left uncovered and saw guests handling food with their hands before serving themselves. On one occasion my daughter went to get a burger and we noticed what appeared to be fly eggs on the burgers, so she decided not to have one.
We didn’t try the speciality restaurants as the menus simply didn’t appeal to us, so can’t comment on those.
WiFi isn’t particularly great.
Facilities around the hotel are fairly simple but good for families. There’s a free table tennis table, a pool table costing €1 per game, an indoor squash court (although we never saw anyone using it), and a small kids’ club area. Outside the hotel there’s also an outdoor bodyweight gym and a small football/basketball area, which was great as our youngest, wasn’t allowed to use the main gym.
The evening entertainment was pleasant but fairly basic. We preferred sitting outside by the pool bar. We tried the indoor entertainment bar one evening during family bingo but found it quite dark, stuffy and quiet, so after about an hour we moved back outside.
If you enjoy premium drinks, be aware that some, such as bottled Strongbow, could only be purchased from the indoor bars. Unfortunately they had run out about five days into our holiday.
We noticed ants on our balcony, which I’d already read about before travelling and, to be honest, is something I expect occasionally in the Canary Islands. We didn’t have any ants inside the room, so it wasn’t an issue for us.
The location is one of the hotel’s biggest strengths. It’s around a 15-minute walk to the beach and shops. The walk is a little hilly, so sensible footwear is worth packing. There are plenty of gift shops nearby, a supermarket within a couple of minutes’ walk that’s open until around 9.30pm, and a well-stocked 24-hour supermarket just across the road.
You can explore Montaña Chayofita, the volcanic hill opposite the hotel. We walked up for sunrise and the views were fantastic. I’d definitely recommend going early before the heat builds up and wearing suitable shoes.
Overall, I’d describe Marylanza as a hotel with basic rooms, basic food, basic facilities and basic entertainment but It’s clean, comfortable, well located and offers good value for money. We had a decent family holiday.
With a few improvements to the food variety, snack bar, entertainment. food labelling and consistency of the pool rules, it could be even better.
Would we return? No"