Arrecife Gran Hotel & Spa

My wife and I stayed half board in the Gran Hotel for a week in March 2026. I rarely write Tripadvisor reviews but I feel that this stay deserves one, on account of our having had such a very good experience. Check-in was smooth and swift and we were soon in our room, an Infinity Suite on Floor 7. The room proved an utter delight. It had a high ceiling, vast windows, small parts of which you could open, lots of space and a very comfy bed. Soundproofing was excellent. There was room in the minibar for our own bottle of milk and there was a decent kettle too, so we could make a proper cup of tea whenever we wanted. Two small bottles of water were supplied every day – not enough for big tea drinkers like us, but we supplemented that with supermarket-bought water. The tap water in Lanzarote is safe to drink, but we don’t like the taste. The room was in excellent decorative order – no scuffs on the walls here! It was looked after by a brilliant guy called Samuel. We were really pleased when we found that we could get live BBC1 and BBC2 in our room, in addition to Spanish and other international channels. The evening meals were excellent. We’d originally thought that we’d dine out sometimes even though we’d bought half board but we soon ditched that plan in light of the quality and variety of food on offer. Even better, this hotel does not rip customers off on wine bought with the evening meal. We tried a very nice Celeste Ribera del Duero for a shade under €40 and an Adrian Serrano Rioja for €20 a bottle, which we preferred to the Celeste. The restaurant was pleased to store half-drunk bottles and bring them out again the following evening. It didn’t serve coffee after dinner – for that a trip to the bar was needed. Breakfast was magnificent, with a huge variety of foods on offer. We particularly liked the fresh fruit, but there was everything you could possibly wish for, all of it super-fresh. The bread was fantastic, though there was the usual hotel conveyor toaster that made the usual mess of toasting… One thing we weren’t so keen on at breakfast was the Nestlé coffee machine. The coffee that came out of it was quite passable, but the reconstituted powdered milk it used made drinks like lattes or café con leche pretty vile, in our view. In the end, we used it to make tea (using the Yorkshire Tea we’d brought with us, of course) and used the milk intended for cereals in that. The restaurant does have a microwave for customers to use, but it is a cheap thing and on its last legs. In contrast to our room and other public areas, the pool area is a bit weary. The pool itself was lovely to swim in, but quite a few of the glass panels in its surround were cracked, in some places badly, and when it rained, the roof leaked like a sieve. The meals served there were great and very reasonably priced and it was proper-job expresso coffee here too, for which they charged less than a Burger King does in the UK. A note on car parking. There is a large public car park underneath the hotel that can be accessed on foot directly from the interior of the hotel. The way to work it is to prepay your stay at hotel reception and then present the receipt to the control desk in the car park, writing your car reg on it first. After that, your car registration is recognised by the car park number-plate recognition system and you travel in and out seamlessly and as often as you like. For hotel guests, parking is €10 a day. There is on-street parking nearby, but it’s not always easy to find a space. Lastly, a word about the staff. They were well-trained, well-led and hard-working. There were always enough on duty to ensure you never had to wait long for anything. They were friendly to exactly the right degree, without going over the top, and we adored them. This has been one of our best hotel experiences in a lifetime of travelling, and we fully intend going back.

Staff

Smell paying for spa lifts rubbish area rubbish

On arrival at hotel we were offered a complimentary wine, the hotel overlooks the ocean and our room was very pleasant and comfortable. The buffet breakfast was one of the best I’ve had, lunch by the pool was superb and reasonably priced.

The buffet breakfast and dinner were both very good with plenty of choice also very good value. The swimming pool area is very attractive.

The lifts are annoying but faster lifts will be installed during the year. There didn’t appear to be any outdoor areas where you could sit in the sun but we might have been affected by Storm Theresa which brought gale force winds.

Firstly I would NOT recommend this hotel to anyone, this is NOT a a 5* hotel is more like a 3* and that`s being generous. It is a business hotel NOT a holiday Hotel. They do not have any outdoor space for sunbath apart from the cafe which is on the second floor and only has 12 sunbeds on the terrace. Everyone is sitting there eating and watching you through the windows, most of the windows and glass surrounds are all smashed !! it looks terrible. As for the indoor pool which is situated in the "cafe area" again everyone is looking at you while they are eating, the pool is small and looks dirty and I was not in the least temped to swim in that. The hotel itself is tired and needs a lot of money spending on it to get it up to the standard of 5*. The lifts are horrendous, broken and shabby, everyone is wanting to use them due to the 17 floors, so the wait to get one is long. Also you have to share the lifts every time with domestic staff with their trolleys, maintenance staff with their trolleys and catering staff with their trolleys !! it was a joke. Moving on to the rooms, I booked a room with a sea view which it had but not what was in the TUI brochure as each side of the window I had massive walls, again not worth the money I paid and not what I was promised. The room was tired and the valence`s on the beds was very dirty and obviously not been changed for a very long time. The pillows were hard and well used !! I was too afraid to take the covers off them to look!! My room was not cleaned or towels changed, unless I remembered to put a sign on the outside of the door to say " clean room" I had to ask reception for clean towels on my second day. Reception staff : well I have never come across anything like this ever. during the day there was young staff on duty, some better than others but the majority could not be bothered and ignored me as I stood by the desk wanting help. when I arrived I was told to use the ground floor restaurant for my meals, that evening, I waited and waited for it to open but then realised at 8.30pm that I was given the wrong information and I should have been in the restaurant on the 1st floor, which I have to say is not easy to find and when I asked the young man on reception for help he said 1st floor and walked off. The food I have to say was not too bad but when this restaurant closes in the evening, there is no other bar apart from the roof top bar which is the 17th floor. There is no sitting out in the evening sun as the cafe bar is also closed. Moving on to the beach which looks nice but NOT allowed to use, as there are lifeguards all long telling people to get out of the water!! I realised it was rocky but I was later told it was due to pollution. The resort is boring and you have to walk miles to find shops unless you want to get milk or everyday things as there is 1 shop within walking distance. My experience of Lanzarote and this hotel was so bad I will never go back there. Finally all I can say is Don't book this hotel, as I don't want anyone to waste their money as I did.