Fustes, Barcelo Fuerteventura Thalasso Spa

I understand that this hotel used to be called the Barcelo Castillo Beach Resort. I stayed in this hotel for four nights with two girlfriends in June 2010. We booked it all on the "on the beach" website and paid about £350 each including flights from Scotland for an All Inclusive stay.

Our twin room was on the second floor and it was basic but fine for our needs ie somewhere to get showered and sleep. As we were three in the room, the third person had to sleep in a bed made from a single seater settee, and although I found it okay, my friends felt it was more suitable for a child.

Our fridge did not work, nor did the safe that we paid extra for, but when maintenance arrived on the second day to fix it, he took forever, and we didn't want to waste any more of the sun by staying in with him, so we ended up asking reception to cancel. We didn't suffer from any losses in the room whilst we were there, but it would have been nice to have a fridge working for our water etc.

The air con was also not on, this would have improved our holiday without a doubt especially at night as we all suffered from bites of some sort whilst we slept, and I feel an air conditioned room would have helped reduce this. In any event, the temperatures were not so bad that we couldn't sleep.

The hair dryer in the room was next to useless, so we usually just let our hair drip dry! Also, we were surprised to find there was no soap at the sink...

So, I've not been very complementary so far, and I haven't even started on the food yet! The restaurant for breakfast for dinner and breakfast was large, clean with attentive staff. There was a wide choice of food, but I think it would become very monotonous if you were staying longer than a week. Breakfasts were great, plenty of choice. We tended to have our lunch in take away form from the outside bar/restaurant; although they did a buffet lunch in the main dining room, we did not want to miss any of the sun!

I am glad we were All Inclusive, the prices of the food and drinks were rather high, but that is also due to the poor exchange rate for Euros.

So, onto the good stuff... We came here to get some sun, sea, sand and a bit of colour on our cheeks. The hotel has two MASSIVE pools with lovely refreshing water. I am glad it was quite cool, as there was always plenty of space to swim about in. Once you were in, the water temperature was fine, you just had to steel yourself a little to take that plunge! One of the pools had a kiddies area, so we stuck to the other pool, but there were loads of sun loungers throughout the gardens.

One of my friends was extremely good at getting up to "book" three loungers together for us, especially important if you want some in the shade. Every day we were there the place was cloudy until mid morning to midday, then the clouds disappeared leaving hot hot sun in blue skies until after 6pm. There was a constant breeze so slapping on the sun cream was very important. We stayed at the pool on our loungers from about 10am to 6pm every day. It was frustrating to see the number of sun beds that appeared to be "booked" but unused the majority of the day. The hotel should really address this matter because it really was a case of "beat them or join them"!

From the large garden grounds, you can walk directly onto the sandy beach. There is a small harbour to the north end of the bay and the water is protected and perfect for swimming if you don't like waves to play in.

Disappointingly, the sea bed was quite rocky and slippery which made it difficult to walk into. We swam in the sea day one, and stayed by the pool for the rest of our holiday.

All Inclusive meant you could help yourself to San Miguel on tap, fizzy drinks, wine, including Cava, ice cream and cheese and ham rolls throughout the day. Anything else such as coffees, teas etc were supplied to you at the bar along with any other drinks you may wish.

Snack food such as chips, toastie's, pizzas etc can be ordered at the outside bar except from 1pm to 3pm (you would have to pay for it during these hours). We ate and drank plenty throughout our stay, but again the choice of snacks is limited.

Drinks at dinner time is waiter service but the service is prompt and polite, we had no problems and we enjoyed all our meals here.

The night time entertainment was very poor when we were there, and the upstairs bar where they had the "shows" was smelly! Really, the place STANK of body odour or bad drains or something. We tended to stay at the outdoor bar. All the bars are shut at midnight, and the All Inclusive drinks finish at 11pm.

All in all, we had a cheap and cheerful girlie holiday in the sun. The hotel is not five star, more 3 star, but if you are there for enjoying the sun, it is perfect. Also, our taxi to the and from the airport was about 12Euros each way and about 10 mins, so quick and easy for a short break

Barcelo Fuerteventura Thalasso Spa has clean spacious rooms, courteous and helpful staff, wonderful assortment of food and drink available all day every day, comfortable loungers by pool, plenty of space around the pool even though we stayed Easter Weekend. It is close to airport, close to town centre and lovely beach.good entertainment. Laid back atmosphere. Can't wait to book and go again next March for my birthday

My sister is very choosy and she also is looking forward to returning. The weather was good but obviously windy and cloudy at times.