Hoteles Isla Bonita y Jardín Isla Bonita, Tenerife

We'd never been to Tenerife before and a friend of ours recommended this hotel to us, he goes year in year out and said it was great. So we checked out reviews on the internet (not ciao by the way, there was none, until now!) we found the hotel had mixed results but wasn't put off, afterall our friend said it was great, so we booked indepedently, got a good deal with Holiday Rooms Direct and the four of us ( hubby, two boys and myself) flew out in ...
...seperately and give a final mark out of ten for that section, hope this helps!


ON ARRIVAL.....It only took us about 15 minutes to reach our hotel from the south airport in Tenerife, it cost us £25 euros. When first entering the hotel you find yourself quite strangely in the entertainment/bar area, where people are drinking and watching the nightly show. The reception is signposted but we didn't see the sign and had to ask one ... more

We'd never been to Tenerife before and a friend of ours recommended this hotel to us, he goes year in year out and said it was great. So we checked out reviews on the internet (not ciao by the way, there was none, until now!) we found the hotel had mixed results but wasn't put off, afterall our friend said it was great, so we booked indepedently, got a good deal with Holiday Rooms Direct and the four of us ( hubby, two boys and myself) flew out in September 2006. I'll review each section of our holiday seperately and give a final mark out of ten for that section, hope this helps!

ON ARRIVAL.....It only took us about 15 minutes to reach our hotel from the south airport in Tenerife, it cost us £25 euros. When first entering the hotel you find yourself quite strangely in the entertainment/bar area, where people are drinking and watching the nightly show. The reception is signposted but we didn't see the sign and had to ask one of the guests where it was! We pulled our suitcases over the cobbled floor, which was a nightmare, then finally reached the reception. The man at reception was very welcoming and sorted us out with our all inclusive ID cards which we had to have our photos taken for, he told us we had to use the cards for our drinks at the bar, ice creams and to unlock our room. This is an important card as it acts as your room key aswell as your pass for free drinks, we had two between the four of us. 9/10

OUR ROOM.......Was fantastic! It was like we were staying in self catering accomodation, we had a lounge area with a double sofa bed (for the kids) satellite TV and air conditioning, a kitchen area with breakfast bar, cooker and fridge. A bedroom with ample storage, a bathroom with a bath and shower. A balcony with table and two chairs that could be reached by either of the rooms as it had double patio doors. We were very impressed, our room overlooked the pool, which we had requested when booking and were happy about as some of the rooms overlooked the busy main road. 10/10

THE POOLS......Were great! There were two main large pools, both with a shallow and deep end. There were also two childrens pools, one next to each large pool, we found these the best as we have a five year old that seemed quite safe in the shallow water. There were also four small jacuzzis by one of the large pools. The water was a nice temperature and got warmer throughout the day as the sun heated it up. Inflatables are allowed but the pools are big enough to accomodate them, so they don't get in the way. You get the usual sunbed hoggers, you know the ones that get up at the crack of dawn to reserve their bed for the day, saying this though we never had any problems getting the sunbeds we wanted. The small pools were less crowded. You can also hire a towel each to use round the pool, these are given in exchange for a green card with your room number on, you take the towels back each morning before10am and they give you cleans ones in return, if you fail to return the towels before you leave the hotel you are charged 9euros per towel. We used this service regularly as it saved us using our own, we kept ours for the beach instead! 10/10

THE FOOD......Was fine. The hotel is all inclusive, so you have breakfast, lunch, mid afternoon snack, then finally dinner! We never managed the afternoon snacks, we were too full and usually settled on having ice cream. The food was OK, the only thing I can fault is the breakfast, you get the usual cereals, toast,fruit,croissants, etc. But the full english wasn't very full, they didn't do sausage and there wasn't any fried bread or potato option (hash browns), apparently all hotels are the same in Tenerife, so if this is true then I apologise. The rest of the food was fine, something different most evenings although pizza and pasta were there every day!
The hotel has two outdoor restaurants that you get to visit each once during your stay, one is L'Italia in Tavoli (Italian) the other is Biergarten (BBQ). The tables are all laid out beautifully and the whole area is candle lit. These I would highly recommend, it just makes your evening meal feel a bit more special, you are waited on and in the BBQ restaurant your food is cooked in front of you. In the Italian it is self service, but you can order pizzas of your choice which are cooked specially. The lasagne is fantastic.
The main restaurant is indoors and air conditioned, the waiters/waitresses are all polite and pleasant, they clear the tables quickly and everything is clean and well organised.
8/10

