Barcelo Tenerife

I visited from the 4th to 11th of March. I went on my own, opting for a room with a sea view. Usually I find that solo travelers are lumped with a room in an undesirable location, however not here, I was in the middle of the complex, with a great sea view sand view of the pools. The room was lovely and spacious. I'm not too sure what people mean about seeing their partners go to the toilet as there is a frosted door, so you might be able to see a very blurred outline, but certainly nothing too frightening! The bath area does have clear glass, but the roller shades cover them with ease. It was great not to have to pay for the safe and you got free sunbed towels and dressing gowns/slippers. Maids were friendly and came when you wanted. The clean/do not disturb door notice is magnetic, which is a great touch as other hotels I have been to, they are merely card and sometimes blow off. I saw no insects in the room at all. You can access the rear of the telly, I brought my Fire stick and plugged it into the HDMI port, so I got films that were accessible through Amazon prime albeit a limited option for use overseas. People talk about how big the hotel is, it took less than 3 minutes to walk from the restaurant to reception. Obviously it depends on your mobility. The food was nice, although unless you are first in, don't bother getting chips in the morning, as these were cold. However they had good food at other times in the buffet. Not the biggest choices I've seen, kind of felt like it was a reduced selection. I've been to 3 and 4 star hotels in Lanzarote that had more variety. Although flavour was spot on, went back for seconds with some of them. Deserts had good flavour too. The pool bar was also excellent, food is made to order, you order it from the pool bar at the top and eat it by the pool, hand made pizza, lovely hornet style burgers. It doesn't feel mass made and 'fingered' by all the guests! There was hand sanitizer stations at the eating areas, I went a week before the lockdown, which happened in full a couple of days after I left, but they were already taking precautions. All the staff were friendly and helpful. I lost a room key card and reception gave me another, no questions or charge. Cocktails were lovely, plenty of branded names. I found the top pool bar would make them fresh to order too. Beer glass size was small, you needed 2 for an alright (British) drinking size. Beer was good for me, I liked it. The location of the hotel is great for transfer time, about 10 minutes, the planes weren't an issue for me. However it does mean it's not so easy to book a car for hire, they do have a plus car rep in the hotel but I've always booked through CiCar so had to do it through their website before arriving and adding a note to deliver it to the hotel, this worked fine, but do note, they fill it with petrol, so it may add a further 20-30 euros on top. There was never a rush on sunbeds and you could always get one in a sunny spot. I never bother with the hotel entertainment, so can't comment on that. Whilst I was there, the new owners were looking around, so maybe a refurbishment is going to happen? All in all is was a good holiday. I would return maybe when all the worries in the world has calmed down.

We stayed three days and it was more than enough. Restaurant and bar were okay but three days more than enough. Waiters were very sparing with the glasses of wine and wine bottles were not left on the table. The spa was awful. The hotel didn't promote the reserve at all. Walking tours were very limited and booked up well in advance. Maps and trails for self walking were not available. In effect it was the same as staying in a built up residential area. Also very difficult to find ones way around the resort. One regular said that everyone gets lost there.