This is the third time we have stayed in Puerto de la Cruz at this hotel. The staff are all very courteous and most were the same this time as on previous visits which is an excellent sign. The food at both breakfasts and evening meals is very good with an excellent varied choice. A wonderful choice of fish freshly cooked is a delight. The hotel is very peaceful in a pleasant part of the town with easy access to buses which are an excellent way to explore the island. The hotel provides a minibus service to the port which is very useful for the return trip to save walking uphill. It is a pleasant downhill walk to the port. The evening entertainment is of a high standard but very gentle and not obtrusive. Just sit back after your evening meal and relax with a drink. The furnishings are all
of a high standard. It is a spaciuos hotel with rooms of a hood size. A real bonus is that the outside pool is heated. There are only a few English who use this hotel. It is not in our brochures but I reconmend you book direct with the hotel. It will be worth it. They will arrange for a taxi to pick you up from the airport.
We had another wonderful holiday and would not consider staying anywhere else having found this place.
We shall return.
P and M York

The Riu Garoe has everything I could want from a hotel: good food, pleasant staff, free speedy wifi, lovely pool and grounds with no music playing, just peace and quiet.

Most guests are German, which means the food is of a high standard. We usually get bored with half board after a few days and end up eating out, but not here. We looked forward with anticipation every evening to see what the buffet would offer. House wine by the carafe, reasonably priced at 5 euros for a half litre. Breakfasts are just as good, with mix-your-own smoothy juices available every couple of days, brilliant.

Good free wifi signal in the hotel lobby, bar and reaching as far as the pool. You need to get the code from reception, and you will need a separate one for each item of kit. We used the wifi at the same time as taking advantage of the two for one happy hour in the bar each evening between 5.30 and 6.30.

The hotel is located in a quiet residential area, a bit of a walk into town but fine for us. There is a frequent hotel bus if you don't want to walk.

The only down side? Our room faced due north so we didn't get a blink of sun on our balcony the whole week.

All in all, a real four star hotel, and the best I have stayed in so far, in Puerto.

Riu Garoe has a staff that is just second to none. From the moment we arrived we were greeted by the efficient staff in the reception, given a refreshing drink and sent to our room in under 5 minutes, must be a Spanish national record!. Almost all the staff is English and German speaking. We were surprised to have a bottle of local white wine and a plate with fresh fruit upon arrival in the room.
The room was very large on the 3.rd floor with a view of the ocean - a terrace where you could relax sunbath and also dry your clothes. The bathroom was again large with two washing basins and a bath tub/shower arrangement, that I with my nearly 2 meters of height could feel comfortable in. My wife felt that the mattresses was too hard for her back, and she called the cleaning lady and asked in Spanish to look for a solution for that problem - when we returned she had got an extra top mattress and shortly after the cleaning lady Elenia knocked on the door to ask if the bed was now satisfactory. Now that is service.
The architecture of the Riu Garoe is special, Canarian style, and for us with a pleasant walk of a couple of minutes with views of Mount Teide and of the hills from the elevator to the room.
The dining facilities ware adequate - but again the service! - we often face the problem in the morning, after jogging, that we are quite hungry and thirsty, and have to wait for at waiter or the coffee and tea for several so it seems very long minutes. Not so at Riu Garoe - you are met in the door by a waiter even at breakfast, that not only seats you but also gives you the coffee/tea you need and then you are off to get breakfast.
The restaurant has on the spot cooking like other Riu hotels - they did not have theme nights so far as we could tell but the quality of the food was actually good - with a variety of also healthy food. We could though wish for more local products like the little green peppers, local fresh fish etc.- but that seems to be hard to combine with the Riu concept. The spacing between the tables was good – so that we didn’t feel disturbed at dinner. I find the air quality in dining room a little stuffier than in other dining rooms at Riu hotels –perhaps the ventilation needs to be geared up a little.
There is a small inner garden with a pool to the hotel – but we didn’t use it this time – too much too see and do in Puerto de la Cruz.
The hotel is situated in La Paz which is a very peaceful area - there is a 20 minutes’ walk down hill to Puerto de la Cruz. The hotel does offer a small free shuttle bus that we used once.
The local area gives a good opportunity for a light morning jog - end the Botanical Gardens is just around the corner.
When in Puerto de la Cruz it is hard to choose between Casablanca and Riu Garoe - two different types of vacation. We tried both and we rank the Riu Garoe our favorite Riu hotel - not least because of the wonderful service, that seems to spoil you - the feeling lasts long after we returned to the cold north.
We recommend this gem of a hotel highly and could not wait to go back

We stayed here for 3 nights on a bed & breakfast basis.

This is a large, modern hotel, but designed with elements of a traditional style.
It is set in beautiful, well-maintained gardens, and has a splendid outdoor pool – very clean, and kept at a very pleasant temperature, which tempted us to swim outdoors on each afternoon of our stay! (There is also a small indoor pool, but that didn’t appeal to us in comparison to the lovely outdoor facility.)

The room and bathroom were of average size. Nicely decorated and furnished, well-equipped (including tea/coffee making facilities) and clean. A little vase of fresh flowers in the bathroom was a nice touch. The balcony was pleasant, with an attractive view of the gardens. The hotel is quite busy, so there was some internal noise – particularly from the kitchen or dining room, which I think was just underneath our room – although it was not too troublesome.

The extensive breakfast buffet provided everything that anyone could reasonably wish for breakfast!
We tried the hotel’s buffet dinner on one evening of our stay. Dining is within two time slots. There is certainly a huge selection of good food, well-presented, with much of it being cooked on the spot. However, due to the large size of the dining room, and the buffet style, there is a lot of activity and noise – In my view, this is somewhere you would go to have a good meal, but would not go for an intimate/romantic dining experience as a couple! Nevertheless, we couldn’t fault the food, and it was good value for money.
On the other nights, we ate out. There is a good selection of restaurants just a short walk away.
The poolside ‘snack bar’ provided far more than ‘snacks’, and we had some superb lunches there. It was a pleasant place to sit with views of the garden and pool. The lunch was served to table by waiter/waitress, and offered an excellent menu including splendid large salads and grilled fish/meat, as well as ice creams, sundaes etc.
The bar area is also pleasant, and the drinks were very reasonably priced. There appeared to be a band (of different styles) playing there most evenings.

We had no problem in finding an on-street parking space just outside the hotel.
All the staff we encountered during our stay were helpful and efficient. We were welcomed with a fruit drink at check-in. We weren’t aware of any other British guests when we were staying, but the reception staff spoke excellent English.