View from our balcony - larger pool round the corner
Looking towards the pool bar
View from promenade outside Barcelo Hotel
View looking towards the hotel
From across the bay towards the Barcelo Hotel
BARCELO HOTEL, FUERTEVENTURA
26th January 2005 to 2nd February 2005
View from our balcony - larger pool round the corner |
Looking towards the pool bar |
View from promenade outside Barcelo Hotel |
View looking towards the hotel |
From across the bay towards the Barcelo Hotel |
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This is a Map of Caleta - the Barcelo Hotel can be seen near the beach
| Hotel - Luxurious hotel, lovely reception/bar/theatre,
large bedrooms, attractive pools area. Location - Couldn't be better - next to the beach and central to bars, restaurants and shopping centres. Food - OK on the whole but did have disappointments i.e. soup and veg sometimes luke-warm, beef I couldn't chew through, casseroled lamb chops which were dry with no taste, salmon cooked fresh on the grill but cooked too long so dry etc. However, with being a buffet it wasn't too much of a problem as you could always go back for something else. Couldn't fault the sweets and there was a large selection and the ice-cream was delicious. Breakfast good as there was a great deal of choice. All-Inclusive - Unless you would not be bothering having anything to eat at lunchtime and hardly anything to drink all day, then you must definitely book All-Inclusive, but not through your Travel Agent because in Thomson's brochure it was listed as £17.50 extra but if you booked it with the hotel on arrival it was 18 Euros which was about £5 cheaper (This was if you were already booked half board). You also got a key to the safe free which would normally cost 2 Euros. Lunch in the restaurant would have cost 18 Euros, and with a bottle of wine at lunch (house wine 6 Euros) and one with your evening meal you were in pocket before you had anything else to drink. If you didn't want lunch in the restaurant you could dine in the Pool Bar, but it was a bit mind-boggling that if you wanted say, chicken and chips you would have to pay half of the 6 Euros cost but you could have a five course meal in the restaurant at no charge. There were however things you could have at no extra charge like pizzas and cheeseburger and chips. Pizza and a large glass of beer would cost 9 Euros if not AI. You could drink national drinks at no cost but got 30% discount off other wines in the restaurant and 50% off drinks in the bars. If you like Baileys then you could ask for crème de whiskey and probably wouldn't notice the difference! To give you an idea of bar prices - Small beer 2.10 Euros, large beer 3, mixers, i.e. gin and tonic, rum and coke 4.50, local liquors 2.60, others 3, soft drinks 2, coffee about 2, hot chocolate 2. Internet - Three Internet machines in the hotel - 1 Euro for 10 minutes. The Internet café opposite the Music Café in the Castillo Shopping Centre next door charged 75 cents for 15 minutes. Animacion Team - They worked very hard arranging the usual sort of activities like boules, skittles, darts etc., but it could be frustrating if you went to the venue of the day before for an activity and waited and then found them doing it somewhere else, or turned up at the time on the board and found it nearly finishing! Evening Entertainment - There were three evenings with outside acts, i.e. African Dancers/Jugglers, The Four Tops (although only 3 as one supposed to be ill) and Spanish Dancers, all excellent. One evening there was a show by the Animacion Team which was very good and the other three evenings just silly games like Miss Barcelo or Mr Barcelo and Man v. Woman. There were only about a quarter of the number in the theatre watching these so artists on the other evenings would have been preferable. Early evening they had entertainment for children and then presented certificates to winners of the activities during the day, so if you didn't want to have to go up on stage, then make sure you lost!! Walks - One direction along the promenade will take you to Nuevo Horizonte (now I think called Costa Antigua). We stayed there a few years ago and it is as awful as I remember it. The other direction takes you to the Atlantic Shopping Centre and the golf course. It will very pleasant when the new hotels are completed and the man-made beach is finished. Weather - Oh dear - very mixed, sun, cloud, rain for two weeks as we moved on to Correlajo from Caleta. Photos/Map - I have put a few photos on a webpage and a map of Caleta. They aren't relevant to the website but there isn't a link from it. If you live in the North of England or thinking of visiting then finish the address at the co.uk and get hundreds of ideas for places to visit. http://www.funforall.co.uk/fuerteventura/barcelo.htm |