GF Isabel
GF Isabel is a 4-star self-catering village of apartments, bungalows and villas in Costa Adeje, on the south coast of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It's built to look like a traditional Canarian village, with low-rise blocks and two-storey villas along named streets, cobbled paths and stone stairways running down to a central square called Plaza Canaria. Every unit has its own kitchen. There are three pools and a large play area, and the Blue Flag sand of Playa de Fañabé is a walk away.
On this page
Is it worth it?
Who GF Isabel suits, what makes it different from the hotels around it and the facts to skim first.
GF Isabel isn't a hotel in the usual sense. It's 384 apartments, bungalows and villas laid out as a village, and every one of them has a real kitchen. That is what makes it different from most of the family places in Costa Adeje, and it's the thing reviewers keep returning to, because a bottle, a purée or a bowl of pasta never has to wait for the buffet to open. There's a supermarket immediately next door. It's also one of the more affordable of the well-rated family choices in the area, and cheaper than the 5-star family resorts nearby.
What you trade for that is worth being clear about. It isn't beachfront: GF Isabel sits inland and slightly uphill from the Costa Adeje seafront, in the Fañabé area, and Playa de Fañabé is a walk of roughly 600 to 850 m, downhill on the way there and uphill on the way back. There's one restaurant rather than a spread of them, three pools rather than a waterpark and no staffed baby club, so a child under three is with you all week. If that suits how your family holidays anyway, the space and the kitchen are what you're getting for the money.
Best for
You want a kitchen and floor space, pools for different ages, a big play area and a Blue Flag beach within a walk, without paying 5-star prices for it.
Maybe not for
You want drop-off care for a child under three, more than one restaurant, a waterpark or a flat walk to the sand with a pram.
Best ages
Toddlers upwards. The Mini Club takes children from about three, and under-threes use the playgrounds and the shallow pool with a parent.
What stands out
A kitchen in every unit, a supermarket next door and a play area with a zip wire, crazy golf and a small football pitch.
What to check
Maximum occupancy for your family size, the Mini Club's ages and hours at check-in, plus where a hire car would park.
Where is it?
Inland and slightly uphill from the Costa Adeje seafront, in the Fañabé area of southern Tenerife, about 20 minutes by car from Tenerife South airport.
Quick facts for families
What the resort is like
The village and its square, how you get around a big site, what's adapted for reduced mobility and where pets can go.
GF Isabel is built to resemble a traditional Canarian village. Its address is Av. de Moscú 2, 38660 Costa Adeje, and some booking sites list it under a different name, "GF Isabel Family" or "Hotel Isabel", for the same property, so don't be thrown if you spot either while comparing prices. Low-rise apartment blocks, bungalows and two-storey villas sit along named streets, with fountains, stone stairways, cobbled paths and gardens between them, gathered around a central square called Plaza Canaria. The square is where the buffet restaurant's outdoor terrace sits, where the Tasca Bar is and where the nightly show happens, so it's the part of the resort you'll cross most often. The theming, the cobbled squares and the gardens get singled out in reviews, because it doesn't feel like a hotel block.
The owner is GF Hoteles, part of Grupo Fedola, a family-owned Canarian company based on Tenerife with five hotels, more than 900 employees and 1,602 rooms between them. Within that group GF Isabel is the most affordable property and the only explicitly self-catering one, sitting below the 5-star GF Victoria, the 5-star GF Gran Costa Adeje and the 4-star GF Fañabé. For the island itself, its beaches, its airports and when to go, see our Tenerife guide.
Getting around the site
It's a large, spread-out place, 384 units in all, and it takes a day or two to learn your way around it. Reception hands out a map at check-in for exactly that reason. From some units it's a long walk to the restaurant. The ground is cobbles, kerbs, steps and stone stairways rather than a level path throughout, so you can push a pram around it but you'll be lifting it up kerbs and steps on the way. Lifts serve the apartments, while the bungalows and villas are reached on foot. Bungalows sit around the pools and are on the ground floor, which is the shortest and flattest version of the site if a daily push is on your mind.
