Paradisus by Melia Gran Canaria

We vouched for a superior room with sea view and were placed at the end on the third floor. The hotel is right on the beach so we looked out over the pool area and the beach and palm trees beyond. Our room was decorated in shades of beige in a contemporary, modern style. High quality tea and coffee was provided with a full sized kettle, which I appreciated as I love my cuppas. Our bed was large and very comfortable. Pillows were larger too. Wrist bands acted as room keys so you could never get locked out! Aloe vera gel was provided at the bathroom hand basin together with hand wash and hand cream. A walk in shower with sliding door created privacy from the rest of the space if we needed it. Towels were large and thick and changed very often. Our only criticism of our room is the uncomfortable deckchairs on the balcony and no english speaking film or drama channels on the tv. (only BBC world and CNN for news). If you are a 'foodie' then you will love this hotel - 5 restaurants offer waiter service and different food styles, with friendly, professional waiter service like we've never experienced before. Food was creative, full of flavour and varied. The buffet restaurant served well for breakfast and lunch with lots of choice (although not always as hot as it should have been). The outside pool space had a relaxed atmosphere with guests of all ages taking advantage of the various sun bed options with umbrellas. I enjoyed the aqua class in the pool a few times. Different staff members led the exercise classes daily - yoga, pilates, stretching and more energetic classes, also latin dancing which I enjoyed. Easy to walk to the beach from the gate below the pool and stroll in either direction - to the shops or Maspalomas dunes. Wanting to partake a little in the canarian culture too, we also took a free hotel coach trip to the banana plantation, which was informative and different. Another free activity was the 'clay modelling' event at the hotel, where we tried making traditional clay pieces. Lots of help was given. Evening entertainment was also onthe menu each night in the Ginger bar, our favourite was the motown style band which music from the 70's. What stood out for me was the helpfulness and professionalism of all staff wherever we were, they couldn't do enough for us, which was much appreciated and refreshing. We felt like valued guests and were treated as such. Would really recommend this hotel for anyone who values good quality across the board.

Just returned after a lovely break at Melia paradisus Gran Canaria, staying in a reserve sea view room. The hotel is beautiful and kept so clean. The staff are very friendly and always keen to help/say hello when passing which, although only a small thing, is a nice touch that makes you feel welcome. The reserve area is such a relaxing and peaceful place to be and it’s easy to spend your whole time there recharging your batteries. Breakfast in the reserve sets the scene for the day, nice and relaxed setting with plenty of staff working and happy to help (we did hear a few strange requests from other guests which staff were happy to accommodate) Bar staff at the ginger bar were equally efficient, almost anticipating when you needed another drink and you very rarely had to catch their eye or call them over to place an order. Food is excellent throughout the hotel, with endless options to keep anyone happy. Read a couple of negative comments about staff at the buffet but we did not experience that at all, the opposite in fact. 2 points of constructive criticism would be 1) The snacks at the reserve area are slightly underwhelming and we didn’t see many people eating them. Not sure why some of the snackie food from the buffet upstairs isn’t also available at the reserve lounge, such as puddings or cakes. And 2) it would be nice to have a small lunch menu available at the reserve area. Breakfast is in such a nice setting, it would be nice to move from the pool side to the same area to enjoy your lunch, as opposed to having to leave the reserve area and go to another section of the hotel.

The only slight negative from our stay was during check in, which was carried out by non reserve staff. We had a room upgrade option on our melia rewards account, we weren’t offered an upgrade until I asked for it and he responded by saying yes he could see we had that and he’d see what he could do. This should have been automatically applied/mentioned. The next room option was fully booked so we were given the option of paying £200 for the next option up again which was apparently a suite. We asked to see the suite first and were surprised to find it was actually smaller and seemed less luxurious than our 1st floor sea view room, apart from being higher up and more of a sea view. I have my doubts that this was in fact a suite as we heard staff mention it was an “accessible room”. I suspect it was a sea front room which was kept available due to its disabled access, and was the next one up from our booking so should have been included in the free upgrade option we had, not offered for £200 extra. Having said that we loved the room we had so glad we didn’t swap. It just left a bit of a sour taste on our first day.

Overall beautiful hotel, lovely staff and would return without any doubt

Paradisus by Melia, Gran Canaria, October 2026.

First impressions were that the hotel was amazing, so a little detail….

