I stayed at the cinco plazas apartments with my husband and 18 year old daughter from the 19/12 to 02/01.

When we arrived at the apartments we were greeted by the friendly reception staff who effectively checked us in and gave us a map to find our apartment which was fairly easy to find even though trying to find it in the pouring down rain however there was no need to worry about the weather as from after that it was sunny from then on although quite chilly on a night time so i would reccommend that if you go at this time of year you do take longish pants and a light jacket for the night time.

The apartments were extremely clean and modern. They where very central to all the restaurants and bars up a slight hill which wasnt really that bad at all. The walls are quite thin in the apartments and you can hear every little thing from the other apartments although this wasnt really that much of a problem. There was everything that you could need all the utensils, microwave, toaster, and coffee maker. They gave you a complementary bottle of water left in the apartment and washing up liquid. There is a tv in the apartment which you can get some free channels on and some which you have to pay for 1 euro for an hour.

There were three pools but we just stayed round the one closest to our apartment but any activities which where going on was around the biggest pool. The pool area was very clean and there was a man who came each morning cleaning the pool. In the first week that we were there getting a sun bed wasnt a problem and there where stacks of sunbeds which were not used however in the second week it got much busier and as soon as the sunbeds where unchained at 9am everyone darted out and one day when the sunbeds did not get chained up people where out at 7.30 reserving their sunbeds so i think it was a good thing that they were chained up. The sunbeds also were not very comfy but there were cushions which you could hire from the hotel supermarket for a euro a day or 5 euros for 7 days and a 5 euro deposit per cushion.

The entertainment at the apartments isnt so good but alright for families with young children and the children during the day seemed to love going to the kids club skipping there and back.

Puerto del carmen had a lot of variety. On my first night i decided to try new world chinese as so many people had recommended it but i found it rather dear and small portions we later on into the holiday found the slow boat the third chinese this was much better a lot cheaper and big portions and really friendly staff and we would highly highly recommend this.
We would also recommend the galleon jj they do really nice english breakfasts and was great for watching the football. Golden corner was also great for massive cocktails with all the trimmings and the food there was delicious. La dolce vita is really nice for pizzas, pasta, steak ect with very friendly staff and we liked this restaurant so much that we went here on christmas day. Cafe la ola had a really nice setting and was great for a drink. In the old part of puerto del carmen which was about a 20 minute walk there was a very nice restaurant there called puerto bahia with delicious fish dishes and in a lovely setting.

For new years eve we went to titty trollops a drag show in lanzarote this was a fantastic night and very highly recommended the only problem with it was it was a very small venue and people were packed in like sardines which was very uncomfortable. New years eve in lanzarote was fantastic with a live band playing in the street and everyone dancing and fireworks at 2 am it was brilliant a lot better than anything ever experienced in the UK.

The cinco plazas are the perfect place to stay for families or couples young or old and i would recommend to everyone.

We stayed in Cinco Plazas at the end of August, and actually got a 2 bedroom appartment, although it was just myself and my partner, but they didnt have any 1 beds left for that week and it cost the same as a 1 bed would have the week before. Anyway, they are really nice appartments, basic, but well kept. Our appartment was on the ground floor beside one of the smaller pools. Our neighbours were fine, mostly families, so not a lot of noise. Our main gripe was, as has been said before, the sunbeds, or lack of them. Actually, the biggest problem wasnt the amount, but the grabbing of them at 8.30 in the morning when the chains were taken off them. There were beds with just towels on them for nearly the whole day, and I mean, whole families, as in 4-5, and they werent used til about half 4. Not fair. There was a family of 10 beside us, and, as we did they were out early too, (you had to if you wanted to be by the pool) but they used all their beds all day, there were couples with small children who never used their beds, they were in the pool all day!!! But apparently management say that if a bed is not being used to remove the towel, although we had heard of a bit of a scuffle when someone else did this!!!
Anyway rant over, otherwise it was fine. The bathroom was a bit musty, and we had a flood the first shower we had, but they fixed it quickly enough. We had one cockroach experience, but although I really dont like them (at all), you have to expect them to some extent in a hot country, so that is not a criticism of the appartment. There was constant cleaning outside, and there was some sort of pest control cause we saw dead cockroaches everywhere one morning!!!!
The staff were lovely, and helpful. One tip, we ordered an ac unit at book-in, but when we got to the appartment there were fans in both the bedroom and livingroom, and as we were on the groundfloor we couldnt put the vent pipe out the window, so wasted money, and the fans were adequate enough.
The resort itself was great. I really liked it, and there was enough to do for different age groups. We had some lovely meals, and went to Lani's only once, because we found that the other restaurants were cheaper. We had a magnificent chinese, which was situated above an arcade, and we were a bit dubious, as we couldnt see into it, but it was magic.
So all in all, we had a lovely lovely time in Lanzarote. It was one of the best couple holidays we have had.
Just one other thing. We went to Zakynthos in 06, and I ended up with mosquito bites that I had a very very bad reaction to, so I did a lot of research before I went to Lanzarote, and I took vitamin B6 complex, and got Avon dry oil spray, and am happy to report that I didnt get one bite, although my partner got a few, (where he hadnt the year before) so I am hoping that my formula worked.

