La Palma Princess Hotel

2 readers found this review helpful

had a very disappointing holiday over christmas and new year
the highlight was coming home.if you decide to go to this hotel do not go as an all inclusive visitor you are treated as second class and at times it is very difficult to get served. The entertainment is 45 mins each night of sub standard quality and not worth watching,the food is very average buffet very similar every day - the all inclusive
food offer during the day is inedable, the all inclusive drink is all local products most very average, the service for all inclusive is 1/2star you are definately looked down the nose at by most staff and management.unless you want a very quiet uninspiring holiday do not come here, the in hotel
rep for tompsons was not interested in many of the issues raised by many of the guests and was quite frankly rude to people.glad to go home

4 readers found this review helpful

having been before cannot believe how much the place has deteriorated.The first visit was good feb 2010 but could not believe the standards could change so much in nine months
the guest service both from the rep and in the restaurant has
gone from good to very poor,most communal areas have much poorer standards there seemed to be far fewer staff and on many occasions it was difficult to get served. if you are all inclusive despite already paying out for everything you are
treated as second class citizens and many charges are added for additional options which should be all inclusive.will never return!!! any suggest you book elsewhere as we will in future

Hotel was very clean, pools also clean, very calm, but out of way, great for all, lots of walking ♥

8 readers found this review helpful

Just got back from our honeymoon here, where we had one week all inclusive.
The hotel is beautifully equiped, food is varied and cooked to a high standard and included on one evening roast suckling pig which was out of this world.
Staff are in the main helpful and polite and we had a fantastic time.
I am not sure i could have managed two weeks basking by the pool as there is little else to do although the evening entertainment was of a generally good standard, the spanish elvis and the chinese acrobats were a particular highlight... the sound of "ju ain nuttin but a hotdog" will live long in the memory.
All in all if you want a completely relaxing get away from it all break, this place is perfect. If you want to be in the middle of a busy resort with loads of bars restaurants and clubs dont go here.

2 readers found this review helpful

My parents, my husband and myself stayed at the hotel for 2 weeks at the end of April beginning of May. I have not experienced a place so isolated. There is absolutely nothing there, no beach nearby so no where to enjoy a walk and maybe buy a coffee or a beer. We found the food to be at best poor. During our stay there was a beauty pagent with spanish boys and girls taking part. The food really went down hill then. The hotel and grounds were really nice and clean. Our room was in block 5 which was hard to find as we found no sign posts. It is no good for people who have mobility issues. Everywhere there are steep slopes and steps even to get to the pools and for lunch time. If you wanted an all inclusive burger at lunch that is what you got, a burger in a bun. If you paid 5 euros you got chips and salad with your burger.

2 readers found this review helpful

We stayed at the Hotel La Palma Princess with our 9 year old granddaughter on All Inclusive March 29th to April 5th. We travelled with Portland Holidays. We also stayed there 18 months ago on Half Board, hiring a car at the airport and just using the Hotel as a base for a walking holiday.
POSITIVES
Clean and spacious accommodation. Eleven well maintained pools (one heated) and pool areas with lots of space for sunbathing and plenty of sun-beds. (Even so people were out reserving beds with their towels at 7am!) Pleasant and well maintained grounds and gardens. Nicely designed and furnished reception/piano bar area. Plenty of activities for adults such as riffle and pistol shooting, archery, boules, table tennis, darts, keep fit, gym, a spar and water aerobics. An excellent team of girls who run the daily activities. Large pleasant dining room area with some special areas looking out over the sea. Separate facility for late breakfast with indoor and outdoor eating if you failed to make it up by 10am.
NEGATIVES.
Long wait in queues at reception to check in on arrival. No lifts to any of the upper room accommodations. A poor variety of food, both at lunch and dinner times, which was quite repetitious and bland. No one we spoke to were looking forward to meal-times after the second day. Smoking is allowed in the special dining areas with views out to sea so it is unpleasant for non-smokers and families with children to use those areas. The House Wines were virtually undrinkable. Drinks in the dining room have to be paid for, even if you are on All Inclusive. There was a daily club for children up to the age of 12 years but the activities were only suitable for children up to the age of 6 or 7 years. The entertainment room is large but due to pillars it was difficult to see unless you had a front seat. As with the sun-beds, people were selfishly taking up the best seats an hour or so before the entertainment began by leaving items on the seats and drinks on the table. They would then go off for dinner or sit in a more pleasant room until the show started. Young children were allowed to play unsupervised in the gym. There were silly, petty rules concerning food and water at various eating/drinking places. i.e. At the Pizza Hut you could have a Pizza on All Inclusive but even though they had chips and salad there you could not have either unless you paid. Likewise, you could have as many plastic cups of water as you wanted but they would not give you a small bottle unless you paid. Must of the bars were understaffed which often meant a long wait to be served. Finally, the Hotel is a long way from anywhere and there is a poor bus service to and from it.

