Sol Tenerife

The hotel is in bad state of repair. Plug sockets hanging off the walls and dirty furniture in the rooms. Very outdated. We stayed for ten days and did not manage to get a sun lounger once. People were queuing at the door before 8am to be let out at 9 to the pool. Then it was a free for all with arguments and some altercations. We gave up and paid for sun loungers on the beach. There is around 80 sun loungers for a 2 block hotel which must house thousands of people! There was a strong smell of weed in the corridor to our room which appeared to be coming from the cleaning cupboard. On the plus side the food was really good, lots of choice and the staff were lovely. Location wise it’s right on Veronica’s strip which we were aware and suited us. Extremely noisy at night so not good if you want to sleep or are staying with children. I’ve given terrible rating due to the hotel not the staff, location or food!

Hotel is very dated.

Food is OK

The sunbed situation is hilarious. The pool opens at 10:00am but the door to the pool area is unlocked at 08:30 and there is usually a que of people waiting at this time to put their towels on a sunbed. At 10:30 the pool attendant / lifeguard walks round the beds and removes all towels where there are no people present. This caused a fight between people when I was there and security had to be called. You are not allowed a ball or any floatable item in the pool which isn't great for the kids.

Evening entertainment was pretty bad.

So the hotel is two seperate 11 story blocks. The hotel is on the road just behind the beach front where there are a number of nightclubs and karaoke bars. I may as well have tried sleeping inside the nightclubs as the noise would have been the same and that went on till around midnight - 3am.

Would I stay there again - No however you get what you pay for.

We stayed at the hotel for 10 nights and overall, I think there are a few things worth mentioning for anyone considering staying here.

When we arrived at around 11am, we were able to check in even though our room wasn’t available until 3pm, which had already been explained to us beforehand, so this wasn’t an issue. We were given access to a luggage room where we could leave our suitcases, which was a major help. We were also given a key card so we could access the toilets and the gate to leave the hotel while waiting for our room, which I thought was very useful.

We were also given the option to upgrade our stay from breakfast only to half board or all inclusive however we didn’t think it was worth the price and wanted to try other places in the area.

Once our room was ready, we were given a room on the 11th floor on the B side. At first glance, the room was okay and we didn’t have any major complaints. However, once we settled in, we noticed a few issues.

The bedding had a damp/clammy feeling to it, which made it quite unpleasant to sleep on. There was also only one plug socket in the bedroom, and this wasn’t located next to the beds, which was inconvenient, especially when you have phones and other devices to charge. The towels were also very thin and rough, and there were some brown/orange items which I can only describe as rugs being used in place of a proper duvet. There was also no bin in the room, however there was one small bin in the bathroom.

One thing i didn’t raise with the hotel but would like to mention is the hairdryer facility. There is one in the bedroom. however if you have long/thick hair i would recommend packing your own as it was not the strongest  and the button had to be held down for it to be used.

I called reception to politely raise these issues. Unfortunately, the lady I spoke to was quite short with me and quickly dismissed the damp feeling of the bedding as being caused by the air conditioning, despite the air conditioning not being on when we entered the room. I was told that an extension lead could be collected from reception, which was helpful and that ‘all the rooms are the same’. I was then told to come down to reception.

When I went down, nothing had been recorded from my phone call, meaning I had to explain everything again to a different member of staff. We were given an extension lead, although this required a €10 deposit. We were also told that someone would come up to check the bedding, but nobody did.

In the end, we took it upon ourselves to go to a shop and buy our own bedding because we simply didn’t feel comfortable sleeping on what was provided. The following morning, the cleaner came and we explained that we had bought our own bedding and asked for the beds to be left as they were. We even left a note. Unfortunately, the bedding was still disturbed and our sheet was taken. I appreciate that it was a white sheet and may have looked like hotel bedding, but it was still frustrating after we had specifically explained the situation.

A few days later, an additional bin was eventually provided for the room.

One other thing I found unusual was that there was no standard do not disturb sign. Instead, there was a Shh sleeping sign. However, if you put this out and the cleaners saw you leaving the room, you could apparently be questioned about it, which I found a little strange.

On the positive side, the cleaners themselves were very good. They regularly changed the towels and kept the room generally tidy throughout our stay. Other than the initial issues, we didn’t have much interaction with the hotel staff.

We also tried the breakfast. It was a buffet as advertised, so we didn’t have particularly high expectations but no complaints. And the food was pleasant enough. There was plenty of options such as different flavours of yoghurt, pastries, and all items you would find on an english breakfast.

The lifts were probably one of the strangest parts of the stay. It felt like there was at least one broken every day, although they did seem to alternate, so there were generally still lifts available.

We didn’t use the other hotel facilities, so unfortunately I can’t comment on those.

As for the location, I think it is particularly suited to people who are visiting Tenerife to enjoy the nightlife and mainly want somewhere to sleep. I had read a lot of reviews mentioning the noise before staying, and yes, you can hear music from outside. However, personally, I didn’t find it bad enough to keep me awake. If you prefer complete silence at night, then it may be something to consider, but it wasn’t a major issue for us.

One thing I do want to give the hotel a massive amount of credit for is their lost property service. We accidentally left our iPad in the hotel and contacted them at around 7pm. We were sent a form to complete and paid for the postage, and incredibly, the iPad had already been handed over to the delivery company by dinner time the following day. I thought this was absolutely brilliant and they dealt with the lost property extremely quickly and efficiently.

Overall, I think Hotel Sol Tenerife has its positives, particularly the location, the housekeeping and how they dealt with our lost property. However, there were also several basic things in our room that I felt should have been better, particularly the bedding, lack of a bin, limited plug sockets and the quality of the towels. The response when I initially raised these concerns could also have been handled better.

I think this hotel would suit someone who is looking for a reasonably located base for a holiday and isn’t too concerned about luxury or spending lots of time in the hotel. Just be aware that the rooms and facilities are quite basic.

However if you do choose to stay here or in this area i would massively recommend Petra’s bar which is about a 10 minute walk left if you was facing McDonalds (just across the road from Veronica Strip). The breakfast there was amazing and she was so lovely and welcoming.

Also if you’re looking to book excursions i would recommend David who can be found at a little stand just after the ‘Kong’ restaurant.