any Tenerife hotel experts around?

[lurkingfromhome]

Quiet, relaxing week in the sun required (late October) for DH and me, who both desperately need to unwind. We want:

a beautiful, luxurious hotel that is tastefully decorated, spacious and lovely to spend time floating around in (I like it when there are secluded nooks, tropical garden bits etc). Want to lie down with a pile of books and just have a week of calm.
no boozed-up beer-swilling Brits abroad kind of thing
as few children as possible (would rather avoid family-friendly fun, kids' clubs, screeching children - no offence, but you know ...)
a room with a generously sized sunny balcony or terrace should we not feel like mingling - this is quite important
lovely food - a good breakfast buffet and ideally we'd eat dinner in the hotel half the time and then be a short distance away from a few good restaurants for the other nights
a spa

I've found two good offers: Europe Villa Cortés and Vincci Selección - similar prices, good direct flights and I just can't decide between them as they both have largely great reviews (apart from the odd one who claims they are dated, horrible, dark, dingy ... the usual random complaints). Is there anybody out there who might possibly know them both and could help me decide? Or even someone who knows one of them and can say if it's as good as it looks or if there are any major drawbacks?

Thank you!

What area are they in? I think Costa Adeje is best to go to in Tenerife?

Playa de las Americas is the busiest part of Tenerife....

Judging by what you want, second is more suitable as Costa Adeje is much quitter area then Playa la Americas.

I think Vincci is right in Costa Adeje, but up a hill so there is about a 20-minute walk if we want to go elsewhere (not that that's a huge consideraton). Villa Cortés in in Playa de las Americas but apparently at the Costa Adeje end so a bit quieter, and obviously that has shops, restaurants etc. much closer by.

I don't even know how relevant that is since at the end of October presumably the Canaries are full of older people and not so much the younger party crowd (gawd, listen to grandma here ).

All of Tenerife is very hilly so you will struggle to avoid them, and stay far far away from Playa de las Americas. Far far far away. It's Blackpool on speed.

Looking at a map I would say that Villa Cortes is not near Costa Adeje.

Have you looked at the Gran Tacande - that might fit the bill, the Dream Tacade is right in Costa Adeje. From memory there is a small baby pool but very few kids around and the food was incredible.

Ah, so even at the end of October, and even if the hotel is a lovely 5* oasis of calm at the 'good' bit of Playa de las Americas?

This might be cementing my decision to go with the other one, so thanks, this is really helpful. All other tips welcome.

Jardines de Nivaria in Costa Adeje is stunning - it has been closed for a refurb & opens on October 9th.

It's part of a group called Adrian Hotels - there are a few in the Canaries.

Very quiet & civilised with a lot of older people & not many children.

Oh no, now a third hotel to consider! Gran Tacande is coming in even a bit cheaper than the other two (we don't want to spend £££££ on this holiday as normally we go to places where we really get out and go to loads of museums and galleries and stuff and this really is just for a luxury week of late autumn sun and relaxing, so I'm trying to get somewhere really nice but not go wildly overboard and spend thousands). I will go and peruse that one next. Thanks, MsGee.

Re Dream Tacande, we took a toddler there and I think that there was a mini-club for half an hour at night but I don't remember many children being there (we did not go in school holidays though). There are a number of pools and a lovely beach (with the cabana type sunbeds on) less than 5 minutes away, then lots of restaurants with twinkly lights.

The food was great, they had grill stations with amazing steaks cooked to order, and we ate better than at any other hotel. I think we had half board - plus there is a good Italian and a cafe right by the exit of the hotel near the beach. If you are going outside school hols, I would def go here, if during school hols maybe dig around to see if there will be kids there.

Late October is likely to be half term for many people so you could see lots of kids! A different week could be better in your case.

We've stayed in the Vincci seleccion a couple of times. It's at the quiet end of Adeja and about a 15 min walk down hill to a small selection of restaurants. There's also a themed buffet every evening in the hotel if you want to stay put ( but we thought it was a bit pricy plus like out evenings out ) It's about €5 for a taxi to calleta or the busier end of Adeja with a greater selection of places. Hotel is clean and well maintained with nice pool and garden areas and poolside bars. We've only been in term times so mainly middle aged couples and a few families with pre schoolers. Always found it quiet and relaxing.

I'm quite surprised that the prices are so good for the last week in October - they actually seem to be cheaper then than earlier in the month and I assumed half-term prices were always higher. I'd best look into that, thanks Calypso. Thanks too, everyone else, for your tips.

Honestly, it takes about a year to research a week's holiday, doesn't it?

The footy bar kiddy drunk bit of las americas is really only the very centre, and generally only in august. Anywhere sold as costa adeje will be fine.

I like the look of White Suites in Playa Blanca Lanzarote, never been there, it's on my wish list though.

It's true there are some lovely hotels on the other islands too. Trying not to expand the search too wide or I will be here for YEARS. DH has informed me we are going to book something tonight so I can stop spending every spare minute thinking about this...

Villa cortez is very very expensive for what it is but handy for the safari centre where the main grown up type restaurants are. The area round there is very flat if that's a consideration for you. Just a slight warning many of the rooms are overlooking a busy road plus the apartment s across the street parque Santiago play stupid music outside from 11/19.00 so ask for an inside room.
Not been to hotel though been to parque Santiago.

If you want to avoid Brits, head north. Puerto de la Cruz has the Botanico, which is meant to be very nice indeed.

El Medano in the south is a lovely little town, not far from the airport and has a child-free hotel, Las Arenas Del Mar. Again, you won't find many Brits there either.

www.booking.com/hotel/es/rural-el-patio.en-gb.html?aid=304142;label=gen173nr-1DCAEoggJCAlhYSDNiBW5vcmVmaFCIAQGYAS64AQbIAQzYAQPoAQGoAgM;sid=06cc9429e971347b395a4de50cceb6db

we stayed here a few years ago. Its on a banana plantation, and its in the north, so youd need a car. Doesnt fit all your requirements as we had to eat elsewhere for dinners, but it was stunning and im dying to go back

Sorry, missed the bit about Tenerife in the title - I focussed on Canaries in your second post.

Be aware that the weather in the north is not as reliable as the south. If hot and sunny is important to you, Puerto de la Cruz, lovely as it is, might not be the best choice in late October.

Weather in the north is not as reliable, but its not that different either, and the north is much prettier and less brits abroad. We came to the south on two days and were very glad we had chosen the north

Sheraton La Caleta is nice. We had a quick honeymoon there. It's north of the main Adele area. A handful of restaurants - no burger places.

My favourite place now though on Tenerife is the north. Puerto De La cruz. We've been up there for the past three years. Twice in the sol/Beatrice Atlantis. But that isn't terribly luxurious. Nice enough.

As others have said avoid Playa de las Americas. It's really unpleasant (and half term or not won't make difference)

Not Villa Cortes! Hotel is fine but was a 3 converted to 5 and is very much in Playa de las Americas. If they could pick it up and move it 2 miles west it would be great!

It's a while since I've been to Tenerife, and not sure if these are within budget, but look at El Mirador (next to Bahia del Duque), it was adults only not sure if still is

Jardines del Nivaria

Jardines Tropical - this is 4* but is a bit different to your typical blocky hotel