Club La Santa Lanzarote

The sports facilities at Club La Santa are great – we swam every day and hired carbon bikes which were in excellent condition. Unfortunately, nearly everything else was a bit rubbish. Given the price level of this hotel, the management team really need to pay attention to the fact that they are actually supposed to be a decent quality hotel as well as a giant multi-sport facility.

Here is a selection of the things that I did not like:
– Unfriendly and unhelpful staff
– Horrible food in a grotty restaurant (Atlantico)
– Murderously uncomfortable beds
– Infestation of ants in our kitchen area
– Room only cleaned once in 4 days
– A feeling of a real lack of generosity – example 1: no shower gel provided (only one tiny bar of soap for washing hands). Example 2: I practically got shouted at by one of the bike garage staff for filling my water bottle from the water dispenser. Apparently, that water is only for having a small drink. WTF?? I have stayed in quite a few bike friendly hotels and ALL of them (except this one obviously) provide free water to make sure that you don’t run the risk of getting dehydrated. Example 3: No coffee or tea provided. Example 4: No TV or other entertainment in the room
– Complete lack of information about what was going on – e.g., bike garage was not open until 2 hours later than normal on New Year’s Day but there wasn’t even a sign to say this somewhere visible in the bike garage
– Loud exercise class music and instructors blaring out at all hours of day and night – breakfast on the Atlantico terrace is particularly un-relaxing when there is a woman screaming at full volume into a microphone at an exercise class just a few steps away

Anyway, I could go on but this is probably enough. We stayed in the North Ghetto (and it really does feel like a ghetto) and I have to say the newer houses in the South area looked a lot nicer and are a lot further away from the noise. Something to consider if you think you can tolerate the terrible staff attitude and awful food.

Not value for money and sad to see standards have fallen very low. Sports bar staff very poor serving short measures the worst being the bar manager. Club La Santa need to work hard and raise their standards. They are taking advantage of their customers by overcharging.

Bought a bottle of wine with our meal only managed to drink a glass each when our plates were being cleared away !!

Food arrived 5 mins after ordering

No way this food is freshly cooked

We were extremely worried how long before had it been Cooked And hanging been sitting in the kitchen before serving to us

Very disappointed

Considering club la Santa is a healthy holiday

The restaurant’s main concern is turning over of the table although when we were there it was still half empty but still the turning table around was more important than customer enjoyment

Whilst I could find few faults with the facilities, activities, or friendly staff, our two-week stay was ruined by the late night noise generated by the Club La Santa disco making it almost impossible to get a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately we were located in the North wing of the older facilities, and whilst still some distance from the disco, the loud music, cheering, shouting, and singing went on until up to 4:30 in the morning. This coupled with no air conditioning in the apartment (requiring windows to be kept open at night) and the return of party goers to their rooms late at night meant very little sleep was possible. When complaining about the noise I was informed that management policy was to keep the disco open until the last guest left.

I would suggest that CLS management need to decide who their target guests are as keeping the disco open until 4:30 in the morning is not consistent with performing a day of sporting / physical activities the following day. It’s slightly inconsistent to ask guests to be quiet between the hours of midnight and 7 am when the CLS disco is th the main source of late night noise.

Can’t remember getting less sleep in a 2 week holiday and will be glad to get home to the relative quiet of my house by a dual carriageway and under the Heathrow flightpath.

Well where do I start…

Positives – it is clean, the majority of staff are pleasant (but not all and I’ll get to them later), the shop is well stocked and is not over priced, the facilities appear to be well maintained and the pools are clean. If you are going there to train and prepare then it would be a great place to do it.

Negatives.

Well we chose the holiday as we wanted an active family holiday and we wanted the kids to learn a few new sports. Unfortunately, Club La Santa does not cater for children unless you are willing to pay through the nose for a private lesson. Windsurfing is a prime example of this with only a lesson on a Sunday and to get onto this you have to make sure you get up at 7am on Friday to get in the queue to book it – however if you don’t know the procedure you’re stuffed and even if you get up early you might not get in.

The early morning booking system really is shocking with all tennis courts, paddle courts and tournaments booked up almost instantly – often by the same people. What was more frustrating was that these courts were often not used. A system of limits or penalties would stop this abuse.

Food – don’t go for the all inclusive it is awful. The choice and variety is very poor with the same food served up time after time. My 8 year old was in tears that he had to go back to the restaurant and we all ended up eating overcooked steak and chips or something equally simple. The food, including the puddings, were bland and tasteless and it wouldn’t have surprised me to see the Paella from the night before being served up at breakfast next to the scrambled eggs. The lunchtime selection was extremely limited unless you have a penchant for Aldi battered fish and chips. The fruit was well past its prime and often bruised. The fresh breads are not at all fresh by 9am but are at least good for exercising your jaws!!

The Staff – the majority were lovely and did all they could to help – however there are 2 or 3 of the Green Team who seem to think that they are too good for the place – their people skills are sorely lacking and they completely put me off doing a couple of the sports.

The golf driving range was closed and we were not informed about this before we went so it was very disappointing.

