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Reviewed: H10 Rubicon Palace hotel, Lanzarote

Since my first visits to Playa Blanca, the stretch of hotels and restaurants along the water has grown hugely, so you can now easily spend an hour wandering the length of the seafront promenade – not including stops for ice cream and paddles.

The pool at the H10 Rubicon Palace hotel in Lanzarote
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And among the hotels which have popped up are four from the Spanish H10 chain (there’s a fifth in Lanzarote in Costa Teguise). Despite being hugely popular with British tourists, it’s not a group I know well.

So on my last visit to the island, I stopped by the H10 Rubicon Palace hotel for a morning’s explore and lunch, to check out the family-friendly facilities and find out more.

H10 Rubicon Palace hotel review: Vital statistics

The hotel has 593 rooms, split between villas on the site and hotel rooms. The resort itself is also divided into three sections – the family area, with three children’s pools and kids’ club, the central section where the main pool, restaurants and thalassotherapy spa are, and the adults’ area.

Grounds of the H10 Rubicon Palace hotel in Lanzarote

Kids aren’t actually banned from this last section, but it’s a more peaceful space with cinema and bar set around a central square, and on the opposite side from the family facilities so you wouldn’t naturally spend much time there. There’s also a diving and snorkelling centre, daytime activities and evening entertainment.

One of the double rooms at the H10 Rubicon Palace hotel, due to be refurbished soon after my visit
One of the double rooms, due to be refurbished soon

You can also check in as a Privilege guest, giving you access to extra restaurants and a separate bar lounge overlooking the sea, as well as seafront villas with extra touches like Nespresso machines and iPod dock.

View out to the sea from the H10 Rubicon Palace hotel

H10 Rubicon Palace hotel – the good

The family facilities

These are fantastic. A playground that overlooks the sea, a pool with a pirate ship in, water jets and waterslides down, a baby pool that was a lovely 25C when we visited (and staff regularly taking the temperature) and four kids’ clubs.

The Daisy Club, as the children’s activities are known, starts with a nursery for babies, catering to age one to three, before the main H10 Rubicon Palace hotel kids clubs: miniclub for four to eight, junior club for nine to 12, and teen club from 13 to 16.

The last two only run during holidays, although you’re unlikely to be visiting with school age children outside those dates.

And Minnie was smitten with mascot, Daisy, tagging on to a group of four and five-year-olds to get a series of high fives, before spotting Daisy later by the main pool and demanding more.

Pool bar at the H10 Rubicon Palace hotel - my review

The food

With five restaurants on site, plus bars, there’s plenty of choice from a more relaxed buffet to the newly refurbished Privilege restaurant, all minimalist glamour.

Along with Italian and Oriental a la carte, the existing Mediterranean option is being transformed into a Caribbean restaurant for 2015.

Although we only got to try lunch, I’d love to have tasted more. While large-scale buffets can be bland and uninspiring, this had fresh tuna steaks and squid ink rice among the options, even wine on tap for all-inclusive guests.

There was also a separate kids’ section with melamine plates and some more child-friendly dishes, although you could pick any of the choices for them.

The staff

Helpful, efficient, smiling and great with kids too.

The little touches

So many of these, from the decorative tiles on the stairs to the fact there’s a mini train to shuttle guests and their luggage around.

H10 Rubicon Palace Hotel review – the not so good

Wifi

Although there’s free wifi in communal areas, there’s no guarantee you’ll get it in your room – having said that, I managed to get online when I needed to. EDIT: This has now changed and the rooms have free WiFi.

Location

It’s at the far end of Playa Blanca from the town and marina. To be honest, that’s not necessarily a drawback unless you want everything on the doorstep, as it means it’s more peaceful and you’ve got a lovely stretch to walk along towards the harbour, with gates onto the promenade and leading to the beach. Buses run into the town centre too.

For ideas of what to do in Lanzarote with kids, check out my top 10

Disclosure: My visit was courtesy of H10 Rubicon Palace and Prestige Holidays. All opinions are my own. Contains affiliate links – any purchases you make are unaffected but I may receive a small commission.

All images copyright MummyTravels

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4 Comments

  1. We recently stayed at this hotel and I’d like to add a few points, if I may.

    Yes the resort is clean and safe, but if you are travelling with a young family, a majority of the restaurants are out of bounds in the evening, leaving you to stay in the buffet restaurant. This was a huge let down to us as we were travelling with a six month old. The food was not the greatest, and catered for a mixed pallet, but personally, I didn’t go to Lanzarote to eat Chinese…..

    We were in one of the villas down by the beach and the views over the North of Fuerteventura was amazing, the walk to and from the main building was quite a distance. If you are travelling with children, a buggy/pram is a must!!

    As we travelled in December, the 25c baby pool is actually a lot colder than you think due to the wind. It was 23c most days but the water feels much colder than the 25c. We could not swim with our little girl which was a real let down for us, but as you said, they are clean, monitored and checked regularly.

    The rooms were more than sufficient and a kettle was supplied for preparing formula, but you have to pay for the safe. The wifi is actually only really available in the reception and not all communal areas and in the evening it becomes slow where everyone is trying to FaceTime family and download films to watch in there rooms. Little niggles, but niggles all the same. We found there website very misleading on these issues and did mention this to the tour reps who where aware of this.

    I would recommend this resort as it is clean, safe and well presented and the staff were very friendly. If you are not interested in wifi or travelling with older kids, or just as an older couple, this should be contender.

    1. Thanks for the comment – that’s really useful to know from someone who’s stayed longer than I was able to, especially about the restaurants and wifi. And that’s a shame about the swimming – we found it OK for a two-year-old on our visit in December but as you say, the wind chill can make it a bit cool for babies. I know that by Spanish law, the maximum they can heat pools to is 26C, so I suppose that’s the same everywhere unfortunately.

      1. That’s good to know about the temperature law. It was certainly a let down for us, so next time, I’ll be looking for an inside pool! Just incase. We’re off to Fuerteventura in June with the whole family (oh my, could be interesting!) so hopefully we’ll get plenty of swimming in then!

        1. That should definitely be nice and warm! Every time I go to Lanzarote, I look out to Fuerteventura and think I must get the ferry over… still haven’t done it yet but sounds a lovely one, so have fun. And hopefully there’ll be some babysitting as a bonus, at least!

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