Sandos Papagayo

We have just returned from an enjoyable 9 night stay. We stayed all inclusive 2 adults 2 children aged 7 and 4. First off just to say we had a great time. The hotel itself is well kept and lots going for it. I recon when it first opened it would of been and absolute show stopper, as other reviews have mentioned you can see it starting to look fatigued in parts and in need of some refurbishment. The food was to a really good standard in the main restaurant particularly evening meals food was always hot and good quality. Breakfast was nice but I think not serving hash browns is a strange one and would be an easy crowd pleaser. The snack bar was again good,the only thing my kids missed was nuggets, something we’ve always had on previous all inclusive. The fusion restaurant we thought was average and preferred main. I thought the drinks were reasonable apart from the cocktails which were pretty rubbish tbh. Beer was Amstel and was good in the bars but ridiculously fizzy self pour in restaurants. Rooms could not fault and the scenery and views around the hotel were stunning. We walked to Papagayo beach one day which was a 10 minute walk away and was lovely. Animation team were really good with 2 guys really standing it out Rammi who we saw on his day off in playa Blanca town and guided us on a bus back as the taxi cue was massive what a legend he was amazing with our son Charlie. And Sofe who had just started but had an infectious energy and was great with the kids. Lastly just want to shout out the TUI rep Danni who we recognised from a few years ago and was such a great guy who couldn’t do enough to help people! We booked the ‘we love papagayo’ catamaran trip with him which although was a long day was a great day out. This hotel is a lovely hotel with some great features and some great team members. We probably wouldn’t stop here again as it’s just a bit too far out for us as we like to have a walk and mooch but can see the reason a lot of people like to revisit. Thanks Sandos Papagayo!

I have recently returned home from my holiday at Sandos Papagayo so I thought I would leave an honest review. I arrived mid afternoon on a Wednesday at the start of October. The first thing I noticed on the way to the hotel was how big and impressive the reception looks from outside including the domed roof. When walking into the spacious, clean reception area I saw Rami, Odians and Carlos in reception so rather than joining the queue of a couple of people I went to say hello to them and let them know that I was there. The check in was nice and simple, had over my passport and the hotel voucher from the travel company. A few moments later after the receptionist had confirmed that the room was ready which was a bonus as it was almost 1500 so it was not guaranteed that my room would be available then. My suitcases where loaded onto one of the trolleys and off I went to my room. As I was told that it was Oktoberfest that afternoon the suitcases were left in the room and I went to get involved in the activities for Oktoberfest. As someone who does not drink that much there was not much pressure placed on me to get involved in the drinking games so I just watched these activities. As I had a room in the B block I was reminded how beautiful the views where, on most mornings I was enjoying a coffee from the coffee machine watching the people have an early morning splash in the sea / walk on the beach and watch ferries go between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. For those people who do not like coffee there is the option of having decafe or tea to enjoy at the start of the day On most of the days I was actively involved in the activities provided by the animation team and I was amazed at how hard they worked and how they went above and beyond in making everyone feel welcomed. Even though I did not know any of the other holiday makers at the start of the holiday I felt that it was easy to make friends with them as most of the people I saw was friendly. I liked that when doing the archery or shooting there was two people doing it at the same time as it meant that the activity could be done within an hour. During the day some of my Spanish friends arrived and I had great fun in their company I was pleasantly pleased at the choice of food that was available, both at lunch time and also in the evenings, it is possible to eat beige food if I wanted and also there was an amazing choice of salads if I wanted to be healthy. Every lunch time and evening time there is the option of having roast meat, such as beef, turkey, pork, chicken. I had booked the Fusion restaurant twice, once for the Mexican and once for the Asian and this provided a nice change to the normal restaurant. As there is only a few people that can enter every 15 minutes there was never any queues when getting the food there. As I was too busy waking up slowly, I was not willing to get out of the room too early and I did not have any issue getting a sun bed around pool 2 and also noticed that

We are currently here and in the middle of our 3rd visit and, if anything, it's even better than before. Goodness knows how anyone rates this below 4 stars but, having said that, we have never visited in peak season. Are there things to improve? Yes but that's only our opinion. They have introduced a policy of not reserving sun beds efore 9am. Absolutely brilliant. Trouble is, they don't enforce it. We are early risers and go for breakfast as soon as it opens at 8am. We can see beds reserved with towels at that time with no one in sight and they are in the prime locations. Our view is that, if you have a policy, enforce it. Most people are abiding by it and the rule breakers will soon learn. Secondly, being early risers, we also retire early. Starting the entertainment at 10pm is too late as far as we are concerned. Finally, water should be available by the pools all the time. When it is 26°C from 10am it is not acceptable for water to not be available until the bars open at 11. In a 20 year old hotel certain things are a bit tired and there is no sign of ongoing maintenance. Where we stayed last year in Los Pocillos they were redecorating, non-stop. If they want this hotel to stay at the top of my shopping list they need to start replacing poolside tiles etc as an ongoing activity.

