Sol Melia Jardines del Teide Review (Costa Adeje Tenerife 4 star)

Trell · #1 (**permalink**) 22-06-08, 21:09

Hotel Melia Jardines del Teide (Costa Adeje Tenerife 4 star)

We recently booked a room in this charming Costa Adeje hotel for the weekend for me, my wife and our 3 year old son.

We went with the all inclusive option, which worked out at roughly 43 GBP, or about 55 € per day. This included breakfast (8:000am to 10:30am), lunch (1:00pm to 3:00pm) and dinner (7:00pm to 10:30pm), as well as whatever you wanted to drink (only local spirits and beer were covered by the all inclusive tag – premium drink is charged extra) during the day from one of the many bars, and food from the pool bar at the bottom pool. We personally didn’t feel the need to eat past each main meal, having sated ourselves each time we went into the restaurant (more on the food later in the review).

Upon entering the hotel, we were very impressed. The automatic doors open onto an absolutely gorgeous lobby, the picture below is of the lobby. You’ll have to forgive the darkness of the picture, I didn’t have the flash enabled at the time.

We were impressed once again when we checked in – the staff all spoke fluent English, as well as Spanish (obviously), and a mix of other languages (German and what I think was Dutch, I picked up on while we were waiting to be served). From the outset, the staff were very, very, very polite, and happy to help with anything you asked for. We had a porter come to take our one measly suitcase and a couple of carrier bags up to our room.

The first impressions of the room were very pleasant too. There was no kitchen (to be expected since we were all inclusive) and the ‘Double’ bed was two singles pushed together, however, it didn’t matter too much, since they actually fitted together with no gaps inbetween. One nice touch was that the sofa bed was already out and made up – obviously they knew three people were staying in the room, and had gone the extra mile, as it were, and made up the sofa bed in advance.

Everything in the room was as you’d expect – television, bathroom (fully stocked, gel, soap, loads of big towels, shampoo etc). The television showed a mix of foreign language channels, however, English wise it was your standard CNN, BBC News, Sky News and Eurosport. It didn’t matter too much to us however, since we weren’t planning on being in the room much.

After we were settled in, we went outside to go and check out the pools. The first one we checked out was the bottom pool (the complex has 2 pools, plus a baby pool). There were a few problems we found with the lower pool – the main fact being that there was no shallow end at all, and myself and my wife found it extremely difficult to stand up in the pool, which made it very hard to play in the pool with our son (this was rectified the next day – read on to find out how).

There is a pool bar located next to the bottom pool, serving food all day, and you can go and help yourself to whatever you want, as well as drinks. For alcoholic drinks, you’ll need to ask at the bar, however, soft drinks you can help yourself to as often as you like. The food is replenished all day at the bottom bar, and there is plenty of seats around the bar itself.

There are more than enough sunbeds available at the bottom pool, however we did find that the parasols were snapped up very, very quickly. The ground around both pools gets very hot very quickly, so be prepared to wear your flip flops for the whole time you’re not in the pool but are walking around.

After bathing for a while, we went back to the room and got ready for dinner. Men are required to wear long trousers for dinner, jeans do suffice however, it just seems to be shorts that they don’t appreciate at dinner times. You can wear what you want for breakfast and lunch, however.

The food was excellent. We weren’t expecting too much in the way of choice, nor quality – and my wife was preparing to eat next to nothing (she’s a Vegetarian). We were pleasantly surprised – there was plenty to choose from, and quite a few ‘non-meat’ selections too. From starters to desserts, to a large variety of main meal choices, there was quite literally something for everyone.

A few reviews I’d read from people that have travelled there last year deplored the cleanliness of the dining room, and the choices on offer – this seems to have changed dramatically – there was always an abundance of staff cleaning tables, refilling drinks and wheeling empty plates off to be cleaned.

Everything was beautiful every time we went to the dining room for food, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Anyway, I’ll stop boring you with the food descriptions now.

The next day, we went off to the market for a few hours in the morning after breakfast (one more food related thing – they had everything I loved on offer, toast, egg – scrambled or fresh fried – bacon, sausage and toast) and spent a pleasant amount of time just browsing the stalls on offer.

When we returned, we decided to try the second pool, and were pleased we did. The second pool was much more suited to families. It was still large, but the shallow end was literally a step down from the floor level, and the deep end was just 1.60m, although it did seem a little deeper than that. Our 3 year old could stand up to about 10m in from the shallow end, giving us plenty of room to play around in. sunbeds, parasols and sunbed cushions seemed a LOT more abundant up at this pool too. There is no food on offer at this poolbar, but there are drinks machines, so you can help yourself to drinks while bathing.

After the excitement of the pool, it was time for dinner, then bed, and one more breakfast before leaving.

All in all, it was a brilliant weekend away and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone, whether you’re holidaying in Tenerife, or simply a resident looking for a short break away. The one drawback (if any) would be its remote location, so if you are holidaying there, and intending to visit places, ensure that you ask reception to call you a taxi. The hotel itself is at the top of a rather large hill, so walking anywhere can be particularly taxing unless it’s just to Plaza del Duque at the bottom of the hill.

The original pictures I took haven't been posted in this review, however, they can be found here. Apologies if this seems like a shameless plug - feel free to remove if it's too much like spamming for the moderators liking!

Janet© · #2 (**permalink**) 22-06-08, 21:27

It's a great review, thankyou! Nothing shameless about it

Could you just do a review in the Business Review section as well, though?? Please?

Trell · #3 (**permalink**) 22-06-08, 21:34

Ah I meant the pictures being a shameless plug, since they lead to my personal album on my own sites forum. As long as thats ok

And as far as the business review section goes, what do you mean? Review the Hotel in the business section?

Janet© · #4 (**permalink**) 22-06-08, 21:39

Yes please ... it's a feature of this forum that we value highly, so if you could do a short review there too I'd appreciate it.

As for your own album on your own site ... no problem! We're not monopolistic about fora here

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