Just came back from a 2 week vacation (june 2008) "all inclusive" from the Sunrise Costa Calma Beach Resort. I travelled with my wife and my 2 kids (3 years old and 3 months old).

a) The Hotel

The hotel, in general, is really nice: the lobby, the hallways, the pools .. are nice, cosy and well maintained.

We booked a room (not an appartment) which was ok, but a little bit tidy for 2 persons and 2 kids. But it would be just fine for 2 persons. We paid a little extra to have a room with view on the pool and on the sea (sorta) which was really nice, since I like to have a glass of wine on the terrace in the evening.
The rooms are ok, but you start to feel that a little repainting might be needed to give it its glory of the past back :) Same with the bathroom, which requires some small maintenance (silicon). But nothing of this is worth complaining.

A good thing is that there are really plenty of sunbeds at the pool, so there is no need to wake up at 5am to put towels. If you arrive at the pool around 9:00 - 9:30, you'll still have enough choice. It's a bit more tough to find one at the beach though.

Many many many Germans, a handful of British, Belgians, French, Italians and some russians.. but mosty ... Germans. You have been warned! Jokes apart, the Germans are everywhere anyway. And it is never nice to have too much of one nationality in one place, and I rather have too many Germands than too many French, Italians or Brits anyway ;)

b) The Service

Room was cleaned well, and every day. People at the lobby were nice, helpful and not rude, restaurant keepers, cleaners were also very friendly and helpful. Some bar keepers were just a bit 'cold' but they seemed to be overwhelmed with work. So, in general it was OK. The only thing is that you should not expect too much extra for special occasions. My son had his birthday during our stay, and I asked if they did anything special. They just put flowers on your table... and that's it! (in Greece we got a cake and champagne!) :)

c) The Location

Like previous reviews stated before, there is really nothing interesting around the hotel. There is a "shopping center" called Sotavento which is very very small, and a few small supermarkets here and there. There is another (a bit bigger) shopping center but which is much further, and would required 45 mins of walking back and forth. I heard an English woman complain about that saying that the 'brochure' of the hotel was misleading and that she thought there would be plenty around (she really should check the reviews on tripadvisor before booking).

What is possible is to take a bus (every half hour / hour - depending of the day - 2,40 EUR / person / ride) which will take you to Morro Jable (Jandia beach), which takes about half hour to get there. The busstop is at 10 mins walking and rather hard to find though, make sure to ask at the reception.

d) The Food / Drinks

Typical "all-inclusive" kinda food. Not bad at all, but not GREAT like some reviews stated. It is getting quite repetitive after 2 weeks, but that is kinda normal. They try to variate by putting a different theme every day, but it is not always really succesfull (there was a 'asian' theme which had the worse sushis I ever ate). Choice was OK, but not very big. There is enough choice of salads though, but desserts were never great.

There are no "à la carte" restaurants.

Something that is rather important (for me) is that the coffee was really terrible. The orange juice came from a machine that produced some kind of acidic / artificial flavoured brew that is called "orange juice" there. They offer fresh oranges though, people were pressing them themselves into their glass to avoid having to drink the "brew" stated above. Why not put a machine or two to make fresh orange juice?

The beer was good, the wine mediocre, and the soft drinks just ok. Cocktails were fine but, of course, made of secondary market products.

Don't get me wrong.. the food was good, just don't expect deluxe food in an all inclusive resort.

e) Car rental

It is a good idea to rent a car to explore the Island. The prices of the car rental company at the hotel are reasonable so we booked it there. The only (major) problem is that there is only one guy treating all the demands, so when you want you arrive in the morning to take your car and there are 10 people waiting to still fill in all the paperwork... this can provoke a horde of angry customers :) We were (very) lucky to be able to leave around 9:30. Make sure to ask to the reception the interesting places to see around the Island, to make sure you don't miss a thing.

