On first impressions- this hotel is fantastic. The hotel is classy, comfortable, and the staff helpful most of the time. Reception staff very attentive, as were customer relations department.

I won't go on about the good points of the Princesa Yaiza hotel, as they have been covered in previous posts, so here are the bad points:

- Hotel OVER-RUN with children-- and no control was made by parents or staff! There ARE other guests at the hotel too!!

- Spa facilities are closed for the next few weeks for refurbishment. We were never informed of this. And also, when we complained about it- we were told that they would pay for us to travel to another spa, but this was on the last day of our trip-- and hardly any good to us then!!!

- Kids in the bar until 12am/1am every night, running around tables, on dancefloor, etc. Bar should be adult environment. Could not enjoy hotel bar due to kids. (Must add that we are not child-unfriendly, but some areas of the hotel should be reserved for adults). We understood that this hotel was family-friendly, but very unfair to single/elderly couples staying there.

- Also, rules such as 'No children under 12 in Jacuzzi' were never enforced. Children in jacuzzi all day, every day. No attempt by staff to adhere to rules.

- In mornings (7am)parents were not considerate enough to keep the noise levels of their kids to a minimum. Children running up and down, shouting, hollering, etc. Chairs dragged on floors, etc etc.
(Cannot have luxury break when woken at 6.30-7am every morning!!!).


Hotel food served in buffet style environment. Plenty of choice, but too expensive. For our first night, we ate in the restaurant, it cost us

We stayed at the Princessa Yaiza during Half Term week. The hotel, its staff and facilities are all first class. We arrived late one evening to a glass of champagne and a waiting porter. We were very pleased with resort and the location of the hotel in the resort. In general we had a very pleasant and relaxing stay and had nothing to complain about at all. There are a few things that are worth note though.
1. The staff are all great and very helpful. Most speakreasonable if not good english.
2. As some other comments posted, the hotel seems very popular for families and in particular families with young children. On an evening, the main bar area was almost overun with young children running around until late. There appears to be no adult only bar area and if you are visiting as a single or couple, you may well find this annoying. Our children were 10 and 12 and we found it a bit annoying. The singing entertainment was a bit cheesy!
3. If you are staying in the family suites, it is quite a hike to the main hotel area, particularly if you are in the far end of the suites. The suites themselves though are great and spacious. They provide a kitchette with sink, fridge, microwave etc, but no cups or cutlery or wine bottle opener however.
4. We ate in the Italia restaurant on the first night which was buffet style. The choice and quality was very good, but the prices are high and in our opinion, not worth the cost compared to local restaurants in town. The separate Italian restaurant, but still part of the hotel, close to the beach was very good, though there were lots (10-15) children running around the outdoor area with their parents dining at the restaurant.
5. We managed to play tennis twice with little notice and the faciliries are first class.

Overall we would give the hotel 9 out of 10 and would certainly not have a problem going back again. Most evenings we were out and about, so the nosiy bar area did not bother us. If you are a couple wanting a quiet relaxing holiday, you may find an alternative location more suitable.

This was our second time in Playa Blanca and after walking past it last year we thought we'd like to try the Princessa Yaiza. All I can say is we thoroughly enjoyed our holiday, the hotel is fantastic, the staff can't do enough for you, right from the glass of champagne given to you when checking in, to the last day helping us out with our luggage. We had a junior suite and even though the room itself was of a good standard, my husband travels to 5 star + hotels worldwide on business every year, and he commented that the rooms should only be given a 3 star rating at the most, but saying that, we had a large bedroom and the sofa bed was made up every evening for our 7 year old. The bathrooms in the suites are large, again of a good standard, our suite also had a balcony overlooking the sea which was nice. Each room provides you with a good sized fridge and a microwave, also there's the usual mini bar (expensive) drinks. Although the hotel is large, once you get your bearings it's very easy to find your way around, there are 3 lovely pools and a jacuzzi, although the jacuzzi is for over 12's only, we noticed the staff didn't seem to mind kids using it, unless they made too much of a racket, in fact our son spent most of his time in the jacuzzi as the pools were rather cold. We had no problem getting sunbeds, mainly I think because we tended to go down later on in the day, the staff seem to be quite strict on the no towels on sunbeds rule, we noticed after about 20 minutes of a bed being unattended the towels are removed.

Our board was a on a bed and breakfast basis, I must admit, in all my years I've never bothered to get up for breakfast, but my husband, after trying the buffet on the first morning, dragged us up as he said it was fantastic, and then every morning we couldn't resist getting up early for something to eat - the breakfast buffet is sumptuous, everything you could possibly want, and again, the staff can't do enough for you.

I can't comment on the evening entertainment, as that's something we never get involved with, we tended to go down to the marina or the sea front for meals in the evening and then a nice walk. My son wasn't interested in the kid's club, I agree with some of the other posters, that perhaps it's because it is a short walk away from the hotel that might put people off.

All in all, I would highly recommend the Princessa Yaiza to anyone, it is a lovely hotel in a great situation just opposite the beach, we will definitely go back there again - oh and would recommend Sovereign too, our rep was great and we had a private taxi transfer to and from the hotel, all arranged for us, no problem at all.

Stayed in Princess Yaiza in July for 2weeks we were very impressed. The location was excellent.

The hotel was fantastic from the moment we arrived the staff were more than helpful and friendly. Our children 11 and 4 had a great time pools were fantastic problem sometimes getting beds but that is everywhere now I think.

