Hotel review: GF Victoria Tenerife

If you are looking for a luxurious family friendly hotel in Tenerife, then I would highly recommend the five star GF Victoria.

We spent a lot of time researching where to stay and we were so glad with our choice of hotel for our visit to Tenerife and booked the holiday through Jet 2 Holidays and we flew from Bristol.

Background

GF Victoria is a luxury hotel geared toward families in every way – fantastic rooms, five swimming pools including its very own water park, good food, immaculate gardens and a fabulous family friendly spa.

This will be one of the finest family friendly luxury hotels that you will visit in the Canary Islands and after checking out  some of the other hotels on our shortlist when we were in Tenerife, we were so happy with our choice.

Once we had checked in, we honestly didn’t want to check out 7 days later – This is our review of the GF Victoria and why it’s a perfect choice for families looking for a little luxury in the Canary Islands.

Arrival

The hotel is a feast for the eyes as you walk through its glass- panelled façade.  It was not just the stylish interiors and ambience of the contemporary lobby with its chic and designer feel that was impressive as we first walked through its doors – the staff impressed us too as they were so friendly.

Check-in was fast and efficient which was just what we needed after a four hour flight from the UK and we were shown to our room by the informative hotel porter who carried our luggage .

Our Family Suite

The GF Victoria has 242 rooms at this all suite hotel – we stayed in a senior suite on the 5th floor which was spacious and was perfect for us as a family.

One of the reasons why we chose this hotel was because the girls could have their own space, with each suite having a separate living area which also was home to the girls single beds – and not a sofa bed.

Our suite was elegantly furnished and also featured lots of really handy facilities such as hideaway kitchenettes and the fact that these suites have two excellent modern bathrooms is an added bonus for families.

The warm welcome extended to our arrival in our room with gifts for the girls including Goji (the hotel’s mascot) soft toy and welcome drinks, fruit and cake for us  which was a really thoughtful touch from the hotel.

As you would expect from one of the leading luxury hotels in Tenerife, our room was of a very high standard offering all of the comforts required for a great family stay including:

• 2 large flat screen televisions,
• Air conditioning,
• Pillow menu
• Bathrobes and slippers
• Complimentary high speed WiFi,
• A mini fridge with daily complimentary 2 bottles of still and sparking water,
• A large safe, iron and iron boards,

The hotel offers complimentary high speed WiFi throughout the hotel which typically is one of the first things the girls ask about when we check-in, so they can use their iPads – however at the GF Victoria there was so much to keep them occupied they rarely asked to use them.

The four white fluffy bathrobes and slippers left at the bottom of our beds were a lovely addition alongside a GF branded pool bag containing flip flops and towels.

Our large double width balcony offered fabulous views of the pool area and views toward the sea, we all loved spending time out here each evening before dinner.

The only downside we found in our suite was that storage space was limited, meaning that there wasn’t adequate space to store our cases and clothes, especially for a family of four.

Facilities and Entertainment

There was plenty of nightly entertainment on offer at the GF Victoria, starting with a mini disco for younger kids.

The adventure zone with its suspension bridges, climbing walls and tree houses looked fun but the lure of the wave rider and water park next to it was too much for the girls to ignore.  A modern gym, tennis court and a multifunctional sports pitch made up the range of sports facilities on offer at the GF Victoria.

One of my favourite parts of the hotel was the stunning Zambra sky bar on the roof of the hotel.  We had the opportunity to visit on two evenings during our stay when the girls were in the teen club.  The views here especially at dusk are gorgeous and the cocktails served are just as impressive.

One of the coolest features of the hotel was that the rooftop glass pool that juts out over the side of the hotel, six stories above the street below.  The only disappointment from the kids perspective was that this unique instagrammable worthy pool at the sky bar was only for adults.

One of our favourite experiences was the family spa circuit at their Bio Spa.  Many hotels restrict the use of their spa’s to adult only but having a separate family spa was a really nice addition to the GF Victoria.

On arrival we were welcomed with champagne on ice for the adults and appetizer on ice for the girls before enjoying the spa pool with its neck jets and the sauna, Turkish bath, heated beds and ice waterfall.

Pools

As a family we all have our wish lists of what we want from our hotel stays, and for the kids their no1 choice is always a good pool and the pools on offer at the GF Victoria exceeded their expectations especially as it came with its own water park and surf school.

We lost count the amount of times the girls whizzed down these slides each day – they had such a great time.  Once we knew the girls were entertained we were able to sit back and relax and enjoy everything the hotel had to offer.

Next to the water park was the Wave Rider, where kids and adults could under expert surfing tuition start to learn how to ride the waves.  Both Chloe and Holly tried this several times during our stay and had so much fun so its well worth the small extra cost to experience this.

Even though it was peak visitor season we never had had a problem getting a seat at multiple pools available and there were always lots of padded loungers and umbrellas available.

Our favourite area was lounging on the large Bali beds at the Solarium pool.  Here staff were always on hand with pool towels or to take drinks or food orders, and it was at the poolside on our bali bed that we would often have lunch.

Food and Drink

Our stay was on a half-board basis and one of the main reasons we tend to stay at luxury hotels around the world is because we spend a lot of time on property.  The last thing we want to do when on holiday is to be looking for new restaurants for dinner each night and the restaurants at the GF Victoria were excellent.

Both breakfast and dinner is served buffet style at the elegant Chaboco restaurant, featuring open kitchens enabling you to watch the chefs prepare your meals in front of you.

Breakfast here was a delight, with everything you would expect from a 5 star hotel breakfast offering, with omelettes and eggs being made to order

You are really spoilt for choice and the girls loved the freshly made cakes to give them the extra energy needed for the amount of swimming they did each day.

The evening buffet was just as impressive and one of our favourite parts was the create your own pasta dish station or the fresh steaks cooked to your preference plus we loved the huge range of delicious desserts on offer each evening.

The Amaina restaurant was one of our favourite stops for lunch (highly recommend their pizza’s) overlooking the large family pool and it’s a great spot to escape out of the midday Canarian sunshine.  Alternatively, another favourite lunch spot for the girls was to have it in their bali beds at the poolside when we didn’t manage to coax them to leave the poolside.

Location

The hotel is located in the upmarket area of Costa Adeje in Tenerife, we loved its location – a 20 minute transfer from the airport plus it was close to great shopping across the road from the hotel at the Plaza del Duque shopping centre and Dukes shopping centre was a 5-10 minute walk,  The beautiful Playa del Duque beach and promenade was 5-10 minute stroll away.

Overall

We had such a wonderful family holiday at the GF Victoria, we could have easily have spent another few days here as none of us wanted to leave.

If you are looking for a luxury family friendly hotel in Tenerife in a great location, then the GF Victoria will be very hard to beat and I highly recommend it. We can’t wait to return.