Hotel Fuengirola Park

I have recently completed my GCSE's and as a reward, my parents agreed to take me and 6 other 16 year olds away on holiday. We wanted a lively, clean hotel. It was also crucial that the price was affordable.
A few days before going, I decided that I would have a look at some of the reviews on the hotel. I came away worried and slightly downhearted after reading that the hotel was "unclean" and "overcrowded". However, having stayed at the hotel for a week I saw a completely different side to the reviews. The hotel itself was extremely clean; the bed sheets were clean and changed daily. The bathroom towels were replaced so long as you left them on the floor every 2 days.
On the first night we certainly tested the hotels cleaners by literally throwing all the toilet paper around the room after having soaked it under the tap! But sure enough the room was clean the next day. So the reviews on the “unclean” rooms have either been sorted or were a one off.
The pool was reasonable, however they were fairly strict about blow up rings etc. But that wasn’t a problem because you can use the pool across the road where they allow rings etc.
As with any hotel, there was a constant rush for the sun beds, but so long as you get up by 10 am you should be ok! In some of the reviews I have read people complained of the smell of sewage. We did smell this, but it wasn’t a constant smell and you could only smell it when it was midday, and it was only around the pool area. We assumed that it was because of the intense heat we had during that week (with high’s of 40 degrees C).
In many reviews I read that the food was repetitive and that it was and disgusting. Repetitive it was, disgusting it was not. The food, in my opinion is exactly what you would expect from a 3 star buffet style restaurant. It was relatively simple and some dishes did resemble English food. My friends and I didn’t find the food all that great and often went to the local supermarket to buy a packet of crisps and a bar of chocolate. However my mum and dad found the food reasonable. The good thing about the restaurant was that they allowed you to swap you evening meal for a dinner meal if you wanted to go out to some restaurants in the center of Fuengirola, which broke up the repetitive meals!
The hotel staff did seem slightly rude in my opinion but would have done anything to help if asked. This simply could have been because of their cultural differences.
The activities in the hotel were good, with 2 pool tables, an air hockey table, table tennis table, 2 tennis courts and daily activities taking place. We chose the hotel because it was advertised to have English entertainment. This is completely untrue! The entertainment was in Spanish and we hardly ever went because it was full of old people! There were few people of our age, which thankfully didn’t cause too big a problem because we had gone with our friends so we were able to entertain ourselves.
Most of the hotel was full of 45+ people which was, in my opinion a false description in the brochure. It is certainly not a place for small children with no brothers or sisters! However the hotel did appear to have tried to solve this problem be setting up daily activities aimed at young children.
The situation of the hotel is exactly as the brochure states, it is on the outskirts of Fuengirola. This is probably better because we were able to travel into the center when we wanted to but escape to the quiet outskirts throughout the day. A couple of minutes walk away is the train station, which can take you directly into Fuengirola, but don’t rely on the train times! Another great half day out is the mountain village of Mijas, which can be easily accessed by bus and train.
A short walk along the beach and you can find a range of bars but if you want restaurants, its best to travel directly into the centre of Fuengirola. The front is in need of repair, with missing pavements and a shabby look about it, but the beach is great. It stretches on for miles and is reasonably warm to swim in. And although we didn’t take part in the beach activities, there were plenty.

To conclude, Fuengirola Park Hotel, is a clean, typical 3 star hotel. The entertainment is lacking and the food is reasonable. I wouldn’t recommend it for young families because of the lack of youngsters around but it certainly doesn’t deserve some of the poor reviews it has received in the past.