Gloria Palace Amadores Thalasso & Hotel

“Fantastic Holiday”

We stayed at Gloria Palace Amadores Thalasso & Hotel as a family of three with our 18-month-old daughter, and overall we’ve had a fantastic holiday. Before arriving, we’d read reviews mentioning building work, troublesome lifts and even pigeons, so we were a little apprehensive. In reality, most o… more

We stayed at Gloria Palace Amadores Thalasso & Hotel as a family of three with our 18-month-old daughter, and overall we’ve had a fantastic holiday. Before arriving, we’d read reviews mentioning building work, troublesome lifts and even pigeons, so we were a little apprehensive. In reality, most of those concerns turned out to be pretty minor. The hotel is currently renovating some rooms and the spa was out of action during our stay. Our room was one of the newly refurbished ones and it was excellent. Modern, clean and finished to a high standard, with an outdoor jacuzzi bath on the balcony which was a lovely touch. The room also had both USB and USB-C charging ports by the bed. The bathroom was equally impressive, with excellent shower pressure, something that’s often overlooked but as a brit, I must comment on. As for the building work, yes, it was happening, but we barely noticed it. Realistically, if rooms are being renovated, there will be some noise from time to time, you can hardly put a SDS drill on silent mode, but it wasn’t enough to spoil our holiday. The lifts seem to attract a lot of comments in reviews. They occasionally have a bit of a mind of their own, but when you’ve got hundreds of guests all trying to use the same lifts, it’s hardly surprising. We never found it to be a major issue. One feature we really liked was the lift providing direct access from the hotel down towards Amadores Beach. Your room card is used to access it, making it easy and secure to come and go without having to walk around the long way, which is a calf killer. The food was consistently good throughout our stay. We’re not food critics or particularly adventurous eaters, we’re mainly chicken eaters, and as a family with a toddler we never struggled to find something to eat at any meal. It’s your typical all-inclusive buffet with plenty of choice, and we certainly never went hungry. Dinner changed theme throughout the week, with evenings including Spanish, Irish and Mexican cuisine, which helped keep things interesting rather than feeling like the same buffet every night. Breakfast was spot on every morning and coffee was perfectly drinkable, If you prefer a stronger coffee, adding an espresso gives it a bit more punch. The snack bar at the top pool was another pleasant surprise. Instead of queueing up for food, it’s table service, which gave it a slightly more upmarket feel. It also meant there weren’t people carrying plates of food around the pool all day, helping keep the area feeling cleaner and more relaxing. You can however take drinks to the pool, these are in cups rather than glasses. The pool areas were excellen and the children’s splash pad was an absolute hit with our 18-month-old. Between the splash pad, slides and play area, we genuinely struggled to persuade her it was time to leave. Unlike some resorts, there didn’t seem to be much of the usual sunbed race every morning. There were always the odd early risers dashing for poolside beds but we never had any trouble finding somewhere to sit. I’ve seen reviews mentioning pigeons around the outdoor dining areas. Honestly… where there’s food outside, there will be birds. We certainly didn’t experience pigeons landing on tables or stealing bread rolls, and it wasn’t something that affected our holiday in the slightest. Entertainment was exactly what we’d expect from a good all-inclusive hotel. There were the usual daytime poolside activities for those who wanted to join in, while the evening entertainment was enjoyable and a nice way to finish the day. The location is another big plus. The lift takes you straight down towards Amadores Beach, which is absolutely stunning. To the right is the larger, man-made beach (we were told) with plenty of sunbeds (around €5 each) and a promenade with shops and cafés. Heading left takes you towards the marina, and from there it’s around a 20min walk into Puerto Rico if you fancy more bars and shops. After a warm evening stroll, a taxi back to the hotel cost us around €5. The staff deserve a special mention. Every member of staff we encountered was friendly, welcoming and clearly worked incredibly hard. One evening our daughter accidentally soaked part of the bed with water. We mentioned it before heading out for the evening and by the time we returned everything had already been changed. A special thank you goes to Teo and Juanjo, who were both genuinely warm, friendly and always seemed willing to go the extra mile, our daughter loved them. They’re a real credit to the hotel and helped make our stay that little bit more memorable. If there are concerns about staff efficiency, maybe lend a hand by stacking your plates etc at the end of the table, will help them get their job done. We also made use of the gym a few times, It has a surprisingly good range of equipment for a hotel gym, although it could definitely benefit from air conditioning, workouts become sweaty very quickly! The only slight downside for us was that both the gym and breakfast open at 8am. If you like getting an early, fasted workout in before breakfast, you’ll be cutting it a bit fine before breakfast service finishes. Likewise, early risers may find an 8am breakfast opening a little later than expected, although it certainly wasn’t a deal-breaker. One practical thing worth mentioning is check-out. Standard check-out is at 12pm, but if you have a later flight it’s worth asking reception on the morning of departure about a late check-out. We were offered an extension until 3pm for €35 (subject to availability), which made our last day far more relaxed, plus you can make use of your all inclusive as your card is scanned for food & drinks etc. Overall, we’ve had a fantastic holiday. No hotel is perfect, but Gloria Palace Amadores gets far more right than it does wrong. The ongoing renovations never affected our stay, the refurbished rooms are excellent, the staff are wonderful, the location is superb and it’s a brilliant choice for families with young children. If you’re expecting a flawless, ultra-luxury five-star experience, you’ll always find something to complain about. If you’re looking for a clean, modern hotel with fantastic views, friendly staff, good food and a brilliant base for a family holiday, Gloria Palace Amadores delivers exactly that. Would we come back? Without hesitation. Thank you to everyone at Gloria Palace Amadores for helping make it such an enjoyable stay.

