Holiday reviews for Puerto Del Carmen

I stayed at Las Palmeras 111 apartment 5, for 1 week. It is a private, well kept and very clean complex with 8 apartments in total and has it's own pool. 5 minutes from the supermarket and 10 minutes from the main strip. Privately own by a very friendly and helpful Karen Livesey and rented out at a very reasonable price. A real home from home with toaster, kettle, fan, DVD, TV, video etc. The apartments are looked after by Nicky, who will answer all your question s on the complex and Lanzarote in general and will be of a great help should you need it. This combination makes for a trouble free enjoyable holiday. Recommended for everyone as they will even supply a cot for a baby.

Just back from the Club Oceano.

Furniture being moved next door or maybe it?s above or maybe it?s from below vibrates unbelievably loudly; the Spanish really have perfected this dreadful acoustic effect, so expect to be woken by a dawn chorus of scrapping chairs, but at least you won?t be wasting your holiday sleeping in. Another rather unpleasant design fault is that the loo has no window or extractor fan, so unless you?re a lone traveller take matches. On the plus side there?s a LCD TV with English channels which I?m sure would be great if it worked, unfortunately ours didn?t.

Together with the matches take cash, lots of it if you intend to stay around the pool as you can?t charge anything to your room. I was told this was because the guests arrive and leave on different days; yes I?m still scratching my head over that one. To compound this inconvenience the bar doesn?t take plastic, hence the need for cash. Apart from taxis and the sun bed man on the beach everywhere takes plastic and we found having to make sure we had enough cash for the apartments a real pain.

The pool was warm with adequate sun beds. The food surprisingly good during the day and the staff friendly, but we couldn?t eat there of an evening, because there isn?t a non smoking section. During the day we ate outside, but this time of the year it gets a bit nippy at night and bizarrely instead of popping outside for a ****, you have to pop outside to eat, you can of course choose to choke to death instead. On the last night of our stay dinning alfresco wasn?t even an option as the bar was closed for a staff party, no I?m not joking.

The beaches are good and the sun shone while we were there, but apart from sand Puerto Del Carmen has little to offer. Entertainment is almost non-existent. What passes for entertainment is a working TV. There are no decent restaurants within walking distance or a taxi ride for that matter and it?s impossible to walk along the front without being accosted by ?restaurant ? owners, and there?s an air of desperation about them that?s embarrassing. It?s downmarket, not in a club 18 /30?s or stag party way, but in a threadbare past it way. A bit like Margate with sunshine.

Importantly for you shopperholics there are no decent shops, even in Arrecife, which is a truly awful and dirty place. Just imagine the worst rundown graffiti covered shopping centre you?ve ever been to then double it. It is a truly, truly awful place.

If the weather is nice and if you just want to sunbathe than Lanzarote is fine, but don?t go expecting to shop and enjoy good food and entertainment, and avoid the Oceano club if like us you dislike eating in smog and prefer to wake when you want, not when your neighbour does or if you find settling the bill when you leave easier than carrying cash in your swimming trunks, and the least said about the loo, the better. We can only assume, the repeat guests referred to in the blurb have no sense of smell and are deaf chain smokers with an aversion to bank accounts and credit cards.

I did read on one review site the owners stating that had the guest raised the complaints whilst they were still there then they would have put everything right. Well I did and they didn?t. Accepting plastic was too expensive, charging food and drink to our room was too complicated and mending the TV was beyond them.
We did move room once but noise was no better because the building has no soundproofing and would need rebuilding to cure the problem. Regarding the smog I was told the guests preferred it, of course they do and it hasn?t anything to do with the staff who all smoke in the bar, yeah right.

Our holiday with Thomas Cook went wrong from the very start. The plane was delayed taking off at Gatwick due to crew shortages (that happened last year as well);. When we got to Lanzarote we were put on a coach to our accomodation without a Thomas Cook rep and the spanish driver left us in the main street of Puerto del Carmen with heavy luggage in the heat of the day for us to find our own way to the Playa Club apartments which was down a side street.

The Playa Club is clean, the staff helpful, good pool area but very,very cold water and it is near the main shops and beaches.

The two weeks we were there in early August the noise night and day was horrendous.

Each night from about 2am-5am there were drunks coming back from night clubs running around screaming, shouting, throwing balls, moving sunbeds and swearing. The night security did not seem to try and stop it. Several people were trying to relocate due to the noise.

By day the builders were refurbishing two apartments by the pool area and the noise from hammering, drilling, shouting and loud music by workmen there was no way we could have a relaxing holiday. There was no mention of the building works from Thomas Cook when we booked, or even before we left Gatwick, because if there had been, we would not of gone. Looking at the state of some of the apartments I would think this refurbishment programme will be an on going thing for some time.

If it had not been for all the dreadful noise this could of been a good place to stay.

perto del carmen is THE best place i have ever visited, the locals are friendly, all staff will offer as much help as possible. tha appartments we stayed in were very clean (even got a bottle of wine when we arrived ); the maid came in very often ( when we hadn't locked her out ); to change towels and sheets, the pool area was v.clean and the pool bar was decent although we didn't stay on the complex at night, as there are many bars and reasturants to visit, this resort caters to all types of people, and on the 3 times i have been i never saw any trouble at night. so overall i would say this is the best place for a holiday...