Melia Salinas

Just back from a very chilled, relaxed week here. If you want lots of noise and activity, its not for you...we wanted relaxation. First the positives: food was great. Not too sure what the negative reviews on food are about, possibly from the chicken nugget brigade! Ate in the Malva main buffet restaurant, breakfast a delight, smoked salmon, poached egg and hollandaise, my own eggs royale ! Lunch was fine and themed evening dinners with 2 seafood nights while we were there, lobster, shrimp, prawns...fantastic. The app for the al la carte restaurants was at the beginning a faff but reception was happy to book 1 night in the Capella and i managed to book another night there myself. The food in Capella was lovely...one of the best pizzas ive had! We went to La Graciosa for lunch a couple of times for tapas which the waiter guided us with. Perfect and 5 dishes ample. The small whole chicken was very tasty. The Ginger Bar in the evening with live music (hits & misses as usual) drinks ordered with waiters which was fine, not too long a wait. Staff on the whole very friendly and pleased to help. Few negative niggles which made it not quite a 5* experience. Hotel is a bit tired around the edges - our room was a pool view basis id say. Cleaned daily and comfortable but probably needs a re fresh. The pool surround is actually painted not tiled and is showing signs of a long summer season with paint chips & cracks. Pool it self if salt water but clean ( a few black marks on the bottom, not too sure what they were?) The beach bar is a puzzle. Assume part of the hotel. Reception at check in explained its not all incl but hotel guests get 20% ! not too sure who would pay when youve got AI at the hotel ?? when ever i looked, there was 3 people in there. Easily policed i would say, AI wrist band, you dont pay !! Hotel missed a trick as with a bit of music in the early evenings, might attract more guests. A few shops, bars & restaurants within walking distance but it had the look of Benidorm about it, so we only ventured once there. Overall, a nice time and if it wasnt for the food & staff might have marked lower. A lot of people return here numerous times...dont think we will.

We have just returned from another wonderful 14 night stay at the Paradisus Salinas.

On arrival we were welcomed by Catrina and the Reserve Team, all of whom were absolutely excellent. We had a Junior Suite with Ocean View on the 4th floor which was absolutely lovely, very cool (Temperature outside was as high as 35c), a bath and separate rain shower (Shampoos etc are all provided and are high quality) and drinks fridge which was restocked daily. We had a spacious balcony accommodating two sun loungers as well as casual seating, on top of which the room service was extremely quick and efficient, including an evening towel top up.

The hotel is spotlessly clean and all-inclusive with a choice of restaurants to please most if not all tastes, our favourite being the Italian themed Cappella, warm friendly, great service and romantic. We also tried the Middle Eastern themed Samira and Graciosa restaurants, together with the Malva which is the central buffet restaurant.

The Ginger Bar and Malva buffet restaurant, managed by Angel and his team, offer 24/7 food and (Snacks) and drinks for nightbirds (Ginger only), although we rarely stayed beyond 2300 hours when the live evening entertainment ended. Aside from the Malva, all restaurants require forward booking, which is very straightforward through the Melia app 48 hours in advance. We fancied a change of scene during our stay and ate in the popular Square in Teguise, which is just a short walk along the promenade, and there are several new restaurants getting ready to open along the way.

The Reserve has its own buffet and waiter service breakfast restaurant (It changes to the Graciosa at night time) and again the menu is wide ranging and service excellent.

The reserve pool is a place of complete tranquillity, plenty of comfortable sunbeds, with mattresses that were replaced during our stay. We are early risers and had no difficulty with finding a bed, although if you leave it till later in the day, choice may be more limited. The pool bar staffed by Carol, Hamza and the team offers a range of drinks throughout the day including excellent cocktails. Service can at busy times be a little slow, but the wait is worth it. The bar also offers a food menu through to 1500 hours.

Front of house staff in their various capacities deserve and receive praise, but staff in the background are often overlooked. One such person is Alfredo, the Reserve Pool Life Guard, who went out of his way to personally greet us (And everyone else) every morning. Alfredo typifies the level of friendliness and courtesy extend to us by all staff, but we suspect all too frequently is not sufficiently acknowledged.

Whilst all of the staff we encountered were warm and friendly, it’s worth noting that not everyone speaks English, so a spattering of Spanish is much appreciated and if all else fails Google Translate works well!

People often ask is Reserve worth the money? Well, it might not suit everyone, but for us it’s a definite yes, so much so that we have already booked for next year.

First and foremost I would definitely recommend staying here as detailed below. If I was being really picky there are a few things that prevent it from being a solid 5 star hotel, I’d have it as an entry level one.

Reasons : the main buffet, no stations cooking eggs and pasta to order as I’ve experienced elsewhere. Having QR codes you can use to order food and drinks to be served to you around the pool (would require more staff). Ability to make cocktails in the reserve bar (maybe leave recipes and shakers for the guests to make their own?). There were times when plates / drinks / waste were left by pool / Malva / toilets for too long. You have to pay extra to use the spa, this was the biggest niggle, perhaps offer access as part of Reserve package - we wanted to use it but ended up not doing so due to extra charge.

Don't let this put you off though :-)

Transfer Taxi from airport, 10 min wait, took 20 mins and cost €30

Arrival and Check-in We were staying in a Reserve Junior Suite Ocean View so went straight to the reserve lounge where we were greeted with a welcome drink. We arrived at 12.30, room was not ready until 3pm so we had lunch beforehand by reserve pool

Room 002 Reserve Junior Suite Ocean View, clean, well presented. Housekeeping was excellent and the mini bar was refilled daily. We were on 1st floor, would have preferred one higher up overlooking the reserve pool as views would have been better

Food and Drink

Malva Good for breakfast with a wide range of options - had one dinner and lunch there and was less impressed. Can’t put my finger on why, we just weren’t inspired by what was on offer, my have just been us

La Graciosa Excellent, of the 10 courses we had between us 7-8 were standouts. Well worth going

Samira The reserve restaurant was converted to this for the evening, the venue lacked a bit of soul as did the food. We had 5-6 different dishes and used a lot of salt and pepper to add taste as a number were quite bland.

Cappella Excellent, main courses were standouts so we ended up ordering one for starter and one for main course. Prawn Linguine with Pesto, Gnocchi with Gorgonzola and Fish dish were all very good and ordered multiple times

Drinks Top brands, great cocktails and staff worked tirelessly to ensure you were served quickly. Excellent

Booking restaurants We were very keen to eat in the a la carte and so stayed up until 12.01 to book them as they became available via the app - secured them all at times we wanted.

Reserve We booked into the reserve - it was well worth it for the pool, never had any issues getting sun beds and had very comfortable cushions to lie on - bar staff fab. As for the lounge, we preferred the buffet for breakfast and Ginger bar for pre dinner drinks as you could get cocktails and so did not use the lounge much. We also had a suite and enjoyed the extra space in the room. On balance for the room and pool we would probably pay the extra again

Excursions We went to the wine tasting at La Geria. It was well worth it to see some of the Volcanic Landscape and taste some excellent wines in the company of the owner. Wines here are ½ the price vs the airport - you will be hard pressed not to be tempted to buy some, I did. Highly recommend

Runners Turn right out of the hotel and you can run along the coast for as long as you want, we did a 5km route. If you are a Park Runner then there is a well run local event called the Sun Run that starts at 9am outside the Cutty Sark 15 mins walk from the hotel. We did it and would highly recommend it. Costs €5 which goes to charity

Staff All excellent and a credit to the management team.