Our review of the Elba Sara Beach & Golf Resort in Fuerteventura

After a busy summer, which included moving house, we decided we needed some winter sun this year. Now I seem to be missing the gene that so many people have who love booking holidays. Looking at holiday destinations on Pinterest and Instagram are fun, but anything to do with bookings and flight info and I just lose interest immediately.

Lucky for us a lovely friend of ours has just set up as an independent travel agent (Clare Payne Travel), so I gave her our holiday requirements and she sent us over some great options to choose from.

We decided to go to the Elbasara hotel in Fuerteventura for the October half term. This hotel had great reviews for families and the weather looked dreamy for October with an average of 23 degrees.

We had the best week here and are definitely thinking of going back again next year. Here is everything you need to know if you are considering going here:

Entertainment

There was so much for everyone to do at this hotel, we could have all been entertained for most of the day if we had wanted to. We went over Halloween and for younger children there were Halloween themed activities each day including Halloween costume making, pumpkin carving, discos and themed Haunted hotel tours. There was a kids club available each day, we didn’t use this personally but could see it was kitted out with lots of fun things to do. There was a kids mini disco after dinner every night, which my daughter absolutely loved! The entertainers were fantastic at the hotel and my daughter made so many friends learning all the new dance routines. There were 3 pools at the hotel. One unheated one for the tougher of us! A heated one which was perfect for kids as it had various shallow depths for them to play in safely. There was also a splash zone pool that had two slides, jets and fountains. Lots of loungers surrounded these pools so parents could actually relax while being able to see their children in the pool ( I actually read a whole book during the week). For older children, there were lots of activities like football, darts, water polo and games. They had family activities too like aqua fitness and aqua Zumba which my husband and I really enjoyed, plus our children enjoyed watching. For adults there were also some cooking and cocktail making classes.

Food

We decided to do half board as our children don’t eat that much so we thought we would just have a later breakfast and earlier dinner. Breakfast and dinner were in the main restaurant and were buffet style. There was also an Italian and Mexican restaurant on site that opened a few days a week. We didn’t manage to get reservations here but were more than happy with the buffet restaurant which offered different styles of food each night. Breakfast had a huge selection on fruits, pastries, breads, hams, cheeses, cereals and options for a cooked breakfast. For dinner there was always options like pizza, bolognaise, chips, pasta and rice for safe foods. Then there was a selection of other foods like sushi, paella, soups, Chinese dishes, tacos and salads. There was a huge selection of puddings either cakes, jelly, fruits and an ice cream bar with cones, toppings and sprinkles. My children are pretty suspicious of new foods or foods that look remotely different to what we have at home, but there was plenty for them to eat here every day.

The only challenge we had was the milk. My son LOVES milk, but they didn’t have fresh milk at the hotel (which is fairly standard in hotels like this). Luckily I thought this could have been an issue before we left so I packed some milkshake straws from home, which he was happy to have. I also took some of these handy squash capsules that my daughter could have in the bottled water over there to encourage her to drink a bit more.

Accommodation

We had double family room in the hotel, which was perfect for us! There was a huge kingsize bed for my husband and I plus two single beds for the children. My two were incredibly happy to see two single beds as they do not enjoy sharing anymore! Even with all the beds we still had lots of space to move about, plus a desk, wardrobe, chair and big bathroom with walk in shower. The beds were really comfy and the water pressure in the shower were great too. We also had a big balcony which overlooked the pools and the sea (as the hotel backed directly onto the beach). I love how all the balconies have the wall mounted airers dry off your swimming things at the end of the day too.

Location

Our hotel was one of the last ones of the strip, so we had some lovely views of the sea to one side. There was a beach right behind the hotel, although not a great one for sitting on due to it being very rocky, but if you walked just 5 minutes down the beach you came to a lovely sandy beach with a restaurant and sun loungers for hire.

Things to do

There were a couple of mini golf courses for families within 30 minutes walking distance of the hotel. My husband and son played one of these most days and loved them. There were also golf courses really close to the hotel. There was a bus that went directly from the hotel to the Oasis Wildlife Park, which we did and really loved. We paid a little bit extra and did a camel ride there, which was such a different experience for us all. In the zoo itself there were so many animals to see and my favourite part was that you could feed the giraffes!

We didn’t really venture out of the hotel much more than that as we were all having too much fun at the pool, but we have said that if we go back we would look at hiring a car and exploring the island a bit more, there are supposed to be some really amazing beaches there.

As a holiday destination for families I would really recommend this place. We generally try to visit different places in holiday but we are seriously tempted to go back to this hotel next year and it was so good for all of us. I will certainly miss these beautiful sun rises over the pool.

If you are looking at booking a holiday I would also highly recommended Clare Payne’s Travel. Clare was at the end of the phone the whole holiday and helped us with anything and everything we needed, which was great and meant we could really relax and enjoy our family holiday together.