If you are looking for a half way house between hotel B&B and all-inclusive, the Sheraton hotel, Tenerife is certainly an option to consider! We were late to book our summer holiday this year and left ourselves few choices in our usual ‘all inclusive’ section of the market, making us consider other options. Consequently, we ended up with a holiday that we may not have even contemplated before, in a hotel deemed a ‘business’ hotel. The best thing about business hotels are the beds! Silly things like a comfy bed can make or break a holiday and hotels aiming to host affluent business people, will certainly ensure a good nights sleep! We stayed in a Club room on a B&B basis, with club benefits* as a holiday package with British Airways, enjoying 5 star luxury with the all inclusive benefits of soft drinks and snacks all day.
*club benefits don’t come as standard with the club room, just the ability to upgrade to them.
The Room
The club rooms at the Sheraton are large and luxurious with an empty fridge and bottled water replenished each day. The bathroom is also large with both a bath and shower but the shower cubical itself was a little on the small side.
Facilities
Though the hotel itself was certainly 5 star, the pool and garden areas could do with a refurb. We spent most of our time around the heated, freshwater pool. Though the saltwater one was beautiful, it was clearly growing algae on the bottom in the deeper sections and we’re just not saltwater fans. With the beach on our door step, we would have preferred another fresh water pool.
As expected, food and drinks in the hotel were pricey. We treated ourselves to the occasional cocktail by the pool but this is where the Club lounge became worthwhile for us. Between 6-8pm alcoholic drinks are available, perfect for pre-dinner G&T’s or a glass of bubbly! The snacks at this time are substantial, ranging from olives to pork skewers, bread sticks to seared duck breast. In the end we had to limit the snacks so that they didn’t spoil dinner. Club privileges also extended to a separate breakfast area, meaning no queues for the egg station, our juice and coffee order brought to the table (the exact order remembered from day 2!) as we arrived and all the usual breakfast choices.
The hotel has a kids club but our kids preferred playing in the pool rather than joining their dry activities. Each afternoon they joined the kids game of water polo in the shallow pool but I have to mention that the ‘Animation Team’ weren’t very animated! There was never an attempt to ’round up’ the kids or members of the team wondering around, chatting to the children like in other hotels we’ve stayed in. Apparently there was a children’s disco each evening but again, not something our gang were keen to frequent!
What made the Sheraton hotel, Tenerife great!
The best thing about this hotel was the ease of which we could find sun beds and parasols. There were always plenty and the staff were quick to offer help if they saw you moving things around. They have a strict policy on reserving sun beds and enforced it by removing towels from beds on a couple of occasions which worked as an effective deterrent!
What was not so good?
Our only complaint of the freshwater pool was the abrasive finish, which actually caused the kids feet to bleed! Luckily, I’d bought them all pool shoes for snorkelling, that they then wore when playing water polo in the shallow pool. The lifeguard initially informed us that shoes were not permitted! However, after seeing the kids feet and checking with his manager, common sense prevailed and shoes were allowed!
The beach was on our door-step!
Having recently tried our hands at paddle boarding, we decided to bring ours with us (knowing that hiring was £20/hour at the local beach). One of the downsides of not choosing ‘All inclusive’ was having to pay for all activities when often non-motorised water sports are free. The paddle board, associated pump and buoyancy aids all fitted into a wheelie bag the size of a large suitcase. As we were travelling with BA, the extra luggage didn’t cost a penny and it provided hours of fun at the beach, coupled with snorkelling and sandcastle building in the sheltered sandy bays.
A few shops including a small supermarket and a pharmacy, can be found just over the road. Wander a bit further and unless you want a comprehensive shopping mall, you’ll find everything you need within the resort. Restaurants in the area are plentiful and good value with generous portion sizes. Eating out was a lot cheaper here than when we holidayed in Alcudia, Majorca! Though on that holiday we did stay all-inclusive so eating out was an extra treat! Here in Adeje, our party of 6 (3 adults/ 3 children) ate an evening meal plus drinks for less than €90/ night (sometimes much less!). The children’s pizza’s were so big, they often shared one between two of them and only cost €4 each! All the restaurantos seemed to offer a very similar menu with a huge variety of local dishes and tourist favourites. We found every dish you would expect from a Spanish resort within a few minutes walk of the hotel.
Would we return to the Sheraton hotel, Tenerife?
Yes, I think we would but probably as a winter sun, week away. We would definitely recommend as a summer holiday destination and would certainly now look for Sheraton hotels in different locations. It’s just not the resort I’d go back to year after year when there are so many other places to go. Adeje is a lovely, typical, Spanish resort, perfect for families and reasonably priced. The Sheraton hotel, Tenerife isn’t the cheapest option but you do get what you pay for! It definitely ticks all the boxes for a relaxing, slow-paced family holiday and certainly contrasts to last years all-inclusive monster hotel in Turkey!
