We returned yesterday from our week long stay at The Internacional Hotel in Tenerife, and I must say it is the first time I've ever been so eager to get home from a holiday!!

We booked this holiday as an allocation on arrival, as did many others who were placed at this hotel- and after our experience it is something we will NEVER do again.

We realise that you obviously take the risk with allocation on arrival, but it is still dissapointing when you have taken a week out of work and then wish you hadn't bothered!!

My first misgivings when we arrived at the hotel was the obvious distance from the main area of the town and the sea front. But when we stepped into the reception area we were both pleasantly surprised by how nice the groundfloor area was. It is a very spacious and clean reception area leading into an open bar area with lots of seating. They also have internet access for 1 Euro for 10 mins- which helped pass some time when the weather was bad!

At reception we were given our room key, bus card showing the times for the courtesy bus, and meal card with times for breakfast and dinner.

When we got up to our room at first we were quite happy- it was a fairly spacious twin room, with a bathroom with a full suite. Then we realised that our room looked out onto the main road- which in it's self wouldn't have been a problem. However, the patio door onto the balcony didn't fit properly, and wasn't double glazed so you could not tell the difference in noise level whether it was open or closed!

If you like a lie in on holiday I would advise you to take earplugs so that you can sleep past 6:50am in the morning, as this is when the rush hour traffic really gets going, not to mention the 4 dogs (belonging to the people in the house next door to the hotel) start barking.

The 'restaurant' has more of a feel of a school canteen, with harsh lighting and quite a sterile feel- which is actually quite different from the bar area it is set off of.

Some nights we were shown to a table, others just left to find our own. And on the first night it was a bit like 'follow what everyone else does' as noone really explained the set up. Again sometimes we were asked by the restaurant staff if we would like drinks, other times we were just ignored.

The food for both breakfast and dinner was very repetitive. Tuesday was supposed to be local food, but was no different from the rest of the week. Every night there was the same salad dishes, a couple of meat dishes, and alternate mashed potato or chips. Pudding was cold rice pudding, creme caramel, ice cream or a flavoured pudding like angel delight. Alot of the food tasted like it came straight out of a packet.

We were sick of it by the end of the week, and very grateful we hadn't booked two weeks. We also heard alot of other people complaining about the food.

The bar staff were quite friendly, and they had plenty of choice of alcoholic drinks and soft drinks, which were cheap compared to British prices. But don't expect anything exciting to happen at the hotel in the evenings as it doesn't!

The outside space was quite nice, with a nice heated swimming pool, and enough loungers to go round. There is also an outside bar by the pool. In general the outside space was pretty and well kept. The hot tub wasn't working while we were there.

The courtesy bus is very handy, but you need to be waiting a few minutes before it is due to leave as it goes on the dot...if you turned up outside the hotel at 9:02am you would probably find it had already gone. The same applies on the way back- we turned up at the shopping centre, where it picks you up, at 10:20 one day only to see it on it's way back to the hotel. (it is supposed to wait until 10:30 for the trip back!) So then had to wait another hour.

We did walk down to the town, and Playa Jardin beach a couple of times, which takes about 30 mins. In the hot weather it is the walk back which is pretty hard going as it is all up hill!!

I would recommend going to Loro Parque- you can catch the free yellow train to the zoo from the sea front. (queues for that get very busy after 10am). And also a visit to the Lido is very worthwhile, if you don't want to walk to Playa Jardin beach. This is on the sea front and has lots of different sized pools and for the small entrance fee you get a sunlounger and can stay all day. The pools here are salt water, and are not heated.

The majority of the people at this hotel were older couples. I personally wouldn't recommend it to anyone I know. Unless you are looking for somewhere away from the main 'goings on', with little happening in the evenings, and the same food everyday I wouldn't go there.