Elba Sara Hotel

Arrived at the Elba Sara in mid september for a one week trip. We got checked in rather quick compared to the large queues that greeted other guests. The rooms were excellent, spacious, clean, and a balcony with a wonderful sea view that greeted us every morning. The pool and facilities of the hotel were of 4* quality and the hotel was in a good location next to 2 quiet beaches and large shopping centre. The only thing that really let the hotel down was the lack of staff they had on. This meant queue's when waiting for tables at breakfast and lunch, waiting 15mins for a drink at the bar and waiting ridiculous lenghts of time to get information from the front desk. The hotel is a nice 20min walk to the main resort centre where there are alot more bars, restaurants and entertainment for the evenings. One last note for British travellers... although there are plenty of british guests at the hotel, there are also alot of Italians who do not know the meaning of a queue. They prefer to just ignore any waiting guests and expect to be seen straight away. Unfortunatley the hotel staff don't seem capable of politely informing them that a number of people are waiting in a queue. After almost losing it with one of the Italian guests, I was told by some of the british guests that this is what they had come to expect!! Overall.. very nice hotel (i would recommend 1 week rather than 2) in a great location but a shame that the lack of staff let the overall experience down. I would definatley recommend it if you get a good deal as Fuerteventura is a great place.

Just returned from two weeks hotel Elba Sara, stayed between September 28th - October 12th. The hotel main building is very nice but no better than other 4 stars I have visited, the rooms are as large as other 4 stars I have stayed in, the balconys smaller. The entrance is impressive and the layout is good. We arrived with three children & had requested interconnecting rooms, after a ten minute wait at reception we were told there were no interconnecting rooms left and had to accept two rooms next door to each other on the 6th. floor and with three children under 12 years this was not ideal, I was told I should have booked earlier! We did not buy a late deal for this hotel and I complained, after much negotiation we were offered a junior suite but for five people it was too small and in the end we had to accept the two rooms. The Elba Sara is hugely under staffed. We spoke to people who had visited the previous year and were dissapointed this time around. The entertainment consists of one very nice girl expected to run the mini club, poolside entertainment and evening entertainment. Consequently there is no poolside entertainment or music, the mini club activities are minimal and the evening entertainment is poor, with the exception of the mini disco which my son loved! The staff look exhausted and stressed. Don't expect your table to be cleared during any point in your meal...it simply doesn't happen, if there are more than four in your party you won't find a table set for five or above and after several complaints we had one reserved each night by the very capable, polite Restaurant Manager who is clearly doing his very best against all the odds. The Senior Management at this hotel should visit the Iberostar Group or H10 Hotel in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria to see the standards of other hotels in this class as it's service level at the moment falls well short of that offered by it's competitors. I can only imagine that the standards were previously much higher and this is bourne out by comments from guests I spoke to during my stay. The hotel bar closes at 1:00am and the lights are turned out almost immediately. We are not big drinkers but on one occassion there was a group of about thirty of us (all guests at the hotel) who were served drinks at 1:00am and by 1:10am were left sitting in a dark lobby, we turned ONE light back on as we couldn't see and the agressive Security Guard stormed over, turned it off and left about thirty people sitting in darkness, it was the worst treatment I have had in any four star hotel. We were all promised the hotel Manager would contact us with an apology...he did not. The gym is awful and they allow children in which means anyone who wishes to work out properly will not be able to do so, the picture on the hotel card in the bedrooms must be of a gym elsewhere as it bears no resemblance to the one at the Elba Sara. At H10 hotels gym facililties are generally amazing and usually subject to a small surcharge which I am happy to pay for decent equipment and standards. Elba Sara also allows it's guests to put towels on the sunloungers at day break and in all the other 4 stars I have stayed at these have been removed, you will also be required to pay for your sun lounger on the hotel beach. The sad thing is the Elba Sara is really quite beautiful and it seems they have cut back staffing levels to the extreme thus ruining what could be an amazing hotel. They do not open the entertainment lounge because of staff cuts and all entertainment takes place on a raised platform in the hotel bar. The hotel is clean but does lack the little touches that I have seen elsewhere in the Canaries like towels shaped as swans, fresh flowers on pillows and the little things that set hotels apart. Quite simply it's not awful, poor or anywhere near it. It's just OK and occasionally good. The food is good and on my birthday my partner ordered a birthday cake which they did not charge for and our bottle of champagne was not charged for either which was a very nice of them. I felt very sorry for the staff at this hotel, they tried hard and were friendly but there just isn't enough of them. Elba Group take note, you need to raise your standards and staffing levels if you want repeat business. I would not return to this hotel or any other in the Elba Group.

