Riu Buenavista Hotel

Having stayed at other Riu properties before, I have to say that Riu Buena Vista was quite a mediocre experience and unfortunately fell short of the usual Riu standard. Here is a breakdown of our stay: -The Food: The food variety was very limited and got repetitive quickly. A major issue for us was the heavy focus on pork dishes. Worse, many dishes were not properly labeled, making it impossible to tell if a meal contained pork or beef. For religious guests or anyone who doesn't eat pork for dietary reasons, this is a big problem and makes dining very difficult. -Location & Transport: The hotel itself is in a beautiful location, but it is highly isolated. It is a real shame that the hotel no longer offers a shuttle service to Costa Adeje or Playa de las Américas. Without a rental car, you are basically stuck, as there is no transfer or shuttle provided by the hotel to get you out of the area. -Pools & Sunbed Wars: On a positive note, the pool area is beautiful. There are 5 pools in total, including a kids' pool and an Adults-Only pool (where staff actually checks that no minors enter). However, the "sunbed wars" are terrible here. Guests start reserving loungers with towels at exactly 7:00 AM, and most of the good sunbeds are gone right away. When you are on vacation, you actually want to sleep in, but that is impossible if you want a decent spot directly by the pool.

• Rooms & Housekeeping:

The rooms themselves were generally clean. However, we had a very annoying experience with housekeeping one day. We were out of the room the entire day, but it hadn't been cleaned by 4:00 PM. When the cleaner finally arrived so late, we had our own plans and couldn't leave the room anymore. I find it quite rude that they couldn't manage to clean the room within a 5-hour window.

• Staff & Entertainment:

Aside from the housekeeping issue, the rest of the staff at the reception and in the restaurants was very nice and friendly. Also, the hotel's entertainment and animation programs were good and kept us entertained. Summary: Beautiful grounds, nice pools, and friendly staff, but the poor food labeling, lack of transport, sunbed stress, and unreliable housekeeping mean we probably won't be returning.

This is the first hotel we have ever stayed at where the entertainment stage is outside in the centre of the hotel. Normally there is an auditorium or a place away from the centre of the hotel, so if you do not wish to watch the entertainment then there is a place for those that do. Here, you cannot escape the evening entertainment, because even though you cannot see it, you will hear it. There is nowhere quiet to sit and relax on an evening, because the sound from the stage booms across the property.( A couple of people told us they couldn't hear the noise as they had rooms facing outward of the hotel, not pool facing). The Friday night party nights are even worse, I don't think anyone in Playa Paraiso goes to bed before 11 PM because of the noise. If you love BOOM BOOM BOOM music blasting your eardrums til 11pm then it's great, if not, its a nightmare. The food is average, not great, not bad, but not much choice and the same things every day, for instance the pasta station serves the same 2 dishes every day, bolognaise or a cream sauce. If you like burgers chips and hot dogs every day then this is the place to come We found the grill restaurant for dinner the best, the Italian was terrible, the Asian was ok. Whoever decided to place the toddlers pool close to the adults only pool needs firing, all day, all you can hear are kids screaming or crying when adults who are trying to escape from kids are relaxing If you want a relaxing holiday, this not the place, if you want to join in with the entertainment team and watch different acts on an evening then its ideal. Already booked 2 more holidays to our favourite 4 star in Lanzarote, which is head and shoulders above this place

Lovely hotel and most staff were nice apart from a lady working at the lobby bar who was extremely rude and had no manners