- Lanzarote Holidays
- Playa Blanca
- HL Rio Playa Blanca
This bungalow complex lies in the outskirts of Playa Blanca fishing town. The town centre with numerous shopping and entertainment venues is only 1.6 km away. Playa Flamingo sandy beach and the beach promenade are only 300 metres away. This establishment offers 196 bungalows and a one storey main building in a large garden of 80,000 sqm. Guests will find a reception, a bar and an air-conditioned buffet restaurant with a non-smoking area, a terrace and highchairs for children at this hotel. The tasteful bungalows include an integrated living room and bedroom with a kitchenette and a dining area with chairs and a table. There is a swimming pool in the garden with a separate children's pool, a sun terrace with sun loungers and parasols as well as a snack bar. A breakfast buffet is available to guests every morning.
Due to the surrounding area and the number of steps around the hotel, it may not be suitable for those with mobility difficulties.
We have just come back from staying here for 5 nights. HL Rio wasn’t our first choice due to getting caught up in air traffic control saga we had to cancel our original holiday and rebook meaning we chose here. Once booked I read reviews and I will be honest I wasn’t coming with the best opinion due to a lot of negative reviews regarding the rooms, however the rooms/suites were huge, clean and I genuinely couldn’t fault them at all and I don’t really understand what people have to complain about. Location wise you are a 5/10 min walk from flamingo beach which has some shops and restaurants and then you can walk into playa Blanca which takes around 20/30 mins which didn’t bother us at all and it was nice of an evening to get out the hotel. Food was average, same food for breakfast, lunch & dinner but that’s what I expect of an AI. Pool was big and you could always get sunbeds at any time of the day so no sunbed wars which I know happens at alot of hotels. For me the only thing that really lets this hotel down is the lack of aircon, nowhere in the hotel has the aircon on!!! Why?!?! It’s 30+ degrees and you cannot escape it! Meaning you’re sitting in the restaurant eating food absolutely sweating which isn’t a pleasant experience. Thankfully the rooms you stay in have good air con which was the only blessing. Overall it was a lovely family holiday and I would certainly return to Lanzarote and I would recommend the hotel to others but the air con issue for me was a real let down :(
Please don’t go, no staff, difficult to get around, taxi rude.
No staff around the pool, which is small, pictures are very deceptive, separate pool area which is like a motel pool in America. You will not be given any information from anyone. Shop on site for your tea and coffee but it is expensive, you can go to playa blanca and they are cheaper.
Reception is not signposted, staff do not want to be there. It cost €10 deposit to hire the safe in your room. Not very secure. €15 each deposit for the towels. €1 for plastic cup at the pool area. You get your money back.
Food, is good and tasty but if you need a change and you will, it is a 10 minute walk or taxi to playa blanca, you cannot walk there, Snacks are plentiful, if you are told where to get them, The restaurant close early, but you are not told. I tried to book the Mexican but it was closing at 8pm. No staff around the pool area, one family were very drunk and arguing but no one to stop it.
Taxi’s are ordered from reception but some of the drivers are so rude.
Rooms are ok but No way 4*, more a 2*: I have stayed in nicer premier inns. Cleaners don’t acknowledge or look at you, the towels look old and hard, not a bath sheet, just a bath towel. They clean your room but not change the sheets.
Pools are so loud, the DJ is terrible and cannot understand him. Pool area is ok, not enough sunloungers and unless you get to the pool early, you will not get one by the pool. Need more sun umbrellas. The bleach the sun beds but don’t wash them off afterwards, so your towel will small of bleach and get stained, it you can change them using tokens you are given hen you pay for the towels. I didn’t go to the night time shows as I couldn’t stay in the hotel any longer. I spoke to other couples and all agree they were very disappointed by the hotel and staff and would not be back. Lovely double bed area but held up with chairs. In playa blanca centre lovely food and not expensive, the marina is amazing.
This hotel needs a complete overhaul, lots of updating, staff to learn customer service, If you like a free bar all day and shouting and noise, hotel for you. Very disappointed. Please go somewhere else.
AVOID THIS HOTEL – NOWHERE NEAR A 4-STAR STANDARD
This was one of the most disappointing hotel experiences we have ever had. HL Rio is advertised as a 4-star hotel, but based on our experience, it was nowhere near the standard you would expect from a 4-star property.
The hygiene and cleanliness were absolutely appalling. We found cockroaches in our room as well as in other areas of the hotel, which is completely unacceptable. Our room was dirty and clearly had not been cleaned to a reasonable standard. Even worse, the bedsheets did not appear to have been changed properly, which is disgusting and particularly concerning when staying with a young child.
