Hotel Cleopatra Palace

With its pink facade lined with ornate white balustrades and kitschy antiquities theme found inside and out, Cleopatra Palace Hotel fits the visual bill for typical Playa de las Americas showiness. Plus, it's one of the three hotels within the Mare Nostrum Resort (along with Mediterranean Palace and Hotel Sir Anthony), which combine to form the sort of brassy beach-resort experience for which the area has become famous. The beauty of Cleopatra Palace is that it offers a more relaxed and dialed-down atmosphere -- despite its outward appearance, faux-Roman decor, and Mare Nostrum mega-resort setting. The property caters primarily to middle-aged-and-older couples, who make up a large part of the clientele. Families with younger children would be better off next door, at Mediterranean Palace.

The hotel's main feature is its rectangular pool surrounded by Roman-style statuary and sunbeds, thalassotherapy spa, and its handful of eateries, including a beach bar and buffet restaurant, which serves an outstanding breakfast. When guests want more features than Cleopatra provides, they have right of entry to the facilities at the neighboring Mare Nostrum resorts. Though Cleopatra Palace is far mellower than Mediterranean Palace, it is still dauntingly large: Its cavernous lobby spans a three-floor height, and bellboys must show guests to their rooms, which are spread across three distinct buildings. Cleopatra picks up noise from its livelier hotel neighbors, double-decker tour buses, and the adjacent Hard Rock Cafe, but clamor is to be expected in so central a Playa de las Americas location.

Cleopatra Palace sits smack dab in the middle of cove-shaped Playa del Camison, right on the beach promenade. A 20-minute walk down the promenade -- lined with bars, restaurants, tourist shops, and ice-cream stands -- lands you in Los Cristianos. Immediately behind Cleopatra Palace is Hard Rock Cafe Tenerife, which has daily happy hours and nightly live acts and DJ sets. Hard Rock Cafe is on Avenue Las Americas, one of Playa de las Americas' main shopping streets. Right across Avenue Las Americas is Safari Shopping Center, with its many high-end clothes, jewelry, and accessories boutiques and mass-appeal restaurants. Tenerife South Airport is an 18-minute drive from the hotel.

Cleopatra Palace's rooms look as if they haven't had a cosmetic refresh in decades. Sand-colored tile floors and plain white walls provide the backdrop for a suite of very basic furniture: wood dressers, luggage benches, wall desks, headboards, and table-and-chair sets, all painted hunter green. Yellow striped bedrunners and accent pillows provide some color to the otherwise dark-seeming spaces. Above the beds are white-lacquer bas relief artworks depicting a man on horseback, a nod to Cleopatra's antiquities motif. The beds themselves are reportedly on the hard side, with some guests claiming they could practically count the number of springs below them.

The rooms may be drab, but their furnished balconies and marble bathrooms are highlights. Many of the balconies face the pool or the sidewalk linking the main street to the promenade, so have lateral sea views. The top-tier rooms have plunge pools on their balconies. Bathrooms are large, with double-sink vanities, shower/tub combos, and bidets, plus hotel-brand toiletries and hairdryers. All rooms come with mini-fridges and safes (both have fees to use) and flat-screen TVs with satellite channels, though it's been noted that English-language channels are few and far between. 

Cleopatra's prime beachfront location on the boardwalk and access to Mediterranean Palace's facilities make it attractive to guests, and it has a few solid features of its own on-site. Its 3,200-square-foot Roman-themed pool -- with its white columned arbor-like frame dotted with faux-ancient statues -- is like a small-scale, far-less-grand version of the Garden of the Gods pool at Caesers Palace Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The sundeck filled with loungers and umbrellas stretches to the Hard Rock Cafe, whose ziggurat-style building is thematically in keeping with the pool's ancient-world-inspired look. The pool is unheated, but off to one side is a separate elevated whirlpool. Cleopatra Palace's VIP pool area has Bali beds and food and drink, plus comes with free access to Mare Nostrum Spa -- which purportedly was the first thalassotherapy center on the island. Hotel guests and non-guests alike can access the spa's heated saltwater pool, hot tub, sauna, and relaxation deck for free with an appointment, or for a day rate without an appointment. 

Cleopatra's buffet restaurant serves breakfast and dinner daily, but it's the morning meal that guests regularly sing the praises of: It features made-to-order crepes, poached eggs, waffles, and omelets, as well as stations dedicated to customary hot breakfast items, cold meat and cheese, breads, churros, cereals, fruit, smoothies, and juice. To top it all off are salmon, Champagne, a chocolate fountain, and live piano music. Live music accompanies buffet dinners once a week, when the hotel holds free "gala nights" with special buffet items for guests. La Palapa Beach Bar and an indoor/outdoor snack bar are open throughout the day, and room service is available.

Resort-wide Wi-Fi and 24-hour secure parking are both available.