"This is our first time in Tenerife.
We are both in our 50s and have travelled extensively over the years, I have worked in and around the hospitality industry since I was 16. We stayed in late February for 6 nights, staying in the one bedroom villas.
You can always tell how things are going to be by the interaction with the staff as soon as you arrive. The staff here will be one of the biggest impressions we will take away with us. All the staff (from the cleaner to the manager) are professional, considerate, friendly, happy and exceptionally welcoming. They could not have done more for us. I am gluten free and they even sourced special cakes and treats for the daily 4pm champagne tea by the pool. If I can commend one thing, it’s the culture here. Honestly dont change a single thing.
A word on security and noise. If you look at the map you will see the villas are in the north east part of the resort and quite close to the main road. Worry not, noise levels are non existent and the site is very secure. There are guards at every entrance and exit and also we have seen security personnel in and around the site. We felt very safe and the villa was quiet and tranquil.
The villa itself is very well appointed and laid out, the bath is amazing- honestly you just have to see it. The rooms are spacious and well air conditioned, the garden area with patio and plunge pool again are well thought out and all luxuries you could want for are provided. The bed is large and comfortable with a very good range of pillows, the wardrobe space is generous with the provision of a good quality key based safe and ironing board plus all the usual amenities you would expect (sun hat, umbrella, slippers, loads of large towels and dressing gowns (robes) too die for). The team here have clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the villas and their usage. There is a small kitchenette with a full size fridge below the counter, sink microwave and hot plate. Useful details for any one considering the villas:
1- there is a LOT of coffee provided for the nespresso machine
2- the air conditioning is excellent and not very loud
3- there is a LOT of hot water under good pressure (im really gonna miss that)
4- the daily room refreshes will leave any amount of coffee and milk (just leave a note)
5- the fridge contains soft drinks for free
6- you will NEVER run out of bottled water
7- the bed is large and comfy
8- every other day you should get canapés or fruit delivered to your room
The villa area itself is separate from the main hotel site (which is massive by the way), villa guests are allowed across the whole site while other guests are not allowed in the villa area. This provides for a lovely retreat from the hustle and bustle of the main resort and the local area. There is a club house with a deck over the large pool reserved for villa guests.
Breakfast at the clubhouse was complimentary for us and the food just kept on coming. The team accommodated my gluten free requirements with ease and confidence. The quality of all the food we tasted here was excellent (9-10) and the service faultless. The range of food is not huge, but it didn’t need to be, they did what they did very well and provided a good range of options with a lot of local and traditional food. Every day at 4pm there are canapés and drinks served for guests (also complimentary), a great way to start the evening!
The rest of the site is huge with a lot of additional facilities and resources, even a telescope!! Staff get around on electric golf carts and you can either request a lift by calling them or simply hail them on site, they were always happy to give us a lift. The grounds are very well kept, there seems to be a whole team of gardeners and grounds keepers. There is a good amount of local wildlife on the site (ducks, geese and many cats). Outside of the villa area on the resort there are many pools, restaurants and cafes to choose from. Access to the local area is very good (via a secure and guarded gate at the sea front) and there are a lot of good local shops and restaurants. To the south there is a small mall (with a larger mall a bit further) that covers all the main brands you would need. To the north is a lovely restaurant area with a small alley way of local artisan shops and cafes.
On site though, there is still lots to do. The pitch and putt was fun although a bit hard to navigate. The gym is good but a little small for a resort this big, the CV equipment is also starting to show its age. There is one cross trainer (elliptical) and one stride machine. The free weights area is very well equipped and there is a very good selection of weights machines and a smith machine. Although I personally found the lack of cross trainers frustrating (in cannot run due to injury) the gym was never busy when we used it. Nevertheless this is one of the reasons we did not give the review 5 stars. My only recommendation would be to have a smaller gym in the villa area with a squat rack, chin bar, good free weights and a few CV pieces of good quality.
The only other niggle we had was the signage and communication. Signage could be better although i understand why it’s not. The place is beautiful and excess signage would really spoil it. Turning it from a place to relax to a theme park ;-). That said, we wandered around aimlessly quite a few times trying to find things. A couple of times we requested things from the duty manager of the villa area and things didn’t go quite right (like the safe key which was finally resolved on our third day). However, they sent an engineer with a security guard and a new safe lock unit so again you can see their attention to detail and guest security.
You certainly feel the difference when you leave the area of the villas. For those that travel a lot think the difference between the gold card lounge at T5 and the main departures concourse.
We ate on site several nights, the first night there was no availability and they proactively found us a table at a local seafront restaurant which was ace. The second night we ate at La Hacienda. The themes of service and attention continued but the servings were large, we shared the starter and could easily have shared the fajitas. Like many resorts, an unfinished bottle can be taken from one restaurant to another by the staff here so you can keep it for the next night.
The Friday we ate at the Brasserie. This didn’t go well at all, they were in a bit of a pickle, we ended up being served by 7 separate members of staff, there was a lot of confusion and entire elements of dished we ordered were missing. We made a comment the next day and after investigation they waived the whole fee for the meal.
Fortunately the third on site meal at Sua made up for it, service was good, not Amazonia b ut on par with what you would expect at a good place on any UK high street. Not exactly pedestrian but not a shining beacon either.
The exception for us was Kensai. I have been fortunate to travel to Osaka (once) and this is the closest i have had since going there. Take the tasting menu. It’s not cheap but if you have any appreciation of what goes into making these dishes it’s worth every penny. It was a 2 and a half hour roller coaster ride for my tongue!!!
This was a great way to end the holiday and we will CERTAINLY be back!
In summary, it’s the staff that make this place, they really do. The only two other places that i have been to that have been this good were the Anheuser-Busch resort in Virgina (I think) and also Le Manoir in Oxfordshire.
If you stay, stay in the villas, it’s worth the extra for the peace and the tranquility and the service. If you are a regular gym user, dont set your expectations too high and be willing to be flexible on when you go as the place can get busy."
