BLUESEA Costa Jardin Spa — Hotel in Puerto de la Cruz

This is a hard review to write. I had a nice holiday, but I would say it was despite the hotel, not because of it.||To summarise, I would say the hotel does not even attempt to meet the expectations its adverts present. This hotel falls short of its advertised 4-star standard, resembling a budget 3-star at best. Guests may encounter poor food, unhelpful staff, frequent maintenance problems, and inadequate facilities. The overall experience is marred by safety concerns, broken amenities, and a lack of professionalism among some staff members. While the activity team offers some entertainment, the hotel's service quality and condition do not justify returning or recommending the property. Guests should be prepared for disappointing standards and limited security or comfort during their stay. There is a clear priority of profit over performance, and I won’t be returning. I may even avoid the brand altogether. ||Before you book, please be aware of the following: |1. This is not 4, at best a 3. Perhaps it once was, but not anymore.|2. The food is among the worst I have had at an all-inclusive, and the variety is poor, with little to no vegetables. My kids survived on chips, pasta, pancakes, and ice cream and I couldn’t argue with their choices.|3. All the bars have one, occasionally two staff members, and there are frequent long, slow-moving queues. There is cocktail of the day, all others are extra. The lack of staff also leads to a messy bar area as staff don’t have time to clean.|4. You will need to leave a deposit for a cup if you want a drink poolside. This is a great idea as it saves staff from collecting cups, but I doubt the savings are passed on to residents!|5. There is a really run-down feel to the place, where the response seems to be to close off or put cones on the damaged areas.|6. After 7 days, I don’t think I have sat on a ‘good’ sunbed.|7. Oh, and just in: they don’t have a courtesy room. I can’t wait for my 2200 flight! – they will offer late checkout at a cost!|8. You can’t get ice cream by the pool but the bar does sell branded ice creams and ice lollys.|9. Renting equipment for the sports facilities is a bit of a hassle.|10. The spa costs an additional €24 per person per day.|11. 50% of patio furniture is broken or breaking; one person had a chair collapse last night, and not a single staff member went to check if he was okay or helped him find another chair.|Now, a bit of my personal experience:|The staff speak the least amount of English of any holiday I’ve taken in the Canary Islands (I’ve had a few), and on more than one occasion, they were downright rude (though most are nice). My room’s air conditioning is broken. One day, they lied to us, saying it was broken everywhere and would be fixed; the next day, thanks only to our cleaner, we got a portable unit and were told it wouldn’t be fixed anytime soon! This really annoyed me. I have no security, my room is open all day and night or it’s a sauna. The safe is too small to hold more than a passport, phone, and cash; it costs €4 per day, and you need to leave a €10 deposit. Despite my compromised security and the inconvenience of climbing over the A/C unit, I was offered no compensation, such as having the safe key without extra charge. |The food is poor (demonstrated on exit), with little choice. My personal favourite day was when they served cheap hot dogs at both main meals. I could list thousands of broken things around the pool (missing ladders, others broken), damaged sunbeds and patio furniture, broken tiles, and drains. In the room, the A/C is broken; the floor in one of the premium suites has gaps that pinch your feet everywhere, and there is little storage, about 15 hangers for four people. I know another guest whose fan shedded a blade in the night, hitting the wall so fortunate it didn’t hit a person! |The pool and gym don’t open until 10:00 AM; the lifeguard leaves at 7:00 PM. When a blind man fell in the pool, the maintenance staff helped him, but when calling the lifeguard, he meandered along to ask if the man was drunk. Yet when a kid plays up or uses a lilo, he’s on safety patrol immediately! |What’s good/okay:|The place is relatively clean by 3* standards and could be better if it wanted to return to 4* status.|The activity team puts on a good effort with a varied program, though it seems a bit random without a plan. The activities are well run and fun.|They don’t allow poolside lounging until 9:00 AM, which curtails the early-morning sunbed dash.|The gym is not bad for a hotel gym, but it’s closed on Mondays, and this isn’t well advertised. It also opens...

Where to start! This hotel is most definitley not a 4star hotel!! As soon as me and my mum arrived we realised we had been 'catfished' by the pictures used on loveholidays. The reception area and resturant are fine (however the scales were not working, the water features were all not working and in disrappare and dirty), the rooms are very dated and we moved rooms 3 times before we were in a clean room that was not thick with dust. The toilets and baths were dirty and looked as though they hadn't had a deep clean in months.. the rooms had crumbs on the floor, dusty furniture, and chipped and worn paintwork as well as damp in the walls. We did not let this ruin our holiday, as tenerife is absolutely beaituful and we were so grateful to be somewhere that we could enjoy the sun and beautiful scenery.

The hotel however has extremely rude receptionists that we witnessed arguing with many of the hotel guests who were unhappy with their room just as we were. Veronica was particularly rude to many guests that complained while we were getting our room sorted. Luckily, the receptionist we were dealing with (Benithulus) was so lovley and accommodating, the nicest member of staff in the hotel! The ladies who man the tourism and money exchange stall and those that work in the shop are also very helpful.

