We booked Club la Mar as a late deal from RCI and had little time to review beforehand. No problem. The complex is on the main coastal road facing the sea and its location is excellent. Turn left and you're less than 5 minutes walk from Playa Arena and its beach, bars, shops and restaurants. Turn right and you're immediately upon Puerto Santiago's beachfront bars and restaurants. Continue up the hill and in 4 minutes you're in Spanish Corner, a beautiful, windy hill that has some quaint Spanish tapas bars and fish restaurants, and beautiful views. If you're feeling adventurous, about 20 minutes' walk up and down the other side of the hill is Los Gigantes, a lovely hillside village with more bars, nightllife and marina.

We were lucky enough to have a sea view, but as it was a corner apartment and a 2-bed, we also had a huge corner balcony which had 3 sides to it, overlooking the sea, the main road, and the cliffs of Los Gigantes, plus a separate balcony overlooking the sea front, meaning we had the sun all day long from morning until night. The apartment was spacious, clean and well equipped and the 2 beds have 2 bathrooms plus a washing machine. We never used the lounge as the weather was so hot but it was comfy and spacious and led out onto 2 different balconies.

The complex is very quiet and wasn't full when we were there. The swimming pool is a haven of peace if you like to have peace and quiet when you're sunbathing/swimming. It's a fairly small area but there were always enough sun loungers and there is no music, ball games, diving or lilos, so very relaxing. The pool itself is clean and fairly warm when the sun has heated the water up - there is just the one adult pool at 1.4m at both ends, so no shallow or deep ends, and a tiny kids' pool. But great for cooling down!

There is no bar or restaurant but you are so close to all the nightlife that you don't miss it. There is also a bar/restaurant right underneath which had an interesting Spanish organ player and reasonable prices.

Puerto Santiago is a very quiet resort, ideal for families with young children and older couples, or anyone looking for a peaceful and relaxing holiday. The bars tend to close around 11 or 12pm, and there is no music anywhere after this time. Prices are fairly average, between about 2-3 euros for a large beer and 2 euros for a glass of wine, and a meal for 4 with beer and wine averaged between 35-45 euros. Spanish wine in the supermarket is about 1.5 euros a bottle and at that price, it flows too easily! Perfect for watching the sunset over the balcony. The area has a very Spanish feel to it, especially if you head up Spanish corner, and seek out the tapas bars. One word of caution, Casa Pedro on the hill has amazing views over the sea, and the owner will gladly show you the tables with the best view, but when you turn up in the evening you will find that the best tables are all miraculously reserved so it's best to check whether you can rererve before you go. Also worth avoiding is the Blarney Stone in Playa Arena, a plastic "Irish" bar that has little character and large prices - they put the prices up by about 1 euro per drink for waiter service! We found that the best places were the Spanish bars, Arena Bar for watching sport, and Lazy Days for nice breakfasts and cocktails. The beach is very pretty but the black sand completely burns your feet.

It is a very hilly area, there's no getting away from that, but we were with a couple in their 70s who both managed to walk up and down the hills with no problem. There is also a reliable and fairly cheap bus service, the TITSA, which somehow manages to get up the hills, and will take you to Los Gigantes, Los Cristianos and further. It is definitely worth a trip to Los Gigantes to go on a boat, we went on the Flipper Uno which was 20 euros for 2 hours with all inclusive wine & beer and paella, plus we had breathtaking views and saw dolphins and wales as well.

All in all we couldn't fault the area or the apartments and had a fantastic holiday. One thing I would say is that the apartments were only cleaned once in the week we were there, which wasn't a problem for us, but we did have to go out and buy toilet rolls before they were replaced. Also there was no air-conditioning and as the weather was well into the 30s every day, it made it pretty uncomfortable for sleeping - the ceiling fans were noisy and useless. But apart from that we had a fantastic, peaceful time and would definitely return. And there was no sales pitch from Petchey/RCI which made it even sweeter.