Hotel Noelia Sur, Tenerife

...Tenerife and staying at the Hotel Noelia Sur. My family go to Tenerife every year and this is the second time we have stayed at the Noelia. It has always been known as a quality hotel, but like many hotels it has its blips.

Our flight was with Monarch airlines and to be honest it did leave certain things to be desired. I was told to expect to pay £10.00 for the inflight meals, which basicaly are crap, but Monarch tried to hit us with ...
...book the flights and the hotel on-line or through a travel agent saving loads. I paid around £1800 for the flights, and the hotel with breakfast and dinner included.This was for two rooms, consisting of a family of 4 adults and an 8 year old. There are plenty of places in Tenerife south airport to hire a car for around £140.00 for the week, and the fuel is around 80p per litre.
We opted for a cab costing 21 Euros (£14.00) for the tewnty minuite ... more

I have just got back from Tenerife and staying at the Hotel Noelia Sur. My family go to Tenerife every year and this is the second time we have stayed at the Noelia. It has always been known as a quality hotel, but like many hotels it has its blips.

Our flight was with Monarch airlines and to be honest it did leave certain things to be desired. I was told to expect to pay £10.00 for the inflight meals, which basicaly are crap, but Monarch tried to hit us with a £15.00 bill for them.As there were 7 in my party, this would have been an extra £105.00. I honestly do not think there is a need for such a price, as this would bring in more than £5000 revenue for the company, just for the inflight meals. They already charge a price of £3.00 for a 330 ml can of beer that costs 60p in an off license. On top of this there is a hire charge of £1.50 for a set of headphones. TIP---take two sets of personal stereo headphones and place the jack plugs in each socket, you will then have 1 working earphone from each set to go in each ear.

The package holiday is comming to a close as they are out pricing themselves, this is why it is cheeper to book the flights and the hotel on-line or through a travel agent saving loads. I paid around £1800 for the flights, and the hotel with breakfast and dinner included.This was for two rooms, consisting of a family of 4 adults and an 8 year old. There are plenty of places in Tenerife south airport to hire a car for around £140.00 for the week, and the fuel is around 80p per litre.
We opted for a cab costing 21 Euros (£14.00) for the tewnty minuite ride into Playa De Las Americas.
This avoided looking for a rep, sat on a hot, stuffy coach untill everyone else has got their cases and going around every one els's hotel, wasting up your holiday time.

On ariving at the Noelia, it really is an imressive hotel, with marble steps leading up to automatic smoke glass dorrs with gold coloured fittings. Before you go through the doors, you cant help notice a terrace area with about 20 tables, leading into a large bar area. This terrace has live music most nights by means of either a saxophonist or classical guitarist. Really nice chill out area, especially at night with its low lighting. The bar prices are compettative charging 5 Euros for a Jack Daniels, 3 for a pint of lager or a bottle of san miguel and around the same for a coffee. TIP---19.00 to 20.00 is happy hour and its two for one, Fill Your Boots.

On entering the hotel, the well staffed reception is just to the left offering fresh fruit and cava or soft drinks for new arivals. Our room wasnt ready, so a ticket was issued for us to get a free drink at the bar, nice touch. But you would expect nothing less from a quality four star hotel.

The hotel foyer is amazing, with its huge glass, conservatory style structure and a huge palm tree rising up through the roof. After reception there is a set of marble steps that leads down to the pool area, bar and dining room. This area is surounded by lush green plants that adds to the tropical effect.
This whole area is in the shape of a horse shoe, with the bar and dining room on either side, and the pool and entertainment area in the middle.
This area of tables in the centre is used for eating snacks from the bar, eating breakfast if one wishes to eat outside, and also for the nightly entertainment.

The entertainment, which is on every night is excellent from tribute bands (Beatles, Pointer Sisters) to accrobats form Thailand.
In the day there is a full supervised acctivity programme from Water Polo and Table Tennis to Shooting.
Also around the 20.00 mark is a kiddies disco supervised by the annomacion team who do get the parents involved as well.

