We arrived in the Gran Castillo where unfortunately, a large number of travellers had also arrived, so check in took some time. Not the best when you have a tired and cranky two year old. We were however shown to a room on the ground floor, with superb views which my husband initially felt would be too close to the action to be quiet, but turned out to be the best location in the hotel. By day, we were RIGHT beside the pool, breakfast dining room and access to the promenade. By night, all of this area became quiet and we were sufficiently far away from the main bar and entertainment areas that we were never disturbed. The room itself was large, well appointed but unfortunately, a couch was pulled out and made up for our son. I would not ordinarily object to this at all, but the metal mechanism was exposed at all sides and meant bruises, even a ripped nappy as our active son climbed on and off same.
Breakfast was a very well supplied european style buffet, and there was plenty of choice. Lunch and dinner were however, significantly under par. The only lunch we had was a pre-prepared shop bought pizza, and a below average burger (grizzly) We had dinner on one night in the buffet, and was certainly not 5 star. Cost wise, we had superb meals in nearby Marina Rubicon, in the pricier restaurants for much less.

Location of the hotel was outside Playa Blanca, but only a few euros in a cab. A very pretty and pleasant promenade meandered across the cliffs to the Marina Rubicon and beyond, to Playa Blanca from the Hotel. The walk to the Marina was 20 mins, and we happily did this every night, bar one. The food there was worth it. Lani's is cheap and cheerful, but they are superb with kids, and very accomodating. Casa Roja was SUPERB. FABULOUS> The views over the marina are lovely, and the area was very very very quiet when we were there, so much so that we wondered when their season could actually be! By end of the week, it had picked up slightly, but was still so much more pleasant and subdued than the nearby Playa Blanca!

Check out at the hotel was Poor.....our bill, with two small extra items took over 15 mins to prepare, and we were the only guests checking out at 6am!!! And, it was wrong.

Our big issue was that the hotel listed kids club, play area and entertainment on the web. When we arrived, a surly kids club manager advised that the club was kids 4 and over. She was playing cards in Spanish with two older chirldren and could not have been more dismissive. Similarly evening entertainment was definitely focused toward older kids, and particularly spanish and german. The play area at the pool consisted of sand.............and a triangular house thing..........
Anyway, we had a good time in the pool (one of many) which was very safe and suitable for our very active son.

THe sister hotel next door had a very extensive play area, kids group and lots and lots of equipment - most frustrating when we saw it over the fence!!


Not sure if i would rate this hotel as True 5 star, but it was certainly very pleasant, very clean and our room was well located. If we had been in one of the MANY MANY rooms, spread up and further away from this central location, we would have been less than happy!

i want to be as honest as possible wit this review, i read some from here before i booked, i ignored the ones that just said "crap" with no explanations, so here it is as it was, we booked with first choice, i am glad because the service and information provided was very good, from air crew to transfer to and from the hotel, we were booked in without any problems and were offered a glass of chilled cava, nice start, then our bags were taken to our rooms, personally i see it as a good gesture to tip someone for carrying my bags, you dont have to but i did. up to you, all i can say is that whenever i saw the fellow that carried our bags from then on, he was extra nice to us, anyway, the reception area is lovely, as are the rooms clean linen, air conditioned, nice, the pool area is clean and well looked after with plenty of sun loungers and we found 99% of the staff to be very pleasant, the next thing is food and drink, we had half board which is in the form of a large dining room that is self service, it can seem daunting when its busy but the staff work very hard to make sure there is a table ready for you within at most 2 minutes, the choice is vast and personally i would call it good quality and tasty, this brings me to what i would consider the bad bits about gran castillo, we ordered room service on three seperate occasions, and whilst the service can not be faulted, the quality, preperation, presentation and price of the room service meals can, it was always cold, looked like it was dumped on the plate and was generally very poor in all areas, and the costs were very high, it is a shame because the rest of the hotel is good but the room service meals could really ruin it for you if used a lot, a bottle of cheap wine three toasted sandwiches with soggy fries for 50 euros does not inspire, but like i said the sit down meals were much much better, the other area that i think needs to be discussed is the pool bar/resturant, very pricey and poor quality, 2 small cokes in bottle and i mean the small 200ml bottles will cost you 4.40 euros, any way all in all a nice clean place, great rooms that are cleaned daily and well,nice pool, friendly staff, i would however not consider this a five star hotel, between a good 3 or 4 would be fairer,a high percentage of the guests are german not that that makes any difference but just something we noticed, i would go here again, but i would not use room service,and not have half board, the marina is only a short walk and a good fresh meal for 3 with desert, coke and 2 bottles of beer was 50 euros.

