We booked to stay here (with Airtours) at the end of 2011 as I wanted to do something memorable for my 40th birthday at the start of January.
Soon after we had booked it all kicked off in the news about Thomas Cook's lack of "cash" and then to make matters worse reviews started to appear on here that made us wonder what on earth we had booked and also whether we would get there and back too.
After worrying about it all for a few weeks we wondered what all the fuss had been about, we arrived safely, along with my parents and son, on time after a smooth flight. The transfer took about an hour via Caleta.
Despite asking for high rise rooms, we were actually allocated adjoining ground floor rooms on floor 8 - at pool level overlooking some beautiful gardens. The added bonus was that we were south facing and were the last sunny rooms in the hotel before the sun went down. The lack of sea view was more than made up for with the evening sunshine and lovely flowers and palm trees.
Our rooms were very clean, and cleaned every day by a lovely maid who liked to make arty shapes with the top sheets etc.
The hotel takes a few days to get used to but eventually you find your way around and suss out the floor numbering.
The majority of guests were German, but this did not bother us, it's nice to escape from the English crowd sometimes and experience other cultures. Most we came across were polite and friendly.
The food was brilliant, some of the nicest things I've eaten in the Canaries, lots of variety and all the meat and fish cooked fresh whilst you waited. It was so lovely to eat outside on the terrace in January. The waiters were never far away to fill your wine glass and local lager and soft drinks were inside on tap.
On my birthday night they covered our table in petals, lit a candle, provided champagne and after we had finished eating the waiter brought me a birthday cake and sang "Happy Birthday to you" in his best English accent. A perfect end to a great sunny birthday!
The poolside bar was a nice area to sit and overlook the sea, not far from here was access to the coastal path/ beaches.
Costa Calma main beach is one of the nicest beaches we have visited in the Canaries - proper sand castle making sand etc. To get there you turn left out of the hotel (first you walk along the nudist beach, but to be fair they were quite discreet)En route to the beach you can stop and feed the local chipmunks who reside in the rocky sea walls. We bought some peanuts from the hotel shop and my son was delighted when they took them out of his hand.

The only day we had out was on the free bus to Oasis safari park/gardens/ zoo. This was better than I had imagined, a great day out. The animals seemed really well looked after in big wide open spaces. You can pay extra and go on a camel ride. Our favourite things were the reptile and sea lion shows. Also found the restaurants to be fairly cheap for lunch too.

The hotel provided entertainment every night - kids disco at 8.15pm followed by the usual fair of acrobats, singers, magicians etc some good, some bad. There is enough to do if you don't want to be part of this. The piano bar near reception was a nice place to sit and play cards, also you have free wi fi here too. There is also another bar area that resemble a pub, with pool table, table football and live singer etc, as well as the coffee bar downstairs.

We found 2 heated pools which were fine for our needs. We all managed to do a bit of swimming. We were also given free vouchers to the hotel spa which we used one evening before dinner.

We visited the local market in Costa Calma one morning - the usual African type market, a nice walk about 35mins form the hotel down hill. A taxi back was only 3 euros. The resort itself has a few small shops but not a huge amount going on, mainly I suppose because all the hotels are all inclusive.

The rest of our days were spent by the pool, relaxing or walking along the lovely beaches. First time I've ever spent my birthday paddling in the sea too!

So there you go, a great relaxing (and sunny - temps were 25 degrees most days) holiday at the start of Jan. We even landed back in Birmingham half an hour early! Give it a go, you won't be disappointed - and please don't worry beforehand!!

Pajara is a "luxury" hotel among the many all-inclusive hotels in Costa Calma. It has modern, spacious rooms, great setting on the cliff with fantastic beaches north and south. Food served in the restaurant is surprisingly good for an all-inclusive, with chef cutting the whole roasts, fresh vegetables etc. Decent, bottled wine is served, or excellent beer ("Tropical"). Everything goes smoothly; no food queues. Rooms are unbelievably spacious for European standards; Americans would feel well. Extensive use of tree, marble and tiles.
Not much counts negative. There are only two small elevators in the fancy main lobby. Prepare to wait for your ride. There was some sort of defect in the sewage adjacent to the tennis court; not very much fun to play in that smell.
The hotel organizes nightly entertainment, some of which was quite good.

we stayed for two weeks 26 november.the hotel was lovely and clean,the food was good,nice quite location,overall a very enjoyable holiday.

My wife and I booked a last minute deal to this hotel for over the Christmas break and we were satisfied with our choice overall.
Starting with the good points: the lobby is very impressive on entrance to the hotel, great waterfalls, fountains and view down to the sea. The hotel is on a hill above the sea so the views are great, as is the short walk down to the beach (around 8 mins to a sandy beach).

On to the negative points: the staff and management (with a few exceptions) are quite rude and have little in the way of customer service skills. The service was slow despite the fact that the hotel was not full so there was no real excuse for this other than poor management of staff. For example tables were not being cleared or re-made, and while waiting at the bar the staff would continue with other jobs and even walk away before returning to serve you.

The room: - we changed room from the first one allocated as it was very worn and the sea view which we had opted for was only possible if you were a giraffe!
Once we changed the room was fine, again it was dated especially as this should be 4 star hotel but overall clean and adequate for our stay.
Note that you have to pay extra for the safe in the room (around 25euros for the 9 day stay) and that there is no wi-fi or internet connection in the room (there is wifi in the main piano bar though it is painfully slow!).

The restaurant: food seemed great on the first night with paella and lots of choice, though it very quickly became apparent that the food was the same each and every night. Enough choice to manage a week but on the last few days we were really struggling to find anything appetizing there.

The pool: water was very cold in the main pools, though they were cleaned daily and looked excellent. The only heated pool was the small childrens pool. There was a spa (for which we got 1 free visit -each other visit is 10euros) and this was a small pool, sauna and whirlpool. Limited but not too bad for 10euros. Do remember to bring your own towel though as they are not available in the spa.
On the subject of towels, beach/pool towels are available only with a 10euro deposit (plus 1euro charge for each time you want to change it).
Nearby: a few shops are within walking distance (around 10-20mins walk -turn right out of the hotel). There are no activities per se nearby, which is good if you want to relax though there is a small watersports shop in the hotel which rents bikes/ surf boards etc.

To summarize - if you are looking for a cheap winter getaway then this is fine; don't expect 4 star but more a comfortable 3 star.