Barcelo Santiago - Adults only

“Excellent Hotel But Overpowering When Full.”

The Barcelo Santiago is really an excellent Adults Only hotel on the south west coast of Tenerife. It's location is perfect on a cliff top overlooking the ocean, La Gomera island and Los Gigantes (The Giants) cliffs, depending on where your bedroom is located. We prefer to be on the west facing sid… more

The Barcelo Santiago is really an excellent Adults Only hotel on the south west coast of Tenerife. It's location is perfect on a cliff top overlooking the ocean, La Gomera island and Los Gigantes (The Giants) cliffs, depending on where your bedroom is located. We prefer to be on the west facing side with beautiful sunsets over La Gomera at night and afternoon sun on the balcony. It is very clean, very tidy, the bedoom was spotless every day, with fresh towels and linen if required. Rooms are sizeable with a very powerful, hot rain shower head. Half board or all inclusive, but we chose half board because we do not eat lunch and I don't drink alcohol. Food in the restaurant was of good quality and a very good variety. Each evening there was a different theme buffet. They also have a small a la carte restaurant. The staff throughout the hotel were just amazing, friendly, talkative and very efficient. They really did work hard and were good ambassadors for the property. Nearby is a little supermarket to buy things to keep in your room fridge if you only have half board. The pool area is spacious with just enough sun beds and parasols but not when it's full. I would recommend this hotel and would stay there again. My only negative observations are that when it is a full property, the evening buffet is like a cafeteria with hundreds of people just wandering aimlessly into you without any caution and it gradually became very annoying. The noise was also high volume, hardly relaxing dining. We ate quickly and left. The second observation is that by 07.00, still quite dark in December, guests were putting towels on the best sunbeds for use later or after breakfast. THIS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED! The pool staff should remove them if they are not used within 30 minutes, after all this is a relaxing trouble and anxiety free holiday. We did not join in, and by the time we arrived at the pool around 11.00am, we had to search for around 20 minutes and drag odd seats being kept by guests but not used, to a non desirable area. The only fault of the hotel here is that they must have large notices and be unafraid of upsetting guests by following the law and the guests not being selfish. This and the dining facility has meant that we have cancelled our booking for 2025 in June. But, having said that in a couple of years we may return.

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“First holiday in Tenerife”

This was out first holiday away as a couple and we loved every minute. We highly recommend this hotel and definitely recommend all inclusive. Faultless experience

“Return visit - perfect again !”

Another excellent stay, great location and staff can't do enough for you, perfect break 5* service again

“Not as good as I expected”

Whilst the hotel has many good points and are what is expected from a 4 star hotel there were a few bad points as well. The toilet in our 'Deluxe Room' was terrible. It was basically a glass case of about 1 metre square with hardly any room to move. You basically had to reverse into it whilst closi… more

Whilst the hotel has many good points and are what is expected from a 4 star hotel there were a few bad points as well. The toilet in our 'Deluxe Room' was terrible. It was basically a glass case of about 1 metre square with hardly any room to move. You basically had to reverse into it whilst closing the door behind you and offered very little in terms of privacy as any noise you made was able to be heard in the room. The toilet paper was about 4" wide and the thinness of tracing paper. The toilet bowl was of the shallow flat bottom variety which for a man, meant I had to sit with one bum cheek raised otherwise my gentleman bits were touching the bowl! Not an enjoyable experience let alone the hygiene implications. Our complimentary drinking water was only replaced twice in the whole week and the glasses were never cleaned or replaced in the whole time we were there. Under the bed was disgusting with dirt and fluff which had clearly not been cleaned in a very long time. Upon arrival, one of the things I noticed was a sign in reception stating that sunbeds were not allowed to be reserved. Its just a pity that the hotel does not police this very well. Going to breakfast in the morning I noticed many beds with the obligatory towel sitting on them. We like to walk and shop in the morning and spend the afternoon by the pool but on most occasions we were unable to get two sunbeds side by side as most were reserved in the same manner. None of the staff seemed to take any notice of this fact and I never once seen towels being removed from vacant beds. This was booked over the new year period but we were very dismayed to find that the hotel wanted an extra 320 Euros from us to be able to attend the new year celebrations. Surely as a guest of the hotel this should have been included in the quite substantial cost we had already paid? Instead we went to the free and brilliant celebrations in Los Gigantes.

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