10 readers found this review helpful

Last minute booking on-line with Thomsons and can't complain about a thing.
We wanted a get away from the cold, snowy British weather for a week, somewhere warm, sunny just to relax and unwind. Exactly what we got!
Ok so it was mid February and there were lots of sunbeds, no queues for meals, attentive staff (all spoke good English). Superb food, spoilt for choice and loads of it. I compare it to the Thomson cruise ships.
Airport/hotel and vice-versa transfers were great, La Palma airport wasn't busy so no problems there either. Great flights both ways with amusing cabin crew.
Thank you Thomson & La Palma Princess - 10/10 fully deserved

5 readers found this review helpful

Wonderful views from the spa out to sea - spa was free to use in November for Thomson guests and a real treat. Hotel cleanly and staff very friendly. Restaurant food - tasy and a good variety available every night - there is an outdoor terrace that forms part of the restaurant overlooking the sea. There are a couple of other restaurants on site to visit for an eight euro supplement. Hotel is set in a remote area but perfect for a luxury, get away from it all, relaxing time. Nightlife limited. Some steep pathways so would not necessarily suit visitors with walking disabilities. La Palma very unspoiled island - capital Santa Cruz pleasant - but very small. Lots of small steep roads to navigate to get around island. Overall had a fanstastic time. Would highly recommend this hotel if relaxing in luxury is the objective of your holiday.

4 readers found this review helpful

After reading the last 2 reports I was wondering if we went to the same hotel.
Must admit we got a taxi from the airport £30 return booked with Portland & arrived around an hour before the coach. Left the hotel 15 min before coach going home & booked in at airport before coach got there. Up to you if you think it’s worth it.
I did email the hotel before we went & asked for a sea view room if possible. We were put in block 6 & had a view of pool & sea. Not the best view you could of got of the sea but never the less the sea. It was ok sitting on the balcony looking out. Would be nice if Thomson’s or Portland gave you the choice of upgrading to the good sea view rooms there are some with brilliant views.
The room it self was large & clean & with a very upmarket bathroom. It also nice to have a good air conditioning system (No noise).
Lots of pools to swim in & lots of sun beds. If you want a go at archery, carbine & pistol shooting along with lots of other actives it’s all here to have a go at free.
The Food: Well I don’t like Spanish food at all never have done & by now never will. But there were a lot of choice & never-ending amounts. Not just chips but real potatoes & vegetables along with pasta & meat dishes & not forgetting vegetarian. The only complaint from my wife was they always seem to put tuna in the salad. So even I would have to say it was good.
If you are one for going out shopping all the time this is not the hotel for you in fact the island of La Palma may not be for you .If you ask the locale what they do they will tell you they go to Tenerife. There is a bus service from outside the hotel & will get you most places or Hire a car the roads are empty. Or there is always the trips.

2 readers found this review helpful

Nice if you pay the extra for a sea view but horrendous if you are in Block 6 or 7 where Thomson put all their guests. These rooms look like army barracks / Tenko and the towers of the reception building add to this bleak effect. As it wasn't sunny when I went, the doom and gloom felt worse as everything is black - the volcano and the building materials (and the sky!). We had to pay through the nose to move rooms for a better outlook.
The food in the main restaurant is lovely but it's difficult to get your free go in the a la carte ones. We missed out - there were no tables left by 10am. Also, the spa is hard to get treatments booked and pretty expensive.
The main problem on my holiday was that my mother got food poisoning. Obviously Thomson and the hotel deny this - but there was nowhere else to eat and it followed her eating a meal in the snack bar that tasted of rancid cooking fat.
Because the hotel is in a very remote place I would have expected a doctor on site or at least in a nearby town. But no, we had to wait an hour for an ambulance to come through the mountains (they won't send a doctor) and then take us to the hospital - another hour. Meanwhile my mother was being so ill she looked like a corpse when they finally got her on a drip in the hospital!
Thankfully she made a quick recovery but it cost as an arm and a leg in cab fares as we had to get the cab back from the hospital and then I had to go the pharmacy for the tablets. This in adition to paying 100 E to move rooms.
Thomson will take no responsibility at all for not having a doctor nearby. They agree there should be one but that's all. I noticed that most of the holidaymakers were in their senior years and Thomson are happy enough to market these holidays to that group and describe them as 5T but aren't concerned about people's welfare. Those 2 hours could well be a matter of life and death for someone else taken ill in the future.
I am appalled by this experience and really surprised as I have been to lots of other Thomson Princess hotels and had a positive experience.