“Great Easter break in the sun”

Stayed at the Elba Sara over the Easter period for 7 days; and what a great holiday we had; two families with teens. Room: double room with a single - bit small & would pay for the upgrade next time. Food: great choices for breakfast, lunch & dinner. Plus the pool bar did snacks all day - wa... more

Stayed at the Elba Sara over the Easter period for 7 days; and what a great holiday we had; two families with teens. Room: double room with a single - bit small & would pay for the upgrade next time. Food: great choices for breakfast, lunch & dinner. Plus the pool bar did snacks all day - wasn't a time you couldn't get something. The restaurant tried to theme each evening but tbh it was a little samey. We had to get to the restaurant early-ish for dinner else had to wait for a table. Drinks: soft drinks & water available on tap in the pool bar, the lobby bar was lovely in the evenings - great measures! At lunch & dinner waiters brought drinks to the table which was a nice touch; made it feel 'classier' than a regular AI where you help yourselves. Pools: two pools on the same site; one was chillier than the other but deeper for swimming; pool vibe was good. Activities: Plenty of activities to choose from; water gym, volleyball, archery, cocktail making which was so funny! Can't comment on the mini club as didn't use. Staff: the animation team we fantastic - not pushy but really good fun during the day. We didn't use the mini club or evening entertainment as our children were too old. General: yes there is some flight noise; you are on the flight path but it doesn't spoil your holiday! All in all a great holiday; relaxing as really not too much in the local area; we walked into the town & market along the promenade; definitely the quieter island of the Canaries. Thanks Elba Sara - we will be back.

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“family holiday review”

Overall a very good choice of destination for a 4 Star All Inclusive. Rooms were decent - not spectacular. Plenty of sunbeds - really impressed. Very close to airport Heard a lots of moans about cold food - Not true at all. Choice and standard of food is good and on par with what i expect from a... more

Overall a very good choice of destination for a 4 Star All Inclusive. Rooms were decent - not spectacular. Plenty of sunbeds - really impressed. Very close to airport Heard a lots of moans about cold food - Not true at all. Choice and standard of food is good and on par with what i expect from a 4 star AI. My biggest issue was the lack of choices for cocktails as part of AI - Management should open up more cocktails instead of having to pay extra My kids missed there not being a Pool table. Foam party was a fun afternoon. This is a positive review though and would recommend 100%.

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“Lovely 4 star hotel”

Lovely 4 star hotel all the staff are friendly and helpful. Food was lovely with plenty of choice and hot. All in all a very good quality hotel and all the family enjoyed. Granddaughter lived the foam pool party for the children and pool area is beautiful. Animation team are excellent if that’s y... more

Lovely 4 star hotel all the staff are friendly and helpful. Food was lovely with plenty of choice and hot. All in all a very good quality hotel and all the family enjoyed. Granddaughter lived the foam pool party for the children and pool area is beautiful. Animation team are excellent if that’s your thing.

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“Mixed review ! Amazing food !!!”

Hotel had both strong points and some weak points , on arrival at hotel I didn’t feel very welcome , I thought the reception customer relations were lacking , hotel room wasn’t ready on time , but once we eventually got it at 4 it was a amazing room couldn’t fault it absalutly huge ! The cocktail... more

Hotel had both strong points and some weak points , on arrival at hotel I didn’t feel very welcome , I thought the reception customer relations were lacking , hotel room wasn’t ready on time , but once we eventually got it at 4 it was a amazing room couldn’t fault it absalutly huge ! The cocktails in all inclusive were horrible and not like properly made cocktails pool area was more suited to people with children but there was an adults only area ! Only pool heated was like a splash pool for kids not deep enough to swim in , the absalutly best thing about this hotel is the food it’s the best all inclusive food I have ever had ! To be honest I rather Ed the barcello hotel overall so won’t be back to the Elba sara ! But the food is absolutely outstanding !

