Santa Barbara Golf and Ocean Club — Hotel in San Miguel de Abona

We were greeted like long lost friends when we arrived at the Santa Barbara, despite this only being our second visit. The staff had kindly taken care of a mobility scooter that my husband had hired from Orange Badge, so that it was ready to pick up when we arrived. We were allocated Room 423 which was on the same level as reception, a lovely, big room despite a rather boring view of a rooftop. |We had everything we needed to make our stay comfortable - they even re-arranged the beds so we could have twin beds - my husband's disability makes him a very restless sleeper. The bathroom with multiple grab handles was excellent, and he felt very safe using the shower and toilet. The apartment was very clean and had a lovely balcony with a table, 4 chairs and two well-padded sun loungers. The only thing we seemed to be missing was a black bin (except for the tiny bin in the bathroom). It's such a good idea to have the recycling bins in the kitchen, but we had to bag up our non-recyclable rubbish and take it to the wheelybin in the corridor near our room. |We did have a few niggles, the main lift to the pool area broke down a couple of times, stranding my husband but, once informed, reception called someone to fix it. We had no wi-fi in the room for 2 days and I had to use my data roaming. I did report it a couple of times but I think they came to fix it when we were out, so they didn't know if it was working or not. On the 3rd day, I was in the room and they managed to sort it out. The wi-fi was still a bit weak, especially in the bedroom area. The wi-fi by the pool was also pretty poor, I don't know it this was caused by the building work going on as I can't remember it being a problem last year when we stayed here.|Our lovely pool attendant, Lode, was so helpful and ensured that we kept the same sun loungers - this was to make sure my husband could park his mobility scooter without making access a problem for any other guests. Lode was so friendly and helpful to everyone, a great employee. |I mentioned the building work which was a bit noisy, but much preferable to the awful music played round the pool. Last year it was a mixture of 70s and 80s music, but this year it was more recent stuff, very boring and bland. I ended up listening to my own choice of music on headphones, although some girls round the pool seemed to assume everyone wanted to listen to the rap music that they were playing. We didn't go in the pool as there were far too many children (and babies in nappies) using the adult pool. Why the parents do this when the kids have their own pool, I have no idea, but it isn't safe for older adults who are unsteady on their feet if they have to dodge kids running about. |The wee supermarket is brilliant and the girls who work there are just lovely. In fact, I have nothing but praise for all the staff at the Santa Barbara. We have already booked another holiday for...

Check-in Process|Was very happy with our stay as a family of 4. Arrived around 9pm, excellent advice received upon checking in around room cleaning, restaurant times, sun bed system etc..||Room & Facilities |We were in room 321 which had a fantastic view of the pool and sea. The room was clean on arrival and cleaned twice during our stay. The kitchenette was well equipped with a large fridge freezer, cooker, toaster and microwave. We did raise an issue with the staff regarding the patio door not locking, unfortunately this wasn’t resolved during our stay despite having young children. This was our only disappointment, had our children been a few years younger, this would have to have been resolved. ||Food & Drink Options|Reasonable prices in the poolside restaurant which we used on a few occasions for both breakfast and lunch options - it’s actually competitively priced to local restaurants which was great to see given there is no all inclusive option. All the staff here were super friendly and attentive 😊||There is a rooftop bar which opens daily at 5pm, this also has some form of nightly entertainment which is usually an artist singing covers. Very relaxing area to chill out.||We didn’t use the actual hotel restaurant so couldn’t comment on that. ||There is also a reasonably priced supermarket on site with a good choice of staple foods and treats. We found it better value to visit the local larger supermarket which was a 10 minute drive away, huge choice of foods and far better priced than the UK! Mercadona is the name of the supermarket. ||Pools|The main pool was big enough with daily activities at intervals, these ranged from water aerobics to walking on water fun for children. There is also a lifeguard on duty until 5pm daily which was great to see. There is a shallow children’s pool sectioned off for younger non-swimming children. The indoor spa style pool is adults only (over 16) so we didn’t use this.||Sun Beds!!! |Love the booking system and would highly recommend other hotels follow suit. We had no issues booking beds and there is no mad 7am dash and hogging going on. This system was a highlight for us and features heavily in our decision to return next year. ||Local Area |The local area is relatively quiet with no hustle and bustle like other very popular parts of the island. We found having a car super useful as everywhere is relatively close by. With ease we visited Santa Cruz, Siam Park and the beach at Las Terisitas. It’s also a far cheaper option than taxis. If you do need taxis, use local as Uber are far too overpriced in my opinion. For perspective, Tenerife South Airport is a 15 minute drive away, but around 35 euro one way. |Within walking distance of the hotel is a few restaurants and an Irish bar, all reasonably priced for food and drinks. We never ventured to San Blas which is also close by, we I tend to do so next time.||Would definitely...

At first we were somewhat concerned that the hotel would be located too far away from everything however we did have a car and it turned out the location was perfect for us. It is a sea fronted hotel where almost every room (if not all) will be guaranteed to have a lovely view of the sea. There's only a couple of upscale hotels in the area along with apartments and a golf course but there are also plenty of restaurants, bars & supermarkets within walking distance. Driving to Las Americas eto only took 30mins.

With gate access from the pool side with your room key, there is a well developed and maintained coastal footpath that runs for miles which around the coast and was a lovely spot to go for a walk and watch the sun rise in the mornings. There are no laid out sandy beaches of course due to the part of the island being mostly rock formations. Proximity to the airport was great on arrival and leaving day and at no point were we ever disturbed by aircraft or other outside noises. If you have a car there is plenty of public car parking spaces on street along with two very dubious and poorly maintained lots at the end of the one way road in front of the hotel but finding an empty space can be a challenge.

There is limited spaces at the hotel which is €8 a night which we only had to use one night but be warned it's very tight in there if you have an SUV or larger vehicle.

The property itself was impressive on arrival and we received a warm welcome on checking in. Our room was a spacious two bedroom apartment with 3 bathrooms; 2 of which were en-suite! Very comfortable for our party of 5. There was a full sized and equipped kitchen with space for dining and a separate living room which also had a double sofa bed. We also had a double balcony with a view of the pool and sea. There have been modifications to the room including adding some USB charging points and nice little features like built in night lights when all the lights are off. There was Air Con in all rooms and the heating system was an on demand boiler system so no cold showers ever! Beds were not the most comfortable we have been in but honestly we could not fault the room at all. What l will say is that we were in room 316 and right above us was the night time entertainment area and so the music was not only loud but vibrated through our walks. We could literally here people dancing, what seemed like tap dancing and running about above our heads too. Even if we wanted to we could not get to sleep until the entertainment finished at 11pm each night. It unfortunately did affect us a couple of nights when we wanted early nights for activities the next day so be mindful of the rooms along this level if you plan to have a more...