Le +++++++ : the staff. Amazingly friendly (but never indescreet or pushy!), always there to help, give an advice. i travel quite a lot but never met such lovely people. Martin, mi corazon !!
Otherwise, the hotel itself is quite beautiful. Lots of room by the pools. Buffet for every taste.
85% of the customers are German but, compared to other destinations, they are very very quiet... ;}}
The "promenade" is directly connected to the hotel and you have a key to access it. Very very safe.

This is definitely a good hotel, but we could not help getting the holiday factory feeling. We had a spacious enough appartment with an own terrace in one of the small houses spread out in the garden. The appartment was functional with comfortable furniture and very good reading light. The safe though was placed in the bottom of a cupboard so you had to stretch down under the floor to reach your things. It was rather rusty and dirty inside as well. Not the smartest place for a safe since most of the guests seemed to be retired people. There was a problem with small ants in the bathroom as well. Finding a free sunbed by the pool was not a problem even though the hotel seemed to be quite full. Breakfast was fine with lots of things to choose. Service was professional and friendly. All in all a nice stay.

Very good stay in mid November at this Riu. Typically good Riu Palace accommodation/restauarant and service etc. This hotel seemed a bit smaller than other Riu's I've stayed at which made a nice change. Arrangements are the same as other hotels in the change regarding outside towels and the sensible two dinnere sittings (6pm or 8pm) which can be changed throughout your stay. This hotel doesn't have a beach because of the location but does have a locked gate that guests have a pass to that gives access to a nice promenade area with shops/bars that then give way to the sand dunes. Overall excellent stay, I would definitely recommend this hotel. I hadn't been to Gran Canaria before but recommend it over Fuerteventura any day.

The gardens and buildings are beautifully designed. While many places cram as many rooms as possible into the area, here they left huge garden spaces between the chalets and limited them to 2 stories. The result is a very pleasant environment.

I also felt the hotel was very well managed. For example they made up beds including the mattress toppers I had asked for and when I had to change rooms (see below) they immediately sent two people over to put the toppers into the new room. Not long ago I stayed in an expensive hotel in Rhodes where they were systematically overbooking – a scandalous practice causing great inconvenience to guests who often had to go elsewhere for a night or crowd two room’s of people into one. The management of Riu gave me sufficient confidence that I cannot imagine they would ever do such a thing.

Staff were helpful and efficient, there wasn’t much noise and the buffet dinner and breakfasts were good. One tiny thing that pleased me is they had normal hangers in the wardrobes. Am I the only one who hates those theft proof ones where you have to fiddle to get the hanger off the hook? (Perhaps it is because most of the guests are German and they don’t steal coat hangers.)

Now the problem: I stayed in a chalet (5136) which had a strong musty smell. We thought it would go away if we left the door to the balcony open but we ended up having to keep it open all night and the smell still didn’t completely go (Plus I woke up with a bad cold which meant I was ill on my return home and missed a week of work – hardly the outcome one expects from a restful holiday but I accept it is largely my bad luck). The next day I changed rooms. The new one (5156) had a strong smell of organic solvent which had either been used to clean the furniture or to get rid of a musty smell. It smelled like creosote. It was not as bad as the previous room and keeping the window open was enough to keep it under control, though it never completely went away. Management really needs to sort this out as it could spoil a good hotel.