On the same level as the pool is a chill out area within the hotel that hosts plenty of seats, two air hockey tables and two pool tables.
I often wondered why there was never anyone playing on the pool tables, and found out that the price was 2 Euros per game where evrywhere else on the island was 1 Euro.

Down the steps yet again from this level, leads to a really well kitted out gym, with weights, treadmill's and cycling machines. TIP---dont pay at the desk in the gym as it is privately owned and will cost you double. A one day pass can be purchased from the reception desk at a price of 3 Euros or 10 Euros for the week.

The hotel is spotless and the maids are hard working to maintain these standards. The rooms are of the same quality with fresh towels every day, including sundays. There is a fridge in the rooms, really small, and a key to open it can be purchased from reception at a cost of 2 Euros per day. It is also the same price for the safe in the wardrobe.

The hotel is situated in an area about 15 minuites walk from all the night clubs known as Veronicas and about the same distance to the beach. It is more quiet at this hotel as opposed to some on the main strip, but if you are an early riser, at around 07.00 you will find there are plenty of p*** heads making their way back to their hotels to spend the day in bed.

Just to the left of the main doors of the hotel is a Netto supermarket which has most essentials in it at a good price. TIP---this is not the place to buy your booze and fags to take home, as opposite the Hotel Conquistador is a small shopping complex that is round about the cheapest in the town. To give you some idea of the difference, i bought a litre of Jack Daniels there costing 17.85 Euros, as opposed to 27.85 Euros most other places. I also bought 200 Richmond menthol for the wife costing 10 Euros, which works out at less than £7.00.

The dining room at this hotel is excellent and the food is amazing, catering for everyone. If there is someone reading this who has stayed at the Noelia and didnt like the food....then...you must have a very strange taste.
There are two sittings, 18.30 and 20.30. and it is your typical buffet style. TIP--- after sitting down at the same table you are allocated on arrival, a waiter will ask if you would like a drink. The drink will arive and a reciept ill be given to you after he has asked for your room number. It is strongly advisable that every morning you go to reception with your reciept and pay last nights drinks bill. Not only will this stop the bill from mounting up and whacking you a fortune when you come to check out, but will allow you to question the ammount if it is wrong. It is so easy for someone to order a large round on their last night and give them a false room number.....and it could be yours.

Now this hotel is excellent, but they just have'nt got some things right.

The guests are not supposed to place towels on sunbeds before 09.00 to give evryone a chance as there arnt enough to go round all the guests. So at 08.15 you can see the sad cases lining up, towels at the ready and trying to get an early dart as early as 08.40. For god's sake....get a life. These people are willing to pull, push and fight for a bed. The hotel stipulates that not only is there a time of 09.00 to start the rat race, but any beds with towels on, un-occupied for more than half an hour, will be removed. This rule is to stop the selfish minded guests from securing beds with cheap towels bought form a tacky market, then dissapearing for the morning.
Trouble is.....there are no staff to police these rules.
TIP---if you see a set of bed with towels on them and have been left for more than an hour, rip them off yourself and stick them in the bin.

Another thing that did my head in, is the bar closes at 01.00 and the place is in darkness. Thing is...YOUR ON HOLIDAY....and if you are not eating until the 20.30 sitting, by the time you have eaten, gone out for a walk and a couple of drinks, you are hard pushed to get back for a nightcap.

There are plenty of trips you can go on that can be booked from the hotel, but you will get a better deal walking down the coast and under the jetty to Los Cristianos.
TIP---There are a lot of places doing good car hire deals such as a Fiat Punto which is ideal for two adults and a couple of kids for 27 Euros for the day. It works out about £18.00...cant go wrong.

So there you have it....a great hotel with a few minor blips, but on the whole....highly reccomended for anyone with a family or the parents. 

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