Paradisus by Melia Fuerteventura

Rooms, value and hidden charges There are few things extra we have to pay even though we paid all inclusive. Not value for the money - it’s 3-4 star . Room are big enough but there is yellow silicon in the bathroom looks like a mould. Floor tiles are broken . They offered the same room in another floor but that room was the same as it is . Photos can be attached on demand .

Booking & Expectations I’ll be honest, I had some hesitation before booking because the reviews were quite mixed. I’m a Gold member with Meliá, so I’m familiar with the brand, but this was my first time staying at a Paradisus property. I booked a 7-night stay in a Reserve Junior Suite. I tend to focus on luxury holidays and often travel to the Middle East, where five star hotels and service standards are consistently very high, so I came in with certain expectations. ⸻ Location The hotel is quite remote, so it’s worth planning ahead if you’re not renting a car. Costa Calma is a short drive away, but there’s nothing within walking distance of the resort itself. ⸻ Arrival & Check-in On arrival, I was taken straight to the Reserve check-in, which is located in the Reserve lounge. The welcome was warm and professional, and the whole process felt smooth and relaxed. As a Reserve guest, you have access to this lounge throughout your stay, which is a nice touch. ⸻ Room & Amenities The room itself was spacious with a calm, zen feel. The bed and pillows are exceptionally comfortable. I honestly haven’t slept this well in a long time. The mini bar is restocked daily with a good selection of drinks and a few snacks, which is a nice touch. There is also a coffee machine, along with the usual kettle and tea options, so everything you need is there. The only downside for me was the bathroom. The bath and shower area in my room felt a bit worn and didn’t quite match the overall standard of the suite. It wasn’t a dealbreaker, but it did stand out. I was also slightly disappointed with the balcony. I had seen photos of larger outdoor spaces, but mine was quite small and not particularly usable. ⸻ Noise & Room Location It’s worth noting that the reviews about the rooms not being fully soundproof are accurate. I was placed near the Lemon Fish restaurant and the elevators, and it could be quite noisy until late in the evening, with staff cleaning up, and then again early in the morning when things started up again. While this was generally tolerable during most of my stay, my final night was particularly bad. There was a lot of noise, with kitchen staff clanging and cleaning until nearly 1am, which made it difficult to relax and was not a great end to the stay. If you are a light sleeper, I would strongly recommend requesting a quieter room location. ⸻ Pools & Relaxation The Reserve pool area is a real highlight. It’s peaceful, well maintained, and heated, so even on cooler days it’s still enjoyable. I never had any issues finding a Bali bed or sun lounger. I spent most of my time in the garden area, which was perfect for switching off and enjoying some quiet time in the sun. The pool bar staff deserve a special mention. They are genuinely friendly, attentive, and constantly topping you up with water and offering canapés throughout the day, which really adds to the overall experience. I didn’t use the main lagoon pool, as it was quite busy with families during the Easter holidays. ⸻ Beach Access The beach is just a short walk away down some stairs at the back of the hotel. I didn’t venture down much during my stay, so I can’t comment in detail, but it’s there if you want easy access to the sea. ⸻ Food & Dining There are plenty of food options across breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and you will always find something to eat. Breakfast in The Reserve was excellent. The quality, service, and overall experience there were exactly what you would expect from a five star hotel, and it was a great way to start each day. Outside of that, I wouldn’t describe the overall dining as true five-star standard, and I do think the quality could be improved. That said, the staff in the restaurants work incredibly hard, and their effort and service do not go unnoticed. ⸻ Service & Guest Experience Guest Services deserve a mention. They were consistently friendly, proactive, and checking in regularly, which made a difference to the overall experience. ⸻ Solo Travel Perspective As someone who enjoys solo luxury trips to disconnect and recharge, this hotel delivered on that front. It’s not necessarily a typical solo destination, but The Reserve adds a more social element if you want it, with activities and spaces that make it easy to engage or keep to yourself. ⸻ Would I Return? Yes, absolutely. I’ve had a genuinely relaxing week. Overall, this was a very enjoyable break. I can’t quite rate it five stars due to the food and a few of the issues I’ve mentioned, but it has a lot of potential. With some improvements, particularly around dining and certain room details, this could easily reach that level. I

Another AMAZING Paradisus by Melia hotel. I can't understand any of the negative reviews as we had the most fantastic time. As a travel agent, I have already recommended this hotel to my clients and booked a couple in for later in the year. The staff at this hotel are the real stars! Excellent service all round. Cocktails are divine (no watered down rubbish). Food is great, we tried all the a la cartes. Our favourite was Mahos. We stayed in a reserve room, which meant we had access to the a la carte breakfast (highly recommended). Kanna was a great lunch option with Paella, or The Shack for quick snack style foods and ice cream. We ate in the main buffet once during our trip and there was so much choice! No issues with food being cold. The only very minor issue was sometimes slow drinks service. Often down to cocktails being made, which is understandable! Our Concierge Lukasz was fantastic, and ensured we had everything we needed and some special touches for my mum on her birthday. The beach and pool areas are real stars of the show. We enjoyed long walks along the beach and chilling by the pool. We also enjoyed some of the activities such as cocktail making and macrame bracelet making. Beds were comfortable and rooms well equipped with mini bars (all free on AI) restocked every day with drinks and snacks. Toiletries in all the bathrooms were lovely. If using the Melia App you can order anything you're short of to the room such as extra towels, robes and toiletries. You also get flip flops in the room as a gift. Its a windy location, but that's expected since Fuerteventura literally means strong wind! It is quite a way from the airport, so we booked our own private transfer. But there is a car park and the journey was very straightforward so car hire at the airport may work out better for some who want to explore.

