Just returned from our holidays in Tenerife.

The hotel we choose was the Riu Palace - Tenerife in Costa Adeja.

The hotel is in an horseshoe design, it has 6 floors and in an upside down configuration, the entrance, reception, dining room and outside bar/lounge areas on the 6th floor with all the guest bedrooms on floors 1 to 5 and situated with either a side garden or rear garden/sea view. There are two pool areas on the ground floor.

The hotel slopes slightly inward from the bottom with the larger rooms at the bottom and rooms get slightly smaller as they go up. However, the better rooms are towards the top because these have the views over the garden and sea. Our room was 326 and as mentioned we had fantastic sea views.

Found out that the rooms are cleaned and beds made every day, sheets and towels changed 3 times a week. Rooms and public areas are spotless.

Breakfast starts at 8 am and goes on until 10:30. At breakfast you have a choice of going out onto the terrace or staying in the restaurant. Breakfast is self-service with a choice of full English, Continental, cereals and pastries, fresh juices and sparkling wine. Coffee and tea is served to your table. If you want you can have your breakfast delivered to your room.

Dinner is served in two sittings, 6:30 or 8:30. For us the way it worked was we were allocated a temporary table for our first night and then we were asked if we preferred first or second sitting for dinner and then allocated our table number for the rest of the stay. The majority of the tables are for two and if after being allocated your table you do wish to change they will try and accommodate you.

At dinner there is a wide choice; there is an unlimited salad bar, starters are a choice of salad, soup and fish, your main course coming from a Spanish, Italian, English, German cuisine selection and 2 areas of desserts. You can either opt for silver service or serve yourself. During your stay you can book to dine in the fusion restaurant called 'Krystal', at no extra cost.

To the rear of the hotel there are 3 areas, they have created a small beach area with sun beds, sun brolly and cushions and a small drinks bar serves this area. Then you have the garden area, again with sun beds, sun brolly and cushions and finally a pool area, 2 pools with sun beds, sun brolly and cushions. Included in the garden/pool area is a restaurant and bar area. The hotel also supplies complimentary breach towels. With the hotel facing southwest the whole of the outside area is in sun all day.

A small path leads through the pool area to the outside and a small beach and a promenade that leads around the bays to local areas such as La Coletta and Playa Del Duque with excellent restaurants and bars. The hotel is in a quiet location and this suited us.

With the hotel being upside down its evening lounge/bar area are on the top floor with fantastic views over the sea and across to Playa Americas and because the hotel faces southwest you also have excellent sunsets every night. There is something on every night either from the resident group and at least 4 times a week they have outside artists on.

On day 2 a complimentary bottle of Cava and basket of fruit were delivered from the management.
The staff are excellent and throughout our stay we were well looked after. Staff are very helpful and nothing is too much trouble. During our stay we had 2 problems with the room, a drawer got stuck shut and one of the light bulbs in the bathroom failed. Both problems were fixed and we had a phone call from reception in the evening to enquire if everything was now OK.


The fun part of our stay was the annual towel run. This took place at 7:45 am every morning. With the garden/pool area being open at 8 am and all guest having to use the only entrance from the hotel into the garden/pool area, the staff put a tape across the path to stop guests entering the area until it is ready. So, from 7:30 to 8 am the towel racers all line up behind the tape and at 8 am when the staff remove the tape it is so funny, guests racing everywhere to get the best spot. The best thing is that there are more than enough beds to go around everyone.

The hotel is classed as a family hotel, however, it has very limited children facilities available and when we were there it was about 95% couples, the only children being under 3 yrs old.

To finish all I can say is that this was an excellent hotel and if this is the norm then I can highly recommend the Riu brand to everyone.

Just come back from a weeks holiday in this hotel. Fantastic. Perhaps due to the time of year we didn't have any problems with getting a sunbed near to the pool. The Hotel was busy but there were plenty to go around. Staff extremely helpful. The room was at the side of the hotel but we had views of the sea and the mountains at the back. Food was good and suited everyone's taste. Wouldn't hesitate in going back.

The Riu Palace is in a quiet location in Costa Adeje.The hotel is in a horse shoe shape so there are a limited amount of rooms that have a good sea view. I suggest you book well in advance if you like a sea view room & of course there will be an extra cost. The guests are mainly German & although the staff are excellent to all, I did feel that the Germans were pandered to. I believe they have increased the number of sun loungers but they could still use some extra. I'm afraid certain guests were at the pool before 8am reserving loungers using towels & even putting the small coffee tables upside down on the loungers to ensure they got the ones they wanted! The food was excellent but I didn't like the fact that you had to have the same table at Dinner ( at breakfast you could sit where you liked ). This hotel is for older people & definately not for children or teenagers. The entertainment was usually barely average. The atmosphere is quite staid but if you want a real relaxing holiday then this would be ideal. The bathroom was small but fine. If you're staying for 2 weeks a superior room ( has a sitting area ) would be beneficial as I've heard the standard rooms are quite small.I would probably return to this hotel but for only a week.

We stayed in this hotel half board and the food and service was great, staff could not do enough for you and all the staff spoke to you wishing you nice day to enjoy your meal etc.

Rooms were spotlessly clean towels daily sheets every second day, reclining chairs on your balcony, service whilst sitting at the pool. We never stayed to watch any entertainment but heard from others that it wasn't too great mostly for older people.

Would go back again for very relaxing holiday.

Lovely hotel. Staff very helpful.

Hotel was fantastic. Room was massive and very clean as was the whole hotel.

The staff could not do enough for you. If you get the waiter 'Juan' you will be very well looked after, he was a treasure!

Fantastic views from the rooftop bar. Great pools and childrens pool (took our 7 year old son), also a good childrens play area.

Food was excellent, great choice, could not fault any part of the holiday.