H10 Lanzarote Princess

Excellent stay at the lanzarote princess hotel. The second time we have stayed there we stayed in March/April last year. The accommodation was good. We had the privilege and it was good especially the Italian restaurant .the food was good and location good. Will definitely be back.

Stayed here the last 2 weeks in September and here is my review.

We’ve stayed here before and its in an ideal location, about half way between the town and Marina Rubicon, so ideally placed for exploring both end of Playa Blanca. Slightly closer to the town, so about 10 mins away and about 20 mins to the marina. And just a few minutes down to Playa Dorada beach.

Both weeks we had a calima, so had temperatures well into the high 30’s when we were there, so some days it was blisteringly hot, well for us Scottish people anyway, so a few cold beers were welcome.

On the hotel itself, not a lot has changed since our last visit a few years ago, all looks pretty much the same, so it was easy to navigate.

Check in was straightforward, you get a wristband which doubles up as your room key and for paying for drinks etc, so means it always to hand. Everything we needed to know was explained at check-in, but as we had stayed before we didn’t really need to find out much.

I had emailed the hotel before to see if I could request a room with all day sun and they duly obliged. I appreciate its just a request but happy they tried to accommodate it.

The room itself was fine, beds were comfy enough but a couple of the pillows were a little lumpy, but there were 4 pillows so we found some comfy ones.

You can see some of the rooms have been done up, the rooms on the ground and first floors have black patio doors, where as the ones on second and third still have the old green ones, so looks like they are going through a period of refurb.

Bathroom was fine, though the shower head and screen could do with being replaced as they are old and tired.

Beds and sheets were changed every 4 days and housekeeping came every day. And again they all seemed happy and friendly.

The only point to mention is the air con isn’t the best. It was the same when we were here a few years back, its blows cool air, but its never cold. Some days we could have done with it being a little cooler, especially when we had the calimas, but that’s just a minor personal preference.

We found the bar staff friendly enough, and the times we got drinks in the bar, there were never any real queues. It does seem most people want cocktails, so at times all bar staff are busy making up fresh cocktails, so you might have a couple of minutes wait.

Bar prices are reasonable, we were half board, and not much different from a lot of bars in the town.

We didn’t see much of the night time entertainment, as we like to have a walk after dinner and usually just pop into a bar when we are out.

We did come back one night about 10pm and in the app it said the act was on from 2130 to 2245, so we thought we’d see at least 45 minutes of it. Alas no, they finished at 2215. Maybe need to review the timings on the hotel app.

There’s usually a singer or musician in the vintage bar and the main acts are on the outside stage.

What is disappointing is that outside, they just put 2 rows of seats out with 5 small tables for the front row.

I think it would be much better if they redesigned it so there were tables and chairs with say 2 or 4 chairs around each so there was a little bit of personal space and it was more spaced out and relaxed looking rather that a theatre style of just 2 rows of seats.

And as soon as the act is finished they start to gather all the tables and chairs in, so you feel you need to move.

Restaurant is the usual hotel buffet style, food was of a good quality and always seemed hot enough. Compared to last time we were here, there is definitely less choice to what was on offer before. There is ample enough choice to make different meals, but just pointing out that the choices were a little more limited to what they were before.

There’s also a couple of little things which could be reviewed.

Cleaning of tables. At times there are lots of tables which need cleared and depending on when you come down, you might need to hunt for a clean one. Now I know the hotel can’t legislate for when diners will all come for breakfast/dinner, but it does appear that staff start shifts are certain times. One day there were no empty or clean tables in the first section of the restaurant at breakfast, and this was just after 0830. We noticed that tables only really started to get cleared about 9am, but it did appear there were more staff in at that time, so maybe a shift starts at 9am

Replenishment of food. We noticed that most days, food is very slow to be replenished. One day we watched breakfast and timed it, there were no sausages or bacon and people were standing with their eggs and beans etc and it was almost 5 minutes later before they brought out the sausages and bacon. Similar with morning juices, fresh fruit etc. At dinner one night, in the middle section there was no chips, potatoes, ratatouille or pork and just 1 bit of fish, some veal and a couple of half empty trays of vegetables. Again, there was a queue building up waiting for more cooked food to come out, again it was minutes later. It took until the 10th night we were there for them to start putting out 2 trays of chips so that they wouldn’t run out so quickly. The other little point to note, if you want freshly cooked meat, you have to queue as they cook it fresh to order, which is great you get it fresh and hot. However, once you have it, you then need to queue at another island to get your veg/rice and then queue again in the middle island to get any potatoes, other veg etc. So maybe put some chips/potatoes etc closer to the fresh meat counter so people can just glide along and fill their plate without having to queue 3 times.

On the above points, on a couple of days, there seemed like there was senior H10 management in the restaurant and for some reason, there appeared to be more staff, tables cleaned quicker and food replenished quicker.

Regarding the above comments on the restaurant, just like to mention that it didn’t detract in any way from our wonderful holiday, as that’s it. Were on holiday, and there is no rush. Just a bit annoying having to wait and queue several times.

Overall, we had a really nice holiday here. We love Playa Blanca, it’s a nice resort, plenty of nice bars and restaurants and lovely walks right along the front.

Would we return to the Lanzarote Princess, yes of course we would. We loved our stay so hopefully return again at some point in the next couple of years.