Be Live Family Costa los Gigantes

Be Live Family Costa Los Gigantes is an enormous all-inclusive resort aimed at family travelers. It's located on a sloping hillside overlooking the ocean, and rooms are spread across 15 blocks (lettered A-O) -- some can be hard to get to with luggage (or even without) because the resort is rather spread out -- it's around a kilometer long from end to end, but buggy service is available all the time. A lower-level exit with key-card access by the playground at the base of the hotel makes getting to the beach and town a bit easier.Check-in takes place in a bright white lobby with gorgeous marble floors and sea views through two-story floor-to-ceiling windows; there are lots of tall white chairs where guests can relax. However, most of the hotel's activity takes place away from the lobby, as there are tons of game rooms, multiple pools and restaurants, and a large lower-level area with shops and additional seating. Most guests here are families, and the hotel gets a lot of British and Scandinavian visitors. From May through the end of October, the resort is dominated by Thompson First Choice package tourists -- some staffers estimate it at around 80-percent of guests -- and travelers booking through this company are identified with special wristbands and have their own excursions and private animation.

As its name suggests, the hotel is located in the Los Gigantes/Playa Arena area on the southwestern coast of Tenerife, about a half-hour drive north of Playa de las Americas and Los Cristianos. It's on a ridge overlooking the sea, and there's no proper beach in the immediate area. La Arena is a 15-minute walk or five-minute drive from the hotel, while Playa de los Gigantes can be accessed in around 25 minutes on foot (or six minutes by car). The area is quiet overall, at least compared to Las Americas, with less nightlife than in the busier southern parts of the island, but there are still plenty of small restaurants and shops within walking distance. Getting to Mount Teide takes about an hour by car. The popular Masca Valley, with great hiking opportunities, is about 35 minutes away by car. Tenerife South Airport takes around 30 minutes to reach, traffic permitting.

This resort offers a variety of rooms and suites, and at the time of research was in the state of slowly remodeling all of the units to fit into the hotel's new decor scheme. Rooms and suites referred to as Superior have been remodeled, as have the hotel's Better Together family-focused units, while the rest have not. Older rooms feature neutral color schemes, with lots of beige, peach, and maroon decor, plus beige tiled floors and wooden furniture. The newer units have lighter decor, with bright-white walls, drapes, and upholstery coupled with bright pastel throws and cushions on the beds. Amenities found across room types include minibars with free water, safes (for a fee), 32-inch flat-screen TVs, and kettles with tea. Nespresso coffeemakers with free capsules are available on request (and come standard in some of the higher-category rooms). Wi-Fi can be included in some packages, but the signal is spotty. Bathrooms don't vary much across units -- all have shower/tub combos and the simplest of toiletries, plus hairdryers and magnifying mirrors. Better Together family units add colorful, toddler-sized furniture, all sorts of toys, and PlayStation consoles. These units also have bathrobes and slippers in both children's and adults sizes. Guests in this room type also get three free a la carte dining experiences for every five days they stay. All rooms have balconies with tables and chairs; some with sea views. However, guests have no control over the lights on their balconies (the hotel shuts them off in the middle of the night), which may make sleeping without the drapes closed (or an eye mask on) a challenging experience for some guests. Also, most rooms are either up or down a few steps. There are alter-access rooms available, but they don't have appropriate bathrooms for guests who are 100-percent wheelchair reliant.

Amenities here are mostly for families, although there are a few options for parents who need a break. Bay Spa is one of the quieter parts of the resort (most of the time) as it's adult-only except for a couple of family spa hours every day. The spa offers treatments ranging from firming facials to toning wraps along with chocolate body masks and massages, but the main highlight is its beautiful thalassotherapy pool circuit, featuring a huge saltwater pool with a variety of massage jets plus a whirlpool hot tub, a sauna, a steam room, and more unusual features such as a Roman-style tepiderium and a floatarium, with all the buoyancy of an isolation tank but without the risk of claustrophobia. Adjacent to the spa is a fitness center with a solid selection of weight machines and free weights. While the fitness center is free, the spa circuit is not -- adults staying for five or more nights get one free pass per stay. There's also a beauty salon for hair, nail, and waxing services.The hotel has three main pools. Delfin and Tortuga, with animation and music all day and a waterslide, and the larger, quieter Trebol pool, with a giant outdoor chessboard and snack bar. Off of this pool is a sectioned-off area with Bali beds for rent (Cava and fruit service is included), and it's reserved for adults on Wednesdays. Past guests have complained about people placing towels on chairs to reserve them throughout the day. The property offers all sorts of activities and recreation for kids, including a couple of game rooms, one with a mini-disco, and a second room with a trampoline (for a fee), bowling, and a variety of games. There's also a mini-club for ages 4 to 8 with video games, arts and crafts, and even a multilingual cinema. A second, outdoor club offers all sorts of impressive features, including mini-golf and a huge ropes course, plus a playground with ball pits. A tennis court and a soccer field sit off to one side. During our visit, the hotel was also in the midst of creating an outdoor splash park with all sorts of fountain features, anticipated to open in early summer 2017. The clubs are staffed with animators, and the resort offers a full schedule of activities like circus workshops, face-painting, poolside pizza parties, and t-shirt painting. For adults, there are yoga classes, aqua fitness, water polo, and archery.Wi-Fi is free for guests who book packages with tour operators, but it's not provided as a free service for those who book directly. The signal also disconnects frequently, so guests might find themselves logging in over and over again. Parking is free, and there's a shuttle (for a fee) to the beach and nearby shopping areas, but it doesn't run on Sundays.

The hotel is all-inclusive only, with drinks included and separate wristbands for regular guests and those who book as part of larger packages through outside agencies. Premium packages are also available for travelers who want top-shelf liquor included. Lunch is served at Xanadu, which becomes the hotel's a la carte restaurant at dinnertime and changes its name to Palapa. Breakfast and dinner are served in two nearly identical restaurants in the main building, depending on capacity they may only open one restaurant. The spreads are huge, and include a variety of themed nights, offering options ranging from Indian to Spanish. Guests are requested to wear shirts with sleeves and long trousers at dinnertime. Snacks are served all day at the poolside Snack Barbacoa Trebolino, where an afternoon barbecue is also held. The Dolphin pool also has its own bar, Bar Delfin. Other drinking options include the main Tenerife bar and the adjacent Bar Havana. There's frequently entertainment staged at Music Hall Chattanooga in the evenings.