We stayed here for 7 nights and absolutely loved every bit of our stay. The location is unparalleled, it is so beautiful specially when the lagoon comes in. It is a place for nature lovers and if you are into wind sports like kite/wind surfing although we did not do that. You can walk for miles although is windy. The hotel itself is amazing, the staff are excellent although some staff may not speak English but that did not pose a problem for us at all. Little touches like everyday refilling the minibar, games at the Ginger bar, a live piano performance, pool tables were so well received by everyone. The entertainment isnt over the top and is relaxing. The food is amazing, we loved Kanna, we tried Lemon fish, the Shack mahos(adult only) and the buffet of course. All food were excellent, the live counters were very good addition and the drinks were very good quality, as would be expected. Kids entertainment looked great although my little one did not join in. The pool was sometimes heated, on days slightly colder but we got used to it. The hot tubs was great and the views from the beds and cabanas placed strategically were amazing. Okay its still finding its feet as a 5star and there are areas it can do better compared to its other products like gran canaria but they are trying really hard to get it up there. Would recommend hiring a car, much easier as its in the middle of nowhere- just how we love it. Overall would highly recommend this hotel for a truly relaxed and enjoyable time. We would definitely come back.

So although this hotel has some redeeming features, we unfortunately got food poisoning here and spent a good three days confined to our hotel room. This is terrible for a budget hotel or hostel, let alone a 5* resort, so it’s hard to give more than 2 stars. I had read the a lot of the previous reviews and did wonder what everyone's gripe was as the hotel looks beautiful. Having now stayed here, I want to leave the review I wish I had read prior to booking. For context we had booked a Reserve premium room ocean front room and are a couple in our late twenties with no kids. Food poisoning incident Both my partner and I spent a whole night repeatedly vomiting for a good 12 hours each and then felt terrible for over another 48 hours. This meant we couldn't really do anything for 3 days and then couldn't really enjoy any of the food or drink normally until day 5/6 of our 8 night stay. Our symptoms started over 24 hours into our trip where we hadn't eaten anywhere else apart from the resort. The days before we hadn't eaten out or done anything out of the ordinary. We had only had one or two alcoholic drinks throughout the day. We think the most likely cause was the snacks in the Reserve area. They put out uncovered snacks such as ham, cheese, salmon bagels etc. from 11am to 6pm. We naively thought that these would be fresh and not the same food sat out exposed from 11am however in hindsight, I think the cheese, sandwiches an ham we ate at 5pm had been sat out in the warm for 6 hours. I think other guests were less trusting than us and hadn't gone for them, hence why as far as we know there wasn’t a hotel wide outbreak. The hotel was unbothered by this, despite us reporting our illness multiple times and our concerns that it was caused by food in the hotel. Some staff were personally very kind and empathetic about the situation and offered to make teas at the bars and send up chicken soup etc. to the room. However some were very unhelpful, including the customer experience manager who would call up to the room daily and when we said we’re still ill would do very little to help and insinuated it was our fault. Not once did we receive an apology. We were also told that the €15 room service charge would be waived. We used this service a few times as we weren't well enough to leave the room and every single time it was a mission to get the fee waived, which is the last thing you want when you're ill. Even at checkout, the charges were still on our bill. We then contacted the hotel after to express our dissatisfaction with the food hygiene practices in the reserve area and how this caused us to be unwell. I am a doctor and our symptoms were classical of Staph aureus food poisoning which happens when meat, cheese and bakery items are left out at warm/room temperature for over 2 hours. The guest experience team have refused to acknowledge this as the cause of our symptoms and, more concerningly, aren’t going to look into changing this practice to protect other guests which is our main concern (hence this review). If the above hadn't happened, I would give our experience at this hotel 3*. Generally, our feedback is this hotel doesn't know who its target audience is and their marketing on social media is borderline misleading. I would also say there is a lot of truth in the other reviews on this page. I think if this hotel re-marketed itself as a 4* all inclusive or ultra all inclusive and dropped their prices a bit, it would be a better offering. However it does not offer a 5* experience at present and if you pay full price, it’s not worth the money. I'll start with the good parts before getting into why we think this. Pros: - The bed was insanely comfortable, one of the best I've stayed in. We didn't notice any issues with the interior of our room and we would know, we spent a lot of time there. - The restaurants are good. Kanna, Lemon Fish and Mahos all had really nice food and we were able to get bookings at all of them towards the end of our trip (we had to cancel the ones at the start for obvious reasons). However I do see how if you had young children, which the majority of guests did, your options would be limited as raw fish and big bits of grilled meat probably don't suit the palette of a toddler. The Reserve breakfast was good but a bit hit and miss in terms of accuracy, with often receiving slightly different variations of what you