H10 Rubicón Horizons Collection, Lanzarote

Stayed here all inclusive and had such a good time we have booked to come back (never done that before). Food and drink was lovely, room spacious and clean, pools and grounds lovely (all but one of the pools is not heated). Staff friendly and helpful. Im not a big sunbather but always got a lounger when I wanted one. Things to consider: Its a big resort with lots of steps and the lifts are a little slow. Pools are mostly quite cold. If you do the buffets at peak time its busy but we always got a table. Its a longish (but very pleasant) walk to the centre of Playa Blanca. Negatives. Sometimes the bar service is slow, the staff were great but a little rushed at times.

Arrived in early June at 10:30pm and had a welcome drink on arrival plus access to a late dinner (suitable for after a flight when you dont really feel like a full on dinner). Sun loungers were always available given how big the hotel is and the heated pool was a great addition for a little one (the big pools were far too cold for our 4 month old). Found the food a little disappointing for our tastes but perfect if you like a mixture of cheeses/fish dishes and non-British cuisine. Some difficulties with a baby: - Despite the hotel having three shops, none of which sold big bottles of water (and low sodium ones at that) so we had to walk 25 minutes to the nearest supermarket every few days for water for formula - The hotel provide a kettle in the room and do offer sterilisation (basically Milton tabs) so its cheaper to bring your own FYI Housekeepers were extremely hit and miss. We had cookies left in our room and three bottles of water one day, and then nothing the next (not even drinking water). We were clearly sterilising bottles for our baby on one day and they moved all of them and put them on a towel - so we had to re-sterilise the entire batch. From then on we left a note in English and Spanish saying do not touch these bottles. We thought it was quite clear what we were doing? Especially with the cotbed in the room. The cotbed is massive and our newborn absolutely didnt take to it at all. That being said we were in a superior twin room without paying extra which was nice so there was lots of room in bed. The fridge in the room wasnt a fridge at all and instead described as a cooler. So anyone who needs to keep medication refrigerated has to keep it at reception and go and get it as and when - wouldnt have expected this from a 5*. The only music playing at poolside is on the heated pool, which is a bit weird because Id consider this to be the kids pool (predominantly infants). You order your drinks from someone next to the bar which was a bit odd and they clearly spoke about you in Spanish to the bar staff so maybe consider learning a little bit before you go to see what theyre saying! Drinks were very hit and miss and not made as and when so if you get a rough batch its probably 50% alcohol! The Thai restaurant wasnt our cup of tea and the American one was very mediocre. The Italian was the best but still a nice change from the main sector. The pools were a lovely variety and the spa looked lovey, albeit no one was ever in it. The area was gorgeous and the hotel very clean and picturesque. The only other huge downside was the amount of flies everywhere, poolside, main restaurant, inside and out! Overall a nice holiday but definitely a 4* not a 5*. Would visit again and definitely a nicer place with kids but does have some downsides.

* couple in our 20s * Stunning, clean hotel with lovely staff & lots of extra facilities including a great gym, on site cafe etc. Rooms were always clean & a great size. Food was great, Im always sceptical about buffet style restaurants but there was a lot of choice and always cooked fresh if you requested it and there were other restaurants to eat at which we had 2 included in our all inclusive stay of 5 days. Would 100% stay here again for longer in the future and have recommended to friends & family

