Hotel El Tope, Puerto De La Cruz

The El Tope is not what we expected of a 4 star hotel. In fact behind the old fashoned dark wooden reception there are many signs of how good this hotel used to be, unfortunately they all stopped in the late 80's as did everything else about this hotel.

I have been on Thomson Gold holiday to Cyprus on numerous occasions and this does not live up to my previous experiences of the "Gold" holiday experience!

I booked this holiday through Thomson Gold, which is not supposed to have children, but I have never seen so many kids in a hotel in my life, I know they stipulate they do not sell these holidays to children but surely they must be aware of this obvious fact?

Our initial room consisted in what can only be described as a dungeon and we asked to upgrade at additional expense to get above the first floor.

The entertainment was not really what I expected from a Thomson Gold hotel, although the team tried their best the acts that were booked to support them were just like the rest of the hotel, past their best.

I was very impressed with the entertainment especially the two wonderful hosts and those four youngsters that made up the production team for Thomson Gold. I felt they were all team players and really brought joy to my holiday.

The food was to my standards and the staff of the hotel were friendly and helpful. I would recommend the El Tope.

We booked this holiday for our silver anniversary and couldn't have found a nicer hotel for such an occasion. The hotel was lovely, so welcoming and friendly, nothing was too much trouble for them. Our room was on the front overlooking the sea and the scenery from the balcony was great.

We really enjoyed the daytime activities (although initially we didn't think we'd want to join in). These were organised and run by the Thomson Gold Hosts, Paul and Emma, who were very friendly and ensured we all had a good time and lots of laughs.

They also arranged all the evening entertainment which was very pleasant and much better quality than we could have anticipated. They with Danny and Neil (the singing duo, SWAY) really made our trip memorable. Danny and Neil are excellent entertainers and very friendly people too. We can't thank the four of them enough for the great time we had in our two weeks at the El Tope.

Puerto De La Cruz itself is a really pleasant place with lots to see and do.

All in all, we had no complaints, only high praise - the steps weren't bad at all, we usually walked down to the town centre and had a taxi ride (up) back to the hotel.

We'd certainly use the El Tope again!

We stayed at the hotel El Tope for two weeks and would never go back there.

Believe me, the hotel is actually good but there were a few disadvantages. There's lots of steps from the town up to the hotel that would kill you, but taxis are cheap.

The air-conditioning is a poor joke and we ended up buying a small fan to keep the room cool. It was simply too hot in August.

We were supposed to be with Thomson Gold, which excludes children, but the hotel was full of kids, and that's not what we paid a premium for. The kids were mainly Spanish and German who could book independently from Thomson, so the Thomson Gold concept is pretty poor if the hotel is not available exclusively to Thomson customers.

In the restaurant, the fruit juices were of the diluting kind, not fresh and a number of men were allowed to football shirts at dinner (against hotel policy). Between that and the kids it turned a dinning experience (the food was very good) just into getting fed and out again.

We have just returned from the Hotel El Tope and we can tell you that it is fabulous holiday hotel, providing everything you could want from your holiday in Tenerife.

The El Tope is located at the top of a hill but there is a regular free bus service from the hotel to the town and taxis are plentiful and only cost about 3 Euros to take you back to the hotel.

Food was varied and well presented and everyone dressed for dinner. Staff on the whole were pleasant with the exception of one or two reception staff.

One word of warning! The cockerels in the area crow for hours. I complained and was moved to another room for the sum of 20 euros. It was more than worth it.

The Thomson Gold entertainment staff work hard to make you happy with something for everyone, depending on the time of the day. In the upstairs bar you will usually find a piano player providing live background music, while downstairs you will find more general entertainment that should provide you with something to remember from your holiday!

A couple of singers were working the Summer 2006 season, Danny & Neil and they called themselves "Sway", fairly good for hotel entertainment, but could be a little "cheesey" if you had a fortnight of it!