Accessibility
The hotel has rooms adapted for reduced mobility and accessible toilets in the common areas, including at the pools. The Main Pool has a wheelchair ramp into the water. The adults' solarium is not wheelchair accessible. If someone in the family needs a particular adaptation, a roll-in shower rather than a bath, say, confirm the room type and what's actually in it with the hotel before you book, rather than working from a booking site's description.
Pets
Dogs and cats are accepted in the apartments and bungalows, though not in the villas, on a paid daily package that covers bedding, bowls and a cleaning kit. It's one pet per booking, and the hotel takes no more than eight on site at a time. Pets go on a lead in the streets and avenues, and they aren't allowed in the bars, the restaurant, the pool area or the activities.
Apartments, bungalows and villas
Every unit type with its official size, which of them suits a family and how the board plans work around the kitchen in each one.
There are five unit types, and the difference between them is more than a view: an apartment and a two-bedroom villa are different buildings in different parts of the village. The table has the official sizes.
| Unit | Size | What it has | Family notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apartment | 47 m² | Kitchen, air conditioning, TV, free safe. In the main building, with sea views from the upper floors. | The standard unit, and the part of the site the lifts serve. |
| Bungalow | 50 m² | Living room, fully equipped kitchen and a terrace, some with a garden as well. | Ground floor, so no stairs between the path and your door. The ones around the pools keep the walk short. |
| 1 Bedroom villa | 53 m² | One bedroom, a garden, one bathroom plus a separate toilet and an outdoor jacuzzi filled with room-temperature water rather than heated. | On a quieter villa avenue, away from the main pool. |
| 2 Bedroom villa | 87 m² | Two bedrooms across two floors, a garden, two bathrooms plus a separate toilet and an outdoor jacuzzi with room-temperature water. | The largest unit and the only one with two separate bedrooms. Being two-storey, it is not a ground-floor option. |
| Accessible apartment | 47 m² | Wide corridors, an adapted bathroom, air conditioning, TV, free safe. | Adapted for reduced mobility. Confirm the exact adaptations with the hotel before booking. |
For a family the choice usually comes down to stairs and bedrooms. The bungalow at 50 m² is the easiest with a pram: ground floor, a living room, a terrace to sit out on once a child is asleep and some with a garden as well. The two-bedroom villa at 87 m² is the only unit with two separate bedrooms, so it's the one to look at if two children need their own room or grandparents are travelling too, and the trade is that it's spread over two floors. The one-bedroom villa at 53 m² sits on a quieter avenue away from the main pool with its own garden. Both villa types have an outdoor jacuzzi filled with room-temperature water rather than heated, so treat it as a plunge pool rather than a hot tub. The apartment at 47 m² is the standard unit, in the main building, with sea views from the upper floors.
Maximum occupancy varies by unit, so check it for your family size when you book rather than reading a number off a room name. Connecting rooms exist, and the hotel asks you to request them at the time of booking. You can ask for a particular floor at booking too, subject to availability.
Whatever type you book, the unit has a kitchen or kitchenette with a ceramic hob, a microwave, a fridge, a kettle and a coffee maker, a private bathroom with a bathtub, which is more use than a shower with a baby to wash, air conditioning, satellite TV, free WiFi and a free safe, plus a balcony, terrace or garden depending on the type. There's no washing machine in the unit, though the hotel runs a low-cost laundry service, and an ironing board can be hired at reception rather than being standard. There's no room service; the restaurant and the poolside bar are the alternatives when you don't want to cook. Check-in is from 14:00 and check-out is by 12:00, with early check-in and late check-out on request, subject to availability.
Board, kitchens and food shopping
Four board plans are sold: self-catering, bed and breakfast, full board and all-inclusive. Half board isn't offered at all, which catches out guests used to choosing it elsewhere, so the middle ground here is bed and breakfast plus your own kitchen.
That kitchen is the reason most families pick GF Isabel over a conventional hotel. It's in every apartment, bungalow and villa, and reviewers on full board and all-inclusive report using it anyway, mostly for warming baby food and for the hours the buffet isn't serving. Dinner doesn't start until 18:00 in winter or 18:30 in summer, which is late if your youngest is normally in pyjamas by then, and there's no room service, so that early tea happens in the unit.
