Benal Beach Apartments

1 reader found this review helpful

Prison cell block H! The beds were very uncomfy they gave me back ache. We even found a cockroach outside the next door room!
The pool area was amazing! Except the pool was ice cold. The hotel did not have a restaurant, the pool bar was closed and the poolside cafe was ok, although we ordered a hot dog and it was not cooked.
The entertainment: NONE!!
There was a great park across the road with hens, rabbits and Goats etc and a park for the kids.
The bar was quite nice with a very nice barman called Miguel and happy hour from 7-8pm. Although the room smelt of stale smoke.
We only stayed there for a week and then moved to the amazing San Diego suites.
Altogether the location was excellent, just a shame the prison, oh sorry 'hotel', was terrible!
I will come to Malaga again but I advise anyone thinking of staying in Benal beach to think again!

4 readers found this review helpful

I am a travel agent so review is fair on all levels.
Positives are: great location opposite the beach but can't access from main road (slight hill to entrance at the side). Marina is approx 1km away along a pedestrianised promenade with lots of restaurants etc along the way. Great little wild life park to the rear of the apartments and a dophinarium, the local tram will take you to the marina or Tivoli Park 4/2 euros for a day pass so plenty to do for families. The pool area, gardens and public areas are more of 4* standard, the slides are excellent for all ages. Most apartments with huge balconies and alot of them overlook the mountains to the back, the park or the marina, apartments are a good size.
Negatives are: some of the water slides and other facilities are not available after 14th Sep. Despite it being school hols the hotel would not open them. Alot of the shops and cafe/restaurants close at 6pm off season also. The dolphinarium also closed from 14 Sep (not sure when these facilities open earlier in the season). I believe that alot of the apartments are time share or are privately let, making a vast difference in the standard of the accommodation.
Our apartment was very basic with alot of broken bits and pieces throughout the accommodation, it also wasn't cleaned in the 5 days we were there nor did we receive any clean towels or sheets. The staff don't speak much English. Alot of ramps for disabled (incl 1 into pool) but watch out for hill to entrance.

5 readers found this review helpful

Well after reading the comments on this site I thought they were wrong, WELL the majority. I stayed at this complex two years in a row from 2005 to 2006 and me and my family could not have wrong word said. It catered for me, my partner and my two young children, I can honestly say it was the best stay I have had in Benalmadna in the five year I have been going there ,in fact nothing comes close.

1 reader found this review helpful

We have just returned from our 7th stay in Benal Beach. This time however we had our one year old little girl and I can honestly say we had a wonderful week.
The 1 bedroom apartment was lovely, cleaned 6 days a week with towel change. Kitchen with microwave, hob toaster and kettle (not that we eat in) plus iron, air con and TV. The balcony over looked the beach which was fabulous.
The pool area is massive with lovely grassed areas to sun bathe on so no need to hire sun beds. The only downside that all the pools were icy cold (even the childs pool) so instead we bought a mini paddle pool for 6 euros for our daughter to sit in.
The pool side bar sells fresh baguettes, toasties ice cream etc and has a happy hour each day. The evening bar opens at 7pm with happy hour and closes at 2am. There is a smoke free area, pool table and darts board plus a very friendly bar man named Miguel.
Behind the complex is a large wonderful park (which started as waste land 14 years ago when I first went). It now has a large pond with fountain ducks, hens, turtles, rabbits, emu's, and goats most of which you are able to feed. There are also two nice cafe/bars plus 3 children’s play areas.
Behind the park is Sewlo which has a dolphin show, sea lion show, penguins, reptiles and flamingos. It was 16 euros per adult or you can buy a ticket for all three animal parks (inc. Sewlo, the sea life centre at the Marina and the cable cars from Tivoli up the mountains where there is an eagle/owl show and horse show). To get to Tilovi you can get a fun road train which stops outside Benal Beach apartments. At Tivoli there are rides, restaurants - like a mini theme park.
The local market behind the park on a Friday morning is nice but small; there is a bigger one in Tivoli car park also on a Friday morning. From Benal Beach you can walk down the beautiful promanade to the Marina which has some fabulous bars and restaurants (slightly more expensive) and buy a bag of bread for 1 euro to feed the fish. Its worth a walk there to see the boats and posh apartments.
Benal beach is a couple of minutes walk to the beach / promanade where there are some great fish restaurants. Don't miss an ice cream in Pepe's next to the round about.
The only place I would avoid is the Indian/Italian on the opposite corner. We went for a meal, there had no high chairs. They brought out the wrong food order, very slow service then tried to over charge us (plus the Italian food tasted of spices as if pans hadn't been cleaned properly)
So there you have it, if you want a lovely, central place to stay which is clean and friendly the Benal Beach is then place for you.

If you are thinking of booking here and have kids don’t bother. The slides weren’t open. We brought lilos for the pool, not allowed in pool with lilos.
Sockets loose on walls. No entertainment in evening, very poor selection of food.
Very unfriendly staff at reception. If you can book elsewhere. Just got back and didn’t meet one person on holiday who enjoyed themselves, sad because use to be a nice friendly hotel. Won’t be going back.

