Melia Jardines del Teide

The hotel gave a very nice welcome, greeting us with hand towels, a glass of fizz and an offer to store out luggage whilst waiting for the room to be ready. We ate lunch in the bar and had a couple of drinks whilst waiting, then went to the room, which was clean and had plenty of towels, soap, shampoo etc.

Pros - The hotel is clean and well presented with beautiful views of Costa Adeje; the staff work hard to keep the areas tidy. The hotel has lots of entertainment, such as singers on an evening and aqua fitness, and nobody pesters you to join in, which we appreciated. As an adults only hotel, we found that it was a peaceful and relaxed environment and we felt that all staff members were kind and friendly. You can order a taxi at reception, and we never waited more than a few minutes, which was an excellent service and easy to get around. Breakfast was really good - there was so much variety; we never had the same breakfast twice in the 10 night stay. Whilst we preferred to stick to coffee and juice, you could even make yourself a Mimosa or Bloody Mary at the alcohol section. We ate out nightly so cannot comment on the evening meals, but the restaurant looked well cared for. We charged a couple of coffees to our room around the poolside and had light lunches there a couple of times, which were nice, although a bit pricey at 17 euros for a club sandwich with fries.

Cons - We did feel the bar was expensive at 18 euros for a Hendricks, plus the price of the tonic. We only had one, but would have stayed to have more drinks if they were more reasonably priced as the bar is comfortable and has a lovely view. The pool is what let the hotel down as the bottom of it is peeling and exposing black sections; one couple were Googling algae and complained to the travel operator as they were worried it was hazardous to health. The water was clean and fine to swim in, but where the black is exposed you can feel the floor is a little slimy. We preferred to swim in the end where it wasn't as bad, but the pool really does need to be refurbished. This wasn't a cheap holiday, so we would have expected higher standards for the pool.

Tip - As the hotel is on a hill, you do have to take into account how fit you are, or how much you will spend on taxis getting up the hill!

Overall, the hotel was very good, and I would book again, but only when the pool has been restored. It's only fair to travelers to provide a higher standard of swimming area given that they're visiting a hot country and paying a fair bit to stay here.

I’m really torn on whether to give this hotel a 2 or a 3 review rating but I’ve gone higher in the interest of fairness.

We recently stayed at this hotel as a group of 5 friends with 3 of the party there to celebrate 50th birthdays. We had looked long and hard for a bottle that would be suitable for us all and chose here as it was adult only and All Inc.

Overall the hotel is in a good location, is nicely set out and has a unique layout being set into the hillside. It is generally clean and well kept, staff are friendly and the rooms we stayed in were spacious and nice.

Unfortunately, we had a few downsides that mean that the rating we have given is low.

The floors in our rooms were not clean - when you got into the shower after walking across them, you left dirty feet prints. There were no windows in the room and we kept the patio door to the patio area closed due to the aircon so there was no huge amounts of dust and dirt getting into the room. The bathroom is also one large room with the toilet/sink/shower all in one open room. This meant if you were using the toilet, the bathroom was off limits to anyone else. The toilet area looked like it was set up for a door but one hadn’t been installed.

The main pool has been mentioned in many posts. You could see people cleaning and testing the pool each day but the whole area looked like it was full of black algae - along the walls and the floor. It seems more likely that it was the paint and lining that had peeled but it still didn’t look nice at all and was very off putting.

Food - breakfast and lunch was generally very good with a good choice selection. However, evening meals were nowhere near as good either in choice or quality. Food was often bland and the food labelling was terrible - either not labelled or incorrectly labelled. Drinks orders were delivered incorrectly or so late, your meal was nearly over.

We did eat at the Italian one night which was absolutely lovely - however , we found out that one of the group had asked reception if something nice could be done (balloon or small cake) as three of us were celebrating our 50th birthdays. Reception had made a note but nothing was done. We were not aware until the end of the holiday and it’s a shame they couldn’t fulfil the request as it would have been a lovely surprise.

I think that this sums up the hotel - there are inconstancies in service and overall general set up throughout and led us all to the conclusion that this is far far from a 5 star hotel.

On our last day we could only keep one of the two rooms on until before we were due to leave. This was fine but the cost was far in excess of any hotel we have stayed in before. The two of us who had to leave our room and check out were told we would be charged €75 to continue to enjoy our All Inc package. We have travelled the world over and never have we been charged to keep All Inc on until the point of leaving. We have always been able to enjoy it until the transfer picked us up. We were also late arriving at the hotel (after 9pm) as per our booking so we didn’t get any of the All Inc on the day we arrived which made this feel even more like the hotel was trying to get every last penny out of us. It left a sour taste and an overall feeling of just poor customer service. This was heightened by the push to join The Circle and pay more to stay at Melia hotels year on year - I guess like a subscription.

Be careful if you need to use a courtesy room on late checkout if your room cannot be extended. The room we were given was a good 10 minute trip from reception once we got the key and had carried our stuff there. You only get 30 mins per room in the courtesy room so you just have chance to shower, dry, change and repack any bags. Defoe doing hair / makeup as you will just not have the time if there are two or more of you !!

In all, we did enjoy the stay but it was mainly down to the company and did feel that for the money we paid, that all in all it was a very basic All Inc package in at best, a 4* hotel - we would not be returning and it had made us think twice about Melia as a group, this being our third experience at one of their hotels and the others also not being on point.