My family attended the sonnemar bungalows with no real expectations, on our arrival we were greated by friendly english speaking reception staff who were very cooperative and assisted us locating our rooms with no complaints, on route to the room we passed the pool area which looked very good.

We entered the bungalow through a very flimsy door that gave me no sense of security.as i looked around the room my attention was drawn to the staircase which surprised me as I have never seen any before in a bungalow, the bungalow was in need of a make over well a lick of paint that is, but if your only using it for a place to sleep and get ready then it will do you just fine, requires air conditioning(but they dont have any).

The pool area seriously requires a health and safety check to prevent someone breaking there necks, but the water is clean and one of the pools has just been re tiled and is heated, the young one loved it.

You will have to get up early though if you want to get a sun lounger on a weekend as it is a butlins camp to the spanish people who own the majority of the the bungalows.

There are no pool bars open at any time so to get some refreshments you have a hike to the canteen oh sorry the restaurant, moving on to the restaurant I have never been so disgusted with the choice of food and the quality of it it was like walking in to an oven and my family dined mostly on chips and sauce and the rest of the time we decided to eat out, fortunately it is cheap to eat out and the food is of a high quality.

The entertainment is on about 3 nights a week but even that takes place in the restaurant on the hard wooden seats and the sweat just pours off you.

The day time entertainment is also very basic as the hotel will not let the animations group do any activities in the pool incase they break it.

A couple of good points about the holiday were that the hotel is well situated and taxis are very cheap, the families i shared my holiday with made the holiday great oh and the weather was fantastic.

Sonemar bungalows and dining area need a good revamp,all accomodation very basic.

We booked as 3 star but told on arrival it was 2 star it seems now downgraded to 1 star since December o4.

The staff were indifferent to our needs,it poured with rain and was very cold the first night,I asked for a blankets and was told to wait until the next day.

Room service suposed to be 5 times the week,we had a change of sheets and towels once.
All linen including tablecloths in the dining area need to be replaced.

Pool looked atractive and maintained resonably well but very serious health and safety issues need addressing.

We've just returned from the Sonemar having spent Xmas week there. Like many we'd read various reviews before we left and weren't sure what to expect.

The "bungalows" themselves have seen better days and are in serious need of a makeover. Our apartment had damp walls upstairs, one of the beds was broken, decoration was shabby, and overall it looked very tired. There isn't a kettle or toaster included in the apartments, although you could hire these if you needed to. The TV was pay to view.

The food was very good, and we didn't have any problems with choice. There was plenty of variation and the spread on Christmas day was truly amazing. They don't cook themselves, but use outside caterers, so previous problems that people had experienced may have been down to this. The snacks consisted of hotdogs, burgers, chips and toasties, between 11am and noon and then again between 10pm-11pm. The pastries/cakes between 3-4pm consisted of biscuits and odd cakes left over from breakfast usually.

The choice of drinks both alcoholic and soft drinks were good and plentiful. The only criticism I have was that you could only get water by the glass and not by the small bottle, so we ended up having to buy bottled water for overnight.

The maid service was not as expected. We had been told this was 5 times per week, and although we saw the maids working every day, they only visited us once during our stay. The towels and sheets weren't changed all week.

We did have to ask for extra bedding and towels when we arrived as they had only been provided for 2 of us and not 3, but they were brought to us a couple of hours later. We also had to ask for extra blankets as we had a couple of really cold nights, but again the request was dealt with quickly.

Many people weren't happy with the accommodation, especially those with younger children. Most requested to be moved, and did so. There were many disgruntled people complaining about various aspects of the holiday. The main problem seems to be that although the Sonemar is being sold as 3 star accommodation, it does in fact only have a 1 key rating. We were told by the rep that the rating only went down on 1st December, but it is still today 28 days later being advertised as 3 star or 2 key accommodation.

The staff worked very hard and were very friendly and pleasant, especially the bar staff. We did cringe often at the way some people talked to them, and treated them with a lack of respect. We found if you were pleasant to them, they were to you.

The location of the Sonemar is not very good. It is in a residential area and it was impossible to walk to the beach or into town. We did use the free bus service into Maspalomas once, but got taxi's the other times as the bus got very crowded and picked up all around the area first. We got the public bus into Puerto Rico a couple of times. We preferred it there, and the weather seemed to be a lot better too.