Just returned from the Elba Sara .Beautiful hotel, superb location for a peaceful holiday, lovely views over the ocean.The only downside was the extremely poor service in the bars and restaurants. We upgraded to all inclusive, very expensive at 26 euros per person per day, considering the choice of food and service on offer. Barcelo is only 18 euros and has better choice of food especially at lunch time. The pool bar at Elba Sara was the only restaurant open during the day and food consisted mainly of burgers, pizzas, lasagne and bolognese, a few salads were on offer but they looked as tired and exhausted as the staff. It was not unusual to wait 30-45 minutes just to be served.The service in the Albatross restaurant in the evening was not much better, had to find our own cutlery at times, tables not cleared after courses,Food just OK could have been warmer.Breakfast started at 8am and even at 8.10, the tea/coffee machines were still not switched on, juice machines empty, tablecloths were dirty , no butter for 2 days during our stay,hotel ran out of bacon one morning and offered us pork loin instead, bacon arrived 45 minutes later.These complaints may seem niggly but when they happen day and daily at every meal for 2 weeks it really wears you down after a while.Lots of other guests were complaining but they were only there for 1 week and had paid a greatly reduced price com pared to ourselves.In the evening we could also wait 20-30 minutes to get a drink at the bar.These issues could be remedied so quickly by getting lots more staff. Such a pity because it is such a beautiful hotel , the rooms are kept very well as is the pool area and the gardens. The manager said that staffing was a problem and was doing his best to rectify this.Maybe this is just a problem with the Elba Group as the Barcelo Fuerteventura provides mich better service (have stayed there on 2 occasions, excellent). Will never be back in an Elba Hotel.

This was an excellent hotel for our family, myself, my parents, my husband and our 5 year old son. The food was excellent with plenty of choice and my husband is the fussiest eater I know! The staff were all friendly and helpful especially the kids club Manuela who our son adored. The rooms were huge and we had an enormous balcony, the whole hotel was very clean. I agree with earlier comments about the walk into Caleta being a little difficult as the promenade is not yet finished but that said the taxi's really were very cheap. The hotel entertainment may not be to everyones tastes but our son loved the mini disco every night and the four tops group was excellent. Not a holiday for the teenagers or real beach lovers but the safe cove right outside was great for us and we would highly recommend this hotel to families.

fantastic hotel stayed 2 weeks september 04 would definatley go back, everything was excellent

sue & steve smith from shrewsbury... we stopped here last week of march 2005,we found the hotel to be v/good value for money.the food was good but we became a little bored after a few days,so tried next door at the chinese[v/good]nothing wrong with this hotel. sue & steve smith.......

I booked this hotel over the internet in a hotel and flight deal and whilst most of the reviews were ok i think they understated how fab the hotel actually is so thought id pass on the good news as I have just come back!! Early april weather was fab with not a day under 25c and lots of sun, hotel was spotless with a large selection of choice in the resteraunt, and meat cooked fresh to order. Good evening entertainment and sports during the day, and whilst we dont have kids there seemed to be a good kids club. The only minor downside was that there was a a bit of building work a few hundred metres away, although i must reiterate that this did not spoil the hotel as it was not visable or could not be heard! a short walk into caleta de fuste accross the beach is recommended as there you will find a few bars a better beach and some shops! make use of the buses which you can take to the north of the island to see the dunes and corraleo(wrong spelling) which is fab!! Overall excellant holiday, cheap prices for drinks and food in local resteraunts and bars all add up to a fab holiday! if you have booked this hotel you WILL enjoy your time as it is a gorgeous hotel..and true to its 4 star rating!!!

The Elba Sara is a beautiful hotel. Rooms : The rooms were spacious and had a huge bed, sofa, coffee table and tv. The bathroom was excellent with a powerful shower and a great area for ladies putting on their make up etc. Pool: It unfortunately was too cold to go swimming in the pool when we were there as it is not heated even in winter so that was a dissapointment but overall really nice with plenty of sunbeds. Beach: There is no real beach area to swim in directly in front of the hotel but there are areas to sunbathe. There is a small cove a bit further along however that is really nice but they charge you to use the sunbeds which I thought was a bit of a cheek since it was the hotels beach. Never mind! Entertainment: The entertainment was dreadful. We don't have children but they did the same thing with the children every evening and even they were getting bored! Food: The food was good but got very repetitive. They have a large selection of salad items, pasta and each evening they put on different meat and fish that is cooked in front of you but after a week you get a bit fed up. The breakfasts are good with fresh eggs as you like them, bacon etc. Overall it was a great holiday but don't go expecting 5 star food and a beach in front of the hotel but we would go back.

stayed on holiday at this hotel on 13th october for 2 weeks. The hotel itself was clean, although we did complain about our rooms, as the bathroom had not seen any sign of cleanning for a few days. The pools were great, but were salt water which was not stated in the brochure(airtours). The food was good in the evennings at the hotel. The food at the pool restaurant was very limited during the day. Entertainment does need some serious attention as very poor(day and night). We found ourselves going to the town,to the barcelo fuerteventura hotel as there was amazing shows, plus the hotel in itself was fab.Elba sara staff were excellant could not fault them. There is a shopping mall next door to the hotel which you can buy almost anything. The beach was nice but 100mtr from hotel. There was not much going on around the hotel, we did have a crazy golf on the complex(3eur charge pp) A taxi drive to town would cost you about 2.5 eur. remember to leave a good tip as they remember you next time and can be very rude. You can walk to town along the beach front (part promenade, part rough ground) it will take you around 25mins. You can do a great camel ride for 9eur pp which takes about 20mins well worth it. you will find these on the beach. overall the holiday was good but the location was poor as a very new developed area(should be better in a couple of years). We would not go back to this hotel as we have 2 young kids, and not enough going on for them. We would recomend the Barcelo.

What a beautiful place! The children loved it - there was plenty for them to do. My husband and I were happy because they were happy. The food and service was excellent however, I did wonder why the tables where never laid for 4 people! The cleanliness of the hotel and the maid service was brilliant. We always had clean towels and a clean room. We were quite apprehensive before going, after reading several of the reviews here. It would appear that they have sorted any problems out now. For a relaxing holiday, we will certainly go back there.