Sol Elite Hotel, Playa de las Américas

Sol Tenerife is a large hotel in the resort of Playa de las Américas on the island of Tenerfie. The hotel was built in the seventies, but has undergone refurbishment recently. The hotel has 522 rooms across two towers, most with sea views, and three swimming pools (one is for children). There is a large restaurant with an outdoor eating area, a snack bar by the pool, and a programme of evening entertainment. There is pedestrian access via room keycard from the pool area to the seafront promenade, with the beach only 2 minutes away in one direction, and 5 minutes away in the other. Being a volcanic island, the beaches consist of dark sand; the sun loungers were €5 for the day at Playa de las Américas. Beware the Chinese men and women offering massages and the North African men selling dodgy sunglasses! 15 minutes’ walk along the coast brings you to the resort of Los Christianos, with a huge, heaving beach, a new shopping area and many more restaurants.

The Spanish system of rating is a little different to other countries: hotels are rated on things like their entertainment programme, as well as their rooms and ameneties. Therefore hotels in Spain tend to get higher ratings than one would expect; this hotel is rated 4-star but is by no means the equivalent of a 4-star hotel in London for example. To that end, the hotel would probably only be rated 2 or 3 stars based on accommodation alone: the rooms are fairly basic in terms of décor and furniture. Having said that, rooms are air-conditioned, have a balcony, fridge and well-sized bathroom. Rooms have a safe, although there is an additional charge for this and you need to obtain a key from reception. In our case, the key had been lost so we weren’t able to hire the safe. Most hotels nowadays have keypad-lock safes, negating the need for a separate key. Note that the beds are fairly hard -- perhaps better for the older traveller!

The restaurant is a self-service buffet-style affair. We found that lunch was generally better than dinner - lunch is a lot quieter and so the chefs don’t have to prepare so much in bulk - but be warned that no drinks are included. A bottle of still water was €2; the house wine about €7. The restaurant has a grill offering meat cooked to order; this occassionally included Canarian dishes for a more authentic meal.

Breakfast was well stocked with options for the many nationalities present at the hotel: cold meats and cheese for the Germans and Dutch, fry-ups and cereal for the Brits, and so on. Unfortunately for us Brits, the milk was a fairly watery affair making it hard to make a decent cup of tea! The fruit juice in Spanish hotels is never freshly squeezed (or even from concentrate) and more like cordial than the juice we are used to.

We stayed at this hotel for five nights in November. The weather on Tenerife rarely drops below 18 degrees Celsius and there is hardly any rain, making it an ideal year-round sunny destination. This held true for our trip, and it was a balmy 23-25 degrees with no rain at all.

One thing that has to be said about this hotel is its proximity to the tired and tacky Veronicas, a strip of bars and clubs that stay open most of the night. Unfortunately even with the doors closed we could still hear the thumping of the music, although we had earplugs so it wasn’t much of a disturbance. Make sure you take your own pair, as being unable to sleep is a sure way to put a dampener on your holiday.

Overall I rate this hotel 3 stars. It’s generally comfortable with acceptable food, is close to the beach and has a large pool area. The noise from local bars and slightly basic furniture in the rooms detracts from an otherwise perfectly acceptable hotel for a holiday.