I stayed at The Cala Del Sol Hotel, Las Playitas from the 16th to the 17th of May 2009.

The title says it all, but that would make this a short review :o)

We arrived 4 hours early, and Heidi the receptionist told us our room wasn't ready, fair enough, but she said it was well worth the wait, and she was right. Room 7401, looking out over the whole resort, absolutely fantastic. The room has it's own balcony, great for drying clothes over the railing, and the full length windows also have safety rails. Nice Sony LCD TV, and fridge in a built in unit, twin beds pushed together. Bathroom had a separate shower cubicle and a bath.

Reaching our room involved taking a couple of lifts, and a cable car, which was great, made the trip down to breakfast or the bar a little different. You can also walk down the access road, and steps to reach the main resort... but the cable car was more fun.

Sports facilities at this resort are excellent, the gym very well equipped, and you can also hire MTBs or proper road bikes. There's a full 50m pool, and 9 hole golf course, with a large pro shop. There's also a very nice infinity pool and sun terrace too.

On the opposite side of the resort there's the aparthotel, which also has another couple of pools and the resort shop. The shop is stocked with everything you need, more expensive than the Spar we had in Jandia, but still not bad, 50p+ for 1.5 litres of water.

The entire resort is spotless, the staff are always cleaning, and all of them are friendly and spoke damn good English. The resort, like many in southern Fuerteventura caters mainly for German visitors, and they too are friendly, and spoke much better English than I speak German.

Breakfast was buffet style and had a good selection of food, hot and cold. We went to the bar in the evenings, £6 for a Baileys and a Corona, served by Ester who was excellent, she kept the place spotless.

The beach is black sand, which gets hot, but is still soft, and due to the surrounding hills you didn't get the fierce winds that characterise Fuerteventure.

The Cala del Sol, and indeed Las Playitas as a whole was just excellent. I just can't fault it, the room, the view, the location... It's everything my girlfriend and I wanted.

We chose this at the last minute when the Cotillo Beach Hotel closed (temporarily?) because of shortage of customers. It turned out to be a great choice. As others have said, very few Brits (mostly German, Swiss and a few very jolly Danes). Maybe that's why the atmosphere was so calm, and polite! The room was fine - clean, comfortable and with a good bathroom and small balcony - though because the rooms are in blocks spreading up a hillside, access is a bit slow via funicular, lifts and paths (we ended up walking up stairs and paths, but it's a zig-zag route). Breakfasts were very good - the usual buffet stuff, but plenty of choice. Dinners were good too, but might get boring every night. We ate in 3 times, which at €16 each was pricey but that's what it costs per meal if you go half board, so B&B is the better choice. Wine is a minimum of €12 a bottle, but a big glass is only €2 so better value.The alternative Spanish and Italian restaurants look OK – we tried the Italian and had a decent pizza, and you get 10% off the first time – or the neary village of Las Playitas has 3 restaurants. The one on the quayside isn't great but Victor's, a little further up the hill, is a good local restaurant with excellent fish and a nice atmosphere.
But what we really liked was the location and landscaping. The hotel is on one side of a big bay with a good black-sand beach, looking west. Behind the beach are the excellent sports facilities, including 50m Olympic pool, 1.5km jogging track, gym plus minigolf, waterslide etc (and golf and tennis further back). There were quite a few serious and semi-serious athletes there doing winter training. And they must have planted about 10,000 flowering shrubs around the site which are quite spectacular.
The hotel was quiet in January, and the location is quite isolated (apart from Las Playitas village, which is walkable) so a car is pretty essential. But if you want a calmer, classier atmosphere than Corralejo and Caleta de Fuste and don't mind an absence of Brits to talk to, and bar entertainments all in German, this would be a great choice, even if you don't want to use the sports facilities.
The nearby town of Gran Tarajal (about 5km) is also a pleasant surprise. In half a dozen visits to Fuerte we had never been there, but it's a nice, very un-touristy place with good restaurants and shops.


and Cost for 7 days B&B was only £350, plus £45 each for Ryanair flights from Birmingham and £75 for car hire, so all in all an amazingly cheap holiday.

Fantastic value for money hotel when booked through Hotelopia direct with a Ryanair flight. Total cost of the whole holiday for 2 people was £640 half board for 9 days. Booked a car through Europcar for about £100.
This hotel is populated by mainly German people with some Swiss and French but I did not meet a single British person there in 9 days. Do not let this put you off though because everyone was so friendly and helpful. The general knowledge of English from the guests and staff was excellent. Order your drinks in Spanish and they love you for it.
Choice of food was excellent both at breakfast and dinner and the staff efficient. Breakfast can be taken out on the terrace if the weather good (nice touch). Wine a bit steep in price at 12Euro a bottle cheapest, so buy a glass for 2Euro or a small beer at Euro1.80.
Hotel was very clean, rooms excellent all with a sea view and seperate balcony. Hotel is built against a cliff but everywhere can be accessed by lift or a funicular rail car (very different) if you are not to mobile.
Evening entertainment at the hotel was good fun in the bar with a different theme each night.
Brilliant for Sports such as running/jogging, 18 hole golf course now open, canoes, sailing, good walking, 50 metre olympic pool,a 30metre infinity pool (bit cold),quality bike hire and a very popular Gym.
Very few children there and maybe the sister hotel across the bay (100 metre walk) The Bahia Grande would be more suitable.

BEWARE. My one gripe was about an over officious receptionist who tried to charge me 20 Euro for an extended stay in my room when checking out because I did not report personally to reception before the checkout time of 11am. It is not sufficient just to clear your room by that time, you must report to reception personally the fact that you have left. this is not made clear by the hotel so be warned. This situation could have been handled with a lot more tact and good manners by the receptionist rather than going into a tirade of incessant and extended rule quoting. When I asked for the manager she refused but subsequently scrapped the charge

My tip: Hire a car and travel daily to the South of the Island for your sunbathing needs where the beaches are better golden sand with FKK facilities rather than the black volcanic sand at Las Playitas. I think that maybe this is why it is so cheap
All in all a great holiday experience at low cost.