Holiday Village Hotel

The hotel itself was fantastic very impressive and well laid out. The rooms however, especially for Self Catering are not well equipped at all. A hob no oven no grill just a toaster and one frying pan. Try to cook dinner for 4 on that.
We actually ended up upgrading to All inclusive for 4 days as the shops were so far away and drinks were so expensive (10 euros for 2 drinks) the shop is also very very expensive and does not have everything you need for a weeks holiday catering for 2 kids and 2 adults. You will need to go into one of the towns to a supermarket.
There were maids everywhere always cleaning keeping the place spotless. The food in the restaurant was ok catered for all tastes.
I would suggest though that they no longer offer self catering as an option on this hotel, you have to pay for everything, indoor pool, crazy golf, beach club entrance etc etc so it works out just as expensive as going all inclusive.

Please be made very aware of the fact that Self Catering guests have to PAY for the use of the indoor pool! This works out at £14 a day for 2 adults and 2 children and you can only allow your children in there from 3pm to 7pm!
I was very very disappointed after being assured by First Choice we did not have to pay for the indoor pool!. be warned!

I have just returned from a week’s all inclusive at the Holiday Village, on Sunday 11th March.
There is one word to describe it - fantastic.
There was my husband, myself and my mum, the activities were geared up for old and young alike and the team doing the activities were always looking for willing participants, though if you prefer to lounge about one of the pools, there are plenty of loungers around.
The hotel and apartments are spacious clean and well maintained, even all inclusive guests get toaster, kettle, microwave and hob so we did brew up.
The only down side is it's a long way out, yes there are busses costing one euro five cent, but these only run every half an hour and tend to be crowded.
Taxi's vary from 10-20 Euros each way, and because there’s no bars, shops or cafe's nearby I wouldn't elect to go here self catering.
The food was excellent plenty of choice, and if it was a little cold there is a microwave to heat it up. The local drinks were good quality and their Baileys tasted like the real thing.
I could go on but you will have a good holiday young and old alike. I wish I was back now.

1 reader found this review helpful

What a stunning place this is, just booked again for the third time!
The hotel is huge to say the least clean tidy and well maintained in every area. The airport transfer is a mere 20mins.
The Rooms are HUGE having separate bedrooms with access two points to the balcony so if you want its easy to have a drink late at night while not disturbing the kids, the bathrooms are again massive two sinks large shower and good size bath loads of room for everyone!
The main pool area is on the hotel side of the road with easy access via a bridge to the other massive pool area, this side is stunning, life size elephant’s pirate ship water features for both kids and adults and you can always find quiet spot loads of room!
The food is second to none always different and well presented you have the option to book the two other restaurants than the regular one (Do this on your arrival it gets booked up very quick) I have never in the whole 4 weeks I have been here had ay issues with the food or service from any one.
The nighttimes entertainment is excellent not the normal rep stuff but real acts with something for everyone!
The best hint I can give is don’t take towels - for a small deposit you hire the towels and change them every day, when you have kids that little extra room in the case always helps.
Have no fears about taking young and old alike to this Hotel, access to every area can be managed by everyone, loads of lifts and ramps for pushchairs etc.

