GF Isabel

GF Isabel – Costa Adeje

👍 The Good

GF Isabel is a lovely base if you want to come to Costa Adeje for a relaxing resort holiday. The resort is essentially like a little village, with everything wonderfully spaced out rather than feeling like one large hotel.

🌴 Relaxing pool area

If you want peace and quiet, I would definitely recommend the pool at the back of the hotel. It has its own bar, plenty of sun loungers and parasols, and is surrounded by trees. It is a lovely area to sit, read a book and enjoy a drink without feeling like you're on top of everyone else.

There is also a lovely little pool and mini-disco area for younger children.

🍹 Drinks & All Inclusive

The all-inclusive drinks selection is good, with the usual cocktails, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and slushies included. There are also discounts available on some drinks that aren't included in the standard menu.

🍽️ Food

Lunch and dinner were very good overall. There were only a couple of days where I struggled to find something I wanted to eat as some dishes looked questionable, but most days the food was delicious.

A big bonus is that, during our 7-day stay, the meals didn't seem to repeat, so there was plenty of variety.

🛏️ Our bungalow

Our bungalow was in a fantastic, quiet location, around a five-minute walk from the restaurant and entertainment areas. We slept really well.

There were plenty of plug sockets and the air conditioning was perfect, which made the room very comfortable.

Yes, the resort is dated, but personally I didn't feel it was dated to the point of being uncomfortable. I actually think some of the older style adds to its charm.

🎭 Entertainment

There is entertainment every night and plenty of places to sit and watch. The evening entertainment was fun and enjoyable, and even the mini-disco was entertaining to watch whether you have children or not!

Some evenings we chose to head back to our bungalow before the entertainment started for some quiet time, which was nice to have as an option.

One thing to note is that it can get quite humid at night, so a small fan might be useful if you're sitting outside watching the entertainment.

🛍️ Location

The location is excellent for getting out and about.

There is a hypermarket directly across the road, along with a shopping mall that has a supermarket, shops and even a Ben & Jerry's. It's only a few minutes' walk away.

There is another shopping mall a few minutes in the opposite direction, also with shops and a supermarket.

Inside GF Isabel itself, there is a mini-market stocking most things you might need, as well as another shop selling things such as Uno and playing cards. There are also little pop-up shops throughout the week selling various trinkets — and plenty of magnets!

🏖️ Beach

The beach is a little further away and is walkable, although the route you choose makes a difference to how steep the hills are.

The first hill you come across is steeper. The route alongside the shops is easier, and you only really have to walk back up the hill past the excursion shops.

Definitely take water and a hat, regardless of which route you choose, as the heat can be very strong.

✈️ Airport & Transfer

The transfer from Tenerife South Airport to the hotel took around 15–25 minutes. Once the coach got going, it was nice and cool.

At the airport, there are the usual fingerprints and checks, but the staff were very helpful and we were through in around 10 minutes, so it wasn't too much of a struggle. The journey back through the airport may be different, of course.

🐈 Animals & Cleanliness

There are a few cats around the resort, but they generally keep to themselves, as do the doves.

We rarely saw flies, ants or mosquitoes, which was a nice surprise.

👎 The Bad

🍹 Bar Zumeria / Juice Bar

The juice bar, which is also called Bar Zumeria on the app, was one of the biggest frustrations for us.

It is advertised as opening at 10am, but during our holiday it was never open at 10am. Some days it was up to an hour late, and the pool itself also sometimes opened later than advertised.

This happened every day of our holiday, so it's definitely something management needs to look at.

I also felt that the attitude of some of the lifeguards and bar staff around the juice bar could have been better. It was a mixed bag — some were absolutely fine, but there was a noticeable lack of attentiveness and urgency when it came to opening on time.

At the end of the day, the purpose of these facilities is to provide a service to guests, and tourism is what makes the resort viable, so I feel punctuality and customer service are important.

The juice bar also sometimes didn't turn the slushie machine on, which was frustrating when this was included as part of the all-inclusive package.

Also, be careful with the slushies at the pool bar — on one occasion there appeared to be black lumps in them, which obviously isn't ideal.

🏗️ Building work

There was building work taking place at the back of the hotel for a few days during our stay, and we weren't notified about it beforehand.

Thankfully, the area was still relaxing overall, but it did affect the peaceful atmosphere for those days.

🏊 Main pool

We only spent around two hours at the main pool while the building work was happening and ended up going back to our room after lunch.

The main pool was simply too busy for us. There were lots of loungers packed closely together, making it feel much more crowded than the back pool.

There were also some queues around the pool areas for sun loungers, although thankfully nothing too manic.

🎰 Arcade

The arcade is quite nice and has a pool table, ping pong table and some standard arcade machines.

Unfortunately, one of the grabber machines wasn't working. It took two €1 coins from us and didn't do anything, which was disappointing.

🍳 Breakfast

Breakfast was probably the weakest meal for me personally. My stomach didn't enjoy it on most days, although my husband really enjoyed it.

There is a huge selection, but I did feel that cross-contamination could be quite a big issue, so it's something to be aware of if you have dietary requirements or a sensitive stomach.

👥 Staff

The staff experience was a mixed bag overall, although there were definitely some standouts.

Reception staff were fantastic — we genuinely couldn't fault them. They were absolutely lovely, helpful and welcoming whenever we dealt with them.

The restaurant staff were mainly good, but there were a few occasions where you could tell some staff members became flustered quite easily and forgot which drinks guests had ordered. It didn't ruin the experience, but it was noticeable.

The juice bar/lifeguard team was more mixed, as mentioned above, particularly when it came to opening times and attentiveness.

🧹 Housekeeping

Housekeeping was another area where we felt there was a lack of attentiveness most of the time.

When we first arrived, there was a hair in the bath, which I cleaned myself. On most days, we also had to remind reception that our room needed cleaning.

I'd suggest the hotel consider using heavier or more noticeable door signs for housekeeping, as this may help prevent rooms being missed and would make it clearer when guests want their room serviced.

🍽️ Mealtimes

I'd recommend being early for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There can be queues, and getting there earlier makes the whole experience easier.

⭐ Overall

Overall, we had a lovely stay at GF Isabel.

It isn't a modern, luxury resort, and yes, it is dated — but I don't think that takes away from the experience. For us, it was actually part of its charm.

The resort is spacious, the back pool area is particularly relaxing, the location is excellent, the food is mostly very good, and our bungalow was quiet and comfortable.

There are definitely things that need improving, particularly the late opening of Bar Zumeria/juice bar, the occasional pool opening delays, housekeeping attentiveness and the lack of warning about building work.

The staff were mixed overall, but the reception team in particular deserve a mention because they were genuinely lovely and couldn't be faulted.

If you're looking for somewhere in Costa Adeje where you can relax, have everything you need close by and enjoy a good all-inclusive holiday, GF Isabel is worth considering.

We enjoyed our stay and would definitely consider coming back in the future.

Hotel breakfast was basic and not great quality. Which meant it was pancakes every morning. The rooms were spacious , however the air con was non existent. Which made the week feel longer than it should have. Most nights myself and wife would wake with soaked pillows in sweat due to the heat. You also couldn't put used toilet roll in the toilet and instead had to use a small bin. On occasions there was also a smell of sewage when coming back to the room after a day at the beach. We prefer the beach to the pool. However the pool was cordoned off with red and white chains until 10am each morning.