Hotel Monica Beach, Fuerteventura

...and chose the Monica Beach Hotel on the recommendation of our travel agent because of its reputation as a nice family orientated hotel.

The trip from Birmingham Airport takes about 4 to 4 1/2 hours. I'm not going to talk about the flight since different airlines will offer a different standard of service. Suffice to say that I travelled with MyTravel and went 'cattle class' :(
After meeting other people at the resort we later ...
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The Monica Beach Hotel is one of a chain of hotels in Costa Calma, which lies on the southern coast of the island.

It's a three star hotel, which in my opinion is verging on being a 4 star. It consists of over 800 rooms some of which allow for self-catering though the hotel works primarily on a fully inclusive basis. There's a lot to talk about so I'll try and break this review into useful sections.

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In the past my wife and I have been pretty relaxed about where and how we holiday. We've done all inclusive, B&B, Half Board, City Breaks, Beach Holidays, make it up as we go along etc.

However we now have a 5-year-old boy to look after and so our holidays have to be thought through in advance.

This year we chose Fuerteventura as our holiday destination and chose the Monica Beach Hotel on the recommendation of our travel agent because of its reputation as a nice family orientated hotel.

The trip from Birmingham Airport takes about 4 to 4 1/2 hours. I'm not going to talk about the flight since different airlines will offer a different standard of service. Suffice to say that I travelled with MyTravel and went 'cattle class' :(
After meeting other people at the resort we later found that people had travelled from airports as far a field as Glasgow, East Midlands and Gatwick.

For people who don't know Fuerteventura, this is one of the many islands that make up the Canary Islands. The other larger islands are Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Tenerife, La Palma, Gomera, Hierro. Fuerteventura is the second largest island after Tenerife and is thought to be the oldest. The origin of its name is unclear. Some people say that it is derived from 'forte aventure' meaning 'great adventure' whilst others say its derived from the word 'venutra' which means 'wind'. Indeed strong winds are a characteristic of Fuerteventura and on our excursions we saw one wind farm with about 20-25 electricity generating windmills. Temperatures vary between 21°C in the winter and 27°C in the summer and during our trip in the middle of April, temperatures were around 22-24°C with just a single night when it rained.
At these temperatures its still possible to get sun burnt and the cooling effects of the wind lull you into a false sense of security. During our stay we saw a number of people who had clearly stayed out too long in the sun without realising that they were getting sun burnt.

The Monica Beach Hotel is one of a chain of hotels in Costa Calma, which lies on the southern coast of the island.

It's a three star hotel, which in my opinion is verging on being a 4 star. It consists of over 800 rooms some of which allow for self-catering though the hotel works primarily on a fully inclusive basis. There's a lot to talk about so I'll try and break this review into useful sections.

>> Location <<

The hotel is situated on the southeastern side of the island and is very close to the beach. In fact it takes about 3 or 4 minutes to walk from a ground floor room to the beach. It is close to the main road, which travels up and down the east coast of the island. Some local shops and supermarkets are within walking distance but to do some real shopping you would have to catch a bus or excursion to the closest large town called Morro Jable on the southern coast about 1/2 hour away. This town happens to also be the location of two of the excursions we went on which I'll talk about later.

>> Rooms <<

I'm not sure about what kinds of rooms other people had but we had a room with twin beds, a sofa bed for our 5 year old, a table, couple of comfortable chairs, a TV, cooker, fridge and sink and separate bathroom. We also had a small balcony and we found that most of the rooms like ours faced the beach and sea. We found that the wardrobe space was just about right for us but then again we tend to travel as light as possible. I suspect most people would have preferred more wardrobe space. During our stay we came across 2 cockroaches (one of which I flushed down the bidet) and a few small ants on the floor. These were not really a big deal and the room is swept clean every day. Some other guests were rather put off by this but to be honest I think people over react when they see insects in their rooms. If you look at what's crawling around on your living room carpets you'd be surprised. Anyway 2 cockroaches do not an infestation make :)

The TV channels consisted of a load of Spanish and German channels. The only English one was CNN, which I hate with a passion. It's the worst news channel around. I much prefer BBC or Sky News.

>> Food <<
Usually when we go on holiday I'm okay with the food but my vegetarian wife often has problems finding stuff she can eat. This hotel was different. Each meal had a small but nice vegetarian option which my wife who is very fussy about her food found surprisingly tastey.

Also there wasn't any of last nights dinner being served up as the next days breakfast which is what we've found at other all inclusive hotels.

>> Facilities <<

Its an all inclusive hotel and all the facilities are available as part of your package.

There are tennis courts available and a small crazy golf course. At set times during the day there is also a Holiday Club where parents can leave their children in the care of hotel staff where they enjoy various activities such as indoor/outdoor games, colouring, model building etc. The club is generally available for about 1½ to 2 hours at a time 3 times a day and a timetable of the different activities on different days is posted near reception. On Mondays there is no holiday club and I presume this is so that the hotel staff can get some much needed time off from all the little brats that they have to look after.

It has 2 main outdoor swimming pools. One of these has a small section separated off from the main part of the pool and is 0.7 metres deep for small children. The other pool has a water slide for older children who can swim. There is also a third small pool for very small children, which is just deep enough for toddlers to walk about in. At this time of year (April) the water was rather cold and this along with the constant wind means that you end up shivering away when you leave the pool for any length of time. All the pools have a bar nearby where you can help yourself to both alcoholic and soft drinks and where you can also order snacks like hot dogs and toasted sandwiches.

