This was our last vacation down. I took it for granted at the time. We organised it very casually and at the last minute. Little did I realise how things would change. How I miss that freedom now.
It was a Sunday evening in February. Walking back from the Black Horse was as gruesome as it had been for four weeks. Within an hour we had booked to fly out to Tenerife the following Wednesday. We knew some friends of ours were due to arrive in Checkin Apartments Atlantida in Los Cristianos on the Saturday so, that is where we booked in.
We paid £55 a night, its worth checking prices thoroughly as our friends paid £75 a night for an identical apartment. The apartments are so theres the usual; two ring hob, microwave, toaster, kettle, fridge; all basic but absolutely fine. Los Cristianos has a lot of excellent restaurants, and we werent planning on eating in, but you could if you wanted to. The rooms are nice, with just enough wardrobe space. The bathroom and shower were good, though we had an issue with a smell on some days. At £55 a night I wasnt
Outside the rooms is okay, but looks a tad jaded, and some areas could do with a bit of cash spending on them. Frankly, with good beaches nearby, I dont see youd want to stay on the site. There are several swimming pools (I think they heated only one) but the sunbeds were and there wasnt enough of them. My wife checked them all out, but we only stayed around one and I felt a little ‘hemmed in by the buildings. It was like sunbathing half naked on a housing estate. It felt inappropriate.
Id say the main focus of Checkin Apartments is young families and they cater for them well, theres mini golf and more entertainments in the ‘Cave Bar where the site restaurant is also situated. The restaurant looked like a motorway caf. I think they tried to cater for too many conflicting tastes here; a bar, pool tables, pink plastic Wendy House, and tatty furniture. On the, mercifully, rare occasions we popped in the most dreadful acts were ‘performing. If you imagine Nights youre in the right As a consequence, it actually was entertaining, but for all the wrong
reasons. I felt embarrassed if the artiste caught me laughing at them. They charge €3 a pint, and they should address this as its €1.50 almost everywhere else in Los Cristianos.
That was all a bit negative, but to balance that I must say that Checkin Apartments is good, and very reasonably priced, if you just sleep there and go elsewhere the rest of the time. The reception staff were brilliant, most helpful when we wanted to set up a surprise for our friends when they arrived on the Saturday. We didnt know what flight they were on and the check in staff were on permanent look out for us. In the end we had to wait 8 hours and the big ‘huzzah! was upended when they just threw their bags in the room and shot off into town. We had to chase them down the street shouting ‘Surprise! Surprise!
The natural temptation on leaving Checkin Apartments would be to turn left out of the entrance and then right down the main street to the seafront and the town centre, thats where most bars and restaurants are. If you turn right and walk up the slope, turning
right again at the top, you end up in a pleasant, slightly quieter area, kind of round the back of the town (its quite a big town tbh). There are a couple of places to eat and drink, which we really liked.
El Brasero is a medium sized place with a wide range of meat dishes. It has a mainly Spanish menu though our hard working waiter, and owner, was Italian. Prices were reasonable, we paid around €120 for four of us including two courses, beer and a few bottles of wine. We didnt scrimp, Bacchus himself would have applauded.
Just around the corner was another excellent restaurant and bar Taberna Vasca. It was popular with locals and all the staff were Spanish except for our waiter who was Venezuelan.