We started to unpack to find a cockroach in the clothes drawer, housekeeping arrived shortly afterwards who got rid of it… when they found it! Another guest we spoke too also had them.

We paid a lot of money for this Jet2 indulgence escapes all inclusive plus holiday, it really was a lot of money! It wasn’t worth the money. We paid extra for a sea view and the adults only “reserve area” which provides a separate breakfast area, a small cold lunch/afternoon snacks which are pretty much the same everyday and drinks (local and branded drinks) which you help yourself too and an adults only pool area with sun and Bali beds.

The view out to sea was good especially in the morning and evening. However you need to be on at least the second floor, below that and the palm trees obscured the view.

The reserve area sun-beds, the cushions are old, tired, not overly comfortable and could do with replacing.

That said the hotel in the main is spacious/luxurious looking but whilst it looks luxurious some of the furniture is not comfortable to sit on, the proportions of the chairs/settee are wrong and the last day has given me a back ache.

The room is adequate. In terms of wardrobe hanging space, there are no wardrobes, just rails. If you ask for more hangers they will provide them, but you do have to ask. The bathroom is a bath and shower in a good size glass room, it looks good but I don’t want a bathroom with a bath, an awful waste of space which could have been better utilised, I just want to shower! There is plenty of hot water. The soap/conditioner is behind the bath that if you’re in the bath/shower you can’t actually reach it! No where to hang your towels, you’ll work something out, but not great… Housekeeping replaced the towels twice daily. The position of the bath/shower is such that when I went downstairs to watch the football my partner who was showering was in full view to anyone walking down the hallway past the room… not good!

Behind the toilet door was a small piece of tissue which was there when we arrived and there when we left!

There is a complimentary safe (if you have booked The Reserve, I can’t say for other board arrangements).

Also similar with the mini bar, which if you like soft drinks and beer is great, but the ladies… no wine or gin etc…

The Gastro food restaurant, the one which is available for breakfast/lunch/dinner and no reservation needed is good, excellent even. Meat, fish, salads, pasta, pizza, burgers, you are really spoiled for choice… and did became our restaurant of choice after we tried the other restaurants. The other so called specialty restaurants are just okay to poor, to be honest some of the food just wasn’t to our taste… and we like food! One restaurant wanted to charge extra for a nicer wine (Peseta), you’re kidding, what we’ve paid for this indulgence escapes all inclusive plus holiday… we just had the standard stuff which was fine. The Italian restaurant was okay, but play spot the mince in the lasagna… the others knowing what I know now I’d give a miss. Again talking with other guests they also felt the food wasn’t good enough.

As I’m retired I take my holidays when the kids are at school, so why where there so many young kids? Maybe half term is at different times in different countries… but too many young kids running around especially in the evening where the adults congregate in the Ginger bar area. One night 9.30pm and there are way too many young kids running around, it’s the entertainment area, the kids shouldn’t be running around, it’s the parents fault not the kids and of course the hotel policy which is at fault!

Friday night, the hotel is quiet ish until the rock group come on at 9pm ish, most clients are at this time of year retired, I really didn’t want heavy noisy rock music and the perennial kids running around, 9.30pm and we decided to go to the room and sit on the balcony.

Also staff approached us several times inviting us to have “a review,” which we later observed was a hard cold sell to purchase another holiday with Meliá, we didn’t take up the invite and really wasn’t happy about this and when they approached us again we told them so… I’m on holiday, I’ll choose my holidays in the comfort of my own home. Meliá you’ve shot yourself in the foot with this one!

There is an app which works well to book the restaurants, wine tasting etc.

Would I book this Melia hotel again, based on this price/experience definitely not. Other guests we spoke to said the Melia in Tenerife and Lanzarote are a lot better.

If you read some of my other hotel reviews they are in the main and I like to be quite positive, but I’m afraid this just didn’t meet the high standards compared to other hotels I’ve stopped at, almost €7,000 for ten nights, two retired people, nope, we won’t be here again.

I’ve had many holidays with Jet2, but this hotel is not up to muster, Jet2 you should be ashamed of yourself!

To end on a positive, the reception/waiter/ bar and restaurant staff are good and hard working, as always they are the ones on the front line who make a difference. The lady round the reserve pool, Maive, who brought nice warm towels first thing in the morning straight out of the drier, also brings cocktails, ice cream, etc. round every hour or two always with a smile on her face, a lovely lady.