Barcelo Jandia Playa Hotel

1 reader found this review helpful

We arrived late on a Sunday night , my wife and I and our 2 daughters, and despite what the rep said on the coach, the reception staff did not speak hardly any English. They were not interested in our booking reference or our passports and after filling in a form, they gave us directions to our rooms. I had paid the extra and booked premium rooms with a full sea view and asked the chap on the reception to confirm that he had allocated us these rooms. He nodded and we went off in search of our room with the aid of a map.
When we arrived in our rooms , it was evident that they had put us into standard rooms as we looked out onto a wall, as opposed to a sea view and the rooms were not in the premium block as indicated on the map. I went back to reception, but they told us they were fully booked and could not do anything.
We took this up with our tour operator and to cut a long story short, we were moved three times and did not get the correct rooms until 4 days later, however, the premium room pictures in the brochure did not resemble the premium rooms at all and the premium rooms were no larger than the standard rooms. The only difference is that the premium rooms have a DVD and CD player and different coloured chairs. I think the picture in the brochure is of a suite as we managed to take a look inside one. The rooms are of a high standard, even if you book the standard rooms. All have a TV, although the only English channel is CNN. Cleaning is carried out every day and this also is to a good standard. The food on the whole is fantastic and we ate every night in the buffet restaurant where you were spoilt for choice.
We chose to eat at about 8pm every night as it all became a bit congested later and it would seem that only the English understand the concept of queuing !! The waiting staff in the buffet restaurant are not properly trained or organised , so don’t be surprised if at breakfast you have to set your own table as you will wait ages for them to do it. We also chose to eat on the outside terrace of the restaurant, but this also meant that we had to put up with the smokers, who were large in number in this hotel. The beaches and the sea were excellent, although a bit of a trek back up the hill on a hot afternoon.
You also have to cross a dual carriageway to get to the beach, which is not mentioned in the brochure. If ordering a drink at any of the bars, allow at least 30 minutes (on a good night) as the English are constantly overlooked by the rude bar staff in favour of the Spanish, who are the main occupiers of the hotel. Although the hotel ask you not to do it, you do have to get up early and reserve a sunbed as everyone else does it and for the first 2 days, we could not get a sunbed at any of the 4 pools.
I doubt if I would return to the hotel as it is too noisy for our liking and we were not able to get the rest we wanted, but if you favour the loud music around the pool with salsa dancing every day, then this is the hotel for you.

On coming into land on the island your first view will be "oh my god" the baron landscape does very much give a vision of the moon. However, I for one fell in love with the place, it is an island of shear beauty which needs to be seen on many of the tours of the island that are operated.
On arrival at the hotel I was very impressed by how modern it looked, it was very clean and looked exactly like the brochure pictures I had seen. Booking in was very easy and the staff were very helpful, considering that many of the hotels visitors are German, Italian or Spanish, one does need to consider that the British public are just finding out about the beauty of the southern end of the island.
I for one really enjoyed the cosmopolitan side of this hotel, I am never one to holiday with hundreds of other British tourists as I find I like to see another side of life. So be prepared to mix as this is not a hotel for an anglophile.
The food is first class, breakfast is in all forms from continental to British, loads of fresh fruits, tea, etc are available and to sit at 8 in the morning looking out over the Atlantic ocean having breakfast is wonderful.
The food in general is very good, the hotel is bending over backwards to accommodate all tastes and in my view they did very well indeed. Evening meals are best taken at around 7.30pm as this gives less people, continentals seem to enjoy late meals hence I opted for the early stance. The staff in the restaurants were excellent, friendly and always keeping the place immaculate.
I had read about the bars being busy, this is all due to the all inclusive side that people can have, which in turn will always mean busy areas. I went for the half board option, breakfast and evening meal. After meals I always went into the local areas as the sidewalk bars, shops etc are wonderful. Just below the hotel prior to the tunnel to the beach are some huts, one is a bar the other is a paella bar, they are great, totally friendly and much cheaper than the hotel, make sure you pay them a visit.
There is also a eurospar shop in the same area, selling the same things as they sell in all supermarkets.
The beaches around this area are some of the best I have seen anywhere in the world, clean, white, blue seas and warm enough to swim with ease. Plenty of sunbeds are on offer so a real treat for the sea and sun fans. Do be aware some nudists do use the beaches but they are few and far between and are no bother to anyone.
One thing to do is to go on an island tour, this island is beautiful, the mountains are breathtaking and it has a wonderful history. Ancient churches, the old capital are really worth a day out, including the drive up into the mountains.
For the kids the new water park in the northern town of Corrallejo is great, loads to do and some pretty great rides.
Overall you will love the holiday if you put yourself out to do so, don’t sit all day worrying about a queue at the bar, get out and see the place then you will see what really is on offer. First class hotel, wonderful staff, a great time.

