Sol Arona Tenerife — Hotel in Arona

Going to try and be as detailed and as honest as possible to give the best non biased review.

I have just returned home from what has been a fantastic weeks stay at Sol Arona Tenerife. I used to come here every year as a child but hadn’t returned since 2019 due to covid and wanting to explore other countries. Me and my partner decided we would come here for this reason.

Reading all the reviews online I was a bit worried my partner wouldn’t be pleased with the hotel. I knew that as long as there was a bed in the room I would be happy as I hold this place dear to my heart but most of the reviews are incredibly dramatic.

We stayed on the 14th floor with a view of the greater tenerife island, (not the pool/ocean view) so I suppose maybe the rooms on the lower floors are not of the same standard due to being older. Our room was incredibly clean. The floors must have been at least swept daily as items such as headphones which I had left half under my bed by mistake were picked up and left on the table. As for mopping I’m not sure as my partner left her case on the floor and it didn’t appear to move during the stay. Fresh sheets and towels were prepared every day and my partners pjs were even neatly laid out on top of them.

In the bathroom, there was admittedly some staining on the floor of the bath and the shower took a little while to heat up and struggled to stay in position but again I could look past it. There did also seem to be somewhat of a sewage-y smell coming from the bathroom but nothing that affected us to complain, just was unpleasant in the odd occasion we smelt it.

The pool appeared to have been cleaned on the bottom from photographs I had seen before coming away which I found relieving as I worried my partner would be put off. The sun beds are a little sunken in but do seemed to be washed it at least wiped as we didn’t notice any marks when moving to different locations beside the pool.

The token system is a bit inconvenient but if you just use your brain it’s incredibly easy and shouldn’t have a detrimental affect on holidays. The activities for adults at least seemed to lack. On one day I was particularly excited for the water polo as it’s always a good way to get to know people and good fun. The nets were brought out and then left for 20 minutes before being taken back in without any organised game which I was a little gutted about. Thankfully the dart tournament did go ahead which made up for it.

In terms of the food, it’s decent. They have a wide array of salad options on the one side of the restaurant and on the other side the cooked food is alright. You’re going to find something you like but the food on offer is a bit basic and repetitive. I think I had pizza pasta and chips of some form every day but as someone who is incredibly fussy with food I was overjoyed. If you’re quite into your food you’re better going out of a nighttime to eat at the restaurants just minutes away near the beach.

The lobby area is clean and well kept although it’s a shame to see the sports ‘bar’ no longer operates as much of a bar anymore. They used to show live football and that’s where you’d congregate on a rare rainy day but it appears to have just become an arcade.

The evening entertainment seems to have dropped off a little and also seems to go on much later than it had before which if you’re on that side of the hotel with your room must have been a little annoying.

As for location you can’t get much better. There’s a free bus to Siam park on the door step, the beach is a minutes walk down the hill (but good luck getting back up, it’s like Everest) and the markets down the other hill are always good fun.

Our room was ready when we arrived at 12pm and the receptionists seemed incredibly polite and attentive.

All in all I had a fantastic holiday. I cannot speak for the experience of others but the reviews I have seen seem incredibly over exaggerated although some do make some key points. As others have mentioned there does appear to be plans to refurbish next summer as to be fair it is...

I stayed at this hotel for 12 days with my mum and dad. We stayed here in 2018 and 2019 and loved it, so decided to return in 2023. This hotel has gone severely downhill, and become the worst accommodation I've ever stayed in. I would definitely not recommend staying here. So many issues ruined our holiday:

My parents and I spotted multiple cockroaches emerging from cracks in the bathroom tiles -- they were running around on our bathroom floor, and around the bath. I've attached pictures of some we killed near the bathroom. We first began to see the cockroaches on the second night of our stay, and from that point forward we would see at least 2 cockroaches each night or morning. We went to reception to report the problem. The receptionist was way too casual and tried to downplay the problem various times, for instance by suggesting that the insects we are seeing aren't cockroaches when they clearly are! She then told us that the hotel would send someone to apply cockroach repellent in the bathroom. We waited a full day for somebody to come and put the repellent so we could show them where the cracks are, but nobody showed up until the evening, which wasted a day of our holiday. When somebody finally showed, they just put some silicone in some of the cracks and refused to do anything else. This didn't solve the problem of course. Also, my mum and I also spotted cockroaches (some of which flew) in various other parts of the hotel. For instance, we saw one in the restaurant, and one emerge from under the stage in the entertainment area, suggesting that there's an infestation under the stage. Around the cockroach that emerged from under the stage, I saw a huge crowd of ants (definitely hundreds of ants). I was going to take a picture, but I was too disgusted and scared.

