Royal Hideaway Corales Suites

We have stayed at Royal Hideaway Corales Suites twice, once in January and once in March, and we still cannot make up our minds whether it is a family hotel. The case for it is the weather, good all year round and only four hours from London, and the size of the rooms, which are enormous. Put those two together and people come back whatever the faults, which is how we came to go a second time.

On the March stay ours was a Deluxe Suite 2 Bedrooms with Pool: 100 square metres, with a kitchen and a terrace over the Atlantic, and the pool out on it, heated. For a family it is set up perfectly. A child can be asleep in one bedroom while the grown-ups sit outside and swim, without going further than the terrace door. All 114 rooms are suites, in a resort designed by Leonardo Omar and opened in 2018, its white floors sculpted into curves and stacked in tiers above the black sand of Playa La Enramada. The lobby walls are rough volcanic rock over a floor of gravel, so the island gets in at the front door.

The beach is directly in front, and the hotel arranges surf and diving tasters for anyone who wants more from the sea than a swim. The pools are heated, and children have one of their own. The Barcy Club takes four- to twelve-year-olds and the One Teens Club the teenagers; below four, there is babysitting rather than a club. The spa, Wellness Corales, is next door at Corales Beach and admits nobody under sixteen, which gives parents one door the children cannot follow them through. Further out, by car, Teide National Park is 40 kilometres inland, and the cliffs at Los Gigantes 22 kilometres along the coast.

It is a big hotel, and an expensive one. The staff were friendly but not that eager to help with some things, and we saw a good deal of complaining at reception. Eating is where it gets difficult. The resort's two Michelin-starred restaurants are next door at Corales Beach, its adults-only half, and however first-rate the cooking, neither is really a place for children. The other restaurants book up, so dinner wants planning well ahead, and there were evenings when a casual meal in the hotel was more than it could manage. The suites have kitchens, and maybe that is what a lot of families do: cook. Otherwise there is La Caleta, 300 metres away on foot, with a collection of restaurants, though with small children at the end of the day you do not always want to make the walk.