Seaside Los Jameos

"Overall had a wonderful 10 days over the Easter break at Los Jameos. The recent renovations are great (and look to be complete) - the new kids pool (heated) is a triumph, and the kids playground and splash park are great too. (we have a 7 and 5 year old, and they loved it over there) The kids pool is in a different section to the main pool, that works really well - it makes the main pool a more chilled vibe, better for teenagers and adults, and the chaos can reign at the kids pool elsewhere! Food. Overall probably the best version of "all inclusive buffet" we've had... Lots of variety, and a separate kids section that works well (pasta / nuggets / fish fingers kinda stuff) Lots of the food is cooked to order - Fresh Pasta / Fresh Fish / Burgers / Kebabs / Chicken / Pork Skewers / etc... This is great for quality - everything is hot, and cooked just right, like a restaurant standard. The only wrinkle is that if you have young kids (i.e. are doing 4 trips to the hall to get food) this can take a while to get everyone sat down to eat ! You probably wait 5+ minutes on a pasta dish, 5+ minutes on a burger... then literally however long it takes to cook chicken breasts / skewers - could be 7-8 minutes. I think if they had a big bowl of Pasta, with some sauces ready to go - that would at least take the under 12s out of the pasta queue and save a load of time. Personally, I also wouldn't care if my burger was cooked 5 minutes ago, rather than right in front of me, if it saved me 10 minutes to get sat down. Kids Club Our kids normally average 2 or 3 sessions (ie Morning OR afternoon) in a weeks holiday - prefering to stay with mum and dad ... Here, they begged to go to kids club everyday - to the extent that we said no a couple of times because we wanted to see them !!! The team there are great Evening The kids disco is 8:30 - 9:00 - which is probably a touch late for UK kids... but again our kids loved it so much, we did it every night. (including face painting from 8pm) They generally do 4 or 5 songs of a repetoire of 7 of 8 - all with bespoke dance moves, that the kids learn pretty quickly!! Again - great. I didn't see much of the later entertainment other than one magic show - which was surprisingly impressive. Beach The beach is a 2 minute walk out the bottom of the hotel Is nice, but obviously is a black-sand beach... The kids still loved playing digging / in the waves - but its not your classic beach scene... There's a fair bit of seaweed in the shallows, and the rocks are sharp volcanic stone. If you're planning 7 days on the beach, like a mini maldives, this aint it All Inclusive I sometimes get wound up by places that have All Inclusive, then all inclusive premium... I feel like the whole point of "all" is that its "all" ... BUT, pleased to say its not an issue here - 99% of what you want is included... all beers, cocktails, prosecco / carva snacks we tried to get naturally were included. The only exception is the milk bar, where some things aren't included (like hot chocolate...)... But you can get hot chocolate at the pool bar included... Finally - Pepe's shack - a joy by the kids pool... they do waffles on a stick, included in the AI, absolute dream... beer and waffle... yes please. All in all, wonderful... generally we don't go back to the same places multiple times, but would defo consider going back here."