Our biggest concern of the whole holiday for us was the total indifference shown to our daughter by both the hotel reception staff, and the med hotels holiday rep over an incident that happened to her on our 3rd day there. She'd been out to make a phone call at the public phone box which is just outside the complex gates, and which is covered by the hotel's CCTV cameras. It was just after lunch, in broad daylight. A young local guy who had been parked further up the hill in his car drove down to the phone box and tried to call my daughter over while exposing and pleasuring himself. She ignored him and went back to the safety of the hotel, and reported what had happened to the reception staff who informed her it was nothing to do with them as it was outside of the hotel grounds. This phone was used regularly by the people staying at the hotel, and we'd often seen younger people making calls from it. We informed the rep who brushed it off as probably just some local finishing work for Xmas, after having a few drinks in high spirits. Maybe that was the case, but it doesn't make it right to dismiss my daughters concerns that it could easily have been a 10 year old girl out there at the time and not her.

We'd not seen the rep at all during our stay. We gave up after waiting 40 mins after the time he'd arranged the welcome meeting to start. We phoned his out of hour

My wife and I were on our honeymoon and did realize we were booking a cheap accommodation but just wanted some where to drop your bags while we went of and partied we went all inclusive but got
Ourselves down graded because the food was so uneatable we were told it was two minutes from the beach (it was by bloody phone) pool was really good, entertainment of a night was pretty good, staff were friendly apartments had ants spiders and the dreaded cockroaches they were massive!!! Weather was brill.

Just returned (18th Oct 2004)from 2 weeks at the Sonemar, where do I start?
OK, when we booked this holiday, it was one of the cheapest all inclusive deals we could find. Our party consisted of two families (great friends and next door neighbours)we are five adults and five kids (15,12,11,4 and 18 months).
The sonemar bungalows are actually not bungalows but 2 floored apartments,downstairs is a sitting area with 2 sofa beds and a small kitchenette and a open air but enclosed drying area (good idea!)and a small garden area, Upstairs is a twin bedroom, bathroom and balcony. To be honest, the apartments have seen better days but the facilities are clean. We only used the rooms as a place to change, shower and sleep so not a major problem.
The pool area is superb, 3 pools of varying depth (one recently refurbished), plenty of sunbeds and nicely laid out with gardens surrounding. A slight criticism being that the sunbeds are a bit old and uncomfortable and the floors do get a bit slippy.
The pool bar is open from 10am until 6pm and serves snacks between 11 and 12(nothing fancy, cheese and ham toasties, hot dogs etc)the evening bar opens 6.30 till 11pm, all the entertainment is outside, around the pools. The sunbeds are cleared every day and tables and chairs replace them. The entertainment is ok but a bit repetitive and boring (for god's sake, get a new CD!), it is mainly aimed at audience participation which is not really our thing but many people enjoyed it.
The location of the Sonemar is very isolated but taxis pass the gate continuosly and 3 Euros will get you to Playa Del Ingles or Meloneras which will offer you everything you could want.
And so... to the food!!!
What can I say about the Sonemar all-inclusive 'diet'?
we had maybe 3 good meals while we were there, Chips with everything, meat recycled into various disguises the next day (commonly known as 'The Sonemar Slop')undercooked, cold, repetitive,and an insult to the reputation of Canarian cooking. I could go on but I will control myself. My advice to anyone who is booked all inclusive is to speak to your travel agent and downgrade to self catering.
Food aside (we ate out a lot!) we had a fantastic time on our hols, If you want a good holiday you will have one. If you want to find fault, you will.
I have tried to be as honest as possible in this review and hopefully may have helped anybody who is planning to go to Sonemar. If you are already booked, don't despair, you will have a good time. If you haven't already booked and are thinking of going, think very carefully about all inclusive versus self catering and take enough cash to eat out.

I was beside myself with worry about this complex before we travelled after reading some of the reviews posted here. When we arrived I was surprised that it wasn't as bad as I'd thought.

The accommodation was basic, but comfortable, the only downside was that it does get hot and you do need a fan.

The pool areas were excellent and the staff very friendly and loved children. If I'd paid a fortune for this holiday then I would not have been very happy but.. for a family of 3 plus 1 infant we paid approx. 1500 for 11 nights all inclusive and we got what we paid for.

The location is not ideal as we enjoy going for a walk of an evening and there is nothing in walking distance but.. taxis are cheap and very much available.

There are alot of Spanish that own villas on the site but you have to go with the flow and don't let them rub you up.

The foods okay... but you are all inclusive and I've never stayed anywhere (apart from the Caribbean)were I could rave over the food. It's a buffet, and that's that.

We did buy a good digi camera there and got a very good price after haggling... do haggle you'll be amazed!!

Me and my best mate booked this holiday 2 days before we went. We were a bit apprehensive about what it was going to be like as we got it so cheap (

The brochure advertised this accomodation as bungalows, infact it was two storey apartments. Dirty, cracked tiles, dated and very basic. The food was re-used for a number of days in different dishes so not fresh or well cooked!
Pool was ok, location is on a steep hill quite a distannce from anywhere! wouldn't go back here if u paid me!!!! RUBBISH.