The food was terrible. Me and my mum are both vegan and were told that if we tell reception our dietary requirements they will be sure to make sure there is something that we can eat at meal times as we paid for all inclusive. Despite telling reception, this was a daily need to speak with the chefs to request a meal. Despite this, the chefs were helpful and did make us something that could accompany our salads. Otherwise, all week we would have had salad and chips for breakfast lunch and dinner!! We stopped eating salad after day three when there were flies all in the salad! When saying this to the staff they shrugged their shoulders, after explaining this is all we can eat as we are vegan and making a fuss they brought out a new bowl which still had flies in. Other guests had already told us to be careful as they had found flies in multiple dishes, particularly the pasta and the fish dishes. The snack bar also has mice droppings in the cupboards and corners as well as cockroaches because it is not kept clean. The food is always cold and usually has flies in it.

The lights at the hotel are all turned off at 11pm so you are made to feel as though you are being put to bed. You also do not have access to any of the hotel areas after 11pm. The hotel cuts costs in every corner possible. Shutting off the lights by the pool, the reception, bars, and even the balcony's on each room!! This meant that there were a few times that people were coming back to the hotel late that had no light to navigate around reception and the ground floor toilets. One evening an old man was very distressed as he was was walking into the funiture trying to find the toilets in the dark. By the pool, you are also required to pay 1€ deposits for your cups, this is apparently to be sustainable for the environment but this is clearly another cost cutting technique. There are no ash trays in the hotel garden or poolside outside areas. You are given foil trays (like what you get your mince pies in!) Which results in ash and fag buts being all over the floor as they are easily blown away by any wind.

The tables and chairs are also cheap white plastic which is dirty and stained, which again you would not expect in a 4star hotel. The entertainment is almost non existent! There was bingo on one evening, which has no dabbers with games printed on thin paper and no pens/dabbers just a cocktail stick to poke a hole through the numbers.

The music garden is beautiful but again all features are in disrepair and dirty. There is no lighting (not working) so you are unable to use this after 6pm when the sun usually sets. This is the same with the tennis court and games area. The pool is also only "open" from 10am till 6pm... REVIEW CONTINUED...

We enjoyed our 4 night all inclusive stay here- although I must add that the hotel is more like a 3*, but to be honest you get what you pay for and this was just a cheap getaway for us!

Location- on a hillside so you get beautiful views of Puerto de la Cruz, the sea and of mount Teide. The town is walkable, a steep hill and about 25 minutes, but definitely do-able. We did this walk twice and it was quite a pleasant walk. There isn't much situated in the immediate vicinity of the hotel, however as you walk towards the town there are shops, restaurants and the beach. A taxi from the town back to the hotel is around €5, but there is also a free shuttlebus to and from the town from the hotel, which runs about every hour.

Facilities- the pool is lovely, a little cold when you first get in but very clean and well maintained. The gardens surrounding the hotel are lovely. There is a mini golf course, which you have to pay a deposit for (€5pp I believe), which we did pay but unfortunately had to be refunded before we could play as the activities team left 2 hours early (was supposed to be available until 6pm, but could not locate anyone from 3.30pm onwards). The children's play area appears a little tired and could probably do with some repairs and maintenance. There is a shop onsite, and an activities rep who was friendly and helpful. Would definitely recommend a day out to Loro Parque! There are 2 bars, both clean, although a strange system of paying a €1 deposit for a cup to be able to get any drinks! The spa is amazing, would definitely recommend visiting- we paid €18pp for 90 minutes, and there is a lot to do inside (many different pools, steam room, sauna, ice plunge pool, waterfalls, cold room, shower room).

Rooms- outdated, tired and in need of a refurbishment. We were cold every night as the little sheets didn't quite cut it, so had to use the additional blankets from the wardrobe. Only 1 pillow per bed, and these are quite flat so may be worth packing your own. Shower not very powerful, but nice and warm. TV with 3 English channels showing films which was great as many hotels I've stayed in have only had a news channel. However, the rooms are clean and clean towels are provided daily which is great. Special thanks to Patricia from housekeeping for keeping our room spotless. Not many plugs to charge things. Very basic, no tea/coffee facilities, but does have an (unstocked) mini fridge. Rooms definitely more like a 3* hotel.

Food and drink- always something to eat, although the buffet options are limited compared to other hotels I've stayed in, and items can be a bit repetitive. Having said this, we always found something to eat and came away with a full stomach! Really enjoyed the salad bar. Drinks were pretty good for a cheap and cheerful all inclusive-plenty of local spirits available as part of the all inclusive, and also a cocktail of the day which changed daily (these were quite strong though- you only need one to feel a buzz!). The cocktails are premade so nothing too fancy, but a nice touch. Plenty of soft drinks/fruit juices/water (still and sparkling) and tea/coffee/hot chocolate. A special thanks to Manuel, who never failed to make us laugh, and always went above and beyond!

Pool areas- plenty of sunbeds, clean, and lots of parasols available. No complaints.

Entertainment- not great, although we were out of season which may explain a lot. During our stay there was only 1 day where the team was doing daytime activities by the pool. And the evening entertainment is ok but very short. The music all stops by 22.30, and the bar "kick out" is at 23.00 when the all inclusive ends- at this time all the doors are shut, lights switched off and you are sent upstairs. I found this quite unusual as usually there is at least music until the all inclusive ends. But the shows we did see, no matter how brief were ok!

Overall, we did enjoy our stay here and the hotel as a whole is pleasant, clean and good value for money. Expect...