Stocking it is easy. There's a supermarket immediately next to the hotel, which is the cheap way to buy nappies, snacks and formula rather than carrying a week of them from home, and the Plaza del Duque shopping centre within a walk has another along with a pharmacy. Picnics, cold suppers and early breakfasts may need ordering at reception a day ahead, before 20:00, so it's worth asking about at check-in if you think you'll want them.
The restaurant and the bars
The one buffet and how eating here works, the four bars, the three pools and the walk down to the sand.
There is one restaurant, and no à la carte option anywhere on site. Over a week that's a real limit if you want variety at dinner, and it's the food complaint reviewers raise most. What softens it is that every unit has a kitchen, and Costa Adeje's own restaurants are down the hill.
The Plaza Canaria Buffet Restaurant is a rustic room of large lamps and wooden balconies, with an outdoor terrace on Plaza Canaria for breakfast in the sun. Breakfast runs 08:00 to 10:30, lunch 13:00 to 15:00 and dinner 18:00 to 21:00 in winter or 18:30 to 21:30 in summer. The maître can advise on vegetarian, vegan and coeliac options. Breakfast in particular is praised across reviews spanning nearly a decade, and the buffet's quality and variety are one of the resort's steadier strengths. The buffet includes options for younger children, high chairs and a microwave for heating baby food. There's no separately themed children's counter of the sort some competitor resorts run.
The four bars
The Tacoronte Bar is at the back of reception, decorated with Canarian lattices, with free WiFi and a view over whatever is happening in Plaza Canaria, open 09:00 to 24:00. The Pool Bar serves food and drink at the poolside from 10:00 to 18:00, with a hot buffet 13:00 to 15:00, so you don't have to pack up and leave the water to feed anybody. The Tasca Bar has indoor and outdoor seating on Plaza Canaria, and its terrace is where the nightly show takes place. The Zumería is a juice bar beside one of the pools, squeezing juice fresh.
How eating here works
There's nothing to reserve. One buffet restaurant means no booking system, no app and no competing for a table, which is simpler than the multi-restaurant all-inclusives along the coast. What it also means is fixed hours. If 18:00 or 18:30 is too late for your youngest, their tea happens in the unit or at the Pool Bar beforehand, and the Pool Bar itself shuts at 18:00. Ask at check-in whether an early supper or a cold one can be ordered ahead.
Pools and water features
There are three pools, spread around different parts of the complex rather than gathered in one spot.
The Main Pool is opposite the Pool Bar and the liveliest of the three, with aqua-aerobics sessions running and a wheelchair ramp into the water. It has the most gradual sloped entry of the three, which is the one to head for with a baby who can sit up or has just started crawling.
The children's pool is the part built around young children: shallow areas, water features and slides, which the hotel describes as designed for children to have fun in complete safety, with adult supervision needed at all times. The slides are modest and toddler-scale rather than the big rides the larger Costa Adeje water parks restrict to 110 or 120 cm. There's a toy-filled baby pool, with a small climbing frame and slide alongside, and that corner is shaded in the morning and sunny in the afternoon, which is worth knowing when you're fitting a swim around a nap and the sun.
Swimming Pool Park is opposite the juice bar, and it's the quiet one, for sitting, sunbathing or reading without the Main Pool's activity. The hotel puts no age restriction on it, so children can use it too.
There is no adults-only pool at GF Isabel. The only 18+ area is the solarium, a sunbathing terrace above Plaza Canaria with sunbeds and showers, which has no water in it and isn't wheelchair accessible.
Pool hours are 10:00 to 18:00 in winter and 10:00 to 19:00 in summer, and sun loungers, cushions, parasols and towels are free at all of them. The two main pools are heated for winter, and the children's pool is heated as well. That heating runs through the cooler months, roughly autumn to spring. It's what makes a January week workable with a small child, when the sea and the air alone would be too cool for a long swim.
The beach
Playa de Fañabé is the nearest beach and the one you'll use. It's 600 m long and 40 m wide, pale imported sand, Blue Flag, with gentle waves and disabled access. Behind and along it are toilets, foot showers and ordinary showers, bins, a municipal cleaning service, tourist information, sun lounger and parasol hire, a children's area and a promenade of bars and restaurants. The water along this stretch of Costa Adeje is sheltered and calmed by breakwaters, which is the pattern for the whole strip.
