"We stayed here for a week on a half-board basis. The location is more to the west of Playa Blanca. There are bus stops right on the main road: Princesa Yaiza (eastbound, into town) and Playa Dorada (westbound for Rubicón Marina and Playas Papagayo). There's also a HiperDino express supermarket directly opposite, which is pretty well stocked. However, if you'd prefer somewhere slightly cheaper, there's an Aldi ten minutes' walk away.
In terms of our experience, the hotel is spotlessly clean and the staff are absolutely brilliant and attentive. Our incoming flight was delayed, but the receptionist did all she could to make sure we still made it to the end of dinner. Another receptionist was super helpful on check-out. Note that the room keys are an electronic tag you wear around your wrist. This also is the only way you can pay for food/drink extras around the hotel (there's no "pay as you go"). I'm in two minds about this. It did make us feel tagged and like walking adverts for the hotel. On the other hand, there was zero chance of losing your room key and you also had a payment method handy. It depends how you feel, I suppose.
We were in a first-floor room, which was accessed by stairs (ground-floor rooms are more accessible) that are accessed directly from the outside (no corridor). It was so windy, the "do not disturb" signs blew away, so don't rely on them. The room is a C shape with the bathroom in the middle, the bed area at the entry end and a lounge area at the balcony end. The aircon was at the lounge end and we're not 100% convinced the thermostat was showing the right temperature. This made it feel a bit hot for sleeping, although the ceiling fan certainly helped. The décor was fine, although a bit dated and showing signs of wear and tear. The coffee machine was a nice touch, as well as the free-to-use safe and fridge. They also provided pool towels which fitted the loungers perfectly. There is wi-fi throughout the hotel, although it seemed to ask for login details every time we moved to another part of the hotel. We gave up and used our data.
One thing to note: all the rooms are located around a central courtyard, where the pools are. This means you will hear the evening entertainment in your room to a noise level that's hard to block out. This did not bother us, however, as the latest it finished was 11 pm (usually 10:30), but just so you're aware.
The overall vibe of the hotel was mainly for older couples. At least, that's the impression we got. The entertainment reflected this – on paper, it looked varied, but with the exception of the "White Party" on Wednesdays, it was all glorified karaoke. We've also never heard "Stand by Me" so many times by so many different artists. I don't think it would appeal to anyone under 40.
We were staying half-board and the food quality in general was excellent. The wine list was almost exclusively Spanish (excepting Champagne) and featured a lot of great local Lanzarote wines (highly recommended). There are two restaurants: the Bamboo buffet restaurant (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and an à la carte Italian restaurant, where those on half-board and all-inclusive can dine once a week. We did not try the Italian restaurant as the menu was completely uninspiring and inauthentic with only pizza and pasta as the main dishes. We skipped it an stuck to the buffet.
The dining experience in the Bamboo restaurant was probably the part of the stay we had the most issues with, although the food quality was excellent, especially the salads. Firstly, Spain is a country where dinner is typically late, but the dinner service finished at 9 pm. We felt this was a bit early, as most other hotels we've stayed at in Spain are open until 10 pm. Secondly, the labelling of the dishes on the buffet was simply not good enough. Some dishes had no label at all and some were just given random names like "Canarian Meat" (no idea), "Flesh of the Jaw" (we assumed this was ox cheek) or "Iberian Secret". The last one was cooked live on the grill and turned out to be pork. There was also no obvious signage about whether food was vegan or contained gluten. For example, the famous Canarian red and green sauces contain bread, but you wouldn't know looking at them. OK, you could ask the staff, but it gets tiring having to do that every meal time. In this day and age, the labelling really needs to be better and more descriptive, especially in a 4-star hotel.
In terms of the facilities, we sat by the pool for a couple of days. We usually arrived in the early afternoon and didn't have trouble finding two vacant loungers next to each other. There seemed to be no obvious policing of other guests reserving loungers, but this wasn't really a problem. We also used the spa and had a massage, which was excellent (again, lovely staff). We were surprised it wasn't booked up! There are a lot of treatments on offer and you can even have a couple's massage.
Overall, we would definitely return. It's a decent location and a great experience."
