Dream Bocayna Village (old Tacande Bocayna) — Hotel in Yaiza

a lovely week holiday. Although we had a nice time, I feel its only really a 3 star.

We arrived very late after a delayed flight. Someone was still at reception (usually closes at 11pm) explained where we needed to go and to come back in the morning to properly check in. She was very friendly and informative. Our cot for the stay was missed, my husband went down to ask for one. However, when he brought it back to the bungalow it was extremely dirty, smelly and soiled. Our 8 month old baby ended up sleeping in the bed with us. In the morning we let reception know, who rectified this. Because we arrived late food and drink was left in the fridge for us. A €100 deposit is required and is taken on card, standard for most hotels. However, I didn't particularly like writing my card details down on paper for them to store.

Food is okay. Breakfast and lunch are very samey. For dinner the starter, Is again a buffet and a repeat of lunch time buffet, give or take a few items. Main is a choice between 2 meat, 2 fish and 1 veggie option. I did Really struggle to feed my 6 year old, who is normally a great eater. I was very bored of the food by the end of the week, so we opted to eat out on our last night.

Bar has a nice selection of spirts and cocktails. They also have sangria on tap and the beer on tap is very nice. If you want to take drinks to the pool or your room, you are given tiny plastic cups. We bought our own plastic pint glasses, and they had no issues filling them. They also offer alcohol free cocktails which are perfect for kids.

The staff are all wonderful and friendly and work super hard! Everyone we spoke to or encountered were lovely and a real assest to the hotel.

We stayed in the superior deluxe bunglow. It was very spacious and clean! Perfect For a family of 4. The terrace is lovely! Sea views and sunloungers! Perfect for if you don't want to mingle downstairs by the mainpool. Aircon is located in the kitchen, if you leave the internal doors open, it soon cools down the bungalow. The drains can smell, but it is a hot country, and soon passed if you opened the doors to air it through. My only real complaint was when booking the description said they come with Hot tub, BBQ, robes and slippers. We stayed in number 28.. There was no BBQ, no robes and the Hot tub was a cold mini plunge pool, NOT a hot tub. Slightly disappointed as I wanted the hot tub to sit in and enjoy in the evenings, but was far too cold, even during the day to go in, so was left mainly unused The BBQ also would have been lovely to enjoy at least 1 day of the week. Feel abit miss-sold on the superior deluxe and wasted money on the upgrade fee. Would actually like this refunded.

The Late check out is €20 untill 2pm or €50 untill 5pm. We booked this the morning after we arrived.

Cleaning is done every 2 days. Beds are changed, floors are mopped and the bath rooms are cleaned. We did buy sponges and cleaning products so we could do our kitchen as this is not done by the cleaners, which is understandable... Yes, we found bugs in the bungalow, but again it's a hot country so it's to be expected. Bug spray is under the sink in the kitchen.

Main pool is lovely. Sunloungers and Brolleys are available to use. Doesn't seem to have the issue of sunbed wars. Lifeguards aren't really seen and tend to sit in their little cupboard. But the pool is nice, clean and quite! However, the pool is deep with no shallow end for children. There are steps in but after that it's deep water. There is a tiny pool for babies, but nothing really for small children. There is no night time entertainment, for me that's perfect! The bar has a pool table and music playing. The main jacuzzi by the bar is empty, again this was another point we felt slightly miss-led by.

Bus number 30 is round the corner from the hotel and a quick 10-minute ride into town. Cost is £1.40 per person. The supermarket is a 10-minute walk away.

Overall this place is okay. For me it's not a 5 star.. Unsure if I will stay here again purely for feeling like we were misled...

Stayed in February 2024 and it's been lovely. The hotel itself has clearly undergone improvement work, our room (Deluxe Apartment under Jet2) was the perfect space for us and 2 children. It was clean, nice kitchen area with all essentials, main bedroom has ensuite with shower which looked like it has been updated in recent years, and the big surprise was the mini pool in the outdoor area which must be recent, as it wasn't even advertised. But such a nice outdoor space, perfect for us in the evening and the kids as a break during the day too.

It was quiet this time of year, the pools are cold but in the afternoon they get to a level you can get in and enjoy it once you've mustered up the courage! You soon get used to it and it's about the same as the sea was.

