Benalmadena, Holiday Village Apartments Review

Overall Rating

Only consider this Benalmadena hotel for all inclusive - I would not pay for this food and certainly not at the prices they charge. Be prepared to queue a lot for food and drinks but you can live with it. Be prepared for repetitive dull meals in the buffet restaurant ("La Perla"/transport caf). Lots of greasy English food (some quite nice, some not - breakfast is rubbish). I have stayed in all-inclusive hotels in the Caribbean and the food there was of much higher quality possibly since they also cater for more fussy Americans. This hotel had a minimal selection of cooked meats each day, poor fish and lots of slop trays on the dreadful "theme" nights. Their food rotation also seems strange. After 3 days of zero nice cooked meat, they have a "Gala Night" where they provide you with roast beef and lamp/pork chops. They even have a chocolate fountain on this night which the kids enjoyed. Indian night = rancid brews purporting to be curry. Chinese night = slop trays of indescribable concoctions. You find yourself drawn to hamburgers, pizzas, and chips etc as the salad counter is dull. Plain pasta or rice is normally available. Fresh fruit is not the best quality. My kids both got severe stomach upsets for several days which may have just been due to the heat etc but they never have these problems on villa holidays where we prepare our own food - stomach upsets seem to be a common theme with reviews of this hotel. Expect a 3* room which is cleaned irregularly and badly with severe limits on towel provisions. If you are unlucky like us, have a room that smells of toilets (seemed to come from the plugholes - one of our washbasins was also blocked). The hotel shop is beyond rip-off with prices 3 to 4x the outside world. Evening entertainment starts ok for the kids. Drops to bingo at 9pm and then just keeps dropping in standard until 12am when most people have tucked into so much free booze they don't notice. Think holiday park entertainment in the sun and you are spot on - you either like it or you hate it. Most people then take their toddlers to bed although a few keep them up even later and drag them to the Irish bar until 2am (where you see kids asleep as fathers drink)! The hotel has it's own large pool which is quite good (the food at the pool bar is greasy but quite tasty) but if you walk over the road bridge (which crosses the 4 lane main coastal road) you find 5 different pools, 2 large water slides, a big wave pool, pirate ship, jacuzzi beds - this is the main attraction of this hotel and is shared with 2 other hotels. The lunchtime restaurant there also seems better than the evening "La Perla" transport caf in the main hotel. The hotel pool has a no sunbed reservation policy that tries to prevent 7am reserving (before 9 you risk all your towels being taken to reception). However this just narrows the window so if you get to the pool after 10am on most days, most or all of the sunbeds have gone! The road bridge opens at 10am for access to the other pools - people start queuing for it from 9:30am!!!

What was good:

. Pools, across the bridge. Children's pools, slides, wave pool (watch out it's hard work).
. Italian and Barbecue restaurants (but that may have been just because of the change from the buffet transport caf).
. Kids loved the electric motorbikes and trampolines (pay extra).
. Costa del Sol weather.
. Very large drinks measures!
. Escaping to Benalmadena marina for a meal on the outside.

This is standard all-inclusive style but with very average accommodation and food. I wouldn't recommend it as there are much better all-inclusive hotels about. But the pools are excellent.