Elba Sara Hotel & Golf Resort

The staff here are pleasant and the hotel is very clean. We only stayed one night when we were delayed by 24 hours owing to Coronavirus. But the breakfast was truly awful, and largely inedible. This is graded as a four star, but I feel this should be a three star.

I feel bad writing this for the members of staff who couldn’t do enough for us. As strange as it is to say this, only the males seemed friendly and accommodating and only 3 max 4 females. During our stay we actually nicknamed one of the staff members “rude Rachel” because she was so rude to my face when I approached her to ask her if I could speak to the chef to arrange for my baby to have some boiled veg at lunch time. She told me it was Sunday so no chef. She didn’t even look at me, and walked off without even waiting for my response or asking if she could help me. Furthermore, it’s a hotel, so whether is Monday Wednesday or Sunday, guests need feeding and food is 7 days so she was lying. I managed to find the chef myself and low and behold food was as normal on this Sunday. She is possibly the rudest person I’ve come across in a very long time. The hotel is somewhat unorganised. It’s a family hotel, so I would have expected the staff to know how to deal with baby food. I have a 9 month old so he doesn’t eat a lot and it’s basic boiled veg and rice. On one occasion I was sent by three different members of staff to three different areas of the hotel to try and get his food ordered. Nobody seemed to know where I could go. Eventually I went to the kitchen and found the chef myself and asked him, and he was great. On another occasion a female staff member told me that I couldn’t get half a mashed potato for my sons lunch time at 1pm because the restaurant didn’t open until 1.30pm. Again I had to find the chef myself and tell him my son needed to eat at 1pm - and again he was great. The reception desk has 5 computers yet there were only ever a max 2 members of staff there and I had to queue every time I went to reception. This is a minor point. In order to use any facilities you had to pay cash at reception which they would refund on return of equipment. They would not accept card at reception yet the hotel restaurant would not accept cash and only card. This made zero sense and was totally haphazard. The restaurant had plenty of variety for vegetarians however I ate pasta twice a day for the entire week because all the vegetarian dishes were placed right next to the meat dishes. This is not only off putting for a vegetarian, but I saw sauce from a meat dish splatter into the veg and this is the sole reason I don’t eat food that is placed next to meat. When I asked if it could be kept separate, they said “people like to eat meat with their veg”. I suppose this meant they couldn’t use their legs to walk to the other side of the counter. Each night the music was very loud and I was on the first floor above reception. It could be heard from our bedroom so this wasn’t ideal with a baby. Given that the water can’t be used from the taps, I’d at the very least expect bottled water in the room. The teaspoons were also plastic - this is not 4 star. On the plus side, they provided a cot, a mosquito net, a baby bath and a bottle warmer. I only used the bath and would have much preferred to have ease with my sons food preparation which I didn’t expect to be so difficult. I won’t be going here again and I would not recommend this hotel.

Firstly can not fault staff (except1) all very friendly, helpful, animation teams entertainment night was fab in comparison to the other entertainment. Rooms are spacious but lacking a little attention to detail on the cleaning side,dusty pictures, dirty mirrors. No ashtrays in room?? Our room was cleaned and tided everyday with clean fresh towels, toiletries and tea/coffee and chocolate (very nice)the complementary wine on arrival was also a nice touch, we reported our balcony door wouldn't lock and the issue was sorted in a matter of hours which again is a plus. Restaurant opening hours I didn't get!!? 2.5 hours for breakfast which was fabulous with everything you could ask for,yet dinner service is only 1.5 hours and the food, hit and miss By the time you get back to your table it was like warm at best unless it came straight from la plancha (grill) beef always too tough to be eaten but lamb chops were to die for. On themed nights, seafood and Asian, seafood and sushi bar were unrefrigerated tables,not ideal!! Drink, we were half board and told in restaurant we could only purchase bottle s of sprite not a glass from the pump but upstairs in the bar we could have pump (it was half the price of a bottle) they also don't serve coffee at dinner service?? It's free included in breakfast but not at dinner??? I was also told in the tucan bar I had to pay for 2 cups of hot water as I was half board!!! Meal in there was quite nice although choice of meat dishes limited to 3 and 2 of these were pork.chef came to get our feedback and handled all our comments with we are understaffed!! Not my problem I have paid 1300£ for a week holiday!! The bar upstairs what can I say the guys worked so hard Hassan, que pasa hombre 😀 especially brought it to life, the lighting really needs to be looked at while the entertainment is on, ambiance is a big thing, speaking of which around the pool, there's none, NADA , we all like quiet but a little background music wouldn't go a miss even if only for certain time s of the day . The pool is fabulous, cleaned every day and the garden is kept lovely and as tidy as possible with the wind blowing 😀 First time in the canaries for me and was a great winter break, I'm just glad I'm fortunate enough to be having another holiday this year or I would be really ddisappointed . The resort itself is quite small with a few bars along the front and a few in the centre with entertainment which was quite good,a few suvoniers shops selling bits and bobs, catamaran day brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Be aware no changing facilities,showers on the beach and only 1 functioning toilet that didn't lock. Even though it may not sound like it we had a great time because we made our own fun 😀😀🍦🍦