Eden Apartments, Grand Canary

.../> I stayed at the Eden from August 29th 2008 for 7 nights. This hotel used to be part of Thomson Super Family group, however this year it is still a thomson hotel but no longer part of the superfamily group. Im not sure why.
The Eden is situated at the very top of Puerto Rico looking down towards Amadores beach and around the back from the Europa centre. Having been to GC a number orf times we hired a car from the airport and made the now ...
...is no parking at the Eden so the car was left somewhere along the very narrow road where the entrance to the Eden is.
First impressions were good. Large reception area, with mini-mart just outside - prices were reasonable and stocked pretty much everything you would need. There was a large Thomson presence within reception with a big noticeboard and Kids club details. There is also a baby soft play area - part of the old superfamily style, ... more

Firstly I would like to start by saying the island is Gran Canaria. Not Gran Canary but hey!
I stayed at the Eden from August 29th 2008 for 7 nights. This hotel used to be part of Thomson Super Family group, however this year it is still a thomson hotel but no longer part of the superfamily group. Im not sure why.
The Eden is situated at the very top of Puerto Rico looking down towards Amadores beach and around the back from the Europa centre. Having been to GC a number orf times we hired a car from the airport and made the now much quicker thanks to the extended motorway ride into PR.
There is no parking at the Eden so the car was left somewhere along the very narrow road where the entrance to the Eden is.
First impressions were good. Large reception area, with mini-mart just outside - prices were reasonable and stocked pretty much everything you would need. There was a large Thomson presence within reception with a big noticeboard and Kids club details. There is also a baby soft play area - part of the old superfamily style, internet access and a launderette finishes it off.
Reception staff are very helpful. Pointed us in the direction of apartment 72.
There is a lift and stairs from reception which takes you up a floor and there is where all the apartments and the pool etc are.
The Eden has 1bedroom and 2 bedroom apartments. The majority of the 1 bedroom are on the first floor.
The apartment itself was a bit of a disappointment. Fairly compact and in desperate need of a lick of paint. Also very dark! Door opened into the kitchen / diner/ living space. Kitchen was well equipped with a kettle, toaster and microwave as standard and a full size fridge / freezer - something of a novelty on holiday. There was a breakfast bar, 2 sofas which double as beds and a coffee table. With the table in the middle of the room you could only just walk around. There is also a TV which is coin operated and has a few british channels including cartoon network for the kids. The bedroom was fairly spacy but no wardrobe in the bedroom - this was in the corridor outside the bathroom along with the safety deposit box. The bathroom was bath with shower attachment. The highlight of the room was without a doubt the balcony - very big with table, 4 chairs and 2 sunbeds. This was an advantage of being upstairs as the 2 bedrooms apts have a terrace within the gardens. You can hire parasols or mattresses from reception for your balcony if you want. The parsol was €11 for a week. There is also ceiling fans in both the living room and bedroom which were definately needed. The windows didnt lock properly but had bars across them.
Maid service was few and far between and to be fair when it happened it wasnt that great. We arrived on Friday and on Monday I went to reception to ask for more toilet roll and towels. I cleaned the apartment myself in the end as when the maid did it wasnt worth it!
I think they are in the process of refurbing some of the apartments as there was some drillings and banging going on during the week.
So the rest of the Eden. There is a large pool which gets very busy. Sunbed reservation does happen and it was a case of if you cant beat them in order to get the best beds right by the pool. You can have mattresses on the beds but these cost €1 per mattress per day. The pool is in 2 halves seperated by a bridge. There is also a kiddies pool which is tucked away from the main one. The restaurant / bar area is by the side of the pool. They serve food all day which is very reasonably priced and actually very tasty. We had a full english for €4, also pizzas and sandwiches. There are 2 play areas for kids. One small one for the under 5's and a larger one for 5-12. These were unsupervised and got quite hot during the day. Also had to watch the teenagers during the evening as they tended to go on there and not care about the younger kids. The entertainment is one thing that is really good about the Eden. Now with inhouse entertainers they have a variety of things happening throughout the day and evening. Starting from around 2pm there was killer pool / darts, fashion shows or water polo. Highlight of the day - Happy hour at 4pm and cash bingo!! Evening entertainment was kiddies disco then a show of some sort - we saw parrots, singers, comedians. This finished with Karoake around 12 midnight.
We didnt use the kids club as we didnt travel with thomson and they only allowed thomson holiday makers to use it.
There is an alleyway around the side of the eden which takes you to the Europa centre. This is the smaller of the 2 commercial centres within PR. A selection of tacky sovenier shops, a few nice restaurants, takeaway places and bars are there.
All in all the Eden was a great base for us and our son loved the pool area. The clientele is predominatly british with some spanish there. The spanish do tend to take over so it might be worth checking if there are any public holidays whilst you are there.
I really hope that they will give the apartments a facelift as this was the only part which let it down. 

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