Alua Village Fuerteventura

Let me just start by saying we had been to a 5-star All-inclusive hotel in Corfu the week before this and honestly there were many elements of the Alua Village that we much preferred over that place, and the Alua is 4-stars!

Check-in was pretty smooth, we arrived at around 8pm so first we were encouraged to have our evening meal as the buffet closed at 9:30pm. Once we had our tea, we went back to finalise check-in. There was some minor confusion about our room but easily sorted out. I had emailed the day before to upgrade our room to a “My Favorite Club” room but the original booking was still showing a normal sea view room, I explained this and paid the additional amount with no issues.

At the time of writing, an upgrade to My Favorite Club during our stay was €20 per person per day. The My Favorite Club experience includes:

• Access to the private My Favorite Club Lounge open from 10am until midnight
• Snacks, drinks (Variety of more premium beers, wines, spirits, soft drinks and Nespresso machine) and buffet service available in the Lounge
• Room located closer to the main pool area
• Access to the private solarium
• Coffee machine in the room
• Bathrobes and slippers
• Complimentary safe
• Pool towels
• One-off welcome minibar (2x Coca Cola, 2x Fanta, 2x Still Water, 2x Sparkling Water, 2x San Miguel Beer)
• Complimentary late check-out (subject to availability and request)

Alternatively, if you would only like access to the My Favorite Club Lounge, the cost is €15 per person per day.

The room was presented nicely and all clean, but it is definitely showing signs of wear. Our bathroom did have a slight smell of drains but this went away a couple of days into the stay so maybe it was just down to the room not being used for a few days before us. Bed was huge and really comfy, loads of hangers, decent aircon and a load of TV channels for multiple nationalities (UK, Spanish, French, German). Our shower gel was nearly empty when we arrived, so I put an amenity request for some more through the HyattInclusiveClub App, this was resolved within roughly 12 hours. Towels were refreshed every couple of days even though we had them hung up so this was a nice surprise. Bed made up pretty much every day (We do make our bed but housekeepers do it much neater!). Since our room was underneath the sunbed area beside the pool, we could hear people dragging sunbeds across the floor in the morning and evening which wasn’t ideal. Also, one night was pretty windy so you could hear one of the umbrella/shade things making a racket. But I don’t think there’s anything the hotel could do about this other than change our room, it wasn’t that big of a deal but just worth noting.

In terms of the food, I think this really depends on what time you arrive to the buffet’s service. Generally the earlier the better, breakfast was frequently the best but we also had some decent good lunch meals when we got there bang on 12:30. Fish and seafood related dishes were frequent and not something we really go for, especially on the Friday (Elegant) night where seafood dominated. Although I did try the paella and it was lovely. Would have preferred some more chicken dishes. There were also pork steaks, belly pork and beef dishes. If all else failed then there was always pizza, chips and salad available. Really liked the Mexican night! The desserts were okay, a little hit a miss for me, but when they weren’t so good ice cream was always available (Whippy machine at lunch too).

Drinks in the buffet restaurant are either fountain soft drinks, water, San Miguel on tap or wine (Red/White/Rose). There is a separate MFC area to the left as you walk in which was generally a bit quieter and the tables seemed to be made up better (All cutlery, glasses and napkins present) compared to the area for everyone else. This area also had some different wines compared to the main area (presumably better), but we’re not wine people so not sure on that. Drinks from the bars were pretty good and served quick. Loved that the pool bar had a slushy machine (Strawberry or Lemon) so we could make boozy slushies. There were some upcharge “premium” cocktails available which we didn’t bother with, I tried the Blue lagoon, Pina Colada and Daquri which were all decent.

Drinks in the MFC is the real main selling point and what makes the difference with the MFC upgrade. A self-serve open bar with a large variety of spirits, wine (including sparkling), bottled San Miguel (0% option also available), bottled Tropical (Beer), bottled soft drinks (Sprite, Fanta Orange & Lemon, Coca Cola Regular & Zero, Tonic, Still & Sparkling water). The lounge itself is relatively small but has great air conditioning and a TV (Which we were able to watch the World Cup matches and Wimbledon on). There’s also an iMac in there if you need the use of a computer but these days you can do pretty much everything on your phone. The MFC had some picky bits on a small buffet throughout the day and was regularly refreshed. Some of these items were also available on the main buffet and pool bar but a couple seemed to be exclusive.

We absolutely despise any kind of sunbed wars when we go away and a couple of the days where we’d go to sunbathe around 11/12 the main pool area was pretty rammed. However, the MFC has its own terrace with a good amount of sunbeds and two showers available, we never struggled to get a space in this area and with the self-serve open bar it was a win-win. The terrace also has multiple benches and chairs for sitting out on an evening.