It's downhill going and uphill coming back, roughly 600 to 850 m, somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes depending on the route you take. Going down is nothing. Coming back up in the heat, with a tired child in a pram and a bag of wet towels, is the resort's most consistent complaint across a decade of reviews, and it's the fair thing to weigh if you're picturing the beach every day rather than the pools. Families who mostly swim in the pools and walk down once or twice barely mention it.
Playa del Duque is the second beach, roughly 15 minutes on foot and further than Fañabé. It also carries Blue Flag status, and it's one of the calmer, more upmarket beaches in Costa Adeje.
Babies and toddlers
The playgrounds, the Mini Club and the Mini Disco, the baby kit and where GF Isabel stands on care for under-threes.
Cots, high chairs and microwaves for heating baby food are all confirmed by the hotel, alongside the children's areas and activities. Your unit's own kitchen has a microwave in it as well.
The playgrounds are the resort's real provision for young children, and they're better than the phrase suggests. The hotel describes balls, slides, climbing structures and room to run, built with safe materials, padded floors and shapes meant to get children inventing their own games, with space nearby for adults to sit and watch. Families describe a wooden toy train and a small climbing frame and slide near the children's pool, plus a bigger play area along one side of the resort with a playground, ride-on toys, a zip wire, a small football pitch, crazy golf and a bouncy castle that's inflated on some days and not others. A trampoline, swings and a bungee jump come up in another family account. It's a varied play area rather than a token corner with a slide in it.
The Mini Club is a daily meeting point with crafts, group activities, small workshops, outdoor games and challenges pitched at the ages in the session, with a team of monitors on each one. It takes children from roughly three to twelve, and the day's activities run through the middle of the day, around 11:00 to 17:00. Neither the ages nor the hours are fixed, so confirm both at check-in rather than planning your week on them.
The Mini Disco runs every night at 20:00, with music and choreography adapted to younger children. For a toddler who's normally asleep by then, 20:00 is late, so it tends to be a one-night thing rather than a nightly fixture.
What GF Isabel doesn't have is a staffed baby club for under-threes. GF Victoria and Roca Nivaria, both pricier, both run a named one from around ten months. Here, a child under three is with you throughout: in the padded playgrounds, in the shallow end of the children's pool and at the Mini Club sessions. Plenty of families holiday that way regardless, and a mobile toddler has plenty here to be getting on with, though it's the difference to weigh if drop-off care for a baby was part of the plan. For an evening out, babysitting is available, paid, on request and subject to availability, run through an outside partner called Emociónate Tours, so it's one to arrange ahead rather than on the night.
On the resortThings to do
There's a daytime and evening entertainment programme covering all ages, run by entertainers and the hotel's mascot, Gofi. The evening show is on an outdoor stage in Plaza Canaria and only moves indoors if the weather forces it. By day there's basketball, football, mini golf, table tennis, video games and aqua gym, with outdoor billiards and ping-pong tables between the pools. At night there's live music, comedy and circus-style shows.
Mini golf shares an outdoor space with a children's playground. The gym has cardio machines, weight-training equipment and a spinning room, open 08:00 to 20:00. Bio Spa Isabel is a renovated couples spa, open daily 09:00 to 17:00 and built around privacy for two rather than around families. Ask about treatments and prices when you're there. There's a gift shop on site, open to non-guests as well as guests.
Off the parkThe area and days out
The Plaza del Duque shopping centre is a walk of about the same length as the beach walk, with clothing, jewellery, a pharmacy and a supermarket. The wider Costa Adeje and Fañabé strip has cafes, restaurants and shops along the seafront promenade, once you're down the hill. A public playground sits a couple of hundred metres from the hotel, worth a look if you're passing rather than something to plan around.
Siam Park, Tenerife's biggest water park, is in Costa Adeje, and so is Aqualand. The hotel names both as nearby attractions, and a short taxi or drive gets you to either. The ages and height limits at Siam Park are covered in our Tenerife guide. Jungle Park is also reachable from the area.