"Had a wonderful time here... First off, this was our first visit, and we visited as a family with a young child during the UK Easter holidays. It's clear that the hotel are pushing towards the family market. The makeover looks great - small works are still ongoing, they were doing a small amount of tiling, and the gym was closed for one day during our trip, as was the arcade/games room. From some images I'd seen, it looked like the new look had sort of been 'laid over' the existing more dated design, but in person it doesn't at all, and the old colonial style of the hotel and the more contemporary elements really worked well. The new kids area and pool look especially great, and the heated pool was a bonus. My son really enjoyed this area, the waterslides and Pepe's Club (the kids club). He's seven and enjoyed the kid's club activities. I believe there was also a schedule of activities for teens - I saw this advertised on screens in reception but didn't see much evidence of it IRL. Room was beautiful - huge closet to store all of our stuff and was cleaned thoroughly, water topped up and chocolates left at turn down service. On easter Sunday they left two Lindt bunnies in our room, which was a cute touch. Our room was 3039 which had the benefit of being very close to reception and therefore bars/food but on the flipside, there was some noise from the piano bar until about 11pm. That wasn't a problem for us but if you prefer quiet, maybe ask for a further away room. Food in the restaurant was very good for AI. Myself and my husband are vegetarians and always had full plates, there's a whole station of vegetable dishes and usually others dotted around too. Meat and fish eaters were well provided for, with fish or cuts of meat available to choose and have cooked to order. It was busy, since it was the holidays, but there were never huge queues and even if we couldn't initially see a table, there were always staff on hand to find one for us. Drinks were pretty good - the beer is Tropical, which is average at best, but you tend to expect that at an AI. If you want more choice, you can upgrade to the next tier and have Taittinger all day. It didn't bother us too much though. We had one custard shake from the Milk Lab, which we paid for. The shake was delicious, though the system in the Milk Lab was a bit confusing. The decor is brilliant, but it was the only bit of the hotel that wasn't 5 stars efficiency. I'm not usually big into hotel entertainment, but my son liked the minidisco, and kudos to the animation team who danced and sang along with their whole chests. The only downside is something out of the control of Seaside - which is that I don't think the surrounding area is that nice. It's not bad, or dodgy per se, but we have stayed in Playa Blanca in the past, which has really lovely beaches. And Playa dos Pocillos nearby isn't the nicest on the Island. There's also an abundance of Irish bars and the like, though it's a little nicer if you walk to the right along the sea front towards PdC rather than left towards Matagorda. This is the only thing that would make me reconsider coming back. I thought I'd also add a little about the gym, since I'm a gym goer back home. I used it three times that week and as I said, one day it was closed for works. That was a bit annoying after waking up and heading downstairs at 7am but we move. The opening times are a bit conflicting too - I saw several different times listed, but it seems to open at 5am. It has all the usual cardio machines, a smith machine, chest press, pec deck, cable machine (that doesn't go especially heavy), leg extension, lat pulldown and a broken leg press machine as well as dumbells up to 22kg. That was enough for me for a holiday workout - your mileage may vary, the gym makeover is a little bit form over function - case in point being the dumbell rack, where it is impossible to re-rack the weights one handed. They'd be better off with a boring looking gym style one. One day I was working out and lots of random guests came to have a nose, and then some sort of senior management came in and started ineffectually tinkering with things. Which was a little irritating when trying to lift heavy stuff. Anyway, sorry my gym review is nearly as long as the rest of it, but hopefully it helps anyone wondering if they'll be able to stick to their routine whilst on holiday."

"We have recently returned from a 10 day stay at Los Jameos. We have been coming here, sometimes twice a year for the last 17 years, the staff especially the originalstaff certainly keep this place ticking over.(We may be called Die Hard Customers, as a past reviewer mentioned.) Firstly, I will give the pros: Beata and her team has had a massive transformation and you can see they are trying their very best to facilitate all expectations during this process. The staff are fantastic, Andreas, Nadi & Lissette in the Piano bar are amazing. Nora , Carmel in the pool bar & Manuel & Angel in the restaurant. All went above and beyond to look after us. The whole complex is spotlessly clean & well maintained. Fabrizio on reception was a pleasure to deal with as per normal. Plenty of sun beds since the extra pool area was made( Old Tennis Courts) Now for the cons: I feel that the supervisors on duty at meal times especially in the evenings could possibly help the staff a little more clearing tables (All hands on Deck) The Piano bar unless Andreas, Nadi or Lissette were there, there was a lack urgency and tables left dirty and unclean. I work in this industry and I wouldn't accept this on my watch! Andreas and Nadi need to be complemented on this. Absolutely purely professional. Since the new make over the hot food offering was cold at the best of times. The breeze hits the hot food area very badly. On the 2nd day there, we came back to our room for a siesta and to get ready for the evening. Impossible to rest due to the constant slamming of doors. I showered, went to find my deodorant and it had disappeared. My husband then found broken glass under our tv & this was the remnants of the deodorant bottle. Nothing was said, no note, no nothing. I find this totally unacceptable. Lunch times food was very repetitive, we did not starve, but did not enjoy it. Children, unsupervised running around the restaurant, dipping their fingers into everything, is not acceptable & there were no staff supervising any of this. All in all, we enjoyed our break, no sunbed problems. BUT its changed & unfortunately, after 17 years, we will not be returning."