Costa Taurito Hotel

As a spanish, I'm embarrased of thinking that english people could think of this hotel as a 4 star standard here in Spain. It's the worst hotel I've ever been: bad food, dirty bathrooms, the coast main road six meters away from the swiming pool... Undoubtely my worst holidays ever. This hotel should not be rated as 4 stars

Travel with First Choice, first and last time, arrived mid day, room looked ok, we were on the ground floor 4 rooms from the pool, looks like all Brits go on this floor. The room, on closer inspection was dirty, the previous occupants hair in the bathroom and bedroom, must have had long hair ! This did not improve through out the week we were there, at the end of our week we had 13 glasses in the bathroom from drinks we had taken back on an evening, you will need to go back to your room or leave the hotel on an evening because the entertainment is either poor or non existant. Spanish ballet, hmm very interesting The food in the dining room was poor, I said to the manager that I thought the food was unaceptable HE AGREED, my wife found a shard of glass in a sweet, the manager got the sweet removed, but if that had been a child, oh dear. Dont go when it is a Spanish holiday you will struggle to get a sun bed, if the Spaniards are there also take ear plugs. All in all a poor 2 star hotel.

Costa taurito is classified as a four star hotel but deserves no more than two. Room was pleasent and spacious, maid service was very good, unfortunately we were all inclusive and the food was so bad that on several occasions we had to eat out. The only entertainment on our two weeks there was an hour on four occasions. To the right of the reception there is a schedule of daytime activities none of which took place, the so called animations girl seemed to do nothing but work behind the bar. Had it not been for the fantastic weather and meeting some nice people the holiday would have been a lot worse. We will definately not be returning to hotel costa taurito.

Taurito is a purpose built resort consisting of Four star all inclusive hotels, there are a few shops and three beach front restaurant bars open during the day. The heart of the resort consists of a waterpark entry 11 euros, mini golf, bar, small children's amusement area, tennis courts, squash courts and a jogging track. In the evenings the only place for any sort of drinks apart from the hotels is the bar at the mini golf. Buses and Taxis are easily available to other resorts Mogan, Peurto Rico , etc. The Hotel Costa Taurito is classified as Four Star. The reception staff are friendly and the reception is open 24 hours, with this open 24 hours it is strange that tea, coffee or drinks are not available after midnight. There are two bars, the pool bar open during the day and the piano bar in the evenings, the piano bar does indeed have a piano although this was not used during our two weeks. Evening entertainment takes place in the piano bar and during our stay entertainment was provided for about an hour on four occasions, Dancers, two juggling acts and a disco with DJ. Daytime entertainment although advertised to take place five days a week, archery, darts, etc. during our stay to the best of our knowledge took place only once (archery). First Choice class this as a family hotel, but there are no facilities for children's entertainment apart from the children's paddling pool. The rooms are quite spacious, ensuite, twin beds, TV (two spanish channels only), mini bar empty but useful for storing your own booze, good sized furnished balcony (the hotel control the balcony lights), table and chairs in the room and a fair sized wardrobe with safety deposit box (35 euros). The towels are changed daily and the bed linen twice a week. THE RESTAURANT Well I have tried to be as fair and objective as possible so far, so hopefully when you are reading this you will know I am not exaggerating, the cooked food served here was the very worst we have ever experienced anywhere. For both Breakfast and Dinner everything and I mean everything was either Overcooked, Undercooked or Burnt, the meats and vegetables were so bland tasting they could have been cooked and then steamed to remove any trace of taste, almost all the meat and fish was cooked until dry and then served with no sauces to improve them. The food was piled in trays without any attempt to present them well, but I must say I would rather have taste than presentation but to have neither showed a complete disregard to the fact we were paying guests. Most people I noticed made do with an evening meal of Salad and a desert, I should say that the salad and desert available came no where near the choice and presentation we have experienced in three star spanish hotels. The food was not fresh as there was no variation of menu with the same fish and meats served for both lunch and dinner, we did not take lunch at anytime in the hotel so this observation is made on the fact we passed the restaurant on the way to the pool, so could see what was served, also we were told by those unfortunate enough to be all inclusive. To also give an idea of the attitude of the staff to complaints, one evening the young waitress after bringing our order of wine then brought two bottles of water to our table, I tried to explain she had made a mistake and the water had probably been ordered by someone else, she was having difficulty understanding what I was saying, then suddenly a chef (and I use the term loosely) came rushing over and standing over me with hands on hips demanded to know quite angrily and loudly what my problem was. I explained that the waitress had bought us water that we hadn't ordered or paid for and he snatched them off the table and stormed off. This is a restaurant from hell, so if you intend to use this hotel take extra money, you will need this for taxis to the closest resorts with restaurants. To sum up, this should not be a four star holiday hotel, it is the standard of hotel you would use for a one night stopover. The restaurant is a disgrace so if you do use the hotel, room only is the best basis. I would expect that First Choice have inspected this hotel and if they consider this to be a four star holiday hotel then they are a company to be avoided when looking to book holidays. Having learnt my lesson about allocated on arrival, it is not a choice I will make in future, I will also look in the First Choice brochure to see if they are using any hotel I am offered, as this will show the ones to avoid.

