More about Hotel Elba Sara
Loved The Elba Sara
by A TripAdvisor Member
Having just returned from one week at the Elba Sara, I am surprised at the reviews I have just read?! We found the hotel to be of a very good standard and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The restaurant was lovely with a choice of food for everyone and the staff were constantly clearing our tables between courses, no complaints there. I agree that getting served at the bar took time, and we were unfortunate enough to go when essesential maintenance meant that the heated pool was out of action for 3 days, but we thought this was a great hotel and would happily book an Elba hotel again.
Elba Sara : Lovely Hotel
by TripAdvisor Member Loosecannon
The title says it all just about. We were a party of 4 adults with 2 twin rooms for a week in November 2005. Rooms with sea view and balcony, facing the rising sun, were spacious and clean. Seem to be well sound-proofed as we never heard the neighbours. Food had wide variety with different theme every night (eg pastas, pizzas etc) and the sweets particularly were irresistible ! Delightful gardens with cactus and flowers everywhere. Crystal clean swimming pools : one for kiddies (not sampled !); one shelving to 1.2m deep and the other 1.4m deep uniformly. Warm open-air jacuzzi adjacent to warm up again. Excellent 9 hole mini-golf; our record 39, so distinctly frustrating ! Aircraft noise not a significant problem. Airport approx 10 euro taxi ride away. Supermarket, bank (cashpoint) and other shops in shopping centre next door. Hotel situated in a reasonably quiet area outside the main town (15 min walk away). Main road to Jandia is behind the hotel and not between hotel and sea like much of mainland Spain. Safe beaches a 2 min walk away. Recommend hire car to get around; island is quite large. Plenty of car park space adjacent (free). Definitely would go back.
Fantastic relaxing week
by A TripAdvisor Member
We, being our two friends, my husband and myself stayed at the Elba Sara Hotel from 16th-23rd November 2005. The weather was overcast at times but still hot. Hotel rooms were very clean, food was excellent (some food could have been warmer), staff were very helpful and friendly. My only negative comment would be lack of staff in the Broadway Bar.
An all round excellent holiday, we plan to return next year.
Lovely Hotel but..
by A TripAdvisor Member
We have just come back after 1 week All Inclusive at the Elba Sara. The hotel itself is lovely, the room we stayed in was massive the only trouble was the air conditioning didn't work.
The hotel was fully booked yet it seemed to be short staffed, the tables in the restaurant weren't cleared away at breakfast and also at dinner. The food was ok nothing spectacular.
The lobby bar at evening was also short staffed, there was 2 people serving, many a time we had to queue for 20 minutes or so.
Luckily we were all inclusive which meant it didn't matter that there wasn't much around the hotel apart from the Commercial Center next door, we tried the walk to the resort centre once, but with a pushchair this wasn't easy as the promenade just stops and you have to walk across the rough to pick up the promenade again and I wouldn't like to walk it at night.
Having said that though apart from the niggly things we had a lovely holiday, we couldn't keep our 2 year old out of the pool, she loved it.
Meals for Moaners - Food for thought.
by A TripAdvisor Member
We stayed at the Elba Sara for 2 weeks in Nov on an All Inclusive basis. On arrival at the Hotel we were impressed by the Reception staff. We arrived in time for Dinner on the first evening and having read some of the reviews were nervous at what we would find. How much variety were the moaners expecting, I would think that a Specials Selection, 6 Main Courses, a Pasta Dish, Rice dishes and the Grill Plate (with a choice of 3 meats) would be enough for anyone, not to mention a Salad Bar with Cold Meat and Cheese, oh and the soup! Desserts only a choice of 15 available! The cuisine that some people have at home must be pretty special. We then went to the Bar, where we found the Staff very busy but friendly. This standard of service from both the Restuarant and Bar was maintained throughout the holiday. We took the attitude that we were on holiday and there to relax and enjoy ourselves, something some people seemed to forget, and at times we were embarrassed to be English as the attitude and language of other English guests left a lot to be desired. The Management Team were very visible and were interested in comments or complaints. The Entertainment was varied and had something for everybody. We will be returning to this Hotel in 2006.
Excellent family holiday
by TripAdvisor Member salads
We stayed at the Elba Sara for one week in Novemebr and had a fabulous time:
Weather: Excellent, very hot had one bad morning of rain and thunder-once this had cleared the weather just got hotter!