The food was another major disappointment. The quality was extremely poor, and we had serious concerns about the hygiene standards surrounding the food. During our stay, our 13-month-old child became ill with a stomach bug. We cannot say for certain that the illness was caused by the hotel or its food, but given the poor hygiene and cleanliness we witnessed, it was extremely concerning and made us question the overall standards being maintained.
For a hotel claiming to be 4-star, the level of cleanliness, housekeeping, food quality and hygiene was simply unacceptable. Finding cockroaches, having a dirty room and questionable bedding is not what anyone should have to put up with when paying for a supposedly 4-star holiday.
Management seriously needs to address these issues. A hotel should not be presenting itself as 4-star while guests are dealing with cockroaches, dirty rooms, poor housekeeping and substandard food.
We left feeling extremely disappointed and would not stay here again. If cleanliness, hygiene and decent food matter to you, I would think very carefully before booking this hotel.
Arrived for a short 4 night break - we could not check in for a couple of hours, lots of information provided, deposits for this, deposits for that. The plastic cup situation is not a way to save the environment at all, it’s a way for the hotel to make money - carrying plastic cups everywhere is annoying. If you leave them in your room it means a very long walk back if you’re placed at the edge of the grounds like us. People were leaving them on tables or by the pools accidentally, meaning they’d be gone and another €1 for a replacement. Top tip, when they bring the chargeable cocktail cart out buy one then you’ll have a larger plastic cup for bigger drinks. The pool bar smells of vomit. The pool area was nice to chill, but the sunbeds are falling apart. Restaurant was sweltering hot, tables and chairs rickety. Food was basic AI, always something tasty to eat. The arena for the evening entertainment smells like public toilets, the shows are boring. The rooms are basic and tired - the most hated feature is the fact that they have interconnecting doors inside them to the next bungalow, great if you know the people on the other side but it didn’t sit right with us, you could hear the occupants next door going to the toilet, you could see the light from their room under the door, people would try the handle wondering what it was - and in our case a group of very boisterous girls screaming, cackling and basically carrying on until 03:00 for the first 2 nights until they checked out on our third day. Receptionists answer to this was “so what? That’s how it is here”. Luckily the next guests were nice and quiet. The drinks are terrible, it very much depends on who’s serving you as to how much effort goes into making your drink, particularly in the lobby bar - cocktails were completely different when made by different barmen. Location was fine, nice walks into playa Blanca, including the harbour. The ferry dock is 10 minutes away too and you can take a fast ferry to Fuerteventura. I wouldn’t return.
⭐ 1 STAR — ONE OF THE WORST HOTEL EXPERIENCES WE HAVE EVER HAD If I could give this hotel zero stars, I would. What was supposed to be a relaxing all-inclusive holiday turned into an absolute nightmare. I genuinely cannot understand how this hotel is operating to the standard it claims to. The food was completely inedible. This wasn't simply a case of food not being to our taste — the standard was genuinely unacceptable. Even worse, we encountered cockroaches in the food hall and around the accommodation, which is utterly disgusting and completely unacceptable in any hotel, never mind somewhere serving food to paying guests. The number of flies around the pool bar and restaurant was ridiculous. They were everywhere, making it extremely unpleasant to sit down, eat or have a drink. Hygiene clearly did not appear to be a priority. Our bedroom was another disaster. We had ripped bed sheets, a shower that leaked water all over the bathroom, and when the shower was turned on, brown water came out. Brown water from a shower is absolutely disgusting and not something any paying guest should have to tolerate. To make matters even worse, items went missing from our hotel room. That alone is extremely concerning and completely destroyed any sense of security or trust we had in the hotel. Then there was the reception staff. The attitude we received was absolutely appalling. Instead of being helpful or showing any concern when we raised problems, we were met with rudeness, dismissiveness and an attitude that made us feel like we were the problem. The "all-inclusive" package was also incredibly disappointing. Many cocktails were excluded, meaning the drinks package was nowhere near as inclusive as we were led to believe. Calling this an all-inclusive experience feels extremely misleading. This hotel has problems on every level — food, hygiene, cleanliness, room condition, customer service, security and the supposedly all-inclusive package. Cockroaches around food, flies around restaurants and bars, brown water from the shower, leaking bathrooms, ripped bedding and belongings going missing are simply not acceptable. We paid good money for a holiday and instead spent our time dealing with problems that should never have existed in the first place. Absolutely disgraceful. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone, and we certainly won't be returning. If you're considering booking this place, I would seriously think twice before handing over your money. Save yourself the disappointment and book somewhere else.
