I Love Waikiki! (RIU Waikiki Hotel Gran Canaria)

Member Name: blonde_girl774

Product:	RIU Waikiki Hotel Gran Canaria
Date:	14/07/09 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean Hotel, Fantastic Food & Great Location.

Disadvantages: Slightly Dated Decor.

It's quite a rarity for me to return to the same holiday destination more than once, let alone the same hotel more than one. However I think sometimes you just find a place that you love and a hotel that's worth returning to time and time again. That's a bit like my relationship with the Riu Waikiki; I first visited this hotel on a holiday with my friends after we'd finished our A Levels about six years ago. I had such a good time that when I was looking for a bargain break this spring I came across this hotel at a reasonable price and so decided to return for a second visit.

The Location

The Riu Waikiki is located on the island of Gran Canaria which is one of the Canary islands located in the Atlantic Ocean and only approximately 200km off the coast of Africa. It's the second most populated island after Tenerife with a population of just under one million and can be found to the south east of Tenerife. It's quite a flat island out towards the sea while the middle of the island is quite mountainous due to the volcanic origin of Gran Canaria. The International Airport of Gran Canaria is the only airport on the island and is located in the north east of the island. The main reason to visit Gran Canaria is surely the climate, due to it being so close to Africa it experiences fairly hot summers and also very mild winters. Temperatures in summer range between about 25 and 30 degrees (although we did find it hit 31 degrees even in May!) and in the winter they range between about 17 and 23 degrees. Average rainfall is quite low and normally only occurs in the winter months - it does vary between different areas of the island with the south being the driest and the hottest too.

The hotel itself is located in the south of the island in a place called Playa Del Ingles which is one of the busiest and most popular tourist resorts on the island. It has a nice long beach that ends when you reach Maspalomas with its large sand dunes which come from the Sahara Desert and are certainly worth seeing. There are several Commerical Centres in Playa Del Ingles which is where all the bars, restaurants and shops are located. Playa Del Ingles is famous in the summer for being Gran Canaria's Club 18-30s destination meaning in mid summer it's rather hectic so you may want to avoid staying too close to the Commerical Centres! The hotel is about a fifteen minute walk to the beach and about an eight minute walk to the main Commerical Centre in Gran Canaria meaning you don't hear any of the noise from it when you're trying to sleep! It's about a thirty minute drive from the airport, depending how many stops your coach makes of course and is situated on one of the main roads in Playa Del Ingles. Overall I'd have to say I found the resort to be clean, friendly and fairly lively even in May!

The Hotel

The hotel consists of five individual circular buildings with the reception being housed in the first one which is accessible from the main road. The reception area is obviously circular with a lift being located in the centre providing access to the other floors. It consists of marble floors, a large wooden reception desk area and plenty of conservatory style wicker furniture for simply relaxing in. We arrived in the early hours of the morning and found the reception area to be staffed by very smart looking receptionists who were most welcoming. They provided us with information about the hotel and then directed us to the restaurant to take advantage of a cold buffet that had been left solely for the guests on our flight. During the course of our stay we had very few reasons to contact reception, the only time we do so was to organise car hire and they sorted it out for us in a matter of minutes.

Our room was in D block on the second floor, this is the fourth hotel block situated to the back end of the pool. Each circular building has a tile floor with a winding staircase, a lift in the centre and no roof whatsoever in the communal area. Our room was of a good size and contained a double bed, a double wardrobe with a safe, a dressing table with a chair, and television, a table and chair and a low set of drawers to put our cases on. There was also a balcony overlookin the pool area with some white plastic furniture and a towel rail on. Overall the room seemed a little dated and it could have done with a makeover, however the bed was really comfy, it was cleaned daily and left spotless and had all the facilities we needed. There was no air con in the room but the ceiling fan worked absolute wonders! The bathroom was also fully functional and apart from one or two cracked tiles was spotless.

The hotel is all inclusive which means that all food and drinks are included in the price. The restaurant spanned the ground floor of two of the circular blocks and also had a small terrace too. Here breakfast, lunch and dinner were served during the day. The restaurant could have possibly done with updating slightly in terms of decor but it was absolutely spotless with white linen tablecloths, smartly presented staff and absolutely delicious food! Breakfast was served from 7.30 - 9.30am and consisted of fresh bread, cereals, fresh fruits, fully cooked options and fruit juices. Lunch was served from 1.00 - 3.00pm and consisted of a huge fresh salad bar, soups, breads, pastas, freshly cooked meats and fish, vegetables and plenty of puddings. Dinner was held in two sittings and was fairly similar to lunch although there always seemed to be a little more choice at dinner than there was at lunch.

The hot food was all cooked fresh in front of you, the cold foods were constantly being topped up and your dirty dishes were taken from your table in a matter of seconds! The food was absolutely delicious and always piping hot too. The pork and steak that we had a couple of times melted in your mouth and there was always so much choice. I couldn't find any faults with the staff either, they always had a smile and were so quick to clear our table. The snack bar was located just behind the bar and next to the pool opened during the late morning, lunch and late afternoon to serve snack options such as pizza, hot dogs, cakes, etc. The bar itself was spotless, we never had to queue for more than a minute and the beer, wine and soft drinks were on tap so you could serve yourself! There were plenty of cocktails and spirits to choose from too and the measures were always very large!

As for the entertainment and leisure there was a constant programme of events for both children and adults during the day, we never actually participated in anything but we could see the water aerobics, tennis and water polo. During the day we spent most of our time lying by the pool where there was an abundance of sun loungers and also a highered sun terrace too overlooking the pool which was a good size and always quite warm too. The only problem was some people got up at the crack of dawn to reserve their sun beds but we always got two easily. There was always some sort of evening entertainment show on at the inside bar which also housed a large seating area and stage. We went to this a couple of times after our evening meal to watch the talent shows and things like that but generally preferred to sit next to the pool bar in the open air which was open until midnight.

The Conclusion

We paid about £700 for two people staying in early May on an all inclusive basis through Thomas Cook including our flights and transfers. I can honestly say we got a bargain as after speaking to some people we found out that they'd paid over £500 each. Apart from the slightly dated decor I would not hesitate to recommend this three star hotel, the food and service were easily comparable to a four star hotel. It's in a great location which is close to all major amenities and the weather was fantastic. I've stayed in several Riu hotels now and would recommend the chain as a whole. I loved my week here and would certainly return in the future. I think you get what you pay for... and in this case we got a little bit more too!

Thanks for reading.

Summary: An all inclusive hotel in Gran Canaria.