Just returned from this hotel on the 27/02/2010....had a great time. Will go back without any worries. Entertainment was in English, staff were freindly and helpfull. Hotel was spotless, food was generaly good with plenty of choice(Baked Beans need to hot though for breakfast-minor complaint). No problems gettinig 2 drink's at a time. The only real problem was the main swimming pool water temprature was cold, but then again it was Feb!!!!

Thanks for a great time :-)

The hotel was very clean, room was of a good size and very nice. There are lots of nice areas to sit in the hotel; large reception area with sofas and large areas under the palm trees outside to sit in the evenings.

The pool areas are beautiful and you could get a sunbed at any point in the day. However the pools were freezing and the jacuzzis were like ice which meant you could not go in them and seemed to be never used which was a shame.

There is a large variety of food to choose from however i found that it was very repetitive the meats every night were veal or pork. The desserts were also a disappointment - all tiny cakes more catered towards continental styles.

The entertainment was very poor. two of our seven nights were worth watching the music acts that were on but entertainment shut down at 10.30 pm. the entertainment staff were quite frankly boring and not very friendly. however the resort around the hotel more than compensates for the rubbish entertainment as there is plent to do each night in playa del ingles.

overall i would still go back to the hotel because of its location and value for money however would hope that they had sacked their entertainment staff and heated the pool.

We have been to this hotel twice a year for the past six years.

We love it and have made friends with many German & Dutch people who we now meet up with in May and Sept. We are now a group of 24.

The staff are not exactly friendly or jumping out of their seat to help anyone except those who tip big!

We are early risers so always got a place by the pool where we wanted to be. Unless you arrived poolside at 11am there are always plenty of sunbeds and only a handful are shaded by palm trees.

Food is great. lots of variety with themed nights for Italian, Chinese, Spanish etc.

Having been there so many times, we have seen most of the night time professional shows but there is always something new.

The entertainment team can vary. We had 6 one year, 2 the next and 4 last Set. Some were brilliant and others very poor.

Never found the motorway noisy and never heard of fights in an adjoining nightclub....in fact I didn't even know there was or is a nightclub.

The Hotel IFA Continental is not for British holiday makers. This hotel is 95% German residents. This is reflected also by the food and that the staff do not speak any English yet they can speak fluant German.

I wasn't suprised to see a notice in reception that confirmed the hotel was partnership with a German company. Although when you look in the Brochure in states that the hotel is in Partnership with a British company. Very misleading!!! It also disappoints me that the travel agents are not forthcoming with this information as all they want is your money.

The hotel displayed many awards which Thomson gave them but I'd like to point out that these are all from 2003 and earlier. Not recent at all. Maybe this is because the hotel is now overrun by Germans, Spanish, Dutch and so on.

I certainly do not have any issues with people from these countries but I like to feel that I'm staying with more British people. On one evening, me and my partner was subject to nasty jibes for being English from a group of young drunken Germans.

The food is very repetative. It's the same food every day and being all inclusive, I was disgusted that I had to go out for lunch and dinner the whole of my second week as could not stomach eating the same food. If you do not like fish then you will not be able to eat here!! This is my problem so pasta and watery bolognaise sauce was all that was available to me. Maybe have a stale bread roll to make it exciting!!

Poolside snacks? The only poolside snacks are ham sandwiches. There is a choice of other stuff if you really wanna pay for them. Being all inclusive, I shouldn't be expected to pay for them.

The cleanliness of the hotel is a very high standard but the hotel is in need of updateing.

The entertainment, what a suprise, was German. The entertainment through the day is a seperate company and they played the same song about 15 times on full blast throughout the day. Very annoying.

This hotel needs to also think about its drinks policy. Only 1 drink per person!!! Whats all that about? Never have I come across this before on an all inclusive holiday. So as you can imagin, if me and my partner wanted a drink. We both had to go to the bar.

The only recommendation I'll give the hotel is "do not go there"!!

When we first arrived at the airport we were told the hotel we were originally staying in was fully booked and we were being transferred to the Hotel Continental.

Imagine our horror when we heard this we automatically thought this holiday is going to be a disaster! HOW WRONG WE WERE! This is by far the cleanest hotel we have stayed in, inside and outside they were always cleaning to make it as clean as possible!

The hotel food was also fantastic the only moan i could have is the bacon but apart from that there was a great choice especially at dinner! We had different dishes each night which was always fresh which ranged from steaks, different meat dishes and pizzas, pastas, salads. I cannot speak highly enough of the food in this hotel.Do not worry too much about having to dress for dinner it says that you have to adhere to wearing no shorts and vests but I did on several occasions!

The hotel staff were always on hand to your needs though some of them at times were a bit miserable mostly the bar staff! The location of the hotel was away from the noisy part of the popular bars but not too far away from them though a taxi was very cheap to wherever you wanted to go to!