As a travel agent I obviously take great interest in reviews for accommodations and feel that this one has had a rough ride! So here is my review!
Fantastic! The rooms were stunning, with a kitchen that is better than mine at home, dishwasher, washing machine, massive fridge (which had milk & water in), iron, ironing board, full oven with 4 rings, tea, coffee.
We had a one bed roomed apartment that had a comfy double bed and patio doors that led onto the furnished balcony and the view from that was stunning, you had a full sea view and a view of Castillo de Bil Bil.
Then in the lounge there was a sofa that easily converted into a sofa bed for the 2 kids. And a 4 seater dining room table, a cd player a nice TV, telephone, the works!
We didn’t really have any dealings with staff there but a lot of the accommodations in the complex are privately owned ones so maybe that’s why a lot of people complain about dodgy rooms etc.
Because none of the 'big' tours operators go there, I don’t think they need to rely on loads of English speaking staff and hey you are in a foreign country, so surely you could learn a few simple phrases?
The pool area was amazing, loads of pools with slides connecting them and a water flume that was only open in peak months, loads of life guards who thought they were the dogs wotsits and had a bit of a power trip.
A huge amount of sun beds (that were charged for), nice grassy areas to sit about in as well as a lot of shaded umbrellas there as well.
The food around the pool area was good, the usual burgers, sausages, chips etc as well as drinks and ice creams. There is a pool bar that serves more variety too which was great, no complaints there either.
The one minus side was the lack of entertainment there but again, as it’s not a complex that huge tour operators deal with and the majority of them are privately owned apartments maybe they don’t supply it for that reason, who knows? But we did go out and about and snuck into a few hotels to see their entertainment a few times!!
Outside of the accommodation there is loads to do, we took the kids to Tivoli World which was a 5 euro taxi ride, the water park in Torremolinos was great too, again a 5 euro taxi ride away (all tickets were booked at the bottom of the hill, turn left and there was an excursion place with a currency exchange there, next old bills pub... it had the cheapest prices and the best exchange rate!).
The beach is great as well. It took a 20 minute stroll to get to the Marina and oh my god have some of these people got money or what? Some of the most amazing boats I have ever seen in my life. There are loads of little boutiques, shops, cafes, restaurants, there as well as a pizza hut and a maccy d's on the 24 hr square.
All in all a great holiday, resort and apartments!

I was very disappointed with this complex.
We had a self catering room, two squeaky very uncomfortable single beds pushed together. Very old fashioned bathroom (light in here did not work) no one spoke English so we couldn’t get this fixed. Kitchenette was scary so we ate out.
Pool area was lovely and relaxing, shop was basic. The whole complex was very seventies, in need of a good lick of paint.
Bed was so uncomfortable and gave me such a bad back we checked out after 2 nights and booked into Hotel Triton which was wonderful. This overlooked the sea was minutes from the Marina which was very nice.
Will definitely be going back to Benalmedena but will give Benal Beach a miss.

Hi
Myself and My partner Stayed at the Benal Beach Apt Complex as Self catering. Overall we had a very nice stay at this complex; it was in the middle of the resort, with just a short nice walk to 24 Hr Square and other nice shops and restaurants.
The only thing that I would say is that Air Conditioning is very much needed in these Apartments; We stayed in June and outside temp was over 30 c. We hired a fan from downstairs in the basement area where there is also a Launderette and Supermarket in this complex. Apartments were overall very clean, we did have to wait a few hours after checking in to go to our rooms as they weren’t cleaned yet.
The Pool area was fantastic. There was about 5 pools with loads of slides and chutes. There is also a very good presence of Life Guards in all pool areas. The restaurant beside the pool was very nice and there is also a bar in the middle of one of the pools!
We didn’t go into the bar at the complex as it looked empty and smelt of musty carpets! I would really recommend these apartments if you want an enjoyable holiday

After reading mixed reviews, I wasn't sure what to expect. I am pleased to say that I can rate the complex highly.
We had a great apartment (after we sorted out a broken lock issue!), spacious with a huge sun terrace (for quieter moments of sunbathing away from the pool). Kitchen was very well equipped, and it was very useful to have a freezer as well as a fridge. The apartment was clean and tidy, and we always had warm water. Also, not to forget the washing machine - another useful addition!
The pool area was fantastic, and it was nice to be surrounded by a mix of people (as opposed to just 'Brits abroad'!). Got the opportunity to practice the rusty Spanish too! Food and drinks good, at very reasonable prices (useful tip - stock up on bottles of tinto verano at the supermarket to take to the pool!). Great facilities, found we had everything that we needed.
Thought the location was good - a short walk to the bars and restaurants along the beach, and just a five euro taxi ride to the marina - which is highly recommended!! Some great restaurants and bars there, and some nice shops too.
All in all, a good week was had, and would recommend Benal Beach to anyone looking for a relaxing week away where everything is pretty much a stone's throw away! A good budget choice!

We were there one week in May/June. The water slides weren't working, staff were really rude (we were almost afraid to ask them anything) and only one receptionist could speak English. Room was clean but there was no coffee machine or kettle.
Beds were uncomfortable and creaky. You could hear every move from the corridor and from the street (although we were almost in the top floor). There was no air conditioning and it was really hot, you had to keep the windows open. It didn't help in this matter. My skirt was lost/stolen from the pool area. They did not want to help me with this at all (no place like lost & found or info or anything like that).
Positive: Nice pool area and we had really nice view from our room.
Won’t be staying there again. I know they have also better rooms, but I guess when booking through Alpha Rooms, you get the worst rooms possible (this is what I have heard). I guess Benal Beach is ok if you get one of the better rooms and do not need any help from the staff. And look after your things when in Spain!