2. Undercooked and inedible food

The hotel food was disgusting and unsafe. On one occasion, after eating a significant portion of our meal, my dad and I noticed that our sausages were pink and raw. I’ve attached a picture. When I showed this to a staff member, he said nothing. He just nodded, quickly took our plates, and threw the food in the bin. He didn’t take the situation further. I understand that food in hotels is generally not the tastiest, but safety and hygiene is a basic expectation for any eating establishment. My dad and I both suffered stomach issues (cramps, diarrhoea, and vomiting) due to the undercooked hotel food. On top of this, the plates and cutlery in the hotel restaurant were often dirty and stained, and as mentioned above, we saw a cockroach on the restaurant floor.

3. Rude and/or unresponsive service

The service at the hotel was generally atrocious. For example, the TV in our room stopped working. We reported the problem to reception, and they sent over a repairman. He did nothing! He simply fiddled with some wires around the back of the TV, mumbled something in Spanish and left the room, never to return. The problem was not solved, so we didn’t have a working TV for the rest of the holiday. Also, one of the workers at the bar was very rude when I ordered a burger, and another staff in the reception area was snappy when I kindly asked why my taxi was taking longer than expected.

Generally, the hotel was not a comfortable space to be in. The lobby and restaurant had no air conditioning. The staff just relied on open windows or really weak fans to provide some air, but there was none circulating, so the place was really stuffy. The fan in our room didn’t work either – it was really noisy and slow – so my dad had to fix it himself because we knew we probably wouldn’t receive any help from the hotel (since our service received for other problems had been rude and/or unresponsive).

To sum up, I would definitely not recommend staying at this hotel. The hotel’s hygiene standards and service are absolutely appalling. They are obviously trying to reduce costs to the bare minimum, so their standards have...

Writing details for each point and hope it will be helpful for someone planning to stay at this hotel. Stayed around end of May with family for 8 days. The weather at Tenerife was fantastic (around 25-27 deg C throughout). @Rooms (score 4/5): Spacious, clean, Air-condition needed at this time (otherwise portable AC/fan can be hired at around 30 euros for a week if needed through reception). For family, we got a living room (with sofa bed), 1 bedroom (with king-size bed), balcony, bathroom. The Family Guest room is in the premium range with a fridge and kettle included, and the views were amazing (pool, mountains, sea) as shown in the pictures. @Staff (score 3/5): Really hard-working, but due to the work pressure probably, some of them were not kind sometimes. Feels like they have less staff to handle guests, as all of them kept working continuously. The entertainment team was really good in keeping the kids busy at pool and in the evenings. @Location/Transport (score 5/5): Located in Los Cristianos (a town in South Tenerife). Perfect location that doesn't even need a car hire. Very close to the beautiful beaches (walking distance) like Harbour beach, Playa De Las Vistas so very convenient for little shopping, restaurants, booking tour tickets etc. as there are a lot of good travel agents. The bus stop is just outside the main entrance of this hotel, so it's very convenient for transport to: Siam Park (10 mins from here, FREE buses every hour), Siam Mall (10 mins from here, FREE buses every hour), Loro Park (around 1hr 10mins from here, 15 euros adult ticket, 10 euros child ticket, under 6 FREE). Lot of other buses also stop here which makes it very suitable without car hire). Taxi (e.g. for Airports) can be called through reception within 3 mins. Tenerife South Airport (TFS) travel takes 20mins and costs around 25 euros everytime. @Food (score 2.5/5): Very few options for Vegetarians like us, hence the low score. Non-veg options were good I think. Desserts, breads & fresh fruits were always available. Nearly similar menu for veg. food everyday. The main issue was that a lot of food items were kept close to the non-veg food items which makes it very uncomfortable for the Vegetarians and smells a lot. There were a lot of flies in the dining hall sometimes due to the weather and staff was not concerned about it at all. @Facilities (score 4/5): FREE drinks included in the "All-Inclusive package", multiple drinks available (including alcohol), Soft drinks, some mocktails/cocktails. Swimming pool available to use all the time, with drinks, snacks, kids games, evening entertainment, Table tennis, FREE luggage room on the day of checkout. The other parts are chargeable like Snooker, Mini golf, Massage chair, Beauty Salon etc. @Entertainment (score 4/5): Good for children to keep busy with painting, drawing, t-shirt painting, dancing etc. Some talented musicians were invited (different everyday) for entertainment every evening. @Cleanliness (score 3/5): Rooms are kept very clean, cleaned every day, towels etc. changed everyday. The pool and other public places are cleaned every morning. The only issue were flies in the dining area which was very frustrating especially for kids even when the fans were switched On sometimes.

Hope the review is helpful for...