TRH Taoro Garden — Hotel in Puerto de la Cruz

We were looking for a family holiday in the Canary islands for 10 nights and were looking through the typical discount holiday websites online. The problem with these websites is that, like insurance websites, the prices increase as you look through them and go backwards and forwards to compare because they store tracking cookies on your device! I have decided that Holiday Gems is one of the cheapest you will find - and if you travel on a Tuesday! For a family of 5, with our children being charged full adult price, finding a decent place to stay costs us a small fortune, so thoroughly checking through every hotel available on these sites and looking at recent reviews is a must for people like us. Anyway, about the hotel!.... The hotel is very, very, very nice. The main reason we chose Taoro Garden was because of the brilliant reviews. The main block has the best rooms - the beds and pillows are very comfy. The rooms have blackout curtains and a spacious balcony which overlooks the pool and gardens. Once again, the main block has the best views. The staff are very nice. We would like to give Esther & Carmen (pool bar staff) a special mention - they work tirelessly at the request of the constant customers. These ladies are a credit to the hotel. As is Raquel (the entertainment lady) - she is lovely, very funny and cheery and does her best to engage people to join in with the daily activities. We enjoyed playing daily darts, table tennis, pool, shooting etc with other holiday makers. Reception staff are helpful and the restaurant staff cannot do enough for you - they are SO polite and hospitable. The only staff who let it down slightly were 2 of the indoor bar staff who seemed to hate their job and barely smiled. However, we did raise this with management, because, as business owners ourselves, we understand how important making customers feel welcome is. The hotel still deserves a 5 Star from me though despite this. About the food: Absolutely excellent - I cannot believe the recent other reviews who stated 'lack of choice'! There is a HUGE selection every evening. We stayed All Inclusive which I highly recommend to anyone to upgrade to. There was frequent seafood, different meats freshly cooked, vegetarian choices, salads, fruit, ice cream, desserts etc. There is even something for fussy children such as pizza and chips every night. Breakfasts are excellent, as are the lunches - everything is fresh! But you can stay round the pool and have a burger and chips if you don't want to go up to lunch. The drinks are great - plenty of juices, slush puppies, beer, cocktails etc. We purchased our own plastic wine and beer glasses in the UK for around the pool to take with us as you are not (understandably) allowed glass around the pool. Also, make sure you book into the A La Carte restaurant for the 5 course taster menu if you are All Inclusive. You have one night free per week to experience this.The food was AMAZING! Absolutely fantastic - seriously, I will never forget how good this meal was! The Pool: The pool is nice and big with pretty gardens. It is very quiet and relaxing. If you want somewhere to chill and sleep on a sunbed, this place is perfect. We found the hotel was filled with different nationalities - German, Spanish etc. The website stated this hotel was 'near to the beach' - as the crow flies perhaps, but not realistically, as it is up on a hill so there is a fair steep walk to go down. We ventured down of an evening to avoid the hot sun but if you enjoy walking then this isn't an issue. To be honest, we mostly stayed around the hotel for the majority of this duration to chillax. The best beaches are definitely at the South of the island - we hired a car for 3 days to explore the island (highly recommend) - it's fairly cheap to hire one and reception can help you do this. It was great fun driving through & exploring the island and finding secluded beaches with the help of Google Maps! Overall, it was a fabulous chilled holiday. This is a very nice hotel to come to - just make sure you slap on the...

Based on a 4 nigh stay in Aug 2021

Overall an OK stay, not the best, not the worst. Room: 3/5 Service: 4/5 Food: 3/5

Deepdive; First off - during our stay there were a handful of families with small kids, all seemingly taking turns to go to the pool and jump and splash around. No blame on the hotel since they can’t actually control it - just people being people.

Our arrival was around 23:30 so we called ahead to ask if it was possible to eat something on arrival, staff said absolutely. We were greeted by a room-temp plate of sallad, a slab of tuna and some ham. Sadly everything had been out for a bit too long so didn’t dare to eat much of it. Oh and “there’s juice over there” - the machine didn’t work. But anywho, on to the rooms.

The room we got assigned was on the 2nd floor - clearly an older room that had plenty of wear and tear. Including a non-functioning AC.

