We stayed at this hotel in March 2006 for a week. We wanted a relaxing spring break, and since this hotel is all-inclusive, it fit the bill perfectly. We booked it as part of a package deal and so I'm not sure of the actual price. The hotel was only built a few years ago, and this shows in the newness of the place.
The hotel is situated on the outskirts of Playa Blanca, at the south west of Lanzarote. It is built into the cliff face, so the entrance is actually about 8 floors above the lowest floor which seemed a bit strange at first! Although it is classed as being in Playa Blanca, it is about an hour's walk to get there. Between Playa Blanca and the hotel, there was a lot of development work going on, with new hotels being planned. It seemed very strange to see all of the roadways in place, complete with crossings and car parks, but no actual buildings. I'm sure that'll have all changed now though, knowing how quickly hotels get built in the Canaries. Despite all of the building work going on, it wasn't apparent once inside the hotel.
To
get to Playa Blanca from the hotel, you could either use the free hotel shuttle bus (ran 4 times per day), or you could walk. To walk, the best way is to go out of the back of the hotel by the beach, and walk along the promenade. This goes all the way to Playa Blanca, and the Rubicon Marina is about halfway along here. It takes about an hour to walk all the way, but it's a very pleasant trip with some great views across the water. The free bus takes about 10 minutes. We only took the bus once, and found the driver was very strict about allowing no passengers to stand. By the time we got to the front of the queue, all the seats were taken and we couldn't get on, but 20 minutes later and the driver was back with an empty bus.
On the opposite side of the hotel to Playa Blanca, the land was completely undeveloped, no roads except in the distance, with just bare rock, and it looked very much like a moonscape. Across this bare land, and down towards the beach (you have to be pretty sure-footed to get down there), and you could reach the first of the famous Papagayo beaches. A word of warning here though, as these are nudist beaches, and there are some strange sights to be seen there! The hotel had its own semi-private beach at the back of the hotel just beyond the fence although this wasn't up to much, mainly black rocks with black sand. Also near this beach was what looked like a private 'house' with chickens, and a rooster, so not much chance to sleep in on a morning if your room was too near to that!
The hotel's main building has 3 floors, with reception on the top of these, and the restaurant on the lowest. The rooms were on I think 12 floors, with some areas being floors 1-5 and others being 8-13, with some in between, depending on if it was the part that was built into the cliff. There are some great views all the way to Playa Blanca from the top floor, especially on a night with all the lights.
Food was available nearly 24 hours a day, with the only exception being between 6-7pm at night. A couple of times we had a midnight hot dog - just because we could! Drinks were free up until 11pm. The food itself was very good, with a good selection, in a buffet style. You just picked up a plate and helped yourself, then went back for more. Everything was labelled in 3 languages, so no worries about tasting something without knowing what it was. To make sure only hotel guests used the restaurants, every guest is given a wrist band - orange for adults and yellow for children. This is also presumably to help ensure that no 17-year-olds try to get served at the bar - the yellow band would give them away. The main restaurant was classed as 'international' and had a good selection of English and Spanish food, and the Italian restaurant was attached to it. You could choose food from either of these and still sit in the same area, but there didn't seem to be a very good selection at the Italian buffet - I only saw spaghetti and meatballs. There are also Chinese and French restaurants, but these are located away from the main restaurant and reservations had to be made - and I believe the French restaurant charged extra.
Several forms of entertainment were provided each night, although we didn't go to any of these so I can't comment on if they were any good or not - but there did seem to be quite a variety.
The room was spacious with a large bed and 2 large wardrobes, a sofa bed, chairs etc. We were located on the ground floor right at the back of the hotel, so had a terrace instead of a balcony. It was nice to sit on the terrace or in the room and hear the sea less than 50 feet away. The room had a fridge in it, and when we arrived this contained a complimentary bottle of water. There was also a TV in the room but this was not really worth watching - the few English programs that were on had been dubbed into Spanish!
The bathroom was very spacious and clean, with the usual facilities, bath, washbasin, toilet and bidet. There was a good selection of free toiletries including for some reason a shoe brush!! A hair drier was also included.
The hotel has 3 large pools, all located on the roof (which was on a lower level than reception!) There was never any shortage of sunbeds. The hotel also had a crazy golf course, a jacuzzi, a bar, and a games area with pool table etc.
On the whole I would recommend this as a place to stay if all you're looking for is somewhere to spend a nice peaceful week - no good though if you want to go on a pub crawl each evening as there aren't any nearby! If we go back to Lanzarote we will definitely consider the Papagayo Arena again.
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Sep 4th, 2006
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