The rest of southern Tenerife, Mount Teide, Loro Parque, whale watching and the promenade that runs on through Los Cristianos and Las Américas, is covered in depth in our Tenerife guide rather than repeated here.
Loves and gripes
What families rate and what they flag, how it stacks up against the alternatives, the journey in and the weather by month.
GF Isabel rates well and rates consistently: 8.1 out of 10 on Booking.com, 8.3 out of 10 on Trip.com from a smaller sample of 70 reviews and around 4 out of 5 on TripAdvisor. Together they put it among the higher-rated properties in its category locally (checked July 2026). Here's what comes up on both sides.
What families love
- Good for young children specifically, not just family-friendly in a general sense: three pools for different ages, a large play area and staff repeatedly described as warm with children, offering treats and using their names.
- The kitchen in every unit, used even by families on full board and all-inclusive.
- The value, against the comparable 5-star family resorts nearby.
- The Canarian village setting, its cobbled squares and its gardens.
- The buffet, and breakfast in particular, across reviews spanning nearly a decade.
- The location: a short transfer in, a supermarket next door and Plaza del Duque within a walk.
Common gripes
- The hill back from the beach with tired children.
- Room condition: tired furniture and bathrooms due a refresh in some recent reviews.
- One restaurant, which tells over a longer stay.
- The size and layout, confusing on the first day.
- No half board, which surprises guests used to picking it.
- WiFi that thins out beyond the lobby and the Tacoronte Bar.
The room-condition point needs the whole picture rather than half of it. Reviews from 2025 and 2026 include real complaints about outdated furniture and bathrooms needing renovation, and a minority report cockroaches, mostly in ground-floor units. Recent reviews also include plenty of strongly positive ones from families on repeat visits, and the overall scores have held up. So it's a split rather than a settled verdict, and it's worth knowing about specifically if you're choosing a ground-floor bungalow for the pram access.
Against the alternativesHow it compares
GF Victoria is the same group's 5-star flagship in Costa Adeje: all-suite, a year-round baby club from around ten months, five or more pools including a heated aquapark and 150 m to Playa del Duque. It's a different tier and a different product. GF Isabel gives you a kitchen, three simpler pools, no baby club and a 10 to 15 minute partly uphill walk to the sand, for considerably less money.
GF Fañabé is the group's other 4-star, more central in Costa Adeje, and it's a conventional hotel: rooms, no kitchens. GF Isabel trades that central position for the kitchens, more space per unit and a larger, garden-set site.
Roca Nivaria Gran Hotel at Playa Paraíso is a 5-star with a staffed year-round Baby Club from ten months and the RoniAventura water zone, on a clifftop with lift access down to its own small beach. If a staffed club for a child under three is what you're choosing on, that's where it is, at a 5-star price. GF Isabel's side of that trade is a walkable if hilly route to a 600 m Blue Flag beach at a markedly lower price.
Bahia Principe Fantasia Tenerife is a 4-star over on the east coast at Golf del Sur, with a purpose-built waterpark, a Baby Club from eight months and a Mini Club, all-inclusive only, in a quieter spot closer to the airport but well away from the Costa Adeje strip. GF Isabel sits in the middle of Costa Adeje with the shops, the beaches and Siam Park to hand, and the cost of that is a less elaborate water set-up and no baby club.
The journey in and the best monthsGetting there and when to go
Tenerife South airport, also called Reina Sofía or TFS, is about 20 minutes away by car according to the hotel. The road distance is roughly 12 miles (20 km) and some listings quote 15 minutes, so take it as 15 to 20 depending on the traffic.
The hotel runs no transfer service of its own. It can help you book a private transfer or a taxi on request, and that word matters: nothing is laid on automatically, so either book one yourself before you fly or ask the hotel to arrange it, well before you land with a pram and a car seat.
There's no general guest parking on site. Free parking is for disabled guests only, and even that depends on a space being free. There are parking options nearby. The hotel arranges car and bike hire through partner companies, so if you want a car, sort out where it's going to sit before you book it. There's no doctor on site either; in an emergency the hotel can call an external one out.