Later in the afternoon it’s obviously a lot easier to get a sunbed beside the pools, both are huge. The shallower one is right next to the entertainment hut blasting music and was used for some of the activities. Theres a little hot tub style seating bit (Didn’t see it working though) and then an area which most people were using for ball games. The deeper pool is a bit quieter but a little chilly (Much needed though if you’ve been laying in the sun). We tried the indoor pool too since we’d gotten a little sunburnt, this was nice but word of warning, the floor gets super slippery so just be careful. There are also 2 saunas and a steam room right next to the pool.

Entertainment is a bit of a weird one, it definitely felt more geared towards the French and Spanish but then I’m not sure if that’s just because not many English people got involved. Whenever there were announcements and during quiz’s everything would be read out in Spanish, French and English. But the evening entertainment that we saw were mostly in French. The Entertainment team were all really friendly though and were doing a great job at keeping good vibes.

Theres a bus stop less than 5-minute walk from the hotel, we took this to Morro Jable for less than €3 for 2 people each way. You can also walk down to the beach within 15 minutes, if you were to walk on the right side of the beach you could walk all the way to Morro Jable if you wanted to. Some parts of the beach were nudist though just FYI. No pun intended but if you nip to Mercadona, grab a bag of monkey nuts to feed the chipmunks on the beach.

Unfortunately, the late check-out was unavailable for us, you are advised to request this 24 hours prior which we did. This wasn’t so bad since we had our room until midday, our transfer was between 3:30/4 and we were allowed to continue using the MFC lounge and all other services. Apparently, there are showers in the Indoor Pool & Spa area which can be used if we would have wanted to freshen up before our journey home. Between our check-out and transfer, a gentleman unfortunately suffered from a cardiac arrest next to the pool and sadly passed away. I’m only mentioning this because from what I saw, and obviously me not wanting to watch insensitively while that distressing situation occurred, the hotel staff reacted really quickly to start CPR, source a defibrillator, get on the phone to the emergency services and look after the gentleman’s wife while all of this was occurring. I can’t imagine how challenging that situation is to deal with and we send our condolences to the poor wife.

We like to try different places & areas so although I don’t think we would return to Alua Village Fuerteventura anytime soon, we would definitely consider going back at some point and recommend it to family & friends.

If you are worried about bad reviews here, DON'T BE! Seriously, we had a great week here last week - our first all inclusive holiday with our young adult daughters.

From our arrival, the staff were friendly and helpful, the all important food was freshly cooked everyday - we really enjoyed the themed food nights. Loads of fish, fresh salads and desserts alongside an array of other dishes. All inclusive drinks were good quality and generous servings (!). Loved the whippy ice cream machine at lunchtimes! Breakfast was great too - had to pace ourselves though.

If I could sum up the venue/accommodation it would be clean and spacious, it's all laid out so you're not on top of everyone else and everything was very clean - we only had our room serviced once to help the environment but they did a top job. Comfy beds in large rooms with decent sized balconies. They should make more of the village feel - Mediterranean inspired cobbled pathways leading to bedrooms in apartment blocks - much nicer than rows of brown hotel room doors.

The beach was very close and beautiful, not crowded at all but perhaps its a bit busier in peak times. The beach is HUGE and sandy with sun loungers if you want to hire them (though we bought a 15 Euro beach brolly from the well stocked shop in the hotel).

The Ents team worked incredibly hard through the week organising activities through the day, putting on evening shows and generally being smiley and pleasant to customers. Most of the evening entertainment was translated into English but you could get the gist anyway! Karaoke night was good fun.

Would deffo recommend this place - we didn't even leave once during the week as each of us had a choice of activities, food or just resting on the sun loungers or swimming in one of the three pools (the outside pool weren't cold as some have reported). thank you Alua Village and if we don't make it quite back again, we'll try to find something that's a close fit next time

Nice, clean and bright communal areas. I only used the main buffet restaurant. The food was much better than most all inc hotels, particularly the desserts. Nice pools, freezing as expected. Don't understand why so few mediterranean hotels use solar to heat pools, even just a few degrees warmer would be good. My room was a good size, bathroom wasn't in good condition, needs whole new bathroom. I was lucky that my room was not too far down from the pool, reception, restaurants etc, but it's a long steep climb if your room is at the bottom of the hill. People with mobility issues, breathing issues, or just generally unfit are likely to struggle.