We were very nervous about staying at the Barcelo Jandia Mar as the opening (if the brochures were to be believed) had been delayed from November 2005. However, it was open and up and running when we arrived in early August.
The journey by coach from the airport takes an hour and a half and may put some people off staying in Jandia. Upon arrival at the hotel we were welcomed and given our all inclusive wristbands, our luggage was taken to our room and we were also shown to our room. We were told a cold supper had been prepared for us as our flight was a late one and dinner had finished. We had a brief visit to the room, ate, went back to the room and straight to sleep as it was so late.
Therefore, when we woke the next morning, there was a lot for us to discover.
The room was lovely, two single beds pushed together and a camp bed for my 8 year old. Although this restricted the room somewhat, it wasn’t a problem. It was lovely and clean, the decor was nice and the bathroom was spacious and had everything we needed. The one complaint I would make about the room was that the air conditioning did not seem cool enough.
As has been mentioned in other reviews, the food did get a bit repetitive, but every night there were one or two varieties of fish, the same of meat, plenty of vegetable and salad dishes and pasta with different sauces. We never had a problem finding a table, the staff were very pleasant and we only had to join long queues once or twice.
The swimming pools are fantastic. We always managed to get sunbeds but people who didn’t emerge until late morning sometimes struggled.
This was our first time on all inclusive and we were very wary of what to expect. Now we’ve done it, we would never go back to half/full board, as long as we can afford to go all inclusive we will. I’m sure we saved at least the amount of money we would have spent on bottled water, coffees, ice creams and lunch, and that’s without taking wine at lunch and dinner and drinks in the evening into account.
The evening entertainment was a bit hit and miss but was still worth watching and the children’s club was really good.
We never made it to the beach as the hotel facilities were so good.
All in all, a fabulous hotel with superb facilities.

Had a great 2 weeks. Having read some of the report I was a bit concerned. Arrived about 2.30 pm and had to fill in a few forms, but the English speaking receptionist was very help full. We were (myself, my wife and two children, 18 and 16), given a map and very clear instructions on where to go and were told our luggage would be delivered to our rooms shortly. It arrived about 5 minutes after us.
We were on an All Inclusive with sea view and interconnecting rooms. This put us in block 9 at the bottom of the site, but with a great view of the beach and sea. We generally went to dinner about 8.00 we never had any problem finding a table and the food was great.
We also used the two alternative restaurants (which you have to book the day before, booking forms are by the entrance on a table in the main restaurant). There were some queues on both the Saturday nights for the main restaurant around 9 – 9.30 and the alternative restaurants get booked very quickly for the 9.15 sitting (we went at 8.00).
The piano bar of an evening from about 8.00 does get a little crowded, so sometimes we used the bar up on the reception floor, or got drinks from the theatre bar and took them out on to one of the patio areas. We went to quite a few of the shows and enjoyed them.
During the daytime after 10.00 it does get a little difficult to find a free sunbed. Although we noted that Barcelo were increasing the number of beds. They don’t like people reserving the sunbeds, but almost everybody was doing it, we put our towels out on the way to breakfast about 9.00.
We found the First Choice Rep very helpful with a good general knowledge of the area, we sorted out a car and a catamaran trip with him.
Jandia and Morro Jable are small areas but have the usual trinket shops and bars. Jandia is the closest to the Hotel about 10 – 15 minutes walk. Overall an excellent 2 weeks.