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“Sadly let down by cold food”

This was our first time at this hotel, although we have stayed in Caleta de Fuste before. We emailed the hotel a couple of weeks before arrival to ask for a quiet room, and this request was honoured. We stayed on a Half-Board basis. We were given room 611 – top floor with a full sea view. We ca... more

This was our first time at this hotel, although we have stayed in Caleta de Fuste before. We emailed the hotel a couple of weeks before arrival to ask for a quiet room, and this request was honoured. We stayed on a Half-Board basis. We were given room 611 – top floor with a full sea view. We can confirm that the room was quiet and we rarely heard any of the music from around the pool. To be fair, the music was mostly on during aqua aerobics. Our room was a good size and had clearly had a makeover. Not a complete makeover, but it looked modern, beds and pillows very comfortable. There was an excellent, modern bathroom and with a really good walk-in shower – and there was always plenty of hot water. There is a very good hairdryer too. Toiletries were OK quality and always kept well stocked. Our lovely maid Safia, and others, kept the room spotlessly clean. The towels had seen better days though and often had holes (!). One day we still did not have replacement towels at 5pm and had to wait over an hour before they arrived, despite phoning reception twice. The air-conditioning was fine, although we rarely used it – it was quite cool for March. We were quite a way from reception (which suited us), but the WiFi wasn’t particularly strong, and we were never able to make use of the Chromecast service available on the TV. To be fair, a member of staff did try to rectify this for us but to no avail. Most of the hotel has clearly had some sort of refurbishment, but this did not extend to the lifts. For our block, we only had the use of 2 lifts and their service was intermittent. The inside of the lifts was often dirty, and they were clearly ancient. It was a nerve-racking experience as the lifts shook, rattled and groaned to the appropriate floor and usually landed with an almighty shudder. They did not fill us with confidence. There were usually plenty of sun-beds available, but note that not all sun-beds have an accompanying umbrella, and in hotter weather, these might become scarce. One pool (where the entertainment is and aqua aerobics is done), is heated, the other larger pool is unheated and absolutely freezing – only for the hardy souls I think. A gate at the rear gives exit to the excellent flat traffic free promenade and the beach. To exit and return, you will need your room key and there were a number of occasions when ours did not work, so we had to hope that other guests would let us in. The beach in front of the hotel is really only appropriate for strolling upon –it is rather gritty sand and there are no sun-beds etc. However, within a few metres there are a number of lovely beach coves with great golden sand and make for easy access into the sea. We thoroughly enjoyed our daily walks and dips into the sea. It is approximately a 20-25 minute very pleasant walk on the traffic free prom to the town. The shopping centre next door is good. It has one or two restaurants, a number of clothes shops and an excellent, large and well stocked Eurospar supermarket. In fact, if you stayed in an apartment in this area, the supermarket would be very handy. We hired a car for 5 days of our stay and always managed to find a parking space. Now, we come onto the food. Clearly the main Albatros buffet restaurant has been refurbished and the décor is pleasant. However, it gets extremely busy and often felt rather like a school canteen. We have to say that the quality of the food was average and no more than 3 stars. The fruit was often tinned (!) – pears, peaches etc. As Spain is one of the main producers of fruit in Europe, this was both a surprise and disappointment. But worst of all, the hot food was rarely hot. The only food that was produced hot was if chef had cooked either meat or fish to order. The omelette station was decent (freshly prepared), but the fried eggs were never hot either – it was rather unpleasant. It appeared that the tureens in which hot food was deposited just wasn’t kept hot. In 2 weeks, even items brought through from the kitchen conspired to be lukewarm too. The plates that are stored underneath the hot food section were also not kept warm, so this did not help. It seemed such a shame that good ingredients could be ruined by not being kept hot. This was a big disappointment. The staff in the restaurant worked extremely hard and particular our thanks go to Paco and his team for looking after us. However, in all honesty, they seemed under-staffed and despite all their hard work, it was very difficult for the team to keep the tables cleared. I do not want to finish on a negative note. This is a very pleasant hotel, well located and now that the rooms are refurbished, comfortable, with lovely staff. If the food situation could be resolved (and only if it did), we would happily return.

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