Review date: 31 March 2008 - A HotelStreet visitor from Reading, England, UK wrote:-

Review title: "Merlin Resort Great Hotel"
Travel date: March 2008
Merlin Resort Hotel is excellent. All staff are friendly and helpful. We stayed all inclusive and found the food to be good, always hot and plenty of choice and the local drinks are good too. The coffee machine is great that you can help yourself and you can even help yourself to ice cream.

The rooms are very basic but clean. The housekeepers do not work at the week end but on the Friday they make sure you have plenty of everything. There is entertainment throughout the day and in the evening which is excellent. They work very hard to make sure that every one has a good time, that's if you want to join in.

We were looking for a relaxing holiday and that is what we got. We enjoyed the walks after dinner around the residential areas - there are some really nice houses. If you are looking for a lively resort then this is not the place to go.

Review date: 22 March 2008 - A HotelStreet visitor from North West wrote:-

Review title: "Merlin Apartment Review"
Travel date: March 2008
My family were looking for a relaxing week in the sun with a good hotel and location. The hotel's first impressions:
Pretty basic. Bathroom very tired with cracked tiles and black mould around the bath. Toilet struggled to flush and shower not very powerful. No air conditioning. Rooms were quite spacious with a balcony. TV had two English channels including World News.

The pool area was fine and pool clean although pretty cold. It wasn't too busy when we arrived but the last two days it was packed with local Spanish as it was Easter weekend.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner were great. Plenty to choose from and lots of it.

We were all inclusive and found that you did not need to have snack meals as there was enough food at the three sit down meals, which is a good job as the only thing you could have in between were what looked like raw hot dogs in a bun in a tin with a cling film covering. I think the idea was to heat it up in the microwave which was situated next to them. Very poor and looked as if they would have given you a serious belly ache.

The restaurant service was definitely slow. We had plates left on the table and were not cleared until we left.
Sometimes no coffee cups at breakfast so goodness knows how they would cope in peak season.

The free drinks were not strong even though they looked like they were going to be with the measures poured. No hot drinks available after 9 p.m. which I found ridiculous as most people like to have a hot drink before bed and we were all inclusive.

Entertainment was OK. The two guys who DJed and were involved in pool entertainment worked really hard and were very friendly.

Location wasn't the best. There was a grey pebbly beach but did not look appealing. A couple of restaurants and shops but that was about it.

Overall it was OK. We had a nice relaxing break and the weather helped. Would I go back to the Merlin Resort, probably not.

Review date: 09 November 2005 - A HotelStreet visitor from Blackburn wrote:-

Review title: "Great Place"
Travel date: October 2005
Food good, rooms ok, entertainment superb.

Review date: 17 July 2005 - A HotelStreet visitor from East Anglia wrote:-

Review title: "Don't Go There"
Travel date: July 2005
The only good thing to say about the hotel was the kid club reps. The kids really did enjoy themselves. The swimming pool was five feet deep in the shallow end; the food was ok but got boring into the second week.

The hotel across the road is worth a look, lovely pool you can use for six euros a day. The room very basic but clean. There is no beach

Review date: 06 July 2005 - A HotelStreet visitor from Southampton, England wrote:-

Review title: "Ocean Club: 3 Sun/2 Key? Not Even 1 In Our Case."
Travel date: June 2005
This hotel, parked in the middle of nowhere, just screamed "lack of taste" on arrival. (Cliché with some lettering in the sign not lighting up. Comical.). Our room was a disgrace. Shower head falling off, massive cracks down the walls where little things liked to live, shower curtain that obviously had been used over and over with previous occupants, bedside lamps hanging off by their last screw. Not a great first impression. Admittedly we booked through First Choice who gave it a three star rating, and as such the reps there just couldn't give a damn as they had massive amounts of complaints (at the airport, at the poolside, even in Las Americas we came across fellow Ocean Clubbers who always had something bad to say about the place). If First Choice had rated this a two star then I could believe it, just. The same bed linen for a whole week was a joke.

And unless you plan on spending the whole time in the hotel, then you'd be hard pushed to get out of the area. A 'courtesy' bus (which actually crashed once during our visit) runs only three times a day, ONLY four days a week, which is great if you want a day out to Las Americas (it only runs there), but if you want to see the nightlife then it's 15 Euros for a one-way taxi, or a 45+ minute bus trip for under two Euros on the local bus.

DEFINITELY not recommended for anyone who wants to see the nightlife, or wants to see any other part of Tenerife for that matter.

Awful location, bad appearance, arrogant reps (with First Choice), but friendly staff and a variety of food (which happened to give a ?lot' of people ?irregular and frequent bowel movements' as one resident put it!).

Would I go again for £300 all in? Not a chance, I'd rather pay the same for a two star self catering in Las Americas.

Review date: 23 March 2005 - A HotelStreet visitor from Rochdale, UK wrote:-

Review title: "Ocean Club Apartments and First Choice"
Travel date: March 2005
We stayed here for a week all inclusive. The apartments are really spacious and cleaned nearly every day. Food and drink are good. First Choice reps were brillant and the entertainment crew in the apartments was absolutely fantstic. Although the resort itself is very quiet, it is very nice and great for a break. We had a fantastic time.

Review date: 01 April 2005 - A HotelStreet visitor from Weston-Super-Mare, England wrote:-

Review title: "We Are Going Back"
Travel date: October 2002
Myself, my husband and one toddler and one baby stayed in the hotel. Ok, the menu didn't change much but there was something for everyone (the kids had the usual chips with burger etc..but thats what kids like). The entertainment was great, disco for the kids and shows - our toddler was up dancing and having a great time till 11.30 every night.

There was nothing to do out of the hotel grounds. We hired a car for a week. The pool area was too crowded for us (pool was too cold and deep for our age children). Staff etc were brilliant. Roll on May 2005 - we have booked to go back there, so I will give you an update then.