Barcelo Playa Blanca Royal Level Adults only

Having previously stayed at the Royal Level hotel in Fuerteventura, I had high hopes and expectations for this hotel, and in some ways it more than exceeded them. Barcelo has proven to be a consistently reliable chain. I do have some notes on ways the stay could have been improved, and I’m notoriously picky, but I’d rebook here in a heartbeat. I think the key to any hotel with a superior or in this case ‘royal’ level, you need to be clever to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth.

Check in: We had a late flight and checked in after 11pm. The royal level check in desk was closed, despite there being around 5 members of staff behind the regular check in desk, so no fizz on arrival, and no buggy to our room, but they did provide a little picnic pack of food. Guests of all levels of stay at the resort receive this though, so our arrival was lacking in the ‘royal’ element we’ve experienced before.

Room: The room was huge with plenty of storage. Tea, coffee and water facilities were topped up daily, they are heavy on water here! The balcony is lovely to chill out at night. As a woman, I especially loved the addition of the light up mirror I could move around and take with me to the aforementioned balcony when getting ready in the evening!

Entertainment: We can’t speak on night entertainment in the theatre area, as we preferred the calm atmosphere of the lobby bar. We did enjoy the singer that was there one night, and the pianist who played in the Magical restaurant one night too. There are a variety of activities for royal level guests to participate in: floating meditation, pool yoga, aqua fit are just some of the activities on offer. They also have cocktail masterclass some days, and candle art too. All activities can be seen on the Barcelo app - again, very handy when planning your day! Staff who ran the activities were friendly, but not pushy. The perfect balance.

Sun loungers: I can’t quite understand how, perhaps with many royal level rooms being swim up rooms or superior rooms with loungers, but there was never a point where anyone was struggling to find loungers. A true rarity indeed! The pool opens at 9am, there were no rushing crowds, and at 1pm there were still so many ‘desirable’ sets of loungers (2 and a table) free (right by the pool, directly by the glass balcony on the grassy areas). I think this takes so much stress out of a holiday as at previous locations I’ve had to trudge around looking for a lounger. I witnessed the race for loungers at the non-royal level section one morning and was grateful to not be a part of that!

Food: This is where guests need to be clever about where they eat. Interestingly, I think it’s also an aspect that could be improved on the hotel’s part. The Magical restaurant is lovely and relaxed. They serve buffet and à la carte breakfast, and a completely à la carte lunch and dinner. Dinner is rather limited, but these meal options are clearly seen on the menus on the Barcelo app. I really appreciate that the menus are all readily available, including the themes for the Atlantic restaurant. I made a brief plan when we arrived, looked at the dishes served in the Magical restaurant and then decided the nights we’d dine there, the Atlantic buffet restaurant, the Mexican restaurant and the Asian restaurant. We actually found that if we had an afternoon snack at the Breeze bar (through the gate to the regular level hotel - they serve frozen cocktails there too!), we could have our dinner in the late afternoon on the lunch à la carte menu, with that being our evening meal. We like to dine early, so this suited us nicely and we found we were never dissatisfied by menu. The food is of good quality, for most meals. Lunch at the Magical restaurant was our favourite mealtime experience. We dined at the Magical restaurant once for dinner during our stay. The food was nice, but the description of food on the menus needs to be clearer, if you’re advertising spicy chicken with a curry sauce, I’m not expecting a meagre portion of chicken legs, with little flavour and drizzle of sauce across the top. That being said, the buffet is open for dinner, with sides and desserts, so we topped up from there. We did also find that some days we were offered a bread starter at lunch, and others we weren’t. Perhaps staff need to improve communication on this front. I also think there needs to be a better structure at breakfast, as some mornings we’d been seated by a member of staff who would return 20 to 30 minutes later to ask if we’d be ordering from the à la carte menu.

Drinks: The drinks options for all inclusive royal level guests are extensive, and the measures of alcohol are generous! However, the longer we stayed at the hotel, the inconsistencies with drinks became more noticeable. Sometimes daiquiris were served frozen, sometimes over ice, sometimes neither of those, in a martini glass. This rang true for a number of cocktails and soft drinks.

I think with the food and beverage side of things at this hotel, the inconsistencies do very slightly let the royal level side down. That, and a general casual attitude that could be mistaken for carelessness, is different to what we’ve experienced at the royal level hotel in Fuerteventura. In this aspect, I think it’s clear that as a relatively new hotel, it’s still trying to find its feet.

Evening bar: I’ll be honest, something I hadn’t realised upon booking that the royal level didn’t have an evening bar of its own as there was in the Fuerteventura one. I was disappointed upon reading about this in a review. There are other bars listed, but the idea of there being children and their entertainment there put me off a bit. I needn’t have worried. We ended up in the lobby bar in the evenings. They have a gorgeous outside area. There weren’t many children there - thinking logically, what parents want their children sitting in a quiet bar area in the evenings on their holiday? The children who were there were slightly older and were engaged in card games with their families. The staff here are lovely and attentive, ensuring they get your drinks just right.

The Champs sports bar shows a limited number of football matches, even when they are all readily available in Spain, and the bar did have the channel needed. There are 4 television screens, all showing pool or racing. Not a dealbreaker, but you can’t really have a sports bar that doesn’t actually show football matches. We heard another guest being told to visit reception to watch the match. In this same visit, several parties arrived looking to watch the football and were disappointed to find the bar wouldn’t play it. Quite a bizarre set up, more like a sports themed bar than a sports bar.

Overall: The facilities are fantastic and the atmosphere is relaxed - which is exactly what we were looking for. I’m not 100% convinced it’s running as it should, it doesn’t give the impression of a tight ship, but hopefully that will come with feedback and time.

I can only comment on The Royal Level and would highly recommend it. Wonderful part of the hotel, food lovely, staff very friendly and professional and fantastic location for The Marina or a walk into Playa Blanca.

We have just came home from our honeymoon here at Barcelo hotel in playa Blanca , we opted for the adults only area as we was arriving here for our honeymoon & wanted that special quiet alone time to give ourselves that special time to sink in from that build up to wedding :) on arrival of check in we got a lift from a golf buggy with our luggage , it was great ! We arrived late so we got offered a sandwich & a champagne 🥂 then our holiday started , plenty of excursions booked . Infinity pool was never full , it was quiet , peaceful and very chilled . 😎 highly recommend ! We was all inclusive too so the alcohol was great ( nothing watered down ) the food was fantastic, please a special mention to Yusef the young chef making spaghetti bolognaise every night for me , the queues was big and he made it all from scratch ( how he doesn’t get sore arms I do not know lol 😂 ) we cannot wait to come again . It was bliss , beds so comfy . Room so so so clean & mini fridge on arrival . Booked through jet2.