Failing to visit Mauritius, my friend and I decided to spend the Christmas holiday in Tenerife instead, which is also a popular winter sun destination.

Surprisingly there isn’t a strong presence of international hotel chains on the island – none of Hilton, IHG and Hyatt has any property at all, whereas Marriott has one each of Sheraton and Ritz Carlton. Gran Melia Palacio de Isora, generally regarded at the best Melia hotel, is also at Tenerife, and redeeming points for a half-board package can be an awesome deal.

[Getting Here]

This is the first time I stay at a Ritz-Carlton, and in fact it’s the main reason why I wanted to choose this hotel. From the airport (TFS) we grabbed a taxi which took us only around 20 minutes, and it usually costs between 40 and 50 euros.

It actually brings up my first point – the hotel is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and you have nothing to do or see outside the hotel unless you drive or hail a cab. Unless you want a staycation, don’t pick the Ritz-Carlton and the Sheraton is probably a lot better.

Check-in is very slow although to be fair we are sat down and offered free drinks. The receptionist hands us the room keys but explains nothing at all. We only realise it afterwards and come back to ask about elite benefits, facilities and food options etc.

[Room]

We paid 200,000 points (off-peak) for five nights in a standard room. In terms of upgrade we are offered a choice: standard room with sea view, or junior suite with resort view. We end up with the former.

Apologies for the mix-up, we switched from a double room to twin:

The room is huge, about 50-60 sqm in size. If you are not with kids I don’t see much need of a suite.

Balcony is nice with a partially blocked but still impressive view.

A special holiday gift is prepared in the room – a bottle of Cava and chocolate.

[Facilities]

The hotel is massive and signage can be confusing at times. The swimming pool is well designed:

Very disappointingly, the spa centre is closed due to Covid, which I think is a big let-down for a resort hotel. There’s only a small gym and you need to make prior bookings.

All these facilities are in the main building, a.k.a. Citadel. Behind it there’s also a massive Villa area which offers residences with better privacy.

I don’t get a chance to see the inside (although a friend who used to stay in Villas didn’t like it), but it’s definitely a much quieter area, and feels more exclusive.

Villa guests have their own swimming pools, as well as a mini gym.

If you walk past all the villas, you reach the hotel’s private beach.

There are frequent shuttle buses between the reception, villas and the beach.

A few more random photos of the hotel:

[Dining]

The hotel features a Club Lounge in Citadel and a Villa Club in the villas. However both are closed at the moment.

All paid rates include breakfast, but redemption rate doesn’t. We are offered a half-board package at €65 pp which we think is fair and have accepted.

Breakfast is served in the restaurant La Veranda.

This is literally one of the worst breakfast I’ve ever had at any hotel, to the point that the only edible dish is the freshly-made omelette. I’m shocked how a Ritz-Carlton can get away with it – I guess breakfast is inclusive for 95% of the guests anyway so they don’t need to sell it, and they put you off having breakfast then you have to spend more on lunch and dinner.

Villa guests have breakfast at El Mirador, but it’s also a buffet and I assume quality will be similar.

For lunch and dinner, there are around five restaurants available and you can use your half-board/full-board package at most of them. More expensive items (often half of the menu) require surcharges though.

El Mirador is probably the most popular restaurant, next to the villas.

Txono is another restaurant by the swimming pool. I ordered a wagyu steak at a hefty surcharge, and it tasted no better than a £5 Waitrose steak!

The last restaurant we tried is the Melvin. It’s owned by a Preferred hotel nearby, but Ritz-Calton’s half-package is also accepted here.

Food here isn’t much better than the Ritz Carlton, but service is at a totally different level: the shuttle driver is super welcoming, and a waitress proactively apologises for us waiting too long and offers a couple of complimentary dishes. We’ve had so many issues at Ritz Carlton on the other hand: waiting more than half an hour for the appetisers, the waiter forgetting our requests etc…

If you want to eat out, there’s a small town nearby called San Juan. It costs €5-€7 to get there by taxi, and there are many cheap restaurants in that area. You can have a promenade by the sea too.

In a word, I’m very disappointed by the stay. First of all the location is very weird and it’s anything but easy to get around; secondly the room and hotel facilities don’t feel luxurious at all – I mean they are adequate but far below the Ritz Carlton standard; last but not least, as friendly as they are the staff needs substantial training too, to avoid the so many teething issues we’ve had throughout the stay.

As one of my last international trips of year 2021 I decided to return to Switzerland for a few days to visit some friends. Well in the end I had to cut the trip short and cancel Paris so that I could get back to London before the new entry restrictions struck, but let me not bore you with those details.

As one of the financial centres of Europe it surprises me how little presence the international hotel chains have in Zurich. The only luxury hotel from a major hotel group is Park Hyatt Zurich, if you don’t count the ones from LHW. There are a few Hilton, Crowne Plaza, Sheraton and Mercure hotels but most of them are not located centrally.

The only exception is probably Zurich Marriott Hotel, which is why I chose to stay here. The hotel is less than 10 minutes’ walk from the train station, and 15 minutes from the shopping street and old city.

The hotel is one of the tallest buildings in the neighbourhood. I find the numbering in their lifts quite confusing though – it jumps from 4 to 24 and goes up to like 40, which makes you think you are staying on the 30th floor or something. However the building has only 20 floors so don’t be fooled.

I’m upgraded to a Junior Suite, which is a pretty good result as I’m staying four nights and this weekend seems very busy.

Unlike most Junior Suites it’s got a separate living room:

Bedroom:

Bathroom and toilet are in separate rooms:

The room is a bit old and there’s nothing to write home about. The best part is the 180-degree city view, although Zurich is probably the least beautiful city of Switzerland and there’s not much to see from here.

My welcome gift is two chocolate bars:

You can enjoy 500 Marriott points or 10% dining discount if you skip housekeeping. Such gesture was quite common pre-covid but became very rare nowadays since most hotels are operating reduced housekeeping service anyway.

Breakfast is served in the restaurant. It’s very busy every morning (or maybe it’s just me getting up too late) so I didn’t manage to take a lot of photos.

M Club is located on the ground floor. it’s open from around midday till late.

The lounge is not huge, but I like that they have different table setups so you can choose depending if you are just casually drinking or want to do some work.

Snacks and beverages are available throughout the day.

Alcohols and canapes are served in the evening. There were two hot dishes as well but I don’t remember what they were.

The lounge is staffed all the time and they are very helpful.

I tried out the gym once, which features river view.

There is a relaxation room with loungers. It’s weird since usually when you are on a lounger, you’d expect to be facing a swimming pool or at least something interesting, instead of a wall…

Even weirder, they don’t have a swimming pool but do have a sun bed and it’s the first time I see it in a hotel.

Although nothing stands out, I think overall the Marriott does its job and it’s a pleasant stay for me. From what I’ve read the Sheraton and Renaissance are better hotels and also cheaper, but you will rely on tram and bus to move around if staying there.