Talking of bars, along with the pool bars, there are two additional indoor bars. One is ideal for a quiet civilised drink for adults whilst the other has a stage and dance area for when the music is on. A daily mini-disco for children starts at 8pm and lasts for about 45 minutes. Here the children's entertainers lead the dancing and very soon most of the kids join in and within a couple of days know all the dance moves. The stage area is used to host various entertainment events during the week such as singing, quizzes and on one of our nights we were treated to a group of 3 fantastically talented African guys performing some amazing balancing acts.

On the beach sun beds are available and these are not included in the price you pay. They cost about 9 euros a day, which is a bit of a rip-off. I didn't bother with those at all. You can try and pretend you didn't know that they have to be paid for but this will only work once. The guy looking after them has an excellent memory for faces.

The beaches themselves are amazingly clean. The golden sand set against clear blue water really allows your mind to relax and get away from it all. For the adventurous there are a few water sports such as sailing and surfing and again these are not included in the all inclusive package. Apart from that there's not much to say about the beach except perhaps that unlike other resorts I've been to, you don't get pestered by people trying to sell you stuff. The only people on the beaches are tourists

>> Excursions <<

As large as the hotel is, inevitably people will get bored and look for things to do. From our hotel there were a number of excursions available.

Subcat
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Cost: 54 Euros (Adults), 27 Euros (Children). Transport included
This is a catamaran, which is also a submarine. There are apparently only 3 of these in the world and all are located in the Canary Islands. The one we went on was in a shopping town called Morro Jable, which also happens to be the main harbour. The coach ride took about ½ hour but it can easily take longer depending on how many other guests are picked up from other hotels nearby. The Subcats are unique because unlike other small submarines, these can make their own way over water and then submerge when the destination has been reached. Other submersibles have to be taken there by another ship. The Subcat is able to reach depths of up to 30 metres. On our trip we went down to 25 metres. The dive down took about 10 minutes and once we reached our depth we stayed there for about ½ hour. During this time a scuba diver from a support boat above dives down with food to attract fish. There are lots of photo opportunities and light levels at that depth are sufficient to allow you to take some snaps of fish swimming around the Subcat. I took my camcorder down and the images I got with it were okay although it did have trouble focusing on fish outside the porthole. The Subcat has room for about 28 passengers and there are 7 portholes on either side of the boat. Once the diver has finished attracting the fish, he then goes back up and brings back an underwater camera with which he systematically goes around each porthole taking a snapshot of the passengers peering out through the windows. The photographs are then developed by the time you get back on land and cost a very reasonable 10 Euros each. All in all it was a fantastic experience and I would recommend this.

Oasis Park
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Cost: 24 Euros (Adults), 12 Euros (Children). Transport not included. Bus Fare: 1 Euro per person
This is a botanical garden and also a small zoo. The zoo part consists of mainly primates but also Emus, Crocodiles, Giraffes, Birds, Snakes and Meerkats. It's a fairly small park and there are no large animals such Elephants, Lions and Tigers. You can wander around the park in a couple of hours but this excursion lasts most of the day. This means that you can also see some of the shows that are put on at various times during the day. In fact if you get your timing right you should have enough time to see all of the shows.

There's a Parrot show where different parrots perform a number of tricks like riding bikes, counting numbers.

There's a sea lion show where 3 sea lions perform various tricks. This was pretty good for the kids as one of the sea lions went around the seating area kissing people on their cheeks.

There's an excellent crocodile show where the crocodile handlers allow the audience to touch a small crocodile (the teeth are taped shut!!). There's a whole load of other stuff that they do but it would spoil the fun for anyone who reads this and goes as a result. The crocodile show was the best out of the shows we saw.

There's also a Bird of Prey show but we didn't manage to catch this.

Finally included in the entrance price is a camel ride. Here a party of about 10 camels takes visitors for a ride around the outside of the park up a pretty high hill side and then back down again. The camels have a huge saddle on their backs with seats sticking out at either side. Couples can sit on these seats and a single child is able to sit right in the middle. For those not wanting to go on the camels the entrance price is reduced by 7 euros and 3 euros respectively for adults and children

Pirate Ship
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Cost: 34 Euros (Adults), 17 Euros (Children). Transport and BBQ Lunch included.
Once again located in Morro Jable harbour, this is a 2 deck sailing ship that takes you out to the sea for about 4 or 5 hours. During this time you can sit around on the deck and enjoy the sun whilst a pirate entertains the children. At some point during the trip the ship drops anchor and the guests are invited to take a dip in the sea. If they wish they can also make use of the snorkelling equipment on board. A BBQ lunch consisting of sausages and pork chops with boiled potatoes and salad is provided which in my opinion was better than the food we had in the hotel. Unfortunately there wasn't much of a choice of food for vegetarians. My wife ended up having what I had minus the pork chops and sausages.

All in all this was a great holiday for us. It was the first one where we had to be careful about what we did because of our little boy but the family orientated nature of the resort made this a very easy holiday for us. The only possibly negative thing about the resort was the number of German tourists there. Don't get me wrong I don't have anything against Germans but because it is a well-known holiday destination for Germans it meant that much of the entertainment was in German first, then Spanish and on the odd occasion in English. Many of the staff only spoke German or Spanish, which made it difficult to communicate but apart from that we really enjoyed ourselves. I would recommend this holiday destination to any family with children simply because there is so much for the kids to do.
 

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