ordered. - The drinks and cocktails at the bars had a very good variety and were always tasty. The mini bar in the room was also consistently restocked daily. - The grounds are well maintained and the beach with the lagoon is stunning. There are cats that are well looked after and friendly. I would recommend checking the tide times on the Rege Eli website to see if you can time your stay with when there's water in the lagoon, as it's one of the few places on the island where the sea is warm enough to swim in March. - All the pools are heated and were warm enough to swim in, especially the one in the reserve area which was like a hot tub. - You can always get a sun bed, even if you're not there at the crack of dawn and with people leaving towels in one place all day. There were lots of cabanas/bali beds around the resort which were free to use (apart from a select 3 or 4 in prime locations). - The mixology class and sound healing were great, particularly the mixology class. - For the most part, the staff are really friendly and always said hello in the corridor. Even the cleaning team were lovely to us despite a language barrier. - The hotel is secluded, which we loved, but I would recommend hiring a car. Cons - The other reviews are right, the buffet isn't great. We went the first night and never returned. Although there are good bits such as the antipasti, sushi and desserts, everything else was either cold, dry or fried. If you plan to order room service, note the portions are very small, which for us with food poisoning was actually fine, but if you were doing it to treat yourself you'd be disappointed. - Ginger, the bar in the evening if you want a more chilled out drink than Vibra, is very difficult to get a drink at. Often there would only be one bartender making drinks. Although they were very skilled and doing their best, it was too much work for one person. Therefore there would often be queues of 4-5 people waiting. Easily resolved with having 2 or 3 bartenders working or introducing table service. - Our room did technically have an ocean view, however be warned if you're looking to book these rooms. They’re on the back of the hotel so not a view of the pool and lagoon which is in all the social media marketing of the Reserve rooms. The view was more of the end of the beach, the carpark and the buffet and Vibra bar. You also get all the music from Vibra in the evening and the very potent fry smell from the buffet. For this reason we hardly used our balcony which was a shame. - One of the reasons we booked this hotel and the Reserve package, were the included activities. We didn't get to do any in the end and this wasn't solely due to being unwell. The volcano walk is only on Wednesdays which we didn't know until it was too late. We were only able to get a space on the windsurfing the morning of, as someone cancelled (the front desk did make an effort to ensure we knew about the cancellation which was very kind) but by then we'd made other plans. We didn't try and book onto the star gazing but I overheard it is only available on Fridays. I emailed the hotel prior to our stay to try and book onto the activities in advance and get details but was told this wasn't possible. On check-in we expressed our interest in the activities and not once did anyone mention they were limited to specific days of the week and that spaces are very limited. - Part of the marketing for this hotel the show the opportunity to do yoga/pilates and sound baths outside on the beach or by the sea. This was not the case during our stay. I went to the sound healing class and pilates and both were inside in an area with a blue lino floor and felt like a leisure centre. The classes are also shared with those staying at INNSiDE next door, which is completely fine, it just means for things like the sound healing you need to get there early to get a mat. - The adult only area with the jacuzzis has amazing views and is also free, which was excellent. However the area is meant to be for 16+ and on multiple occasions there were children in the hot tubs/using the cabanas. On one occasion there were a group of boys around 11-12 years old who were completely unsupervised and swearing loudly. Didn't exactly contribute to a relaxing vibe. They were there for over an hour and the staff didn't notice as there is no-one monitoring the area. - The reserve area pool is in the windiest and therefore coldest part of the resort and is right next to the kids pools which is understandably loud. It's only separated by a large white wall which is not the most aesthetic feature. - If you need help from the front desk, you need to go there in person as nothing will get sorted over the phone. We had an issue with the safe in our room and called down twice when they said they'd send someone, nobody ever showed up. They also were snippy with us when we called to politely follow up. 45 minutes after our first call I went down, there were lots of staff at the front desk chatting. As a neutral point, this hotel markets itself as a relaxing retreat for young couples however it was mostly young families. If you're a couple/adult and lots of children is an issue for you, this is not the resort for you. If you like sitting next to the pool all day, it will be disrupted by kids activities in the main pool most day such as a foam slide and loud dinosaur activity. We didn't mind too much, apart from when there were children in the adult only areas, as we mostly stuck to the beach view areas so weren't as affected by the noise. Hopefully this helps as I do think the reviews and marketing are confusing as to whether to book this place. Personally, I wouldn't return but its not the worst place I've ever stayed (although it’s pretty low down as I’ve never gotten food poisoning from a hotel before), it just doesn't fully cater to either young families or couples/adults so neither group will ever be fully happy.