H10 Playa Meloneras Palace - Maspalomas, Spain 

This is one of the few supposedly five star hotels on the island, but I'm afraid it 's better described as a four. We checked in at 0330 and were dealt with efficiently by a very tired and fed up receptionist. She tried to satisfy our seven night half board deal by offering a buffet there and then. Obviously we declined and requested a voucher for the last night but that was dismissed out of hand. The hotel buildings are quite impressive and are well positioned practically across the road from the blue flag beach. However in the corridors there are signs of wear and tear with scuffs on the walls and doors. Corridor carpets need cleaning/changing. Our room was spacious with a big terrace looking out to the very well kept gardens. Our tip is to ask for level four or above and you should get sea views. The room was typically furnished, but TV remote was not compatible with it's menu. Room safe was supplied at no extra cost. Again, some scuffs on the walls, maid service was minimal and there was evidence of incomplete cleaning. We had to ask sometimes for toiletries restocking. The pool areas are both brilliant but the hours are only 1000 to 1900. We never used the indoor pool as it is part of the spa facility which costs 20 Euros each per day! Meals are buffet style, the staff work very hard, are very friendly and the food choice was pretty good. Entertainment? Well if you like balancing, juggling and basic magic acts then you'll be fine. There was also a band who were on three times in our week-they were awful. As with most of the other bands, they sang in Spanish, very badly too. If you want better than this (and you will) then head for Playa del Ingles, only a five euro taxi ride away. Roma bar/restaurant for example. While at the "entertainment" you may well come across the grumpiest barman/waiter you will ever meet. Woe betide if you linger after midnight , he will start banging things, dragging chairs around etc until you get the message to go away. Opposite the hotel is a shopping centre but 90% of the units are closed. Of the restaurants that remain we'd recommend the Sunset Cafe, great setting and views and also the Bucanero for great food. Walk along the level shore path for 20 minutes and you will find the Faro lighthouse with more shops and bars/restaurants. Lastly if you are considering car rental, do not use the hotel based desk. We were allocated a wreck which would have been embarassing at a demolition derby and that was after failing to meet our booking the previous day.

As we pulled up to this hotel we thought we had made the wrong choice... but once inside we realised we so hadn't. The hotel was lovely, and the staff we all so friendly and happy and very helpful indeed. Our room was right near to the pool which was ideal. The room was lovely, spacious even with the sofa bed down for our child. The bathroom very nice indeed too. Spotlessly clean. The pools are amazing here with quite a few, unfortunatly when we were there it was too cold to swim, but luckily the childrens pool was heated? but very warm so the children had a great time. Food was buffet sytle breakfast and dinner which was ok a couple of times we struggled to choose things to eat especially for our child. This was sometimes very busy in the dining hall....with waitors and waitresses extremely under pressure - not very relaxing! Later in the week we decided to venture out of the hotel and down to the beach where there were plenty of restuarants with lots of lovely foods traditional and all other choices. We had a few delish meals in this area. We wished we hadn't been so lazy and discovered this area earlier in the holiday. But our main aim was purely to chill out for a week. If you walked further on a go 45 mins walk there were plenty of shops bars and restaurants with entertainment. The only thing that let this hotel down was the entertainment... It just wasn't our cup of tea at all... very old fashioned and frankly naff. Shame really as there was nothing to encourage you to stay in the bar.... we had such a lovely view over looking the pool and our patio was so large we quite enjoyed sitting out there once litlen was asleep and having a few drinks. We really enjoyed this holiday and would return to this hotel if there wasn't so much of the world we want to see.