Hotel Barcelo Isla Canela

This was our first trip to Isla Canela, which was chosen as a result of our daughter being on crutches and needing an accessable location, shorter flight and transfer times. Could not fault the location of the hotel, the beach, just across the road, is amazing, miles of hot golden sand in a shallow bay, what surprised us was the hot Altantic Ocean due to the shallow bay. Perfect for small children to play in the sea and the sand. The small parade of shop concessions had enough of interest to window shop for an evening stroll. We loved the relaxed atmosphere of the hotel, the staff were pleasant and efficient, the service at the pool bar was somewhat slow at times and the staff struggled with English, lots of Spanish and French families staying at the time of our visit. Sometimes felt they were served before us! The food and drinks selction in the main restaurant was excellent, the restaurant itself is quite small, at peak times it was very busy and canteen like with the table very close together. The outside seating area is small and always in demand, some evenings we had to wait for a table.The themed buffets were always fresh and well stocked, no problems with the quality and selection of food. Especially loved the tasters on entering the restaurant linked in to each theme night. The BBQ was a disappointment, it was advertised allover the hotel but not once was there any indication of a surcharge for the meal, the food was good but no more so than the main restaurant. The service was slow and the poor staff were definitely stretched to cover the amount of tables that evening, the live music was dissappointing although it appears that the act had cancelled at the last minute and we had an alternative musician. Would not reccommend this extra. The "All Inculsive" package is a little limited and disappointing - the pool bar menu is very limited and confusing until you understand how much IS NOT included. Became a little repetitive unless you went to the main restaurant. The frozen cocktails are a must, refreshing and not too strong so they are drinkable, unlike many hotel drinks! The All Inculsive ice-cream was limited to small tubs and often ran out, so did the drinks dispenser with soft drinks. This became annoying especially as the pool bar had a limited selection on offer. The cocktail bar was always busy, hot and noisy with the entertainment area inside. The outside seating was also limited. Our room was on the third floor and accessable by several lifts which was great. The room was ok, a bit tight with the extra bed BUT the beds were amazing, large and comfortable even though there was not much room to access the balcony. The balcony had a small table and two chairs and a drying rack which was great for the pool towles and our swimsuits. The bathroom was clean and modern. The room was cleaned every day but the bedlinens were not changed and the towels were changed on request. The pool towels require a 10 euro deposit each and cost 3 euro each, to change them during your stay. The safety deposit box also has a 10 euro deposit and you pay a charge per day! The mini bar is also chargeable, but at least there is a fridge to store water if you need it. A tip is to take your reusable water bottle from home and fill them with ice and water from the restaurant, much greener than plastic bottles as we drink alot of water by the pool. The pool area is clean well presented although the pool is quite small and the annimation team take it over twice a day, they are very lively and work hard to involve the guests with activities in the pool, on the beach and pool side. It can get quite noisy at times. The pool staff ensure no one reserve the sunbeds for longer than an hour, if you go away they will take your belongings and leave a message to collect them from the pool hut. Lesley the TUI rep was fabulous and very helpful. We had a wonderful relaxing holiday and would certainly recommend the hotel and would visit again despite a few niggles.

We stayed here for 1 week as a family of 5 in the main August holiday. Having stayed in this region before we know that it is very Spanish and that is exactly what we wanted. The area of Isla Canela is lovely. It is relatively quiet, relaxed and has a gorgeous beach. Unfortunately our experience in the hotel was very poor. We booked with TUI as all-inclusive guests and had 2 rooms, one room with 2 people in and 1 room with 3 people in. This is possibly the worst AI hotel we have stayed at for a number of reasons. I would avoid this one. The rooms cannot accommodate 3 people. The main bed is very large, which is nice, but it means that there isn’t really space for the 3rd bed. The 3rd bed has to be wedged right next to the main bed and the patio doors. So there is no access to the patio area and everyone has to get into bed at the bottom edge, you cannot walk around any of the bed area. The aircon was also very underpowered, so with 3 people in the room we boiled, despite having the AC set to its lowest. During our week long stay the bedding was not changed. This is really poor because there is nowhere to sit in the room other than on the bed, so you have to use the bed as a sitting/lying area every time you are in the room, which isn't great given that you have sun cream on in the day etc. There should have been a change I’m sure, but we definitely didn’t get one as when we arrived there was a footprint on the duvet cover and it was there the day that we left. The room was not well cleaned. I think this was really because with 3 people its overcrowded, but there was a lot of dust and fluff in the room and the bathroom always seemed to have long hairs left in the shower etc., and none of us have long hair; not nice. In terms of the all-inclusive aspect of the hotel I wouldn’t waste your money. The selection is very limited. I know all-inclusive doesn’t always include international brands, but in this hotel it doesn’t really include anything. On the drinks menu there were 37 items listed, including soft drinks, spirits, beer, wine and cocktails. As an all-inclusive guest you can have 6 of items: soft drinks, house red wine, house white, house rosy, beer and frozen slush puppy cocktails. Everything else, and I mean everything else, you pay for. None slush puppy cocktails, spirits, coffees, bottled mixers all have to be paid for at what is described as a reduced rate. On the food menu at the snack bar there are 40 items listed. Again all-inclusive guests can have 5 items. A toasty, basic salad, 1 ice cream tub, pasta or basic pizza, everything else you pay for and as one of us is gluten-free, they were limited to fruit and a salad as everything was wheat based. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate that hotels can’t offer everything, but this is the most limited we have ever experienced. The service is also incredibly slow. It took ages to get a drink, with very often just one person serving and a huge queue building which meant a good 30 minute wait to get a bottle of water or a basic drink. It got to the point where I genuinely thought that it was a strategy to slow down the provision of drinks. Also watch out for hidden chargers. You have to register your credit card when you check in. I wasn’t keen on that as an AI guest I hadn’t planned on spending lots on “extras”. What we hadn’t realised is that they will charge items to you even if they haven’t told you there is a charge. We saw a guest having a similar argument when they were checking out. They had apparently had a meal outside one evening, a sort of BBQ. We were actually going to go the following night, thankfully we didn’t. It was advertised around the hotel, but there was absolutely no pricing, so we had thought it would be included as AI guests. It’s not. They will apply a charge of between 6 and 12 euros each person to your card. So had we gone we could have had a surprise bill of 60 euros for something that we could have got inside the restaurant. The restaurant is also more of a canteen affair. The food was very nice, but it was very busy and the table layout is just too close. You sit no more than 18 inches away from the next table and it felt way too close. The restaurant is very busy, its main aim is to process you through. It’s a shame as one of the main aspects for me on holiday is the restaurant experience. This wasn’t good; it was very functional. The seating was hard and uncomfortable and the layout designed like a fast food takeaway with long tables, so that the people sitting at each end could not speak to each other. The noise levels were incredibly high and it was just really poor. All in all this was a very poor hotel. There were some good aspects, like the pool and animation team, but overall it was very poor value for money and there are much better places to stay in this area. Check out the Ibeorstar in Isla Canela – its chalk and cheese.

Stayed here as a stop over but know the hotel very well as I've been visiting this area for 30 years. Beach across the road & nice traditional Spanish bars & restaurants opposite. Staff very friendly there was lots of choice for breakfast. The hotel has a nice relaxed feel