Bancal Hotel and Spa

Stayed mid March with my husband. It’s difficult to find any faults with this hotel. The whole stay from start to finish was exceptional. Mostly German and Spanish guests, who are very easy to be around. The dining halls seemed fairly busy but everyone seemed to disappear all day so we often had a huge pool virtually to ourselves. Never a shortage of loungers. Water temperature around 25 degrees. We don’t eat meat but there was plenty of choice at both breakfast and dinner. Great quality food and half board is advisable unless you have a hire car. Incredible scenery and walks. If you want to walk directly from the hotel, it’s right out of the hotel entrance and just follow the winding and hilly road all the way to the Church on the beach. About 3 hours total. All the staff were great but a special mention should go to Senya, the receptionist, who went above and beyond to be helpful.

We had an amazing stay at this beautiful, quality hotel. The grounds are vast due to the architectural design, which have to say was fabulous, the pool areas (along with most of the hotel grounds) looking out to Teide are breathtaking. Loads of beds nicely spread out. We found the food to be very good but agree with some comments that occasionally a few dishes were not hot enough..however meat and fish options are cooked fresh as you wait. Always a good selection of pasta and meat dishes and really enjoyed the different starters and deserts each day. A lot of effort seems to go into the food. I disagree with comments about the waiters.. who work very hard, cleaning plates away very quickly (yes sometimes you had to wait a few mins before they got to you to order drinks but no big deal) and bar staff were very friendly..we also found Patrick to be very welcoming in particular. The hotel had some great musicians during our stay, especially the pianist and Juan. it's a real shame more guests don't go after their meal. What would make this hotel even better..1. Free shuttles into san sebastian. it's an isolated location and pre booked shuttle is €5 each (we just ordered a taxi which isn't much more) 2. another bar open in the evening, more guests may stay out if they don't want the entertainment, all the bars are nice and a shame not to have an alternative (the show bar is too big for too few people.) 3. water with evening meal / more water stations I really hope this hotel continues to get more guests as it's still relatively new and does feel very quiet (which I liked!) We didn't want to leave and will be back to this hotel and La Gomera in future. Thank you for an amazing stay!

The hotel is beautiful. One of the most beautiful hotels we've ever been, but we would like to inform that the Restaurant service is not great. We've received a poor treatment from the waiters. For example, we wanted to drink certain wines, they told us the hotel doesn't have it, but they didn't offer us different choices. We had an amazing treatment from an Argentinian waiter, Emmanuel. He was super nice and helpful and always with a smile on his face. He gave us to taste differents drinks and options.

I have been surprised by reading the reviews of the Bancal Hotel and Spa below some of which fail to give credit where credit is due. This is a first-class four-star hotel. While there may be aspects of it that do not appeal to everyone’s taste, it is nevertheless a delightful hotel. The Bancal is a new contemporary hotel. Built into the mountainside a couple of miles outside of San Sebastian, it does require holiday makers to have use of a car to facilitate access and to travel more freely across the island. For those without a car, you will be reliant upon the shuttle buses which are provided freely twice each morning or a local bus which runs infrequently. It is possible to walk into the town, but it takes about 50 minutes and is not the most scenic, a map with a shortcut is available from reception. The staff are universally polite, pleasant, relaxed and friendly. They do their best to help. A special call out for Lizi who was especially welcoming. This is a large hotel, built over 11 different levels, but with lots of lifts and gentle inclines which make it suitable for those who are disabled. There are superb views across the sea to Tenerife and Mount Teide from most room patios. The whole site has been attractively landscaped, and the gardens which are substantial, are well tended, irrigated and provide wonderful Canarian colour from the plantings. There is also a kitchen garden which provides some of the vegetables needed by the restaurants. The rooms are long and narrow, they are scrupulously clean and contemporary in style, there is ample room for storage and rooms are cleaned on a daily basis. Access is with a friendship bracelet which is worn throughout your stay and which contains a chip to unlock the doors. It worked very well. Beds are comfortable and linen of a decent quality. Not to everyone’s taste though the shower is within the bedroom and the screens offer limited privacy with frosted glass from knee-height to shoulder. The toilet too has glass screening though this is entirely frosted. Everything worked well. The rooms have a plethora of lighting options. In fact, there is a whole screen advising on how to operate the light system. The most helpful advice being that to turn everything off you hold down any switch for three seconds. It would have been useful to have a similar hack for turning everything on using the same system! For a short stay, the lighting is overly complicated and we didn’t get the hang of it at all! We ate on a half-board basis using the buffet restaurant. It has a lovely dining and serving area. Tables are adequately spaced and the views are beautiful. The food we found to be plentiful, tasty, varied and adequately hot. The quality was similar to most 4-star hotels, adequate but not outstanding. The hotel relies for wine lists and menus in its bars and cafés on a QR code system which we found to be a nuisance and impossible if you have not taken your phone with you. Pape

After spending 2 weeks travelling around Tenerife and La Gomera we wanted to treat ourselves for our last days of holidays with some luxury and pools. We didn’t expect this hotel to be so big. There are hundreds of rooms here, it made us think about a cruise boat incorporated in a mountain! If you like “charm hotels “ this is not for you. Bancal is all about concrete and stones, minimalist/brutalist architecture style, sharp angles, stairs (lots of them), terraces and view points punctuated by garden spaces full of beautiful canarian plants and trees. Don’t expect any originality regarding design though, it’s all tame grey and beige furniture everywhere. There are big 3 big beautiful pools with great views on Tenerife and the Teide volcano, quite windy sometimes though, with a lot of transats and some more intimate corners hidden behind plants and trees. Rooms are spacious, well equipped and very comfortable. Staff is young and very friendly and helpful. Breakfast buffet is pretty good, with a lot of choice. We tried the “a la carte” restaurant one evening, food was modern and tasty. We don’t usually stay in that kind of hotel but we decided to embrace the concept for a few days and really enjoyed the comfort and quietness and outdoor spaces. One thing though, and it’s not the hotel’s responsibility, is those dogs barking almost all day and night. There is some kind of kennel nearby and you hear them barking like crazy probably desperately wanting to get out of their cages. It was quite sad to hear…