WOW! Was our first expression when we got to the hotel and from then on everything was just perfect.
The rooms were amazing very, very spacious and so clean, water and soft drinks were supplied daily.
We found all the staff very friendly and helpful, the piano bar got a little hectic in the evening and it was a tad confusing of where you were suppose to queue, but your on holiday so there was no rush.
You are given a card which is used for your door, lights and you can also charge things to your room (apart from the shop) Sometimes although your on all inclusive you still have to show your card and they scan it, but in the Irish bar which opens at 11pm and all inclusive finishes at mid night then you can use your key to buy drinks - great if you don’t want to take any cash - we did think at first that drinks might be charged to us but that was not the case at all. Sometimes they ask for it and sometimes they don’t.
The hotel has 7 pools, the main pool was lovely and this is where they played water polo in the day, it was great because it was sectioned off so the little ones could still go in the water quite safely. The beach club is amazing with all different themes you really would not know you were near a main road.
Lunch is served on a buffet style basis in the beach club which was superb and again the staff were so lovely, they showed you to your table where you ordered your drinks.
La Perla Restaurant is the main one in the hotel for breakfast and evening meals, we were not too keen on the breakfast but that is not to say it was bad, there was everything that you could wish for from fresh omelettes, to fruit to the usual full English breakfast. I did hear people complaining about the bacon, but lets face it you don’t get 'proper' English bacon unless you go out to an English bar!!
The evening meals were great, each night had a theme. The Mexican and Italian restaurants were brilliant and made a change from eating in the same place. Great atmosphere and excellent food.
The location is quite a way out, but having said that it was not a problem at all, a quick taxi ride took you to where the town was, and again it made a change to get out of the complex for a day/night. But there is enough going on for you not to leave the complex.
The entertainment was great, unfortunately it was a little windy at night so a couple of nights it was moved indoors which was OK but it was better outside because you could see everything.
Aaaah and the donkey on the hill was lovely too which woke us up each morning!!!
First Choice were fantastic from when we booked the holiday all the way through to the end.
We got a taxi from the airport to the hotel which only took about 20 minutes and cost approx 30 euros - we didn’t want to mess around dropping people off etc.
We also had to be out of our room by 12 noon but were not flying until 10pm, they have a luggage room and courtesy showers - these were very clean so it's not worth paying the extra 36 euros! We went out for the day and came back showered and changed and off to the airport.
Will definitely go back.

We have just returned from two weeks at the Benalmadena Holiday Village in Costa Del Sol - Its was absolutely fantastic.
We have two children aged 6 & 13yrs and the hotel catered for both ages as well as us adults. The hotel has amazing facilities:
Accommodation - Very clean and spacious please note that if you don't have a pool / sea view that you will have a railway track for company although it didn't bother us at all. Good sized balcony and a small separate kitchen. The bathroom had two basins and two showers which was very handy.
Pools - Approx. 7 different pools with good shallow areas in fact the deepest was 1.6m. Pools with life size elephants spraying water all over you and a pirate ship with slide. The beach club which was reached across a bridge was superb with various pools a bar and restaurant. Note that AI ice-creams are not available here!
Entertainment - SUPERB!! Daytime clubs for the children, activities for all in the pool area all day long. Nightly fun and games starting with the children’s disco and then the resident E3 entertainments team put on shows, a very talented group of individuals and you won't see the same show twice!
The Irish bar opens at 11pm and if you want further entertainment and drinks then that was the place to go. Please note the AI drinks finish at 12am and you will have to pay after this time - Bar closes at 2am.
Hotel - Very clean and continuously cleaned - rooms cleaned each day. Hotel reception was very impressive and all employees are friendly and always happy to help you.
Location - The hotel is 10euros taxi ride to Benalmadena and 6 euros ride to Fuengirola. The beach can be found 800 metres away towards Fuengirola.
Shop - The prices were expensive compared to in town supermarkets and I would strongly recommend staying here on an All Inclusive package - HINT some people who had stayed here before had realised that it worked out cheaper to book Self Catering with the travel agent and then upgrade to All Inclusive directly with the hotel on arrival.
Food - Was very good but did become a little boring and samey towards the end of the holiday! They do have theme days which changed daily but the majority of the food remained the same. There is a Mexican and Italian which must be pre-booked and this was a good change but the menu was limited.
Verdict - We loved it and will be returning at some point - we may try another holiday village first. 10/10 from my children and if they are happy then so are we although we loved it ourselves anyway!

