No Scratch Cards Here! (Pearly Grey Ocean Club)

Member Name: binnie

Product:	Pearly Grey Ocean Club
Date:	18/07/02 (887 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great views, free for me, clean and tidy place

Disadvantages: no beach, limited shops

I've been meaning to write about this Aparthotel since I got back from there on the 18th of June, but wasn't in the mood until now.
As some of you may know, I work for Blakes Boats who are owned by Cendant who also own RCI timeshare resorts.
A perk of the job is to get a two week free timeshare out of the brochure, as long as there's one available that is.
Sometimes you have to just take what you are given.
Back in March this year, we got offered one in Callao Salvaje and even though the apartment was nice, the resort wasn't our cup of tea.
Then in May, I put in for one again but wanted somewhere closer than Tenerife, but they could only come up with Callao Salvaje again. We accepted the offer of Pearly Grey ocean Club which has a fabulous sea view.
A colleague of mine goes there all the time and highly recommends the place.

Pearly Grey is a timeshare resort but besides people who own property there, you can rent an apartment for a reasonable price.
It is on the small resort of Callao Salvaje about ten minutes drive from Las Americas.
Most of the rooms overlook the sea, there are even some for sale which are directly overlooking the sea. The apartments are spread out, with is quite deceiving on the first impression of the place. The first day we got there, we thought there were just a block of apartments , then we went down to the barbecue area which overlooks the sea and there were even more, it was really unusual.

On arriving at the apartments, we parked our car outside the building just across the road, they didn't have their own car park, but there was still enough space to park on the road.
The entrance was down a few steps and was only quite small.
We checked in with no trouble, the receptionist gave us a little welcome pack which consisted of a few loose teabags, a few sachets of coffee, carton milk and a bottle of water.
We got our keys and headed for the lift. Th
is was a bit lazy as we were only on the first floor.


*The rooms*

Slightly smaller than we were expecting, there was a kitchenette with fridge freezer, microwave etc.
The lounge was small with a bed settee, TV and a wardrobe, just in case somebody wanted to use the sofa as a bed, then they could have their own wardrobe space.
Compared to the Callao Garden apartments which we stayed in March, these were tiny.
You could tell though, that they had been posh once, the curtains were white and flowing, with tie backs, the furniture was nice, but some of the doors got stuck and the handles on the drawers were loose.
It seemed to me that it just needed a bit of maintenance around the place. Now don't get me wrong, they were clean and tidy, but maybe just a bit neglected.
On opening the patio doors leading to the balcony, I could hardly open them, then to make things worse, I couldn't close them once I had actually got them to open. I had to keep asking David to shut them, it was as if, something was catching them.
There were also patio doors leading from the bedroom, it was a bit awkward sometimes, as I like to walk around with nothing on, but kept forgetting the large glass patio doors and we were only on the first floor with prying eyes from the bar and the swimming pool.

*Bedroom*

We had a double bed, which seemed tiny as we have a king size bed at home.
Some of the others had two singles in theirs.
We had a wardrobe with mirrored doors, bedside cabinets and lamps. The room also had a fan screwed above the door, this was made very welcome when it got too hot.
It wasn't a large room, but spacious enough for our things, there was plenty of hanging space.

*Bathroom*

The usual, bath, toilet and basin. We had a cupboard with loads of towels, I don't think I've been to a place before where I've had so many towels, there was even loads of loo pap
er in there.
We had a shower over the bath, which was quite powerful.
Got some freebies, shower gel, soap, but they didn't replace them once I'd put them in my bag, like they do in the USA.

Our balcony was quite large, we had a plastic table and four chairs and also a clothes airer which came in very useful to dry your clothes. You wasn't allowed to hang towels from the balcony either.

Overall I found the apartment to be clean, tidy and plenty of cool air.
We had a ceiling fan in the lounge besides the fan in the bedroom, so we were always cool.

*Facilities*

There was a restaurant just off the reception which served breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The times were Breakfast, 8.30 until 12.00 am.
Lunch was 12.00 until 3.00pm, and dinner was 7.30 until 10.00.
We never actually had a meal there as I like to eat out and try different things.
We looked at the menu and it seemed reasonably priced.
If we wanted we could have paid for half board at 98 euros per week.
But we were only there for four days and wanted to try the local restaurants as part of our night out.