The entertainment was good during the day with different activities such as water polo, volleyball, shooting and darts but at night it was a bit basic but you cannot knock them for their effort they put in as they had to speak different languages to the many different nationalities!

The people in the hotel came from all over the place but a large majority of them were from Holland but they are really down to earth friendly people! Though when we were there the English were starting to take over!

The only complaint Ihave for the hotel is that the all inclusive only starts from 11am and finishes at 11pm!

Overall I would definitely recommend this hotel to people who are looking to stay in this resort and would certainly return to stay here again!

The first time we have stayed in this part of playa and we found the roads around this hotel very busy and noisy.We had a room overlooking the two main roads but we did have the sun in the afternoon.

Pools are great and we did not notice the noise so much and found you couls always get a sunbed even in the afternoon.

Food was not the best but much the same as any hotel in the canary isles.

All in all I found this a very well run hotel and great value for money.

Room is kept clean. However room is showing its age a bit since the hotel was built in the 70's.

The corridors and rooms smelt musty at first.
However this disappears when you get used to it after a day.

The balcony is good for sunbathing in the afternoon.
Our room location was not great as it was located next to 2 busy roads/motorway. Quite noisy 24/7 even at night.

Food is buffet style. Very good large choice. It wont win any awards but I was happy with it overall.

Location is good. Central and close to beach.

Reasonably large pool area. There were 2 main pools plus other smaller tubs. Pleasant but again the area is showing its age abit.

Hotel is mainly 95% German. Also avergae age appears to be 50+.

Overall for a 3 star hotel its not bad value and its worth giving ago as long as you dont have very high standards and expectations. But after viewing 2 other 4 star hotels i think i would maybe pay more in order for a more modern hotel and more moden pool area.

I've just come back, and can say that I would never visit again.

The rating for three star far exceeds what I would rate it, but because each room has it's own bathroom, that is a standard rating. I can't really fault the cleanliness of the hotel in the rooms, but though the pool area was a bit mucky.

The first thing that hits you when you got out of the lifts was the smell, it was awful, a really stale musty smell which stayed with you at every moment you were in the hotel.

The bad points I would say is firstly the noise, it is built next to a motorway, but I guess the hotel was there first. The noise of (heavy traffic) kept me awake most nights. The pool area was too noisy to sit at. It looked quite nice, but the traffic put me off. I went in the pool once, but was out again within 10 mins. The water was way too cold and the noise awful.

The other bad point is the decor. It's very 80's and looks very shabby. The bedding was about 20 years old,all worn thin sheets with holes, and the blankets had seen better days. You need to like green and yellow a lot to stay in this hotel! The carpet in our room had holes in it which looked like burn marks. The tiling in the bathroom was very chipped and cracked, and the bath was very well used to the point that the enamal was completely worn off. Generally I would say the hotel needed complete re-furbishment.

The average age of people staying at the hotel was about 50 to 60, and as I am in my twenties, I felt very out of place. The entertainment was directed at the older generation, and I agree mainly for Germans which probably accounted for about 95 per cent of visiors. I am ashamed to say that I was in bed before 8:30 PM every night because of the poor entertainment.

In regards to the food, well it was OK. Lots of choice in the buffet, but again mainly directed at Germans. Lots of different spams/hams and sausages. Pizza and chips everynight, but flavours like olive and fish. Not really any catering for younger visitors (children - not that I saw any). Some kind of meat every day and fish as well, but I would say that these were things like hake and cheaper, less popular meats which I prefered to stay away from.

The best part of the experience was the deserts - lots of choice of ice creams/cakes/pastries/fruits etc.

The most disappointing thing about the resturant was that ALL drinks had to be paid for, including still water which was very overpriced. Soft drinks were immitations, like cheap cola which was also overpriced.

We visited quite a few hotels during our period in the area as a comparison and I can say that The Continental was the weakest hotel. I say shop around, because the pictures are not a good guideline. The fact that the hotel was won awards from Thomson (OK, pre 2003) says a lot about their standards of hotels.

Good clean hotel, poolside a little bit noisy due to main road close by.

I found food a bit mixed especially Italian options eg Lasagne and Pizza. In fairness some meals were very nice.

Found night time entertainment disappointing but day time very good.

All in all would recommend this hotel.

We had agreat holiday.

The room was excellent - very clean, comgfortable and the maid was extremely helpful.

All meals were very good, and the breakfast time up to 10.30am was a pleasant change from other hotels/resorts where we have stayed.

The pool area is very good and maintained to a very clean standard with plenty of sunbeds and mattresses.

The pool area is a bit noisey from the road at the back however this is barely noticed - I would say thought that the hotel is built back to front as the sun rises and sets at the opposite end to the pool area - although when the sun is high then certain areas of the pool area are reached at different times of the day.

The only critiscism we had was the evening entertainment - we were disapointed perhaps this is "run-down" due to the time of year.