Bakour Lanzarote Splash

We have just stayed here for one week with a 6 year old and 8 month old baby. We have had a fantastic stay, the pools and slides are absolutely perfect for younger children or slightly older children that aren’t confident in deep water. We found the pools and whole hotel immaculately clean and well maintained and the majority of staff incredibly friendly.

Main pros: 10min transfer from airport Slides excellent for children Cleanliness Food quality Room access via wristband excellent idea! Shower in room fantastic Help yourself wine station at meal times a really nice touch

The main cons here, which really make no sense to us whatsoever: There are sometimes NO lifeguards on any of the three pools. Sometimes there is one covering all three, and it is impossible to see all three pools safely from where he was sat. We found this terrible for a hotel which is 99% families with young children!! ( we were watching our child at all times but many weren’t and there were a couple of injuries that we witnessed from older children climbing up the slides unsupervised)

Secondly- we found the food options for children at lunch, but especially evening meal; very limited. If you have a fussy eater, you will struggle to find something other than chips and plain pasta/ pasta with sauce. We felt there should be a much wider variety of options of children. We ate out several nights so that we could find something our son would eat (also the choice of restaurants in puerto del carmen is amazing and we didn’t want to miss out!!)

Other issues we encountered: There is only one tiny lift for the entire hotel, which can be problematic when so many guests have prams. They really need a ramp in reception. There was a very bad smell of damp mops/cloths in the restaurant every day. WiFi in our room practically unusable- no problems with WiFi in main areas. -one one tiny bin in room for rubbish- much bigger bin or second bin needed! -smell of drainage coming from aircon in main living area of room -no aircon in bedroom (ceiling fan only) -juice only available at breakfast and not at lunch or evening meal so only option for kids or non-alcohol drinkers was water or fizzy drinks

• we felt dinner at 7pm is too late to start serving for babies and young children. The restaurant was often full of over-tired screaming children, why not open it earlier at 6pm?

-the Saturday of our stay was open to the public and kids parties- it was far too busy and changed the atmosphere completely

Although I’ve listed more cons than pros here; we did really enjoy our stay and it was perfect for our son. Only a 10min walk from the main area also.

BAKOUR!!! is a wonderful place for kids and family, me and my wife stayed with our 5 kids here for a week very clean facilities and the family room that they upgraded us too was fabulous. The staff and manager are very friendly, kind welcoming. Would I recommend YES! 100%. Its definitely a resort I’ll recommend for any family or couple too stay @

A good family hotel with some room for improvement

We recently stayed at Bakour Lanzarote Splash as a family and overall had a really enjoyable holiday. There are plenty of positives about this hotel, particularly for families with young children, but also a few areas that could definitely be improved.

Hotel and grounds

First impressions from outside are a little underwhelming. The reception and bar area are quite small, although nicely decorated. However, once you get further into the hotel, things improve considerably.

The hotel grounds are really nicely presented and the pool areas, kids’ splash pool and snack bar area are all very good. The pool facilities are excellent for children and ours absolutely loved them. The main pool is cold when you first get in, but like most outdoor pools, it’s absolutely fine after a few minutes.

One thing that does need attention is some broken tiles around the pool areas. These could be dangerous, particularly with young children running around.

Rooms

We stayed in room 108 and were really pleased with it. The room was spacious, with a large and comfortable bedroom for us and a big fold-out bed for the children, which they found comfortable too.

The bathroom was also very spacious, with a good shower, although the water never got particularly hot, more very warm than anything.

We did have an issue with the toilet flush breaking twice during our stay, but to the hotel’s credit, both times it was fixed quickly.

Location

The location is excellent. You’re around a 10-minute walk from the beach and the busier part of Puerto del Carmen, or roughly 10 minutes in the opposite direction to the harbour.

There are also plenty of shops, bars and restaurants within a few minutes’ walk, including a Lidl about three minutes away, which is really handy.

If you don’t fancy walking, a taxi down to the beachfront or main strip costs just €3–4, so getting around is really easy and inexpensive.

French guests and entertainment

This is probably the biggest thing worth mentioning, particularly for British families considering booking.

The hotel is very much geared towards French guests, and I think any response from the hotel suggesting otherwise is being a little disingenuous.

FRAM is a French tour operator, similar to TUI or Jet2 in the UK. Just as you’d expect dedicated TUI entertainment and representatives at certain hotels in Mallorca, FRAM operates in a similar way here for its French guests.

The difference is that FRAM guests have access to additional activities as part of their package, which aren’t available to other guests.

I’d estimate the hotel was around 40% French, 40% British and 20% other nationalities during our stay, including plenty of Irish, Dutch and German guests. When such a large proportion of the hotel isn’t French, having activities that exclude everyone else can leave you feeling a little like a second-class guest.

That said, I do want to give credit to the FRAM team and the wider entertainment team. Where activities weren’t exclusively for FRAM guests, they genuinely made an effort to include everyone, regardless of nationality.

The evening entertainment was OK overall, although I’d recommend avoiding Saturday evening if French karaoke isn’t your thing!

The kids’ club and mini disco were actually really good. They played familiar children’s songs in several languages, including English, French, German, Dutch and Spanish, and made a real effort to involve all the children. Ours absolutely loved it.

Food and drink

Overall, I’d describe the food as OK, with breakfast being the strongest meal of the day and evening meals being very hit and miss.

Breakfast was really nice. There were freshly made omelettes, eggs, occasionally English sausages and black pudding, and the bacon was decent enough. The coffee was good, as were the juices.

The children always found something they enjoyed at breakfast, whether that was waffles, pancakes with Nutella or beans on toast.

For lunch, we ate at the snack bar every day and had no complaints. The Caesar salad was excellent, as was the pizza, and the kids were always happy with nuggets and chips.

Evening meals were a different story.

Some themed nights were good, particularly the Chinese and Italian evenings. I personally managed to find something tasty every night, but my partner struggled on several occasions, and she really isn’t a fussy eater.

The children struggled even more. I genuinely think this hotel would benefit massively from having a dedicated children’s food station in the evening restaurant. Simple options such as chicken nuggets, chips, fish fingers and pizza would make a huge difference for families.

Hopefully this is something the hotel takes on board, as it would be a relatively simple improvement.

Staff

The hotel staff were generally very friendly and helpful throughout our stay, particularly those working in the bars and restaurants. Whenever we had an issue, such as the toilet flush in our room, it was dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Overall verdict

Despite some of the negatives, I would recommend Bakour Lanzarote Splash, particularly to families with younger children.

The pool facilities are excellent, the rooms are spacious and comfortable, the hotel grounds are lovely and the location is very convenient.

For me, it’s a lower-end 4-star hotel. There is plenty to like, but the inconsistent evening food, entertainment and the separation between FRAM guests and everyone else prevent it from being a really good 4-star experience.

My advice to British families would be to plan on going out for dinner and entertainment three or four evenings during a week’s stay. Puerto del Carmen has plenty of great restaurants and bars within easy walking distance, and eating out is reasonably priced too. We found that a family of four could enjoy a good evening meal, including drinks and desserts, for around €80. Alternatively, a taxi down to the beachfront costs just €3–4, so it’s easy enough to head out for the evening without spending a fortune.

We had a lovely family holiday here and the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, which ultimately is the most important thing. With a few relatively straightforward improvements, this could be a much better hotel.