Arrived at 2am sunday morning - first impressions are that the room was nice and clean but laid out like a business hotel room but with a bad view of a building site across the road. The pool was so basic and the entertainment was non existent - despite there being a large timetable at the side of reception listing all of the 'activities' day and night - none of which took place other than a confusing quiz one night and some paltry juggling act. The so called entertainment manager should be sacked as we have no idea what she did other than swan around eating. The staff were mostly ok but were not particularly friendly. however, the main 2 problems were the location as we were in the middle of nowhere stuck with no entertainment and the food in the restaurant was absolutely appalling. We asked our First choice rep on the day we arrived if we could be moved as there was nothing for our teenage kids to do and the food being as atrocious as it was meant we were all getting nothing to eat but the rep denied all knowledge of the issues and basically told us that we should not have chosen to be allocated on arrival and if we wanted to move we would have to pay 450 euros. In the end we stayed at the Taurito, made some good friends who also had grievances and made the most of it but at a cost as we ended up having to get buses and taxis everywhere to go out and eat or find entertainment. Never again......this was not a 4 star hotel, do not even know how the food would get a 3 star rating. I wouldn't never recommend anybody to go there - everybody had the same issues but these were not being recognised by the rep at all. DON'T DO IT

A reasonable hotel to stay at for a week but not longer as apart from lying around the pool cultivating a sun tan there is not a lot to do if you have not a hire car to get around. We never found the food to be above average as it seemed to consist mainly of pork dishes and poorly cooked chicken. The entertainment was either poor or non existent. The animacion girl seemed to spend most of her time behind the bar and should seriously consider a change of career. We never had a problem with road noise although we could hear traffic passing on the road above

I and my partner arrived with our hire car on Monday March 6th pm & were greeted by a courteous & friendly receptionist.Our room was fine though the wardrobe doors caused me a few problems.The balcony was the nicest ever, made out of toughened glass & very clean in fact this has to be the cleanest hotel I have ever stayed in & I usually choose 4/5 star.The corridors were very spacious & with no wall one side we were able to look out & down onto the beautiful plants.The front garden was equally stunning.I have read complaints about the food but we had no reason to complain as there was plenty of choice & we found it had plenty of flavour though sometimes it appeared to be over salted.At breakfast there was sparkling wine though I found this hard going so early in the day, but I managed!! The pool was adequate & nice & private behind a hedge.I was not happy with only 4 choices on the snack menu by the pool so we only used it the once.We liked the hotel for it's small & intimate size - only 96 rooms - a nice change from the usual monsters.I cannot comment on the lack of entertainment as we would not choose this way of spending our evenings.We liked Taurito again for its small size though if you want glitz & "all the fun of the fair" you wont find it here.And now for the building site - Yes there was building going on but it was not deafening & in fact was quite interesting to watch & at least we were not there when the dynamiting was being done!!We had one of the best holidays ever (we are pensioners)& would be happy to return to this hotel but only before Taurito gets as large as some of the other local resorts.Gran Canaria is lovely with stunning scenery,no litter & superb roads & I think that having a hire care made the holiday even better & it only cost us £68 for the week.

we arrived at 3. a.m on sunday 19th feb, hotel first impressions seemed good, room was clean and good size, got up at 8 a.m after very little sleep as hotel is right beside main road. had a shower and bathroom flooded, reported this to hotel manager but there was nothing they could do as the bath was leaning the wrong way, went to breakfast at 9.15 which was avaerage. went for walk around resort not much there only handfull of shops, also very bad hill and pathway not at all suitable for old or disabled people even though hotel has disabled rooms, they would have to stay in the hotel and not go out at all.noticed building site oppersite our hotel. evening meal was tasteless, no entertainment in hotel that night only back ground music. woken up at 7 a.m by building work also very little sleep again as traffic keeped us awake. monday food was really bad, evening meal was cold and not much to choose from and had to wait for fish or chicken to be cooked 40 minutes in total as there were so many people waiting but was not worth the wait, complained to the hotel manager who went and spoke to the chef in front of us and his reply was NOT MY PROBLEM and laughed, there was lots of danish and germans as well as english people staying in the hotel every one was complaining. My husband told them i was a cook in the uk and was asked if i could cook the meal. but chef would not let me. spoke to our FIRST CHOICE rep (who was lovely) on tuesday night as she was not in in the morning. 9 of us who were with them asked if we could be moved to another hotel was told to wait till the morning. only entertainment was 30 minutes of juggers on the monday and tuesday. wednesday morning was told we could move if we paid 384 euros for the next 3 nights we ALL said no. I was asked if i could write out a menu for the hotel. which i did. we asked for the FIRST CHOICE MANAGER to come and see us all, she turned up at 6 p.m that evening, told us we would still have to pay to move hotels, we all again said no, as it was there fault that they put us in the hotel and they new thre was main road beside the hotel also building site oppersite and they have had complaints about the food and lack of entertainment before. she said the hotel had offered to up grade us AI AS WE ALL HAD TO HIRE CARS TO GO OUT OF THE RESORT TO HAVE DESENT FOOD. as there was only a spar shop, and 2 cafes which were just as bad as the hotel food. at least the money that we would have spent on drinks went on food. again no entetainment. we got together with the germans and other english people there who were not with FIRST CHOICE and made our own entertainment we took the mircophones and sang to the backing music and danced on stage. the only desent meals was on wednesday night when the hotel new the FIRST CHOICE rep was going to eat there that night after so many complaints and the last night saturday when they had a different chef. for a 4 star hotel we all found this very poor. not only was the food poor but lack of entertaiment we all rated this hotel 2-3 star.

