Maspalomas Resort by Dunas

We've just spent a week here, the location, bungalows, reception staff and food lived up to expectations. However, we felt ostracised as the entertainment was predominantly French, this included activities for children. This meant we couldn't join in. There was even day/early evening entertainment held on the upper terrace but only for the French. We won't be returning and we don't recommend none French speaking go there either.

So where do we start! Pool area is great. Lots of sunbeds available and it’s not like other resorts where you have to be up at 6am to get a lounger. Towels are removed if you put them down before 10am and walk away. The life guards are grumpy and don’t allow the kids to have fun. No “hard” balls are allowed, meaning any ball that’s not blown up with your own breath. However, If your French then they seem to bat an eyelid and ignore the fact you have that type of ball. No lilos or floats either. As previous people have said, the hotel does cater a lot towards the French. Activities and evening entertainment are aimed towards them. So half the time you can’t understand what’s going on or being said. It’s also pretty boring when you do understand so a lot of the time we have ventured into playa del Inglés via taxi which cost 6-10 euros depending on time of night. Lots of bars and restaurants near the beach! Rooms are spacious but could do with a refresh as very dated. A lot of them were being done whilst we were here so I think we have just come at an unlucky time. Air con doesn’t really seem to exist in the rooms either (we had two bungalows and both were not very good at all). Cleaners were great cannot fault them. Food was nice and had a good variation, however it never seemed to be hot enough. Drinks were good and there is an ice cream machine and slushy machine at the pool bar for the day. At the bar in the evening the older lady always seemed to have the hump with us ordering drinks. She even moaned to my partner when he ordered six drinks 10 mins before the all inclusive finishes. (We were a group of 8). Finally I just want to give emir a shout out. He is one of the animation team who does like to get the English involved when he can! Polite, chatty and doesn’t force you into doing activities you don’t want to do. Unfortunately wouldn’t return to this hotel. We have had better experiences elsewhere

The resort itself is a lovely size. It’s not too big there are 2 good size pools( but you are not aloud ANY inflatables for the children), a astro football pitch and a small splash area for the children. The hotel, staff are friendly and approachable and will speak to you in English, Spanish and French but not the TUI reps there is also an older lady in the evenings at the bar who can be quite grumpy, especially if you want to drink 10 minutes before the bar shuts. We witnessed her tutting and moaning about my brother when he was ordering his drinks. The bald man behind the bar is lovely though. The restaurant offers a good variety of food, quite a lot of fish dishes which unfortunately were not to our taste and not always hot. The pool bar offers snacks in between which are normally pizza, burgers,toasties, fresh salad and hotdogs. Although this is an all inclusive resort, not all of the drinks are included which is very bizarre, even local drinks. In the pool bar, there is unlimited slushy and ice creams, but this is only in the pool bar. We stayed in a two bedroom bungalow which was a nice size but was very very dated. The cleaners work hard and the resort and the bungalows are spotlessly clean, but there is a major downside to this hotel, the entertainment! During the day there is limited entertainment for children. It is mainly for adults for example, aquarobics, water, polo, archery and shooting. The resort is also 90% French as there is a major French tour operator running from this hotel. The French TUI reps will only speak to French people and French children and only speak in French. They actually alienate anybody else and this is very disappointing. The evening entertainment is non-existent We had to travel offsite for most of our holiday in the evenings as there was no entertainment, no outdoor shows bought in nothing at all. This ended up adding to the cost of our holiday. Unfortunately, I would not return to Maspalomas Dunas again, due to the above reasons of entertainment and TUI staff but we would like to give a big shout out to Emir the hotel rep. He was so lovely he included everybody he was really friendly and worked so hard every day so thank you.