The holiday village was brilliant on arriving at the airport we were greeted my a very nice first choice representative who gave us all the details we needed to know.
When we arrived at the holiday village it was beautiful, the reception was huge and you need that when a lot of people are arriving the reception workers worked quick to give us our rooms and it wasn’t hard getting to our rooms just up one lift and we were there.
The pools were brilliant, the pirate ship left our kids entertained for hours and then the elephants that squirted water that also kept them entertained lifeguards were always about keeping an eye out with a first aid box with them at all times the bar at the pools were very quick to be served and the jacuzzi beds were wonderful, the restaurant there at the pools were great a choice of all you can eat and a different choice of food each day.
The clubs for kids were good our oldest children just went off all day and found the lads were really good to hang around with and our youngest child went to the tazmanian kids club that she enjoyed and never wanted to leave. We put her in that in the morning for and hour and then we would go to the pool with her and then at 4.00pm we would take her again and she would come out with all these stories about the reps in there and how funny they were and then we would take her for the night sessions yes they might cost 5 euros but it was well worth seeing her come out with a beam on her face
All the workers like cleaners and bar workers all had a really strong Spanish accent so it was hard to understand them properly but that isn’t really their fault, the cleaners though were really stuck up and couldn’t speak a lot of English at all, that maybe was a down side
The restaurant inside the hotel was really good the food was particularly different everyday and the themed nights where brilliant all my family enjoyed them the workers in there were really good handling teenagers everyday they came in and the man working on the door was brilliant he always greeted us with a smile
The cleanliness of the hotel was so good I would give that a 5 stars, it was so clean, no dirt and you would see the cleaners there on a morning and then on an evening working sometimes up to midnight. Our room got cleaned everyday and drinks topped up.
Now the night time entertainment was fantastic crows feet island for the young kids made mine want to eat her food so quick just to get there and the dances were brilliant getting the children to participate and then getting family members to participate made that a lot of fun and then they would make up games for them to play. My daughter loved all the characters (goulash, alfie and grace, captain crowsfeet, margo mainframe) they would never stop talking about them.
Then the actual reps who did bingo, and quizzes and then did the shows on a night, I loved all them all my favourite and then my two daughters loved one rep to bits and still talk about him now (Claire, Sammi, Amy, Luke, Julie and Ash) all fantastic at what they do and I think should be given a reward because they are there everyday for a year doing shows for us and they never get bored.
I would definitely go to the holiday village again and I have already recommended a lot of my friends to go.

The holiday village itself was brilliant, the swimming pools were very clean with lifeguards always on patrol at the poolside.
I also felt that there could have been more staff patrolling the games rooms as I felt there were too many teenagers just left to do as they pleased, i.e. break things. The food was excellent. But I found the holiday reps to be very unhelpful and just couldn’t be bothered.
The entertainment wasn't bad but could have been better. Which is why I am giving a rating of 5.

Just come back from the Holiday village, in general the hotel was good, cleaned every day plus clean towels etc, the Spanish staff not very friendly, we went self catering and we found that the village really did not cater for self catering people.
There is a shop which is very, very expensive not much choice either, so you have to go into the neighbouring towns to either eat or buy from a supermarket which will cost you around 10 euros each way in a taxi, we upgraded to all inclusive for 4 days which by the 4th day we had, had enough of the food, same kind of thing most days, although the Italian rest is worth a visit.
1st choice entertainment at night is good and they do put a lot of effort into it, any budding football kids go for the football coaching which our boys really did enjoy, overall all the holiday was a good one.

When we first arrived we were very impressed with the look of the complex. The Bedrooms, Reception Area, Dining Room & Spa were very clean and well equipped. However after a couple of days our initial enthusiasm soon waived.
The pool areas were very crowded & not particularly clean. The food was ok and there was certainly plenty of it, but it was pretty much the same everyday. This was made worse by the fact that there is no where to go close to the complex, no decent beach, shops, restaurants or bars.
You had to walk a fair distance to escape the high security fence and catch a bus, which did not run very frequently. In fact we were sick of the place by the end of the week.