Cinco Plazas have the ambition to become a five star apartment hotel, but they can’t despite all efforts they make, as the basic construction of the hotel is too bad and secondly the maintain looks proper, but isn’t if you look into the details. The flat was cleaned every day with water and that was good, but with the same water that was used in the other flats, with the result that the dirt was just moved from one flat to the other one. The flat smells of dust, which mainly comes from the floors including the smell of uric acid in the toilet.
I told the reception about it and some hours later on, one have cleaned the floors properly and the smell of dust was very, very low and acceptable. I still contract a cough when I entered the bathroom. Now I recognised a smell of Aspergila Nigra a quite dangerous and very toxic mould known to promote lung cancer and I washed it away with boiling hot water, but it will come back again, as it might hide due to a bad and not proper made construction in the bathroom. Now the flat was clean or wasn’t it? No, now I recognized a wee smell of a cat in the flat but it didn’t matter at all. The smell was so low that most people living in towns can’t smell it at all. The walls and ceilings are too thin to stop the weakest noise from above and between the apartments. The curtains were hang up badly due to the lack of proper maintains or no interest to make a good impression at all and the wind was blowing trough the doorway even though door was closed, which made the apartment quite cold during the night.

This doesn’t mean that I don’t recommend Cinco Plazas, as it has some advantages.
The overall standard is good. It is a very good place, if you come with children and it seems that here are a lot of things for them to do, but if you want to relax at a quiet place to spend your holidays, you should look for something else. The worst thing was that the establishment have put out loudspeakers everywhere playing US junk music, unbelievable when they have such a great treasure of Spanish music to choose from. It was so loud and the speakers were placed only five meters from the flat that I hardly could hear the news from home on my tiny (pocket small) shortwave radio. There could also be a heavy cacophony from the children play in the pool but I don’t mind, children are children,
At Cinco Plazas there is some sort of evening entertainment, but they have put all effort in quantity (the loud sound) than a quality performance.

Don’t expect a gastronomic travel, it might be like the junk food restaurants back home.
At a Lani restaurant they served a quite old swordfish, stay away from them if you don’t have a stainless steal stomach. I know how fresh fish taste as I daily can have it fresh from the sea. It looks like that Puerto del Carmen has a lot of restaurants to choose between, but no. Almost every restaurant has something very close to junk food or should we say some sort of fast food, a great category of food to start or maintain a metabolic syndrome.
The kitchen in the flat at Cinco Plazas was equipped well enough to make food “at home” and we found a SPAR shop on the other side of the block, far better than the NETTO close by Cinco Plazas.

Puerto del Carmen is the worst Tourist trap with the strongest business cartel I have seen so far among the restaurants and don’t expect to make any bargains here, they will fool you in the shops, if you don’t know better and I have found out that the overall prices were two to three times higher here than at home including WAT.

Staff at Cinco Plazas is very good to deal with, but if you are interested in medicine and if you are unlucky depending how you see it, there might be a possibility to study a PMS syndrome behaviour it in the reception area.

Could you recommend Cinco Plazas?
Yes we can, but we think that they should put more effort to maintain the details at the establishment; we could easily give them four points of five, if they do something about the wee details.

The apartment were well equipped and everything looks clean and tidy, but we think that it is impossible for the maidens to smell the dust in the apartments due to the heavy smelling liquid they have in the water they clean the apartment with. We use something similar at home.

We stayed at Cinco Plazas in late-Nov/early-Dec 2007 on a Thomson package holiday. The place is very well presented, the rooms are clean and a respectable size and have a large balcony. It is very conveniently located close to the centre of Playda del Carmen. The Netto supermarket is just next door for all your self-catering needs (if you don't know the name, Netto is similar to Lidl and Aldi in UK), and the Hotel supermarket is useful too (especially for warm bread if you like that for breakfast).

We agree with the contents of most of the previous reviews, but as we think it is important that the whole picture is given to travellers, you should know about a major down side to this hotel. Because of the complex layout there are several rooms that have no view whatsoever from their balcony. And I mean NO view, except that of a white-washed wall. For this family an important part of any holiday is to sit on the veranda/balcony, whether day or night and soak and up the views and atmosphere. However, we were unfortunately allocated one of the no-view rooms (Room 3228). I immediately returned to reception and complained firmly but the receptionist, while trying to be helpful, couldn't do anything until the next day. I called the Thomson in-resort helpline who in turn contacted the hotel, but they confirmed there was no chance of an immediate move. Eventually, later the next day, we were moved to Room 2213 in a different area of the complex which was perfectly acceptable. If we hadn't been given another room we'd have packed up and moved out - the government Tourist Information & Hotel Booking Office is just at the bottom of the hill from the hotel and round to the left on the sea front.

These no-view rooms are probably suitable for holidaymakers who stay all day by the poolside and all night in the clubs, or low-cost, allocation-on-arrival vacations, but are totally inapproprite for full-price family use. Personally I think the proprietors (nordotel Group, part of Thomson/TUI) should take an honest approach and avoid using use these rooms for guests except in exceptional circumstances, and then a discount should be offered.

I'd have given the hotel 5 stars for the room quality, facilites and amenities, but because of the (estimated) 10 or so no-view rooms I feel the complex overall is worth no more than 3 star, particularly if you are paying full price.

uncletony, Aberdeen, UK