AluaSoul Orotava Valley

"Honest and Fair Review We stayed here the first week of March, weather wasn't good but that can't be helped. This is not what I would class as a 4 star hotel, I have stayed in many over the years and this defiantly did not reach 4 star standards. The hotel itself is beautiful and the views spectacular. It is at the top of a steep hill which anyone with walking difficulties would find hard to managed, we often walked down but then got a taxi back up, about £3.95 euro from the main strip. We had a sea view suite and part of the my favourite club, the room was lovely, very spacious and cleaned daily, the maids were very friendly. Water was not replenished daily which I find strange and there were not water fountains or anywhere to refill our bottles, not what I could see anyway. Food was less than average, hardly any choice at all and every day it was cold. The pool area is very nice however, we were all inclusive and you cannot get hot food at the pool if the restaurant is open, if you want to pay for it then it is available, this I really found strange as if the kitchen is cooking anyway what is the difference, the restaurant is a good walk from the pool, when I settle down at the pool I like to stay there. It was my birthday on the Wednesday so on the Monday we asked at reception to book for NUMBIA the al a cart, it is displayed all around the hotel that you get a discount, it is not advertised anywhere that you can have it as apart of your AI, we were happy to pay as it was for a special occasion however, we were told that it was fully booked for the night we wanted, disappointed I went onto their website and it allowed me to book on the day we wanted, when we arrived there were 2 other couples in the restaurant and us, that was it. No menus on the table?? we were just asked what meat we wanted meat of fish?? it turned out that it was part of the AI and at no point were we asked if we would like to full menu, this was really confusing not only for us but the other 2 couples also in the restaurant. TV in our room was not a SMART TV, english channels yes but you could not connect to your other stuff which you usually can with SMART. The main strip is beautiful and the sea amazing, shops are great. Free bus to the shopping mal which was a bonus due to the bad weather. I personally feel that as AI customers we were treated lesser than those paying, at the lobby bar those paying were treated to waiter service however, we were often ignored. Entertainment was about the normal standard for AI. We were on the 8th floor which was lovely. Would I go back No, not for us standard of food and drink really poor and location a little out of it."

"How this hotel is a 4* I do not know. Comparing this to, say a, 4* Barcelo is like comparing apples and onions. In fact there's no comparison! Food: Basic. Mainly bland. Same things on repeat each night. Quite a few dishes mislabellled. Not enough replenished if later on during service. Solo diner treated like a second class citizen. Extremely limited buffet at lunchtime. They remove the juices at breakfast at 9.30, despite service running until 10am! Building: Tired, depressing long cold concrete corridors giving the feeling of a communist era building. Room: Spacious, clean, but don't bother upgrading to sea view - view of orange concrete wall from patio (5th floor). A couple of reviews from February mentioned horrible 'sewer' smell around the hotel, but this issue seems to have been fixed, apart from maybe the toilets by the restaurant."

"Probably not quite there yet in terms of the finished article. Pros Clean Tidy Reasonable presentation Breakfast reasonably good Pools nice (two) Pool bar drinks good, prices reasonable Pool bar food again reasonable and prices ok especially for the burger and chips Lovely restaurant down the slope which leads to the front (Baraka) There are walks and shortcuts which make the walk up easier, a shopping centre nearby has escalators so go through that and up the escalators to the top and out the back and go right, follow the slope uphill find some steps, go to the top and turn right, you’ll eventually get back to the hotel. Cons Needs a bit of attention here and there, bathroom in particular had suffered with damp meaning could not close the door. Walls are thin, you can hear next door. Floors 5 and below would mean absolutely no view of anything. Floor 6 limited views, especially mountain side. Floor 7 is an upgrade and again really not spectacular views if your mountain side. A road runs outside means quite noisy sometimes."