Bahia del Duque

An impressive hotel providing every luxury, beautiful scenery, lovely pools. Everything you would wish for in a holiday, friendly efficient staff, good food , lovely rooms, a place to return to.

I'd really give this 3 1/2 if I could but TA doesn't allow it. This was our first visit to this hotel, having previously stayed at the various Lopesan and Riu hotels in Meloneras in Gran Canaria. Based on (most) of the previous reviews I had high expectations, but came away not quite sure what to make of it really. We stayed in the Casa Ducales part of the hotel in a garden view room. On reflection, I'm not sure the extra cost was really worth it. The room itself was not really any different to the standard ones (so perfectly fine, I think it had been recently refurbished), but no real advantage there. The Lounge space with access to drinks was at times handy, but the room itself, though nice, was a bit soulless and felt a bit like an airport lounge. We had breakfast there a couple of times and, though it was a welcome relief from the chaos of the buffet option, found the options a bit limited and not great for kids. The staff and service was mostly good though. We stayed as B&B and ate in the hotel restaurants for 5 of the 7 nights. Given the extra cost of HB and the fact that alot of dishes still carried a supplement, we still came out financially ahead, so consider this unless you really want three courses each per meal (which we didn't). The food was fine, nothing spectacular. You are a bit limited with options outside the hotel without a bit of a walk so keep this in mind. Men also being forced into wearing trousers and closed shoes when it is 27 degress makes for an unpleasant experience at times. I get not wearing sports gear but at least give the option of smart shorts in the hotter months. As others have mentioned, the layout of the hotel is a bit strange, with reception at the top of the hill (and then at the top of the building) so a bit of a trek if needed. Not sure it is air-conditioned either so the bars were really warm in the evening, guess more of a winter thing. The pools are spread through the various levels, and all (even the 'heated' ones) were really cold. I have not been to a 5 star hotel in the Canaries before with so many cold pools. They are quite deep as well (apart from the kids pool) so not great for weaker swimmers. The rocks placed around them look nice but in practice a bit of a hazard once in. This fact alone I think would make me reconsider coming back, and I heard other guests making similar remarks. The situation wasn't helped by what looked like a burst pipe spilling effluent into the larger pool half way through our stay, with it remained closed until we left. Some other minor things; the room cleaning was fine once done but random in timings and despite asking for a specific time this was largely ignored; the hotel itself largely felt clean but we regularly saw abandoned towels and empty bottles in the grounds and corridors; service was fine but on a couple of occassions waiting staff struggled a bit with basic English. Would we come back? Maybe I'd give it another chance, though I think a standard sea-view room would be better value as some of the views looked pretty special.

The reviews are amazing, I don’t quite understand it. It’s a bizarre place, reception is in a strange place, receptionists just ignore you and are not welcoming at all. The rooms are tiny, dated and tired. The food in the restaurants is awful, really below average, and the service is some of the worst we have ever experienced on holiday. Some of the views around the resort are stunning, but other than that I really struggled to find any positives. We ended up spending most of our time at other hotels, eating in their restaurants because the food and service was so much better. Based on the other reviews we must have been very unlucky, but I would say that if you really value a high level of service and good food, this is not the place.

A beautiful hotel great food and wine with great service and staff

Spent a week at this amazing hotel with my partner and we both loved the destination and the whole resort. The hotel was built like a Canarian village style and was beautifully laid out. There are lots of pools, courtyard areas and places to relax and a wonderful spa, although we didn’t use the spa. This complex is immaculately clean and the rooms are amazing, we paid a little extra for a sea view. There is constant maintenance on this massive complex (pool cleaning, pressure washing etc) but considering the resort is 30 odd years old it’s not surprising to see a few places that are showing their age but this had no effect on our holiday, and neither did the maintenance which wasn’t ever noisy. The resort is very quiet and a bit detached from bars and nightlife but actually it isn’t really a problem. We used the 467 bus that runs every 20 minutes to Playa De Las Americas and Los Christiania and it’s a 20 odd minutes ride for €1:50 per person. We spent the day time around the extensive pool areas where there is no issue finding your preferred sun bed location with Adult only and Family areas, and the pools are lovely. Our afternoons tended to be spent at the pool bar where Sarka looked after us very well and was a lovely friendly person and was excellent at her job and very good with all customers and made us feel very welcome. All the staff were friendly and gave excellent service. The pool bar is reasonably priced but as expected it is around double the price of a local bar. I.e. €6 a beer which isn’t bad for a 5 star hotel. Things to note: The resort is on the West side of Costa Adeje and about 10 minutes walk to the nearest bar and restaurant area which is the Dukes shopping centre. Great Indian (Bombay Babu), Thai (Yum Yum) and Chinese (Slow Boat) and other restaurants are there along with the Anchor Irish bar which is lovely and reasonably priced. €3 for a Dorada beer. Secondly note that the extensive restaurants on the resort are quite expensive and men are required to wear long trousers. We decided to use off site restaurants which were excellent and since I didn’t have any long trousers! There are a lot of steep steps in the resort complex and good mobility is fairly essential to fully enjoy the complex as the surrounding area is quite hilly.