less

“Second time here and we loved it again!!!”

We spent weeks looking through others hotels to visit all over Europe and we ended up coming back to Gloria Palace Amadores Thaslasso. Our last stay was excellent. So was this one. The staff - reception, cleaners, waiters are friendly, efficient and helpful. Difficult to pick anyone out but Lorena … more

We spent weeks looking through others hotels to visit all over Europe and we ended up coming back to Gloria Palace Amadores Thaslasso. Our last stay was excellent. So was this one. The staff - reception, cleaners, waiters are friendly, efficient and helpful. Difficult to pick anyone out but Lorena our cleaner was always friendly and did an excellent job as did the waitress that we saw a lot - Monica. We had a few problems when we first arrived, with cleaning not having been done and a stuck balcony door, but those were solved very quickly to our satisfaction and we received a bottle of wine too. Not sure if that was a sorry or just what was always done but nice either way. Rooms are clean. The food is great. Good selection and good quantity. Just lovely. Facilities like the gym and the pool areas are really nice. The aquarobics we discovered only in the last couple of days is excellent. The man who led it was brilliant. We also enjoyed the entertainment, with great live music and acrobatics. Good to see the autism awareness throughout the hotel. Others can learn from this hotel's example. Imagine every hotel giving out a free sensory box! It's a great location. Easy to get to. Really short walk to Amadores or Puerto Rico along the seafront. Snorkelling at Amadores was fun and felt totally safe in the bay. Seeing sunsets every evening over the mountain on Tenerife from the restaurant balcony was perfect, although pigeons do occasionally visit. We love this hotel, particularly the food and the staff. Hope to return again before too long.

less

“Hotel was very good”

Everything we wanted. Could not be happier. The room was ground floor and facing the infinity pool at the quiet side. Hotel staff could not do enough for us. The chambermaid kept our room spotless. The hotel was quiet around the rooms. No noise from suit cases on the corridors. The food was excell… more

Everything we wanted. Could not be happier. The room was ground floor and facing the infinity pool at the quiet side. Hotel staff could not do enough for us. The chambermaid kept our room spotless. The hotel was quiet around the rooms. No noise from suit cases on the corridors. The food was excellent and plenty of choice. The bar staff in the reception area was second to none (5*). Plenty of entertainment during the day and evening. We were not far from Puerto Rico town and not far from Amadores beach, 2 mins in a taxi ( 4 Euros ). As for value for money this hotel was excellent. Will be highly recommending it to friends and family. We hope to be returning next year.

less