Our Christmas present to each other this year was to book a holiday to somewhere warm in January as a cure for the winter blues. Its the first time we have travelled to Gran Canaria. We arrived at the Costa Taurito late afternoon and were welcomed by a very friendly and helpful Danish receptionist. The hotel had an average size reception, which was nicely furnished and very clean. Lifts to all four floors, a small hotel with only 96 rooms. The bedrooms were clean and well equiped. I had read that an iron would be provided but it was not in the room. The hairdyer was ok, but take your own if you like to have any shape in your hair! The mini bar in our room was unlocked and had not been replenished since the last guest left. This was reported to the receptionist, but this issue was never dealt with. Most brochures state 'satelite TV', but if you are English you only have the pleasure of watching CNN news. It would be nice sometimes to just relax at the end of the evening and watch a good film. Put it this way, you won't starve if you come and stay here, but the food is rather bland and could have been improved upon. The breakfast was ok, the usual choice of cereal, fruit, yogurts, eggs, bacon, sausage etc and a nice treat was cooled sparkling wine. Evening meals were ok but nothing special. The salad bar was the best, but the choice of main courses was either plain chicken, fish, pork chops. I think the worse thing was the tinned vegtables that they served. All that beautiful sunshine and not a fresh veg in sight! The desserts were, shall I say 'not worth breaking your diet for'! 3 choices of what could be called angle delight, ice cream, fruit and cheese, but if you were expecting sumptuous gateaux, cheesecake, cream brulee you will be sadly dissapointed. The hotel is situated just back from the coast, about a five minutes walk. You cannot see the sea from your room, but they have made the walk very pleasant, by providing beautiful gardens, decking areas, childrens playgrounds, mini golf, swimming pools. All kept immaculately clean and tidy. You can walk down to the coast and watch the divers. Straight opposite the hotel, more hotels are currently under construction. The builders were working and it was a little noisy at times, but it was also fasinating to watch them as they balance precariously on a mountain side. Very brave builders!! The weather was very pleasant. Most days it reached 27 degrees, some days were cloudy and we did have a spot of rain, but it was a treat to feel that wonderful sunshine on your face! We did brave it and walked to the nearby Puerto Mogan, nicknamed Little Venice. Believe me when you see the height of the some of the cliff roads you will want to take a taxi, probably a lot safer. Puerto Mogan is such a pretty place, with its little houses and plenty of beachside cafe's. The perfect little places to people watch! We did take a glass bottom boat ride from here to nearby Puerto Rico. The skippers on the boat were great, with a surprise cup of sangria and a lollypop given to each person on board. A nice touch I thought, and they did stop en route so you can look at all the little fishes through the glass bottom. The only thing that spoiled the trip to Puerto Rico were the time share touts. Just keep walking past and ignoring them, unless you want to waste a day of your holiday!! All in all a really relaxing week away. The people of Gran Canaria are lovely, you will meet a mix of Europeans. The hotel I suppose was ok, but as I have said the food could have been improved, but the facilities were again ok. I hope this review will help you before you decide to go. I have to say I probably would not go back to this hotel for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the food, secondly I like to travel to different places and experience staying in different places.

The hotel is located in the holiday resort of Playa Taurito. We found the staff very helpful and friendly - this helped make up for other deficiencies. The rooms are very average and lack any trimmings such as coffee making facilities. But they are clean enough. The hotel had one or two nice touches such as sparkling wine with the breakfast, but it did not make up for the food which was insipid and just did not make the grade for a four star hotel. The location is good, pool average and free sauna. This hotel should definitely not be ranked as a four star - three star only