We stayed at this hotel over Christmas and New Year. The hotel, its services and location were good.

However, a number of the hotel staff (specifically the senior male bar and restaurant staff) were disrespectful, rude and obstructive. All other staff including the more junior restaurant staff, the housekeeping staff and ‘most of’ the reception staff were extremely courteous and helpful.

The contemptuous attitude appeared to be displayed to all guests generally, and had the feel of a long standing ingrained approach to service.

The hotel also appeared to be woefully understaffed, which led to significant waiting times to be served, most evidently at the bars. All staff also seemed to work long hours.

There also appeared to be an inflexible rigidness to the regime of the hotel, and because of an absence of written information as to the rules and guidelines of the hotel (as you would expect to find in a guests book in your room), it was not apparent that one had violated an unwritten rule until chastised by the staff (i.e. attempting to access your own drink in the restaurant, as is common practice in other ‘all inclusive’ hotels).

We were ‘all inclusive’, but we realised once we had arrived that the hotel also offered other board basis, thus the hotel seemed to be trying to offer all things to all people. We had speculated that the 'all inclusive' arrangements may have led to the ‘grumpiness’ of the staff. Had the more senior staff worked there prior to the implementation of ‘all inclusive’ arrangements and did they now feel cheated out of tips that were perhaps more evident pre 'all inclusive’?

Because we had to approach staff to access all drinks – and because this was a task which only the senior staff seemed to be permitted to deal with, it was impossible to avoid interacting with the rude staff. This meant that we had to endure various degrees of contempt several times per day. As a consequence we left the hotel, to drink in local bars (for respite) on an almost daily basis, despite having paid for the pleasure of an ‘all inclusive’ holiday.

The kindness of the good staff was significantly overshadowed by the contempt from some of the senior staff.

We have experienced all inclusive holidays in the canaries several times in the past – so we know that the Canarian people are generally pleasant. Therefore, the problem would seem to be something about the culture of this hotel specifically. I am therefore absolutely flabbergasted at the previous reviews that suggest all of the staff were fantastic. This led me to feel a little suspicious as to exactly ‘who’ had written these glowing reviews.

The poor experience of service we endured at this hotel led us to seriously consider bypassing future ‘all inclusive’ holidays, so that we have the choice to leave if we are faced with bad service.

We will never return to this hotel and we would not recommend this hotel.

Sol hotels are usually above average, however, there's always the exception!
First of all, we visited just before xmas and the roadworks..etc, mentioned so many times in TA are more or less complete and are no longer a nuisance.
Twin, sea facing room was OK, although a bit worn around the edges. Could feel the springs in the mattress and complained about this next day. Maid inserted an 'extra thick' mattress cover and this worked fine. WiFi was so weak as to be non existent - I could only log-in 2-3 times over my 7 day stay.
The exceptionally well attired hotel General manager was constantly 'on patrol', being seen I guess, rather than doing anything useful. If he had wanted to be useful, he would have done something about the disgusting 'slop' served-up for breakfast in the dining room. Never before tasted such poor quality coffee and if there's a water shotage in Tenerife it's because the orange juice and other fruit juices in this hotel are watered down so much. I asked for an omelette the first morning and believe it or not, the lady cooked it on a griddle - the congealed and 'glazed' result was simply inedible. Fortunately, we were BB so only had to subject ourselves to this 'slopfest' once a day.
To be fair, cleanliness was fine and the staff were helpful. Outward appearance of the hotel merely confirmed it's passed sell-by date.
Although our stay at this hotel was tolerable, I definitely won't go back.

The room had a run down feel and very weak internet connection and so asked to change room,which they willingly obliged. The room was spacious but had a run down feel,internet worked but very slowly.
Main problem was in the day the room was just too warm and yet they turn of the ac in September. So because of that I left within two days. The atmosphere of the hotel was ok.its on a hill with road works outside which creates a lot of noise. Breakfast was appealing quality.
However seemed friendly and peaceful place despite major problems

Puerto de la Cruz is a lovely town – great shops and restaurants, a cute town square, nice walks along the water and home to a fabulous zoo. This hotel is totally decent – nothing luxury but the rooms are clean and nice, the pool area and breakfast is good, really nothing to complain about. I would highly recommend visiting Puerto de la Cruz as town and so I’m not sure how much choice you have in terms of hotels – in La Laguna or Garachico you could find beautiful, authentic, quaint, boutique hotels but I’m not sure you can find that type of hotel in Puerto de La Cruz – as such Sol is a great choice for exploring the north of the island. The hotel is steps away from public transport that takes you all over including into the mountains for beautiful hiking trails. This hotel is not right in the centre of the town but it is a very short walk.