The resort was very very noisy with music for all the different fitness classes booming out across the whole site – you do wonder whether technology could be used to direct the music in a more precise way.

The room we were originally allocated had a balcony which had no view at all – in fact, all we could see was sky. Fortunately, we managed to get a room swap but in the height of summer we would probably have not been so lucky.

So in summary they have the makings of a resort which really could be fantastic but falls short in many ways. They seem to be spending money on the physical assets but ignoring the everyday product. They could relatively easily solve some of these with additional lessons for kids, a better more varied menu with fresher food in the all inclusive restaurant (instead of trying to make more money by selling up their other restaurants – which were not much better) and an improved booking system with booking limits per room and a penalty for repeated no shows. If they do make these improvements then I would return however with the current issues then I will look elsewhere for next years holiday.

I have just returned from one of my many trips to Club La Santa. I must comment on the inadequate response from the Club La Santa Public Relations person to a friend who posted recently.
After commenting on the height and positioning a sharp-edged shelf in his room which could lead to someone seriously injuring their head,.he was told by the Public Relations person that it will be corrected in the next renovation phase.
The proper response should have been that It would be dealt with immediately and as a matter of urgency!

Whilst I was satisfied with the excellent level of activities on offer, I was extremely disappointed with the severe lack of entertainment at the resort. Apart from the Green Team evening, it was like being in a ghost town at night.

I understand that there has been a massive investment at Club La Santa and yet there wasn’t even 150/250 Euro to pay for a guitarist to play outside the Sports Bar this year or even Karaoke.

Fortunately, La Santa village had more ‘buzz’ about it and also provided better value in terms of food.

I will continue to recommend and visit CLS if I receive a response stating my concerns will be addressed immediately – not ‘in the next phase.’

If you want to see an accurate review of this place look at Club La Rip Off from Feb 19 2010 – I wish I’d seen it before I booked.

Here’s my summary:
Resort – awful. It’s a collection of tiny 60’s apartments arranged in a concrete square that has the most basic furniture you can imagine and makeshift beds that look like wooden boxes with a thin mattress on top. The “balconies” have no views – because the walls around them are 6′ high, and at night the noise is unbelievable – karaoke then drunken teenagers yelling and shouting into the early hours.

Gym – this is like the council gym at your local swimming pool. Anyone who thinks it’s good has never been to a serious training gym or even a Virgin Active / Fitness First etc.

Boxing – as a former boxer I can see why the celebrity boxer who trains here keeps losing. It has the most tired, forlorn equipment I’ve ever seen. I went to use it then walked away in shame.

Squash – ‘acceptable’ courts but remember to bring your own balls. Or you can buy one from the resort for over 4 euros (get used to this, the surcharges are incredible).

Pilates / Yoga / any supervised exercise – anyone who says this is good has never been to a proper class. The instructor uses the session as a workout, directing those taking part via a microphone and loudspeakers and not offering any advice. There is no supervision and I’d be surprised if there aren’t more than a few injuries each week. During a Pilates class, I saw a number of people straining and tugging to use the maximum resistance possible, and the instructor just turned a blind eye. This isn’t how pilates works people!

Cycling – er, you don’t cycle in La Santa. You cycle around Lanzarote. It’s the same island wherever you stay so you may as well stay someone decent.

Location. Club La Santa is over 2 kilometres from the nearest town, La Santa, and it’s a long, dry, barren journey. If you’re making the journey as a workout, fine. But if you’re walking or have kids then remember to take the money for a taxi home as you won’t be walking back and your kids will be in a pretty bad state.

Food – I can’t give a first-hand review of the on-site restaurants (read other reviews) but people were complaining. And don’t use the on-site shop either, it’s at least twice the price as the shops around Lanzarote. I even bought half a small jar of pesto sauce home as I couldn’t face throwing it away as it had cost me 5.5 euros!

Car Hire – no no no! Hire your car from the airport. And if you forget, take a shuttle bus back to the airport then hire one. This place was far more expensive AND has charges for accidental damage. The airport companies (especially the Spanish one, can’t remember the name but the logo is red, black and yellow) don’t have any accidental damage or surplus charges.

Windsurfing. I’m split here, the windsurfing staff were the only decent staff in the whole resort BUT La Santa has a policy of charging you for any damage even if it’s wear and tear. The equipment is good but old, and if a sail is ripped even slightly there is a minimum 60 euro charge. Now I agree completely that if someone misbehaves then they should pay, but not if old equipment just fails due to age and you’re the person who happens to be using it at the time.

Staff – who in their right mind could say they were good? They seem to behave like customers are an annoyance and simply do not want to help you.

Swimming pool – the good news is it’s an excellent 50 metre, 8 lane outdoor pool. The bad news is 6 out of the 8 lanes are permanently leased out to clubs so all the other guests have to squeeze into the last 2 lanes. Now there is a rule that you can join any lane if there are less than 6 people swimming in it, but if you do this then prepare for an argument as people in the clubs don’t like it.

In conclusion – dire. Very dire. But I guess the people with timeshare apartments here and people getting free accommodation for organising tours like it.