Hotel: Despite some previous reviews from the people who obviously go on holiday to moan we couldnt fault it. Yes you did have to wait a while sometimes to be served your drinks but you are on holiday-sit back and relax! Manager very hands on and always around for guests. The only thing we found fault in was the pool is supposed to be heated but it definatley isnt! Rooms: very clean-beds very large and comfy!
Beach: Lovely manmade beach directly opposite hotel, excellent for our 2 year old.
Food: Very good, yes it does get slightly repetetive but still very enjoyable. Not much of a choice for children but always pizza and pasta on offer. Cakes are delicious.
Entertainment: Lacking in the day but we just enjoyed relaxing so this wasnt a problem. We really enjoyed the evening entertainment especially the Temptations tribute band.
Location: Close to airport and costs 10 euros each way in a taxi. Nice walk to the main part of the resort where there are shops and bars. Only walked this in the day - dont think it would be very well lit at night.
All in all a very good holiday and we would highly recommend this hotel to all ages. We will return!
The makings of a great hotel, let down by very poor service
by TripAdvisor Member burdski
Lovely hotel situated in a very picturesque location, also right on the beach so fantastic views from the higher level rooms. The only downside of the location is that it is directly under the flight path for the approach to the runway.
Big let down of this resort is the severe lack of service for a supposed 4 star hotel and the air-conditioning which gets turned off at midnight, and it got to 26°C in the room at night. As our baby is only 4 months old and cannot regulate his own temperature, we would not have chosen this hotel if we had known about this.
To put it another way, if you were sold a car that came with air-con you would not be too pleased to find that it only works when the headlights are off.
If you are interested in our one week experience at this resort from 25/11 to 2/12 read on:
We arrived at 21:30 after a 2.5 hour flight delay, and way past our baby’s bedtime. I phoned the restaurant, which closes at 22:00, to ask if we could bring some food up. The answer: “not possible”. As this is a 4 star hotel I thought perhaps we could pay extra for room service. Again “not possible”. Ok, I’ll just have to settle for a nice cold beer from the mini bar. Opened the door to find an empty mini-bar - so far not a great start. My wife found that there was a form on the desk stating that you had to order drinks for the mini-bar, and that this was available from 11:00 until 00:00.
Finally a glimmer of hope! So I took the form down to reception (about 22:10) where I was told to take it to the bar and they would take care of this request. Handed this to the barman, who said this was not possible until the next day. Exasperated I used the bar phone to call the receptionist and asked them to get their story straight.
Eventually a barmaid brought the drinks to our room at 23:20. I asked her if she had a bottle opener. Unfortunately she did not, and there was none in the room either. Ok I’ll have a look round the room to see what I can improvise with. After 10 minutes of looking I walked down to the bar and ask them to open it for me, not too unreasonable I thought. The same barmaid greeted me and after 5 minutes of looking around and asking various members of staff she apologised that she could not find a bottle opener. Ok this bottle appears to have me beat! It was not the barmaid’s fault although she appeared to look genuinely sorry for the service they were dishing out to us, so to appease the situation I proposed a swap: I give them the unopened bottle of beer and they give me a nice glass of draft beer that I can take that up to my room and enjoy what is left of the evening with my wife on the balcony.
The next problem we encountered was that the room got too hot at night. It was 26°C at 05:00 when my wife got up to feed the baby, who was sweating. We tried adjusting the thermostat to the coldest setting the next night but this had no effect.
When we reported this to reception it took us all day and 3 chases to be told that there is no air-conditioning at night as it is too noisy (doubtful we thought as we had found it very quiet). We explained that it was far too hot for our baby without air-conditioning and that he was only 4 months old, but they did not seem to care and we were simply told that it was “not possible” again.
We called the Thomson help line and reported the situation, and they sent a rep the next day. Apparently it was normal practice that hotels turn the air-con off during the evening in the winter months, but this is absolutely NOT mentioned in the sales blurb for the hotel. The next response was to ask us if we cannot just keep the patio doors open. We explained this was not acceptable as this would create a draft directly in front of the cot and also leave the room completely insecure, not to mention the mosquitoes.
Eventually the rep got hold of the assistant manager, who offered to move us to a bigger room where the cot could be placed away from any draft. We agreed to switch rooms and that night we got a good night’s sleep and the temperature stayed at about 22°C. The next day we woke up to the sound of trucks. Ventured over to the balcony to be greeted by a strong odour and looking over the edge to find two big sewage trucks emptying the septic tanks. This went on most of the day, and we felt sorry for the people on the ground floor, where it must have been unbearable.
