Just got back from a week at Lanzarote Bay and on the whole I would say I was pleasantly surprised. We hadn't seen any real photos of the hotel and didn't have that many details, and it was much nicer and bigger than we were expecting. We arrived at the hotel at 9PM ish, checking in was really easy and the receptionists spoke good English and seemed very efficient. We were told that they would be closing the restaurant soon so were able to out our luggage in a locker room and have dinner, which we wasn't expecting to get as we were later than we should have been. Didn't really get a good look at the restaurant that night as we were so tired from flight delays so just had a bowl of pasta and left it at that, but even at that time of night the food was still warm and not dried out. The Restaurant staff were very friendly and accomodatating.
Our room was on the 3rd floor and there's no lifts, but we didn't have a huge amount of luggage so wasn't too bad, the electric was turned off in our room and we had to flick the switch on the mains, don't know if they do that for every room or not though. The size of the room was a lot bigger than we were expecting, there was a good size bathroom (with a bidet!), kitchen
area which had an oven, hob, sink and fridge as well as wall cupboards, but no cutlery or plates, the lounge area are a huge sofa bed with another bed underneath and the usual tables and TV etc, dividing the kitchen are and lounge area was a kinda breakfast bar thing, the bedroom had twin beds, that can be pushed together and plenty of wardrobe space with the safe in (you have to pay to use it though). Off of the lounge was a big, mostly unoverlooked balcony (big enough to get 2 matteresses with space still!) with table and chairs on. The beds were like hospital beds and pillows weren't very comfy either, the sofa beds are actually more comfy. Plenty of towels/soaps etc, which get stocked up during the week as needed, the bath was a bit grotty though, showering was ok, but wouldn't have wanted a bath in it, just looked dirty. The room didn't have any air con at all, and because the Island is so windy if you try to have a front window open and the back door, everything gets blown about and doors and windows slam shut.
All meals in the restaurant are buffet style, eat and drink as much as you want. Breakfasts are from 8AM till 10AM were a mixture of various cereals, fuits/cheese/cold meats and bread, and hot full English style. The drinks in the restaurant were fruit juices, water, beer, wine, tea and coffee. For lunches, which is 1PM to 3PM there were 2 soups, salads and various hot foods, meats, vegs, fish, pastas etc, and desserts were what let it down mainly as they never seemed to change from one day to the next, you got various fruits, ice creams, jellys, gateau and a creme caramel of sorts!?! After lunch has finished the snacks bar opens up until 5PM and then dinner is from 6:30PM till 9PM and they tended to be much the same, just different types of meats and vegs and stuff. Friday night was a Mexican night, with pre dinner Tequilas (not compulsory!!) and Mexican food, and I do believe that as the season gets busier thye do more theme nights.
All drinks and all snacks at all the bars are free, even cocktails, we drank Whisky most of the time although not JD as they don't have that, but whatever Whisky it was was quite nice, and you get BIG measures!!!
There is a free bus that takes you to a local beach (Cucharas), which is about 25 minutes walk, but if you walk round the back of the hotel and down through Playa Bastian there is a smaller and much nicer beach there, which is only about 10 minutes away with sunbeds and some areas sectioned off for more privacy. The area around Cucharas is more lively that around the hotel, with the usual pubs/clubs/shops and restaraunts.
There are plenty of excursions that you can do, there are leaflets and things in the reception and everything can be booked direct through them or your rep and you get picked up outside the hotel for most things too, although fi you want to make your own way to places it's very easy to get about by bus, which is at the back of the hotel and for example, it cost EUR4.80 for 2 people to go to Peurto Del Carmen, but the buses weren't air conditioned, so I hate to think what it would be like in hotter weather!! I will put other posts up under the 'Excursions' topic rather than putting them all on here. Just a tip though, if you decide to the trip to Peurto Calero you DO have to book it as the receptionists told us you didn't and we ended up getting a bus to Peurto Del Carmen then a river bus to Peurto Calero, whereas if you book the bus goes around Costa Teguise's hotel then straight to the port in about 20 minutes!
The water in the swimming pool was freezing!!! There were people in it sometimes but mostly the kids, I would think later in the season when it's hotter the cold water would be refreshing but in April/May I wouldn't recommend it. The hotel was much quieter in general that we thought it was going to be, I know it was early in the season but there was lot's of space around the pool to put your sunbeds down. The bar at the poolside plays music from 10AM when it opens to 5PM when it shuts, and it gets very very repetative and annoying,
Everywhere was very clean, at any one time you could always see someone cleaning up around the pool area. The maids came every day except Sunday, but more often than not well into the afternoon, and all they really did was make the beds, change the towels/toilettries as needed and empty the bins, she didn't actually seem to clean anything.
The water tanks are on the roofs and in the morning the pressure from these makes a horrendous squeeling noise for like ever, we found that if we left one of the taps on a slow drip then this eases off the noise so you don't get woken up at 5AM every morning.
I would think in hotter weather they might have a problem with cockroaches, I saw three the whole week we were there and 2 were on the last day on the restaurant floor, but they might step up on the cleanliness as the weather warms up too though to counteract that.
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