The bar area was where we ended up every night, the staff were friendly, there was entertainment every night and we met loads of people.
The drinks weren't too expensive, a bit on a par with Britian. They had Bacardi Breezers in most flavours, some imported beer, crisps etc.
The entertainment ranged from an Elvis show, a Neil Diamond show, a singer/comedian and the usual bingo, quiz nights.
We don't usually go to stuff like this, but seeing as though the resort has not a lot in the way of entertainment, this was the best it could get.
It does make it better if you meet other people, which we did as soon as we got there. Every night we accumalated more people to our little "gang".
It was such a shame to leave them all behind.
There was a dance floor in there, if y
ou brave enough to get up, there were plenty of chairs and even some outside the bar area, whcih led onto the pool area.

There was a large swimming pool which childrens pool, a jacuzzi which no children under 12 allowed in, which we saw several under 3's!!! in it.
As I said earlier, there were loads of sunbeds, they were scattered around the place. There were three levels of them, most round the pool area, then some on a balcony overlooking the sea, then down some steps there was a another large balcony with some more.
This is also where they held the Saturday night barbecue.

There is also a gymnasium called Body Zone which is open from 9am until 8pm.
There is a fitness room, a sauna, and a turkish bath.
Entrance to these was something like £3.00 for the day. A real bargain, if I go again, I will certainly be trying it out.

There was a beauty room where you could book in for a massage, and also a hairdressers.
I never ventured down to see these places, even though I could see them when I peeped down the stairs which led you to them.

There was a laundry where the washing machines cost 4 euros a go and dryers at 4 euros.
Didn;t need these just for four days. But would have been handy if you had kids.

There was a childrens play area just next to the pool with outside toilets.
There was table tennis, two pool tables and even a bowling alley, not the skittle type of bowling, but crown green, I think.

Every guest has their own rep, ours was called Stuart, but I only met him once.
When you check in you get a welcome letter saying your rep will call and see you in your apartment the day after, but it was 10.30 in the morning and we wanted to do as much as possible with only being there for four days, so I didn't wait in.
We met him the day after at the organised barbie.
We paid 9 euros about £6.00 and it was all carefully planned. You had a ticket and they s
at you on massive tables with total strangers, so you can all get to know each other.
You were sent in stages to get your food, ,which was a bit minimal, you got one sausage, one chop, a couple of Canarian potatoes, and a bit of salad.
Sangria and beer was in plentiful supply though. At one point, the men had to sing an Elvis song before they got their drinks.

The view was worth it though, we were on the large balcony overlooking the sea, I could quite imagine myself waking up to that everyday.



We noticed it was a great place for disabled there was a young boy in an electric wheelchair whizzing around on the green baize around the pool area.
He had the time of his life.Only the week before, they had held a special event for special needs children. If children were to fall around the pool area, the green baize softened their fall. There were no slippery surfaces to skid on.
I didn't see many towels left on the sunbeds, but I suppose, you always get one and it's not always the germans either.
The receptionists were on alert to bring any left towels to the reception, but I never saw that happen either.I think it was because there were so many sunbeds that you didn't need to reserve any.


*The Area*

Callao Salvaje is only a small town, there are ample bars and restaurants here to suit everybody.
They range from English Bistro to Fish and Chips, Italian and there's even a few chinese's.

There's no beach or nice promenade to walk along , which would make it much more attractive to visitors.
I really missed not having anywhere to walk at night.
The sea is lovely to look at, but very hard to access.
There are too many rocks to step over, looks quite dangerous.
There is a seating area outside this hotel where you can watch the flow of the sea, very relaxing.
There are a couple of supermarkets, one is called Aldi, which stocks most items, even
English foods at an extra cost.
There are a few shops and an exchange money bureau, but nothing too exciting.
It's not a place to have a shopping spree.


Would I go again, Yes I would, now I've found this place.
A week is enough probably, but if you want to meet people or just laze the days away in a secluded space, then this is the resort for you. The reps don't pressure you into buying the timeshares, even though they would have a job with me after telling them I work for the same company.
But people who got their so called "free holidays" had to pay £250 for the flights, didn't really get pestered, the place was very friendly and relaxed.
They even mingled in with the guests at night in the bar area, not once did I see a stupid scratch card.



Pearly Grey ocean Club
Callao Salvaje
38678
Adeje
Canary Islands
Tel 922 743901

Email
pgrey@retemail.es

Webpage, www.pearlygrey.com
Note, the rooms shown on there, are probably the best ones for
sale, they weren't the ones we stayed in.

There is a computer in the foyer where you can pay a small fee and check your emails and Dooyoo account of course.

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