I spent a lot of that evening on mosquito watch where thankfully the baby only got bitten once thanks to me and my wife acting as bait!
All in all, Elba Sara has the makings of a great resort, just let down by very poor service.
The holiday from hell.
by TripAdvisor Member Morgan K
Air con only works during the day due to decibel levels of their equipment, that was the excuse given!
Manager of hotel confirmed that they were understaffed which led to long delays in the bars and restaurants, which were dirty, to the extent that Broadway bar was always closed and wild cats in Toucan restaurant. Food was very poor, prawns in the fruit salad and meat in vegitarian meals!Swimming pools in need of refurbishment and jacuzzis smelt. Hotel right under flight path to airport.
Lovely hotel
by A TripAdvisor Member
This was our first time to Fuerteventura, and we found the island ok. The hotel was lovely, and staff very friendly. The island is known for its windiness and it definatly is windy. We werent sure what to expect with the weather this time of year but was hoping it would be hot sunshine, well it was for first 3 days, until we got stuck in a tropical storm. The hotel went into panic mode, as we lost our electricity and one of the glass doors smashed open and no one was aloud outside. The beach opposite our hotel is not to be really used as its very dirty, but two seconds along and there is a lovely beach with clear water which we went to. There is a comercial centre right next door to the hotel which has a few shops, a burger king, bowling alley, sports shop (which i strongly recommend you dont go in, as all of the staff are very very rude, even when i spent £100 on trainers), jewellery shop which i spent most of my money in, very big spar, a few pubs, ice cream shop, toy shop, hairdressers etc and opposite the centre a Mcdonalds. The walk everyone is talking about along the promanade to take you to more of the town is a waste of time, there are two or three small shops for tacky gifts and one or two tiny bars, and the diving school. There is also a marine place at the end which is worth taking a look at if you have children, as the staff are so helpfull. The walk is NOT a 15 minute walk, but more like a 35 minute walk and should never be done at night time with children as the promade is not completed and you have to walk through a dusty field which has many rocks and nothing can be seen for a while. Opposite the commercial centre in view of the hotel there is a gentleman who sets up every night a bouncy castle, and trampoline's, this tends to be very annoying as it starts at around 4pm and ends at about 11pm with spanish music blaring very loudy across the hotel even when the doors are clossed in your rooms you can still hear it, im surprised he can get away with it.
Back to the hotel, there are three swimming pools, one a childs one seperate from the others and the other two our seperated by a bridge. There is a jacuzi in the middle of the two pools but is hardly warm. The pools are not heated and very very cold , only a few souls braved it, including myself, but couldnt stand more than 10minutes. The staff in the hotel are very friendly, apart from a few in the resturant serving. But apart from that we had a lovely time and i would do it again.
When is spain...
by TripAdvisor Member Big-Penguin
Ok, first things first.
I have read a number of reviews on the service, and must disagree with some of the comments made about the service.
A couple of Euro's after a meal or few drinks is very much appreciated by the staff - and they will look after you, without question.
The problem with people staying all inclusive they assume that means no tipping - why? I don't know - but you should!. The staff were great all the way through the holiday and at the end of the day, if your so tight that you can't spare a few Euro's at the end of a meal or a few drinks - you should stick to Benidorm or Blackpool.
All inclusive option is very good value, and the Toucan Bar meals in the afternoon are cooked fresh for you, just pick any item of the menu and it will be with you in a matter of minutes.
Breakfast can be a bit of a bun fight as Fried Eggs and Bacon are cooked to order, so if you have to have a Full English Breakfast, expect to queue. But when in Spain, you should really be tucking into the cheeses, meats and fresh fruit and home cooked bread.
In the Evening the Bars and Show in the Caberet Bar are of good quality and the drag show is a laugh but for all the wrong reasons as they were pretty awful, but that made it more funny in some ways.
If you feel the need to wonder into Fuste, then you must try the China Restaraunt, food is superb and very, very good value, but don't get carried away with your order as you will get loads of it. Go for Menu "A" at 13 Euro it's superb.
In relation to bars in Fuste, there are a few, but at this time of year (and in April) it will be quiet, but thats the beauty!
If you wnat to sleep drink and eat and chill out, then you can't go wrong with the Elba
Sign in with Facebook
Comments