Considering it was peak summer and albeit only 24c at time of arrival it was humid and probably warmer inside than outside. Went to explain that the AC panel was dead and was first offered fans but kindly declined that offer. After some back and forth we were offered another room instead. The staff did mention that they do not have another same-size room on that floor but we explained that we’re not picky about that.

Ended up with a room on floor 4 instead, step in and it’s quite a lot nicer. Like, 10years nicer looking. And more importantly the AC panel at least triggers something and some air is flowing. It’s now quite late and we decide to give up for the night and try to catch some zzz. But only after we make away with the two earwigs (insect) from the bathroom.

Day two and onwards; breakfast was a pretty solid buffet with a mix of fruits, yoghurts, made to order pancakes, bacon and the sorts.

When it came to dinner the setup was similar but dinner focused, one thing to note is that drinks are not included - not even water. We were asked to pay when leaving the dining hall so no option to put it on the room, I guess. Staff was generally super friendly and attentive.

In the end the AC in the room didn’t really work well, gave some coldish air at times but come morning the room was generally really warm and humid. We didn’t keep and doors/windows open.

When we came back one day there were two glasses and a note apologizing for the issues with the first room. Found a bottle of champagne in the in-room fridge but sadly that didn’t cool at all. Nice gesture though! We asked in the reception about the fridge and they came to swap it for another one minutes later. So service during the day was great I’d say. The new cooler worked a lot better.

Pool towels are available for 10€/each just fyi, very fair.

Wifi was shakey, lots of packet loss while using it the room so streaming Netflix for example did not work but if you’re probably fine roaming on 4G.

Limited parking by the hotel, if you came back early-ish afternoon you could find a spot but otherwise you would be parking a few minutes away at a free parking area.

Walking to “downtown” is ok, downhill and took maybe 15-20mins through a nice park area. Walking back was fine too but some nights we opted for the 4€ taxi instead as it was pretty much uphill...

tldr: it's ok, clean, good service, usual Spanish Hotel food - aimed at Euros, not British, but I'd go back. Visited December 2024. Half-board. Extra for safe and kettle. water/beer/soft drinks in mini bar, pool towels with deposit. Rooms are clean, and cleaned daily, no sign of bugs in my 3rd floor room. Some other reviews report cockies, perhaps they had ground floor garden rooms. I paid a bit extra for a Teide view, tbh it's just the absolute top of Teide as the hotel is in a shallow dip, but this is nice as it keeps the wind off. The food is probably good but not aimed at Brits. Breakfast is the usual Spanish hotel streaky bacon, weird sausages, watery baked beans and the vast array of continental stuff. If you're not into the full English you'll find something decent to eat with plenty of cheeses, cooked meats and fruit yogurt combos. One day they had actual British sausages, I mean they were low end greasy spoon sausages, but I've not seen anything other than weird little coloured sausages at a Spanish hotel before, so kudos. Dinner was a decent selection of two fresh grilled proteins at the service counter, sometimes actual nice fish, usually run of the mill chicken or pork, a stew type dish, veggies, some kind of chips. Always plenty of cheeses and meats, a soup, a bit of salad and the usual array of tasteless, tiny deserts. Redeeming feature - every day there had really good Canarian potatoes and passable mojo sauces. A decent wine selection in the restaurant. Now, the entertainment - if you're German and aged 70+ you'll love it. One night the "musician" didn't even sit with the organ/keyboard while it played it's mind numbing selection of ancient hits. A night of Spanish guitar/modern pop that had the euro wrinklies strutting their Strictly stuff all over the dance floor. I was wondering why the bar closed at 11pm but it was cause most guests went to bed before 10pm. Banging it is not, but if you want a quiet hotel this is the place. If you want more of an interesting night life go to the Plaza del Charco in the evening but be prepared for the usual tourist trap type restaurant. I actually found this a good base to explore from and situated with a nice garden and (not too cold) pool. The park outside is well used by locals and good for a swift constitutional. On the other side of the park is The Hotel Tigaiga, which is a slightly nicer version of this hotel with even less going on in the evening. But it does have a nicer A La Carte Restaurant.

If you want to try some splendid and interesting food and wine go to Vinoteca Con Pasion (let them choose a wine for you). Visit Alberto's Bar across the park for a drink with great views. If you want a silly and good fun/value local cooking lesson see if Bodegas Monje are doing Mojo sauce lessons. If you are renting a car there's a free car other side of the Taoro Park, busy but possible to avoid paid...