Our third visit, since our first in December 2022 and again in September 2023, so we have now experienced the hotel over 3 different months. It was certainly hotter in July, but fortunately there was a cooling wind most of the time, which made it bearable. There are wide ranging opinions of Royal Elite, but from our point of view, it certainly is worth the extra £25 or so per person per night. We have found the staff to be extremely friendly and helpful and were surprised about recent negative comments concerning Reception. We have always enjoyed a great relationship with the staff on Reception, and in July the service we received from Ylenia and her colleagues was first class. Another really nice member of staff is John(Jhon is his Colombian name!) who manages the pool bar. He is a great asset to the hotel and is very popular with all his guests. It’s always difficult to mention other star members of staff, but Erica,Ana and their colleagues in the Royal Elite restaurant give wonderful service. We have spoken to Carlos, the Manager, several times, and he has always been very approachable and helpful. So, we are looking forward to our next visit, hopefully in December.

Honest review from a recent stay at the Sandos, this in my opinion is NOT A 4 star hotel and more of a 3 star establishment. Positives: location and views from the hotel demonstrate how beautiful lanzorate is, 10 out of 10 . All inclusive package for kids was great, lots of treats for the little ones. Staff and animation team all seemed to love their job and happy to please guests. Newly refurbished bar and snack bar was great for day drinks and food. Negatives: Our room was in a very tired state and desperate of a good clean and maintenance throughout. There was several public toilets and communal areas that where in disrepair, loose tiles, blinking lights, flaking paintwork, hand dryers not working, just all round tired and in need of some attention. Whilst the majority of the staff were extremely friendly a few seemed like they hated being there. The food was extremely repetitive and as other reviewers have mentioned pork and fish are always on offer. I would suggest that there are more toast machines for the breakfast as there is always such a big wait for these. Towards the end of our stay we noticed more people were staying at the hotel, making all of the areas so busy and difficult to get seated. This goes for most areas! The bar, the dining hall and around the pool!!! The reserving of sunbeds around the pool is just ridiculous! We noticed that most of them were reserved before the hotels 9am rule and people won’t be on them for hours! We even seen people lying on towels on the grass and on hard floors, which is just not acceptable for a “4 star hotel” when you have paid a lot of money to be there. There should be enough sunbeds for all of the guests. I think out of our 10 day stay we managed to get a sunbed for just 3 of those days. We ended up going to the surrounding beaches just so our children could go in the water. The entertainment was very hit and miss. It started so late and never on time which by this point our children were getting tired and bored of waiting. It is hard to recommend this hotel but if there was a push to improve the above I would I think that the Sandos would be a gem.

Initial impressions were that the hotel was massive it has a military style operation to clean the place top to bottom and generally they do this flawlessly. Watching them mop the foyer shows how much this hotel spends on cleaning. My overall rating was positive, I don’t feel it’s star rating is rated high enough however there is the following issues. The snack bar that’s open from 11pm onwards that toastie machine is awfully slow. The entertainment is questionable at times. We had a guy on that absolutely loved himself a saxophone player that managed to clear half the room. The other galf the room just spent time shouting and speaking to each other because that was more entertaining than him. If your in charge of the entertainment PLEASE watch the audience reaction too see if it engages people. The restaurant Mexico / Chinese. Was poor extremely horrible selection of food. I was asked if I wanted to try some Chinese cooking wine that generally is used in the cooking process and not for drinking and smelt like vinegar. I turned this down. The app did not work properly because the room number was so long like H 10 101 or something. The luggage room was too small and over flowing. The pool stats hadn’t been checked for more than 3-4 months prior to my arrival and when brought up with management I was reinsured that the chlorine was at the correct levels and that the pool team would complete the sign as per their policy daily to notify guests that the pool is safe. Chlorine on my visit was not smelt at all during the visit which is unusual for a pool. After using the pool I became quite unwell and got a chest infection on holiday which wasted a full day and then my partner got the same. This is what prompted me to ask and check. NEVER GET IN A POOL THAT YOU CANNOT SMELL CHLORINE IN. The English version of the pool sign does not make any sense in English. Some parts are okay but “it is healthy to use sun cream” would be an example of a translation error for “ it is advisable to use sun cream to protect your health” there were much worse examples. The pool lifeguards have unfortunately been tasked with emptying bins tidying up and putting away sun beds. This means your child has no lifeguard protection whilst at the hotel pool. In most countries the role is taken seriously and the lifeguard cannot deviate from being only a lifeguard until they are given a break every so often to retain vigilance. The pool was really cold most days 18/22 which is just too chilly. A supplementary heater could be provided in one of the pools to at least cheer guests up when it’s cold. The staff are very funny and cheerful. The managers however look very stressed. The toilets are extremely stuffy and hot inside I’m the toilet cubicles outside the main canteen had “questionable” staining to its walls a sign and the floor which remained for the full stay and was not cleaned. Someone must have enjoyed the toilets on more than one occasion. The food v