We have recently returned from a 14 night stay at Rubicon palace. This was not our first H10 hotel but it was our first visit to the Rubicon. The holiday did not go without some issues which needed a few frustrating visits to guest services to get sorted (Room location not as expected / Mini bar not being stocked). To be fair though once highlighted guest services did their best to rectify any issues as soon as possible and made small gestures to make amends for the hassle. The resort being so big it could take revisiting to ensure the action is followed up as sometimes the right hand does not know what the left is doing. This invariably involves walking 10 mins to reception each time. Can a telephone not be installed in each block to contact reception in the event of issues outside the room like door keys not working (This occurred approx. 4 times) The resort is quite big and accommodation spread out around the central building but we found this not to be a problem and it was easy to find your way around. The layout is very pretty and the resort looks fantastic, There are several pools and we found the general area to be well kept and clean. At the end of the day some debris does build up and can look untidy but that's people on holidays and when the pool areas are being cleaned the debris is tidied away. There are a lot of uneven and cracked tiles around the resort but there seems to be a rolling maintenance plan to repair them at random areas each day, perhaps to minimise disruption to guests in any one area at a time? Can be a bit annoying to hear the drill breaking up the old tiles but its a catch 22 situation and varying locations each day is probably the best that can be done. There are a variety of pools, all salt water and fairly cold, although after a few minutes the cold does not really be an issue. You can select small quiet pools or the main ones with most of the daily poolside entertainment. The Privilege pool is a nice quiet place but I cannot understand why the pool is so shallow. Its more akin to a children's pool and was not suitable for proper swimming in my opinion. And you would have to forgo the poolside Privilege services to switch to a deeper pool. Entertainment is provided for children and adults but we didn't go to many shows as on this break we just wanted a quiet relaxing retreat but it seemed to be very popular. The Dinner show was a nice distraction and we would recommend that. Piano bar is classy and comfortable with music but can get very busy with queues at the bar especially for cocktails. This could definitely be improved upon. The Privilege lounge area is a self service bar area where you can get away from the crowd and be guaranteed a seat when things get a little busier. Drinks menu online displays Imported Beers as an option but in reality there is only Estrella. Bit of a disappointment there :-( We had lunch at the buffet on one occasion and although the restaurant is clean and spacious we found flagging a waiter to order drinks more difficult that it ought to be and never managed to get them by the time our lunch was finished. Are there not enough waiters? Are they not attentive enough to see you are eating with no drinks? We are very down to earth people so its fair to say improvement is needed there. We had upgraded to Privilege and dined mostly at the Volcan restaurant where we can say the food was excellent, served in great surroundings by friendly attentive staff and in our opinion was probably worth the upgrade all by itself. We tried Sakura and Dolce Vitae speciality restaurants which we found good but again not nearly as good as Volcan. We avoided the Steakhouse based on a trend in past reviews of the resort so cannot comment on that one ,and this is perhaps a warning to management to realise that more people analyse trends in reviews to get the real picture and make travel decisions based on these. This brings me to the one thing that muddied the water for us the most during our stay. I'm seeing a trend in reviews that the staff in Mike's coffee shop and the Bistro can be rude and I can add to this from our personal experience. We acknowledge that service can be slower than at home and there is a hot weather factor there too but there are limits. The Bistro service was a little slow and not in order of guests arriving which can be a little irritating but not the end of the World. Mikes coffee shop however was a different story. We were ignored for over 20mins after we sat down and attempts to get the waiter's attention as he passed by were frustratingly constantly blanked. I went inside and asked why he wouldn't serve us and was abruptly confronted by the girl behind the counter who raised her voice and started admonishing in a raised voice for daring to ask such a thing. This was beyond rude, especially when she came around to our side of the counter to face off with me. We made a complaint to guest services but have no idea if it was followed up or not. This left us shaken and we did not revisit Mikes for the rest of the holiday, It certainly was a black mark on the resort and our holiday, and seeing as it appears not to be an isolated occurrence I'm concerned that management are not addressing the problem for some reason. I know management will thank us for our constructive feedback and highlight the positives and say they will strive to improve like the stock reply to almost all reviewers on this thread but I would like to see actual resolutions being put in place which seem to be lacking based on common trends and their continuing occurrences. (Mikes coffee shop for one) In general Rubicon Palace is a great family resort which looks beautiful and with plenty of things to do. the vast majority of staff are hard working and friendly and I would not hesitate to revisit although they need to be more proactive than reactive and put structures in place to make this happen. I do believe that the management structure genuinely wants this too and they do their best to sort things out as soon as possible.