The resort is open all year, with no seasonal closure. Costa Adeje's winter is the draw: January and February sit around 22°C by day, and you swim in a heated pool rather than a cool sea. Sea temperatures peak around 24°C in September. July and August are dry and reach 28 to 29°C, which means shade and short pool windows with a baby.
Month by monthWeather
Costa Adeje sits on Tenerife's south coast, in the rain shadow of Mount Teide, and GF Isabel's slightly inland position doesn't put it in a different climate: the south-coast figures below apply. Rain is close to absent from May to September and light the rest of the year, and the day temperature never drops far, which is why this coast fills up in a UK winter.
| Month | Daytime high | Overnight low | Rain | Wet days | Sea temp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 22° | 15° | 18 mm | 2 | 20° |
| February | 22.5° | 15° | 19 mm | 2 | 20° |
| March | 23° | 15.5° | 8 mm | 1 | 20° |
| April | 23.5° | 16° | 9 mm | 1 | 20° |
| May | 24.5° | 17.5° | 1 mm | 0 | 21° |
| June | 26° | 19° | 0 mm | 0 | 22° |
| July | 28° | 20.5° | 0 mm | 0 | 22° |
| August | 29° | 21.5° | 2 mm | 0 | 23° |
| September | 28° | 21° | 7 mm | 1 | 24° |
| October | 27.5° | 20° | 12 mm | 2 | 24° |
| November | 25° | 18.5° | 14 mm | 2 | 23° |
| December | 23.5° | 16.5° | 29 mm | 3 | 22° |
Typical monthly averages from weather-station records. Sea temperature is the open-water figure, so a sheltered bay can feel a degree or two warmer.
Questions
The things families ask most, the official pages worth a bookmark and when this guide was last refreshed.
Do we still need the kitchen if we book all-inclusive?
Yes. Whichever plan you pick, a bottle or a purée gets warmed in your unit, and so does the tea for any child who won't last until the 18:00 or 18:30 dinner sitting. Worth weighing when you compare all-inclusive against bed and breakfast, since the kitchen comes with both.
Which unit suits a pram best?
A ground-floor bungalow, and it's worth asking for one near the pools when you book. Nothing to lift the pram over between the path and your door, and the shortest daily walk on a site where the lifts only reach the apartments.
What ages does the Mini Club take?
Roughly three to twelve, though the band isn't firm, so ask at check-in before you build a week around it. Either way a child under three is with a parent throughout, including at the Mini Club's own sessions.
Is there a staffed baby club for a child under three?
No. A child under three is supervised by you the whole time. That's the one thing to settle before booking, because the alternatives with a staffed club for that age, GF Victoria and Roca Nivaria, are both 5-star and priced accordingly.
Can we book half board?
No, it isn't sold here at all. The four plans are self-catering, bed and breakfast, full board and all-inclusive. If you'd normally pick half board, price bed and breakfast against full board and factor in that lunch or an early tea can come from your own kitchen.
How many people can share one unit?
Ask reservations rather than working it out from a room name. The unit names here don't map neatly onto how many the hotel will sell them for, so give them your exact numbers and ages and let them confirm the unit before you pay.
Is there an adults-only pool?
No. The 18+ area is the solarium, a sunbathing terrace above Plaza Canaria with no water in it. All three pools are open to everyone, including the quiet one.
Is parking included if we hire a car?
No. The only free parking is for disabled guests, and even that depends on a space being free, so a hire car needs parking nearby instead. Worth weighing before you book one, given the beach, the shops and the supermarket are all within a walk.
Can we bring the dog?
In an apartment or a bungalow, yes, though not a villa. It's a paid daily package covering bedding, bowls and a cleaning kit, at one pet per booking, and the hotel takes no more than eight at a time, so confirm it when you book rather than on arrival. Dogs stay on a lead in the streets and can't come into the bars, the restaurant, the pool area or the activities.
See more GF Isabel photos
Open the GF Isabel photo gallery →Useful links
- GF Isabel: the hotel's own site for the units, the board plans and the children's facilities.
- GOV.UK Spain travel advice: entry rules and safety updates before you travel.
- Tenerife with little ones: our guide to the island, its beaches and when to go.
Last updated 15 July 2026.
