Riu Buenavista

Reading some of the reviews, I wonder if we stayed at a different hotel. This Riu is very typical of their 4 star offerings, its not a Palace hotel and its doesnt claim to be one Playa Parisa is a quiter resort around 30 mins from the airport. Small shopping centre, handful of bars / restaurants and shops but not as busy as other resorts. As is common in Tenerife, hilly in places and while things are accessible for those with mobility issues, you need to put your back into some of those hills if you are pushing a wheelchair/ pushchair. Food was very typical 4 star Spanish and similar to other Riu hotels. Breakfast and lunch can get a little same, but there isn't many ways you can present a breakfast or lunch to be honest. Dinner, the main buffer offered a good selection of cooked meats/ fish/ vegetarian/ rice/ pasta/ pizza - its hard to see what was missing. If you never leave the hotel to eat, clearly 14 days of buffet food will be repetitive. There are 3 speciality restaurants, although still buffet offered a slightly different menu from the main buffet , albeit didnt change The hotel is large, multiple pools and multiple "blocks" in what appears to be a common design in the Canaries. Many rooms have a sea view . Sunbeds, we always had a sunbed, yes there are many who put towels down at silly o'clock, but genuinely during our stay you could get around any pool until 7 to 7.30ish. Space got limited, especially shade, but there were still beds at 8ish. In fact, if you are a sunworshipper, beds were available virtually all day. Maybe the hotel should reflect on offering more umbrellas, wouldnt cost Riu huge sums and would offer a better experience. Entertainment was good, with a party night on a Friday. Not my thing, but certainly available. A number of bars dotted around with self service soft drinks, beer and wine and the bars offered a service. Queues could build, especially if the hotel allowed the self service stuff to run out - which did happen. Room was excellent, clean and with good air con. Tea and coffee. Couple of plugs and some USB sockets, so if you are device hungry, you may want to take a charging hub Would be go back...definitely

We came in May, covering the half term. Hotel is very clean, rooms very spacious. We had a 2 bedroom family room and had plenty of space. Only downside with the room is despite the balcony being very big we only had 2 chairs which meant we all couldnt sit outside together. Pools are saltwater and we had no issues finding beds. Drinks are very nice including the cocktails. They will happily make you other cocktails if they know how to and have the ingredients. All the staff were friendly and I was impressed that you could get bottled water for the rooms. Entertainment was okay. Kahoot was a fun and the Riu party was incredible I was very disappointed in the food. Despite there being 3 themed restaurants, a snack bar and 2 buffet restaurants i found the food very bland, repetitive and poor quality at times. One occasion the chicken was raw and then my daughter found a worm in her jacket potato she had at the grill restaurant. Now I understand potatoes are grown in the ground and this is a risk, however this jacket potato was pre cut before in the buffet tray so I would imagine this would have been seen but it was still served. Unfortunately despite all the other amazing parts of this hotel the food has put me off returning here.

This is a large hotel with more than 500 rooms. The rooms are clean and fresh. The outdoor area is also very large, with four swimming pools. The location on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea is also great. But incredibly, it is almost impossible to find a sunbed with a parasol or under a sail for shade after 8am. On our first day we were naive and vent out at 10.00 o clock. We looked around all four pools and 100% of the sunbeds were reserved, but only 10% actually in use… The towel mafia had already been out and occupied absolutely everything. Many of the occupied sunbeds were empty for hours, while other desperate guests were walking around looking for a place. So we had no other choice then to join the towel mafia… During the rest of our stay we saw sunbeads reserved from before 9.00 o’clock clock but not in use for the hole day… Until the hotel manages to find a solution to this, I will not give a higher score. After all, you come here to be out in the sun and swim. It is hopeless when many chairs are empty with towels for much of the day. When you ask the lifeguards about this, they answer that the management has instructed them not to remove the towels from these sunbeds. This is despite the fact that there are clear signs in several places in the area that it is forbidden to reserve sunbeds. Please Riu, do something about it!

Just come back from an totally relaxing 10 day break booked with TUI Warm welcome on arrival comfortable room Something for everyone every meal plenty of choice Location in perfectly located for shops supermarkets and very good bus service Really couldn’t fault anything A special mention to the lovely Elizabeth at the outdoor bar Such a bubbly lady Enough high standard of entertainment as always with the riu chain Highly recommend a stay in the benavista

Went as a family of 3 with an 8 month old on our first holiday! Was a great week. Pros: - On average, good entertainment with good production - we enjoyed the quiz’s most nights and the weekly RIU party on Fridays is mega! (Loud though so be warned!) - Really friendly and helpful staff - not a single bad experience across the week. - Good pools! (5 of them) - Well kept grounds and public spaces (i.e toilets) are kept really clean which is great to see. - Good ‘snack’ food and drinks for poolside which are help yourself. Burgers/Hotdogs/Chips and all the trimmings. With Amstel and Cruzcampo Radler on tap. - Great bar service throughout the week, could tell a couple of the staff were new-ish and they were great. - No smoking around the pool which is a bonus. - Is a big hotel but never felt too busy. Cons: - Lack of coffee! Only instant sachets in your room, and only place to get one before 10am is the main lobby bar. Only serve filter at breakfast. - Food options: breakfast (and main buffet in general is lacking abit) - always the same and not much for younger kids (we just wanted some varied fruit for our son). It was very hit and miss, some nights brilliant, some very lacking. Themed restaurants are all buffet. Although Italian and Asian meals were good and can book multiple times. - No water in rooms, have to pick up from main lobby. - No shop or additional amenities on site - Definitely have to have towels out reserving sunbeds by atleast 8am to get half decent spots! - VERY hilly, struggle with a pram up the hill that runs the length of the hotel, if you have mobility issues it may be a problem!