H10 Taburiente Playa Hotel

5 readers found this review helpful

This was our third visit to this simple and slightly old fashioned H10 hotel. On our two previous visits we would have rated this hotel, value for money as 9/10.
This year it has gone down to 6/10.
This year the previously tasty and varied food was not so good and it was never hot, usually only lukewarm. The bacon was awful, either undercooked and flabby or it was dark and hard and looked as though it had been reheated several times (maybe from one day to the next?). My husband complained repeatedly about the temperature of the food, but remembering better times, I accepted it. I forgot about what happens to food when it is kept warm for long periods, or reheated - as most of you know it causes food poisoning.
On my return home, as soon as I felt better, I wrote the hotel a pleasant letter.
We are Club H10 'Grand' Class members, a level which took several years of multiple visits to 4* and 5*H10 hotels to attain. Club H10 promises to uphold standards. I wrote to the Customer Relations of Club H10. NO REPLY
I have no proof that this hotel caused my food poisoning, but in the circumstances described above it seems highly likely.
Ignoring my problem, I will tell you something about the hotel otherwise.
Position: Above rocks, on the front - no adjacent beach. Los Cancajos is quiet and has little to recommend it, but there are a few shops and a very pleasant walk along the new pathways above the rocks. There is a beach about 150 yards away.
The hotel is on the flight path for the airport (and only about a mile away) but there isn't a huge amount of traffic, so not so much noise. We treated it as entertainment when the planes came over.
Los Cacajos is only about 3 miles from the Capital city which we found quite charming. We hired a car, which I recommend, as the roads are quiet and there is quite a lot of beautiful scenery to see. I am not sure if there is any public transport.
The weather in Los Cancajos is much cooler than on the other side of the mountain, which is only 35 minutes away by car via the tunnel through the mountain. The locals claim that if the sun isn't shining on your side of the mountain, then it will be on the other and it seems to be true. The cooler weather suits us better than the heat of the other side.
The Hotel: A bit dated now, otherwise fine. Looks a bit run down from the outside but the inside is OK
The bedrooms are OK, fairly spacious but rather plainly decorated with decent bathrooms. One of our beds was totally worn out, but readily changed upon complaint. We like a room facing the airport, in line with the runway and take binoculars with us.
There is parking with additional street parking and car park opposite.
Swimming pools are fine, but not the latest designs, with sufficient sun bathing areas.
Food: Enough said above. The show cooking was very good the first two years we visited, but the meat was not so good this year. DON’T EAT LUKEWARM FOOD!!
Staff: Excellent English spoken by Inge (most helpful, she was the customer relations officer the first year we went) and Israel (Head waiter, also very helpful)
Clientele: In May, when we have been, most of the guests have been German, Spanish, Swedish, or Dutch. No English, but then there were no direct flights. A nice kind of person seems to stay there, mainly middle aged. Many are walkers.
Facilities: Generally good, although a bit dated when compared to newly built hotels. Of course this isn't a huge hotel so one mustn't expect facilities that such hotels would have.
The Island: The steepest island anywhere in the world. A young island which is volcanic. This is the island that (within the next 1000 years) will break in half, with one half falling into the sea. This will cause a tsunami about 1 kilometre high which will drown all of Florida and New York and much of the UK. Make sure that you are nowhere near the Canaries when it happens because it will cause a huge swell almost to the top of Mount Teide on Tenerife!
Because it is very high and the westernmost point of Europe, with America the nearest landmass (of any size), the air is very pure and many of the world’s top Astronomy stations are situated there.
Drive to the top of the mountain, see the other Canary islands spread out to your East and South, visit volcanoes, pretty villages, old towns, beautiful, sometimes weird, dramatic and very varied scenery (get off the beaten track) and discover lots of interesting places
It's a pity that the hotel and the H10 group have treated me so shabbily. I would have loved to go there again.