Read in a previous report that someone thought food and drink was expensive what do you expect in a 5 star hotel no dearer than at home. Food in hotel fantastic had Mexican buffet one night and were spoilt for choice. Breakfast was wonderful loads of choice.

Stayed in suite was like a big one bed apartment. Would highly recommend to anyone who likes a good quality hotel.

Only criticism is that Kikoland for children is a bit away from hotel and children are reluctant to leave to go to kids club.

Hotel was beautiful.

We stayed on a B&B basis and breakfast was very good, huge selection with something for everyone.

We stayed in a suite which was lovely, we got fresh towels and it was cleaned daily.

Staff were very friendly and helpful and great with kids (we had our 2 year old with us). They couldn't do enough to help.

The pools were great and really well kept. The service at the bar by the pool was a bit slow. We ran out of swim nappies for our little girl and I went to the shop in the hotel and they wanted to charge

Where do I start - This has to be about one of the worst hotels I have ever stayed in. I am amazed at some of the other posts here and wonder if they are from employee's of the company!!.

Lack of attention to detail to sum up - For a five star hotel I expect far better. I would rate the hotel about 3 star.

We booked a suite for the family for a weeks break, spent

A brilliant hotel excellent location and facilities. It is a 5 star hotel and the facilities and decor are as expected, if not better.

However, the cleanliness of the rooms and restaurants are what I would have expected from a 3 star hotel. They were clean enough, but not spotless as you would expect from a 5 star hotel. For example, the light switches had grubby finger prints on them and there was soap scum round the edges of the bath which were not cleaned while we were there. The maid did clean the room and change the towels daily but there was no attention to detail.

The staff all had there own jobs to do and they would not do anything which was outside their normal role. For example a young child was unwell (sick) one morning at breakfast. None of the staff made any effort to clear the mess, or section off the area, to prevent an accident until the manager became aware of the incident.

Hot countries obviously have problems with flies, but there was no attempt to hide the fact that sometimes flies were on the food in the breakfast buffet. The decor of the hotel included a lot of foliage... great... but again there was no effort to clear away the dead leaves from outside the door of the room by the maid. Leaves are probably the job of the gardener!!

There was entertainment but we chose to go into town each evening. We are therefore unable to comment on this.
On the positive side, the hotel did cater very well for any one who was disabled and did have special suites with facilities for the disabled. There was good access and facilities all around the hotel for wheel chairs. Even the pool bar had ramps and special toilets.

What can I say the hotel was lovely, very very clean when we arrived a 'bell boy' came up with a trolley and took our luggage and we sat at reception and had a glass of champagne.

We stayed in a 2 bedroomed apartment which was huge, the master bedroom was ensuite and the children had a bathroom of their own. The apartment had a fridge, sink, table etc and a lovely lounge.

The pools were fab, free towels (lovely and fluffy). One thing though when it got a bit busier nearing the end of our holiday it was hard to get sunbeds, lots of reserving at 5am in the morning by some people.

The food at breakfast time was lovely, and the evening meals were themed evenings. There were a few bbq evenings where you picked your, prawns, steak, chicken etc to be done in front of you. There was also a pasta chef and he would make whatever sauce you wanted in front of you lovely!!! And I learnt a lot of cooking tricks from him.

The lady who was in charge of the restaurant was quite abrupt, but she was trying to keep it flowing. please note to eat earlier, as the spainish families all eat at 9pm on wards and it is packed. The whole families go iee 10+ people per table.

The entertainment for the kids in Kikoland was good, I felt happy leaving my 10 yearol there. But whilst there a little 4year old managed to escape and was wandering around the hotel for an hour or so before someone found him. So I never sent my four year old after that. The staff werenice but spoke little english in kikoland which is a bit unerving, they were so laid back.

In the eveing at the hotel the entertainment was good, but finished at 11.00pm ish. Which was a shame.

The drinks and snacks are very expensive in this hotel. I can throughyl recommend eating in the japanese restaurant as they cook it in front of you and its lovely. You get a set amount to sopend if you are half board, and then you have to pay the rest.

This is 5 stars in alot of ways, but the foos is quite not up with the English 5 star.

The nice thing abou this hotel is it is full of lots of nationalities russian, german,french, belguim, dutch, apainish, italien, english, irish scottish, danish, swedeish etc. It was lovely to see the kids from all different countries playing together.
I would go back.

Next to the Yaiza is a square shopping complex with a french patisserie and they sell lovely baggetes etc. She was so friendly speak to her in a bit of french and she will give you free cakes.ha ha.

Using our friendly travel agent we were able to self package this holdiay at a considerable saving from the brochure prices. We decided on upgrading to a suite which was very comfortable, located on the third floor directly overlooking the pool and the beach with Fuertevenuara in the distance.

The rooms very well furnished as you would expect for a hotel of this star rating and newness, on the huge landing areas outside the room there were sofas and tables were you could sit and relax for an alternative.

Stayed on a half board basis our one mistake, brochure advertises 5 restaurants, two of them the ala carte and japanese you have to pay extra for if you spend your allowance which did not go very far. The other three restaurants opened on alternative nights and although had some theme to them they were all help yourself eat as much as you like buffet style places, although the food was pretty good it was not our idea of a 5 star hotel evening meal, however this is purely our choice.

Drink service at the bars could be frustratingly slow at busy timeseven though the hotel was no where near full.

Evening entertainment was on every nigth but again it did not appeal to us.

To sum great holiday, great hotel but we would only go back on a b&b basis as the restuarant in Playa Blanca are much better in our opinion and would cost significantly less than paying for half board.