Booked this hotel independently online (http://www.sbhoteles.es/) and flew with Ryan Air hired a car (Alamo) and drove down to the hotel which is in the middle of nowhere.
The hotel rooms are large and comfortable with a sea view.
There was a good selection of food all of a good quality. Christmas Gala meal was very good.
95% of the guests are NOT English so there is peace and very little drunkenness or loudness.
The entertainment was not 100% but they put their hearts and soles into it.
In all a very good holiday with very little that we would think to complain about.
This was out third consecutive visit to this hotel, so it must be doing something right. Built on eight floors, you enter the reception area on the fifth floor and the swimming pool is on the second. The rooms are basic, but clean and comfortable. On arrival you are allocated an evening dinner time, either 6pm or 8pm. Personally we prefer eating later, but for the first time ever, during our second week we had to share our table, which I was not comfortable with. The hotel will only double up the same nationalities and as only a handful of Brits visit this hotel I guess we had been lucky. But if you wish to dine alone it is probably worth mentioning this when checking in. We couldn't fault the food and always found something we liked. There was plenty of pork, chicken and fish, but never lamb or beef. A self service menu is also available at lunchtime, but we would take out fruit at breakfast and then have a toasted sandwich about 4pm at the bar which overlooks the beach. The hotel is equipped with a great gym but I never saw one person use it. There is a medical centre in the hotel which is open for an hour each morning. The shop stocks the usual gifts, but also bottles of water to take to the beach, as you are not encouraged to fill from the hotels drinks machines. We thought the entertainments team were a waste of time, although they tried hard. They will try to get you to join in with games during the day, such as darts, volleyball and shooting, announcing themselves with loud background music to break your sleep around the pool! Once a week the evening entertainment would include a celebrity act, which would be worth watching, otherwise the entertainments team would mime and act to songs from a show, or you could always join in a quiz or play bingo! The bar staff were excellent as were the waiting staff, who, once they got to know you would have your dinner drink waiting for you as you arrived in the restaurant. Pool / beach towels are available free of charge, although subject to a ten euro deposit. If you wish to change them for fresh ones this will cost you a 'green' charge of one euro. The safe in your room costs twenty euros per week. Don't expect the very best if you visit this hotel, just remember what you are paying, which is a lot less than similar hotels in the Canaries. This hotel offers real value for money, but because of its isolated position, (remember there is nowhere to go for a walk, other than the beach and certainly no shops, which is a big plus for us men) means you can be very restricted on what you do. One last important point, try to avoid being allocated a room on the stretch which overlooks the approach road from the airport (facing east). Not only will you have no sun on your balcony but you will be full on to the usual strong winds.
We arrived late evening check in was ok although we were divided into seperate parts of the hotel. The hotel is very big, you arrive in reception which is on the sixth floor. The rooms are in blocks and although its a hotel each floor is open so the weather (very very windy)gets you as soon as you open your door! There are three pools (two main and one childrens)each on a different level all are kept clean and for July there were plenty of beds to go around even for a party of 10.
Breakfast is in the main restaraunt you sit wherever you like, breakfast was ok but very repetitive. Lunch is either in the main restaraunt or the beach snackbar or the pool bar on level 2. Dinner sittings are allocated on arrival and you keep the same table throughout your stay, the food was never hot only ever luke warm and if like us you were sitting towards the rear of the restaraunt the food was cold by the time you got back to the table. Again the food was very repetative and the soup seemed to be recycled each night and given a new name.
The main bar is the only one open in the evening and gets very busy especially when the entertainment is over.
This hotel was about 90% German guests and the remaining 10% divided into Brits, Spanish and Italian. The Entertainment team put on shows most evenings and was all in German and a bit sombre and theatrical for holiday entertainment. The best entertainment was the a flamenco team they were fantastic and all guests were shouting for an encore and joining in with clapping and stamping to the music.
The beach is down some very hot and slippery stairs (104 to be exact)once your down you'll be in no rush to walk back up! The beach is lovely and clean and the sea goes out quite far before it gets deep so the kids are safe to play in it. When you get to the bottom of the stairs if you head to the left side you can see the chipmunks and if you take food they are tame enough to take it from your hands. This part of the island is very very windy and when the sand hits you its like being rubbed down with sand paper my seven year old was crying because it stung when it hit you.
This was my seventh trip to Fuerteventura and i've stayed all over the island and although it is known for being a windy island this is by far the most windy place! When i booked the hotel it was booked as Costa Calma but it is much closer to Jandia. It took a twenty five minute bus ride to reach Costa Calma and cost 15 Euros in a taxi. This was the first time using the bus service on the island and it was on time, clean buses and air conditioned a much more pleasant experience than at home.
I don't think that the hotel deserves the 4/5 star rating that it has there was nothing to make it any better than 3 star hotels that i have stayed in on the island. There is nothing outside the hotel unless you taxi or bus to Jandia or Costa Calma so if you fancy a night away from the hotel and are in a big group as we were it becomes an expensive night out just in fares.
I would not return to this hotel mainly because of its location and the quality of the food.
We stayed at the Sunrise Pariaso Playa for 2 weeks in August 06 (2 adults and 2 children). We arrived just after midnight and were struck by how clean everywhere was. The rooms are spacious, and all have a sea view. Even with entertainment every night you cannot hear it from the rooms.
The entertainment team are multinational, and can speak a wide variety of languages they have activities for young and old during the day. At night they put on a 1 hour show, then followed by a disco.
The hotel was fab! Very clean.
Great entertainment and fantastic for my kids...I never saw them!