Bull Costa Canaria and Spa

Stars of the show were the staff. From domestic/restaurants/bars/coffee club/spa, the entire list of facilities. Friendly, welcoming, helpful, attentive. Left several tips that were well deserved.

Hotel itself was beautiful. Quiet, peaceful, good food, incredible spa, extras like poolside pizza and coffee club are also fantastic. San agustin is a lovely quiet place and only a short and cheap taxi away from busier areas such as maspalomas. Perfect stay if youre looking for an adults only gran canaria holiday

From the first moment when booking at the reception, it was clear that we would be satisfied. The approach of all the staff was so incredibly positive that it was transferred to everyone and everything. As if there were no problems at all. The rooms, the dining room and the entire complex are characterized by amazing cleanliness and aroma. But we were most surprised in the dining room. It seems that even a self-service system can have big differences in quality and variety. Here too we discovered the 1st league. In 10 days we did not even have time to taste everything that was offered. I can't imagine that someone would not choose anything at all. I was also surprised that it is possible to choose from three types of coffee beans. I have never experienced that before. Every morning, various types of fresh juices and smoothies were prepared by hand...fantasy. The swimming pools and the adjacent park (an oasis of peace) were incredibly well looked after, several times a day. The amount of fauna and flora is amazing. A real balm for the soul. Even athletes are not deprived here. Table tennis, tennis and billiards were in permanent service every day. We also discovered a small shooting range and maxi chess. Everything is always discreetly located and mostly in the shade, so you don't get so burned by the heat. Passing through the park, you will then reach (by passing through a code-guarded gate) the colonnade and right next to it the beach... a very large beach. It is full of fine black sand, but when you leave you will find several places to wash your feet. San Augustín is inclined to trips. Just a few meters from the main entrance, there are a whole bunch of bus stops. You just have to choose your destination and the right terminal. Car rental is also great here. The selection is large and the prices are better than, for example, in Greece or here in the Czech Republic. The road markings are perfect and sometimes you will see road signs that you won't see anywhere else. But you will still understand them... if I managed it too?!? The 16+ program was our first experience and it must be admitted that it has something to do with it. In conclusion, I only hope that we will return there someday. After many years of traveling around the world, all the best for us in all respects. I would like to thank all the staff and wish you many years of successful business. V.Mosiurczak from CZ

The hotel is very German oriented (Id guess 60-70% of the guests), so the staf will often automatically adress you in German instead of Spanish or English.

The good: the rooms are nice, with pretty much everything you need. The hairdryer is well hidden in a drawer in the bedroom but it's there. Balcony chair are very comfortable. One of the main selling points of the Bull Costa is that there is no sunbed war. You find a free place when you arrive and that's it for your whole stay. There still are many never-used-during-the-day seats, but you don't care because you always have the one you choose. This works very well, although you'll a bit of luck if you want to sit on a specific place. Still, good idea.

One big difference compared to other all-in hotels is that the à la carte restaurants are open only for lunch. They are pretty nice and popular, meaning the buffet restaurant doesn't see that many people at lunch.
Don Miguel has one of the best steaks I've ever had in an All-in hotel. The pizzeria Don pepe is pretty good, but you get only 6 choices on the menu and are not allowed to change or remove ingredients. They should change that, as it would add a lot of value to the proposition. At the main restaurants, the grilled meat and fish are very good and cooked on demand, so you'll never have the dry leathery bits you get in a lot of all-in hotels. The quality of the meat is good, but it's mostly chicken and pork every day with beef or duck once a week. the fresh veggies/salads are very good too. The roasts are usually good, but sometimes so dried out they become pretty much unedible. The mojito's are usualy pretty tasty but they could put an extra help at the pool bar in the evening. The wifi is perfect except around the pool bar where it's very bad.

The bad The main restaurant is chaotic and not so good. Many tables are left untouched after use. If you can get hold of someone from the staff, they'll will dress the table with a smile, but you'll need to catch them first. This is not a criticism of the staff, as they do their best to help guests, but either there isn't enough staff, either they are very badly organised. If you want to eat outside in the buffet restaurant, prepare to eat early or to wait a long time because there are only a few tables available. The buffet is set on two levels. You want bread for your breakfast? Upstairs. Fresh orange juice? Downstairs. Some dishes are duplicated on both levels, some are not, so it's a bit of a detective game every meal. There's pizza every evening, but it's not displayed on heated plates, so it gets cold very quickly. The french fries are usually overcoocked and taste like deepfried cardboard. The grilled meats are good, but usually unsalted. I say usually because sometimes they are salted, and at least once much too salted. Apart from the grilled meats, the rest is pretty tastless and very repetitive. IMHO, most of the hot food is take straight out of a freezer and reheated/fried/steamed. I was wondering if it was only me, so I talked with some people who had been there before, and they all agreed that it was better in the past. If you've got allergies, I wouldn't advice this hotel. Dishes usually have some information about allergens, but we quickly realised you cannot trust those. The baked potato at the Don Miguel restaurant doesn't have any warning about lactose but is served with butter. We've seen the same dish on the two levels of the buffet restaurant, one with a warning, the other one without. And while it's nice to get the information, it would be nicer to have something to eat. Some days, it was a real battle, and when we asked one of the kitch staff if we could get potatoes or plain rice without gluten or lactose, they shrugged and said "no". I've no idea on why plain rice should contain lactose, but there you go...

The hotel is advertised everywhere as wheelchair accessible and while that's true, it's not really wheelchair friendly. Some slopes are very steep, and good luck to get up on your own unless you're a wheelchair athlete. And the main door to the restaurant is a revolving door, which is also not ideal.

The ugly: nothing really, except for the french translations: please translate directy from Spanish, because the honey you eat is not a "chéri"!

All in all, it's a nice place which could be so much better with a little attention in the restaurant. Would we go back? possibly, but only if we were sure the restaurant has received an upgrade.