f) Other

The wind! There is really a lot of wind in Fuerteventura. Sometimes it is still okay, but we had days that we had to run after our towels and/or pool boats since it was all flying away. Fun in the beginning, but gets pretty irritating in the end. It is sometimes really necessary to put rocks on your towels to avoid it going away. It can really be a problem if you travel with babies / kids. The wind makes it quite chilly when you get out of the pool or when you stay in more shadowy places.

where do i start arrived at 1.10 in the morning with my husband and three children aged 2, 7, 10 was given a map with a arrow pointing to our room basically find it yourself attitude, was told food had been layed on for us, my kids were hungry so went straight into restaurant to be greeted by limp salad which had been there hours nothing for the kids, found hotel room to be greeted by seven cockroaches, complained it took three days to get spray to kill them, next day arrived wow nothing for kids again except toast and a lot of cake and salad ,wish i was german this would of been ideal, kids were bored only the pool kept them going my 2 year old was in his pushchair 90per cent of the time as it wasnt safe we found him on the bridge above the pools no security at all even the local spanish kids were using the pools and being very rude to the english kids, entertainment at night waste of time by the end of the first week of two we decided to eat out because we went for dinner and the cockroaches were in the milk and crawling on the dinner plates and when you complaine there not interested, only good points was the weather,

this was my second stay here (previously in 2006)
I was not disapointed.

STAFF: the staff were friendly, helpful and efficiant, we had no problem's checking in or with anything.

ROOMS - rooms have everything you need. the pillows aren't great but thats quite usual in spanish hotels.

FOOD: the food here is great, i'm fussy but there's certainly something for everyone and it's fresh! They cook the meat in front of you. They eve had a carvery this time which was really good.

DRINK: again, very good, didn't have to wait long to be served, they have a good choice of drinks and cocktails and the bar staff are friendly

POOL: great - plenty of sunbeds never a problem (even with the germans :) )

OUT & ABOUT: I recommend a vist to oasis park - lovley day out, about 10 mins away by bus.

I've included a couple of photo's for you.
This hotel is great for a relaxing time, good to chill out but NOT a clubbing holiday.

I went in March 2008 with my girlfriend for a week all inclusive. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived by the standard of the hotel. The sea view, size of the 3 pools, surrounding areas, the private beach, gym, room, veranda view, cleanliness and spa areas were all fantastic! Great value for money! The massage chairs at the bottom of the stair are the darts; go try them for 2 euro!

The weather was superb for the whole week which we really needed after the horrendous 6 months we'd just suffered of a winter in Glasgow. The constant breeze was very much appreciated as it really did get hot at times.

I would give the food 7/10 and it's a bit of a rush, word of warning, be there on time for tea as the German's are as efficient as ever and swoop like locusts. They change the menu each night and it is good, they are catering for many and the salads are exceptional, we ate like kings every day and the beer flows constantly from self service taps, which I couldn't stop smiling about for the first 2 days to my girlfriends amusement!

There is a huge German influence which in all honesty was no problem at all, we feared going on a cheapish all inclusive we might have yobs hanging around bevied all day but there wasn't any of that at all. Mainly just young couples, some with kids and then old retired people. Sometimes it was a bit like a scene from cocoon but we were just there for a relax so suited us fine.

The day time entertainment is a pain and very irritating, we avoided them at all costs but I suppose it would be good if you had kids. They come round the pool constantly and hang around the hotel which we could have done without. They perform at night which was ok, it's mediocrity was actually quite amusing at times, we had a wee chuckle from time to time at them but you can dip out of it if you like and sit in the bar.

We had been working very hard, long hours for several months in the run up to this holiday and the fact we didn't move from the resort for the whole week suited us as we really were shattered and there simply for a re-charge of the batteries. However, there is NOTHING round about to do so if you're slightly adventurous this definitely isn't the place. Apparently you can go diving/surfing and there are some trips and amusement parks further along the island but not much other than a few hotels round about. No surprises there are so many older couples around.

All in all we had a great time and was exactly what we were looking for at that time and would definitely recommend it.