During the day there's a basic pool bar available and a separate all inclusive bar (although we were half board so didn't use it) but it is small. But it's enough, as it is a fairly small complex but nice and pleasant.

The food we personally thought was good, largely the same breakfast buffet each day with changes to pastries, but covers everything from your standard breakfast (scrambled egg, beans, sausage, hash browns) then a good selection of pancakes/waffles, breads, pastries, fruit, quite extensive and enough variation.

Evening meals surprised us, you get a choice of 5 mains each evening which have been spot on (the odd one was a bit bland sure) but we've enjoyed it most evenings. This was in addition to a buffet with the regular stuff, salad bar, breads/meat/cheese, cooked food such as chips, pizza, potato dishes, fish dishes, steak dishes, at least 2 cooked dishes changed every night on the buffet. We had expected to want to have the odd meal out but it's been nice enough and varied enough over 7 nights to be good enough in the end for us and the kids.

Really can't fault the hotel and the staff have been lovely all throughout. Really friendly and couldn't do enough.

Location wise we did our research and knew it was a quiet resort, there's a couple of bars/shops and a supermarket in a centre near the front but nothing much. There is a bigger supermarket and an English supermarket about 10mins walk away.

We split our days between spending time by the pool and the hotel and walking to the next resort for the beaches (playa dorada) which is lively with a shopping centre and bars/shops/restaurants in the marina.

It is a 35/40 walk but well worth it, we did take prams for both our 2yr old and 5yr old because of this and it worked great. It's a lovely walk on the front and beach is great. There's also playa papayago(?) which is closer but is a drive or trail walk (rubble paths etc). So we didn't head that way with the prams.

As long as your prepared and know what to expect as we did, it's been fantastic for the week. Hotel way out shone our expectations which is was great.

Just one suggestion to the hotel though, please consider leaving a mop and/or sweeping brush and dustpan in the rooms. With kids we constantly had sand outside and we wanted to sweep up the patio area (also was windy which added to it) we resorted to cloth's we bought which took an age. So please consider this, as house keeping didn't clean outside.

All in...

I had an EXTREMELY unsatisfactory experience at this hotel.

3 out of 4 door locks were broken in the rooms.

The language barrier was a significant problem. Nearly half of the staff couldn't communicate in English, even at the reception !! making it incredibly frustrating to convey even the simplest requests or concerns. The pool guy doesnt know what a towel is for ex and they mostly all reply to you in spanish which i think is a bit odd for a hotel 95 % occupied by British.

The pool water was visibly dirty and caused skin irritation for me and my sister. I honestly started going to nearby hotels to be able to swim and the irritation suddenly disappeared. The maintenance seemed lacking, and I witnessed a situation where the pool was being tended to by individuals who where shouting in russian ( luckily i understand russian ) that they weren’t knowledgeable about proper pool care and were pouring a huge bucket of chlorium without any safety precautions in the middle of the day, 30 minutes before the pool opening . The pool itself was small and appeared poorly maintained as the tiles around were all broken.

Access to the sea required a long, uncomfortable 30-minute walk under the scorching mountain heat.

Housekeeping was subpar. The cleaning staff spent only a brief 5 minutes tidying up the rooms, leaving behind a considerable amount of dirt and mess.

Rooms lacked air conditioning. Instead, there were only fans that failed to provide any cooling relief, making the room environment uncomfortable.

The WiFi was painfully slow both in the rooms and around the pool area. It couldn't handle multiple users at the same time, making it practically useless.

The food here deserves a special mention. The quality was sickening. I found an expired taste in the dishes, particularly with EVERY fresh vegetable and certain salads. Every meat was overcooked. I literally found PLASTIC in THE FOOD ( photos for proof). The meals lead to digestive discomfort for both me and my entire family as i was feeling bloated, constipated and nauseous for the entire duration of this trip and even THREW UP.

In conclusion, it's evident that this hotel is struggling to maintain basic standards. It's disheartening to see such a decline in quality and service. It seems that cost-cutting measures have been taken to the extreme, impacting the overall experience of the guests. Sadly, I would NEVER recommend staying here as it falls far short of what a hotel...