I have just returned from a throroughly enjoyable trip to Lanzarote. Weather - very good, windy and a few slightly cloudy days but a very successful tan is had by both myself and husband! We stayed at the Dream Hotel Gran Castillo in Playa Blanca. It was a late minute booking through First Choice Holidays & we booked Bed and Breakfast for two weeks in the 5* resort. Upon arrival we were greeted by friendly staff and a chilled glass of Cava - even me in my pregnant state enjoyed a glass (topped with Peach juice - obviously!). We were pleasantly surprised to find we had also been upgraded to Half Board and we were shown to our Suite - a large, immaculately clean room with nice decoration and balcony. A seperate dressing room, living area and spacious bathroom made it almost more comfortable than our small 1 bed flat in London! The hotel itself is really nicely done, feeling more like a village than a hotel. Each block of rooms feels individual and the style and design of the hotel felt quite unique compared to others in the resort. We were still slightly out of season therefore the hotel was quiet, we didn't mind this as the purpose of our holiday was to rest and relax by a pool for a fortnight. My only disappointment was a lack of entertainment in the evenings. The main bar was closed probably due to a lack of guests, however the live music acts they chose to employ in the smaller bar were poor and repetitive and we found ourselves going out after dinner to drink elsewhere and enoy the flamenco in other hotels! Breakfast was wonderful, a real selection that catered for all. Dinner was above average although became slightly 'samey' after a while. We chose to eat out a few nights and I can highly recommend the Rubicon Marina for some delicious food. We got a car for three days which was great fun and if you get the chance go to El Golfo for some absolutely mouth watering seafood, caught fresh that morning.
All in all I was very impressed with the Gran Castillo and I would return there as the service and cleanliness of the hotel is excellent. It's a short hike to the Papagaya beach which is also recommended - with crystal clear waters, you can swim with the fishes and then lie on the famous white sands (well they're almost white!)
Travelling with First Choice was OK, although I was disappointed that an expensive case was badly damaged in the flight and felt there was a lack of information offered about a delayed flight, however I must say we had a wonderful, relaxing holiday and returned to the UK rested and golden and for me that means it was a very successful holiday.

Just returned from a week at the Gran Castillo, we enjoyed our stay there. There were no problems and the service from all the staff was excellent. Our check in was slightly long but we sat down and were offered a glass of chilled juice. Once we were checked in we found we had been allocated a nice pool / partial sea view room in a nice position. Some of the rooms did seem to be a bit of a hike from reception. The receptionist explained all the layout of the hotel and what was on offer.
The room was excellent, it had its own walk in wardrobe area along with a safe. The bathroom was of high standard but we found the shower head in the seperate shower room had collapsed, I reported it to reception and it was fixed within the hour! The size of the bed was upto USA hotel bed standard, it was huge! A good size sitting area then onto a nice terrace. (room 1118) The people who had checked out of the room before hand past a kettle and a plate full of coffee sachets/sugar etc into us that they had waited 3 days to get. I took it in gladly! It does not advertise that kettles available but obviously they are.

The TV channels are not upto much, only bbc world, sky news and mtv in english. There is a golf channel though!! Breakfast, buffet style and we sat outside every morning. General service was excellent all round. Even to the girl doing all the eggs, pancakes etc always had a smile and willing to cook eggs how you wanted them. We did not use the hotel for other meals, prefer to eat out at restaurants.
The pool areas were clean, though the towel hut seemed to open at different times each day. One thing I must add is the animation team for the kids ( we had none with us) were excellent. Carlos and crew put on some very good stuff for them especially centred around the Easter Theme. It was not in your face as it is in some hotel ie: notices about what is happening each minute of the day! Well, I have been as honest as I can be about the hotel, I noticed a review recently gave it the thumbs down, I can only imagine they expected better...each to there own! We certainly enjoyed our stay. Hope this review helps anyone thinking of staying there. Will gladly answer any questions.