A fabulous place we have just visited is the five star Lopesan Baobab Hotel in the upmarket resort of Meloneras Gran Canaria, overlooking the spectacular Maspalomas sand dunes. It is one of the nicest family hotels we have stayed at in Spain.
It is an African themed hotel, with music and the sound of wildlife playing throughout the resort.
On arrival at the hotel our luggage was taken by bell boy as you would expect from a five star hotel and gave us a ticket for reception upon check-in.
You walk across a wooden bridge with impressive water and plant area beneath and the sound of wildlife playing around you. Turning right leads into the lavish reception area. We were greeted with a non-alcoholic cocktail and staff were appropriately dressed in African themed uniforms.
The room had two twin beds pushed together (not ideal as I think it should have been one king bed) and a sofa bed for the children. However the room was furnished to a high standard and had a very modern feel, it was also spotlessly clean as again you would expect for a 5 star resort.
We always prefer the children to have a proper bed but the sofa bed provided was fine for the children as they are still young, but if you had older children it wouldn’t be the most comfortable sleep for the duration of the holiday.
There are 600 rooms in the resorts and there is quite a lot of walking to the rooms which can be a negative as it is such a large resort hotel. However some of the walkways connecting the different areas of the hotels had nice views of the pool and the famous Maspalmos sand dunes in the distance.
We had booked a Double Standard Room and emailed the hotel to ask for a high floor with sea view and we were allocated a room on the 4th floor overlooking the sand dunes and the ocean in the distance.
Some ground floor rooms have walk in swimming pools which were nice and the rooms with pool views were also nice but may be quite noisy on some nights due to the location of the evening entertainment.
The resort boasts huge tropical gardens with plants from all over the world. There are several fantastic pools, a lazy river, waterfalls with hidden bar areas and sand pebble beaches.
Within the lush vegetation there were some African inspired animals to keep up the great African theme at the hotel.
There are two towel change areas disguised as African huts were you collect your complimentary pool towels. This was only open between 10am-12 noon and 4pm till 5pm daily.
The centre area is stunning to look at with a 21 metre high African Lodge home to the Richard Burton Bar. In the evening here there was a great live African band singing a mixture of old and new songs. We liked the atmosphere in here and my daughter loved the life size lion, zebras and tiger soft toys to play with.
During the day we choose to spend most of our swimming pool time here too as the pool is much quieter, the loungers are on wooden decking and you are close to toilets, and had waiter service for drinks and was close by one of the poolside restaurants Pili Pili which is where we had lunch most days and was of good quality.
We did enjoy the lazy river but the beach area was sore on your feet and the location was busy with children and quite noisy.
Our preference was the pool at the African Lodge it had a much more upmarket and relaxed feel.
There was also a children’s pool area and kids club called Panchi World that we used to visit at least once a day as the girls loved the slides!
Again I must point out how well this hotel is run and the attention to detail especially when it comes to cleanliness is of an exceptional standard. Each morning for example before opening the pool areas would be cleaned thoroughly, the picture below is one of the pool cleaning robots. We never saw one insect in the resort and if you have been to Gran Canaria in particular you will know that you are never far away from a cockroach!.
There are two main buffet restaurants to choose from and an African themed restaurant. There are pool side bars and snack bars offering drinks, snacks and ice cream.
The walk to the restaurants for evening meal guided you through the immaculately manicured grounds, over walkways containing fake flamingos and crocodiles coupled with the impressive African themed architecture of the hotel.
The quality of the food during the evening meal was good with fresh meat and fish cooked to order but the restaurants are very large, perhaps a little too large and busy.
There were many day time activities for both adults and children, mostly situated in the Plaza Marimba, this is where the evening 8pm mini disco is situated. Some of the evening entertainment was of a poor quality and this is one area the hotel could invest in for the future.
However the girls looked forward every evening to the Panchi show and mini disco and they had lots of fun meeting new friends from across the continent.
We booked our holiday through Thomson holidays and paid for a private taxi transfer to the hotel, which is highly recommended as you get to your hotel much quicker and hassle free compared to the coach transfer.
Overall we had a fantastic time at the Lopesan Baobob Hotel and would definitely recommend it as a great hotel in Gran Canaria for a family holiday.
Tip – Safety deposit boxes in the room are charged for at 2.50 euros per day which is strange for a 5 star hotel to charge for a facility you would think would be included in this standard of hotel. The safes are also quite small, and would not hold a laptop.
The Wi-Fi is also charged for at 2.50 euros per day and is not worth paying for and again a facility you would come to expect as standard. We had this refunded as it was so poor you could not even send an email. You can pick up free Wi-Fi in the bar areas and reception, but again the speed was awful even for basic browsing tasks and sending an email, which is a shame for a 5 star hotel.
Why you should visit:
Best hotel for children in the area. Many activities for children to take part in during the day and mini disco every evening.
Activities for adults too, daily football, water polo, Pilates, yoga, dance classes, darts.
Hotel very clean, customer service was quick and responsive.
Lots of choice in buffet restaurant for children and adults. There are toddler seats and high chairs available.
Good location as a few minutes walking distance to shops and restaurants.
Beach, bus station and Maspalomas Lighthouse is 5 minute walk away.
Negative Comments:
I would say the hotel would be four stars equivalent comparing it to other five star properties around the world I have stayed in.
There was an extra charge of 45 euros to keep the room on, this is also depending on hotel availability.
No loyalty scheme.
Daily charges for use of the safety deposit box and wifi. I think these charges should be absorbed by the hotel.
No complimentary water in the room.
Although there was plenty of choice in the evening buffet, there could have been more varied dishes, or putting on pasta stations, more vegetarian choices.
No padding on sun loungers, which I would have expected at a 5 star hotel.