THE DRINKS.......Are free, so what's to complain about! Soft drinks included: coke, sprite, orange/lemon fanta, still/sparkling water, fruit juices, milkshakes. Then there was the local lager (which wasn't bad at all) spirits, red/white/rose wine, sangria and cocktails. The bar staff were polite, quick to serve and very efficient. On the evenings the queue would look enormous, but I never stood there for more than 5 minutes, I stand at the bar longer than that in this country! There is no waiter service, you go and fetch the drinks yourself, the waiters just collect the empties from your table and believe me there's lots of those!
10/10

THE ICE CREAM.......This had to have it's own section in my review, it's that good! We were expecting the 'free' ice cream to be the three basic flavours in those small tube you get, we were wrong! We lost count how many flavours there were, strawberry, chocolate, banana, vanilla, coffee, pistachio, lemon, toffee, coconut, cookies and cream, etc,etc...and they come in cones not tubs! Sod the kids, we had loads during our stay!!
10/10

THE ENTERTAINMENT.....During the day lots of things were going on around us, aqua aerobics, table tennis, boules, archery, football, nothing we got involved in, we go on holiday to lie down and eat, not exercise! But if you're into that sort of thing, there's plently to do. There's also a kids club, from 10am-12noon and 3pm-4pm. The staff are great and our two boys (age 5 and 9) went most mornings to join in the activities, they made alot of friends and enjoyed it.
The evening entertainment left a little to be desired, the nightly shows are advertised on a board in reception, but no matter how rubbish it looks you feel like you might as well stay as a least your drinks are free all night (well, until 11pm) the bar stops the free drinks from 11pm, it doesn't close so you can still have another drink but you have to pay. To get around this we just got a couple of extra drinks each at 10.55pm so they'd last. Why pay when you're all inclusive?
Back to the nightly cabaret, some nights were better than others, we had a good magician and a snake man, but we also had alot of spanish dancers, fashion shows and fire eaters. All of these impressed the kids, but we felt a little let down. The kids disco was brilliant though, this started at 9pm and lasted about 45 minutes, they really did well with the kids entertainment and our two boys looked forward to it every night.
7/10

FACILITIES.......This hotel has alot of facilities available, I've listed them below:

Board: 4* All inclusive

All rooms: Air con,sat TV, safe (extra cost) fridge, bath/shower, balcony, max occupancy is 4 adults.

Leisure: 1 main bar, 2 pool bars, tennis court, squash court, badminton, gymnasium, table tennis, sauna, hair salon, childrens playground, video games, 2 small pools, 2 large pools, 4 jacuzzis, roof terrace (nude bathing)

Location: 400m from fanabe beach, 20km from airport.

MY OVERALL VERDICT.....is that this hotel is very well equipped, nicely set out (apart from reception) and the staff are welcoming and friendly. Our stay went without any problems and we were sad to leave, a few days after we'd got home we received a letter in the post from the hotel saying that they hoped to see us again and offered us loyalty rewards if we ever returned, this was a nice touch I thought.
The staff are friendly and efficient, everyone knows what they are doing and the hotel is therefore well organised, if you have any problems they will sort it for you. The cleaners work hard keeping the pool areas, eating areas and rooms spotlessly clean and still manage a 'good morning' with a smile on their face even though they're half dead working in the blistering heat of the day. The food is average maybe a little above, some meals are going to get repeated when you're all inclusive, how can it not be?
If we were ever to return to Tenerife this hotel would be on our list, but we do tend to try out a different one each year and this is the best one we've stayed in yet. What more can I say??

*OVERALL RATING............9/10*

Happy Holidays!! 

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