Hotel Riu Palace Jandia

Hotel Riu Palace Jandia is RIU's Palace-line hotel at the western end of Playa del Matorral, the long beach of Morro Jable at the southern tip of Fuerteventura. Its 201 rooms sit on the slope above the seafront promenade. At the end of 2020 it reopened after a full renovation that renewed every room and bathroom, swapped bathtubs for showers, gave the main restaurant a new terrace, added Krystal, a fusion restaurant, and enlarged the sun deck facing the beach by room for about 100 more loungers. It came back with five stars instead of four, and it sells on half board, so breakfast and dinner come with the room.

Every room is sold with a balcony or terrace and a sea view, full or at an angle, though the floor and wing decide how much sea you see: lower rooms on the upper slope can look over the pool and its palms first. The entry Double with lateral sea view is 42 m² with two 110 cm single beds, a sofa, air conditioning and a ceiling fan. The Double Room with sea view is the same 42 m² facing the sea, with a king-size bed of 200 by 200 cm; ask for a higher floor for the clearest view over the beach. The accessible rooms are 29 m² with a partial sea view, and the Suite Senior is 62 m² with two bedrooms, each with two 120 cm beds, and a sofa bed in the lounge.

It is chosen for the beach. Steps lead down from the hotel to the promenade and the sand of Playa del Matorral, which runs east past the Morro Jable lighthouse, 23 minutes' walk away, and the Saladar de Jandía, a saltmarsh on the Ramsar list of wetlands. The centre of Morro Jable is 12 minutes west on foot. Above the beach the pool, heated in winter, and its sun deck look out to sea, with tapas from the pool bar. Breakfast runs from 8:00 to 10:30, with live cooking and sparkling wine; dinner is at the buffet or in Krystal, and the lounge bar has live music and shows several nights a week and stays open until 1:00. The gym is free and spa treatments are extra.

The trade is commitment and a long transfer. Most dates need a stay of five nights or more, the drive from the airport is about 78 minutes, and the slope means stairs and corridors between reception, the pool and the rooms, with lifts on the way. Book it for a week of winter sun, when January afternoons at the island's airport average about 21°C, with the sand below the terrace and dinner taken care of.