If you are looking for a little quiet hotel located close to restaurants, night clubs and stores, you will be disappointed. But if you are looking for an AI resort that can serve as a base for your Fuerteventura beach vacation, this hotel may be a good choice - at least if you do not mind that practically all the guests are German and the main language on the property is German.

We just got back from a week there and we pretty much knew where we were going to - we spent the same week last year at the Iberostar (about 2 km from this) - and we did read the reviews here. So we had our expectations set right. There were some surprises, though.

The first one was that we (parents + kids age 12, 16 and 18) had booked (and paid for) two bungalow rooms and actually got a whole bungalow (4 rooms) - four bedrooms + bathrooms and two living rooms. The rooms are good, beds really comfortable (120 cm wide) and kept very clean. As we had the whole bungalow, all the possible noise was home made. The main building did not look too great - long corridors etc. I do not know how the rooms are there.

The located is nicely built on a hill - I estimate that the top rooms may be 12 stories higher than the ones closest to the beach entrance. Our bungalow was located on the high end of the property and it took 10 minutes to walk (not slowly) to the beach, almost half of that in the garden of the hotel. We took that walk only as a plus to compensate for all the food we ate, but some may take this as a minus.

We were prepared that the hotel may be fully booked (the situation in Arabic countries diverting tourists to Canary Islands) and that we may have to queue to dinners etc. I do not know how full the hotel was but everything worked fine. On two nights we had to wait a minute for them to clean a table but had we been a party of max 4 persons there would have been tables ready. There also were always sun beds available by the pool.

When it comes to food, you have to compare it with AI hotels. During the last 10 years we have stayed in 8 different 4 star AI hotels in 6 countries. And our conclusion is that the buffet here may be the best of these - food is great, lot of variety, different themes each night etc. The only thing that was missing was a'la carte option. They have one restaurant but it is open only on Fri and Sat nights and our vacation was from Friday to Friday - when we thought about anything but buffet, it was too late. I am not even sure if that was included in the AI plan.

Some odd remarks:
-- Being an exercise maniac and an early riser, I liked the opening hours of the (not very good) gym. It opens at 7am so you can go there before breakfast, after jogging on the beach (with a head light as it was dark before 7).
-- Coming from the home land of the sauna and owning two saunas ourselves, we found the sauna a little odd (but relaxing). Particularly, the heater located under the seats with only a funnel attached to the wall for water was not a usual thing. I actuallly sat on the top of the heater and thought that I had gotten a serious sun burn on my back side.
-- The staff is really friendly and helpful.