Holiday Palace

Mr C Clarke, I do not understand your problem. We found this hotel to be superb, with friendly staff and excellent service. The “Hill” is a 900m gentle incline which, whilst challenging for the elderly and infirm, caused little or no problem to us whatsoever; and what a spectacular view being that little bit above sea level! Also Mr Clarke - your point “2”, our (beautifully clean & spacious) room was one of the “four” (a conservative estimate I feel!) with a sea view and “surprise surprise” we had a huge balcony, offering near panoramic views. Whilst only on the second floor, we were not at all overlooked, indeed our balcony was very private. The swimming pool was large, and not at all crowded, there is the choice of using the Beach club’s facilities (especially good for children!) and plenty of bars and restaurants to cater to all tastes. I would strongly recommend the Italian & Mexican themed restaurants, with excellent entertainment & great food!
I urge anyone reading Mr Clarke’s review to take his grumbling with more than a pinch of salt; some people are never happy. I would actively recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a break in the Costa Del Sol.

DO NOT GO TO THIS HOTEL.
All will be explained:
First things first. It is listed as a 4 star hotel, and indeed looks very nice. 4 star is what you expect when you see this hotel, if not a little better. So why not go?
1) SURROUNDINGS & Location.
The HOLIDAY VILLAGE, purchased a huge piece of land a long time ago. They started building in 2001, and now have two hotels in the "complex", this one included. There are plans for 3 other hotels in the
immediate vicinity, a gold course, and a train station - all owned by the same group, with a similar theme. The ENTIRE surrounding area was being flattened, almost finished, so that building could start.
You will be looking at construction sites for the next two years, minimum.
The now infamous hill! We read stories about this "hill" you have to climb. We have been on holidays before where the hotel is up a hill, and we found people complained without reason - perhaps they were just lazy! However, THIS hill is even joked about by the reps taking you to the hotel - "maybe we’ll just drop you at the bottom". There is a minibus that will take you down the hill and back up, for a charge of €1.50 per day. You must use this hill to get anywhere.
The hotel is located in the middle of no-where, you must get a bus (good service!) either way to Torremelios, or Fuengerola (the latter being the better place in my opinion). If you wanted to go to the beach, you had to walk at least 20 mins before you could find access down (20 mins after you have negotiated hill!).
2) VIEWS FROM THE HOTEL/ROOM
The part of the hotel that faces the sea, has only four rooms, which do not have an immediate balcony. There is essentially no sea views from this hotel. The sides give you a nice view of the flattened, pipe-ridden land. The rear has probably the nicest view, of the mountains behind.
3) INSIDE HOTEL.
Looks nice in general - they have tried to go for a green rainforest look of sorts, green tiles and water inside. If you have seen any pictures of the big windows, you will be disappointed to find that they haven’t been cleaned for a long time, even at the lowest, easiest to reach, point. This gives the hotel a grimy feel, certainly not a 4-star feel.
4) ROOMS.
The rooms were pretty grubby.
Bedrooms
We had a 5 person room, which contained two beds and a sofa bed. The beds were big, but if you had 5 people, three will have to share the sofa bed.
-Bathroom
The toilets were huge with a bath (shower overhead) and an extra shower (this shower was strange, the non-direction head was directly above the taps, if you moved, you were in risk of moving the tap turning the shower cold, or off; using the shower would expel water through the shower doors with some force).
Kitchen.
The kitchen is a farce, if you have 5 people. Very very small, basic microwave, hobs and sink. Only one small frying pan (enough for two eggs) was supplied, nothing better was available on request.
Living Room.
The sofa was definitely in need of a good wash! Quite small compared to the bathroom.
Balcony.
The hotel is in a sort of pyramid design. This means that all rooms above you can look over to your balcony. We found that people would sweep their balconies straight onto ours. People even poured drinks onto the table, ruining what we had left on it. The balconies have plants, built into the walls. There was a huge ant army (150+) constantly moving on the balcony, living in the soil (4 floors up!). They managed to get into the bathroom, even though the doors were always shut. Cigarette butts (lots) were in the plant soil, which were obviously from the previous guests. That was disgusting.
Other
TV has only news for English channels, not that you will probably be watching any TV. The safe, which was already fitted in the room, had a charge of £2 per day; we stay in 4 star minimum all the time, this is the first time we had to pay for something that was already in the room.
5) PROBLEMS
Ok, we seemed to have a good share of problems. If you have none, then you are going to have a better holiday. First, we arrived to a flooded kitchen because the fridge was left open and the ice had melted. We were told to clean it with some towels that would be replaced the next day (4 star?).
We later had a leak from the sink in the kitchen! We waited 3 hours after reporting this as we were told someone would be "right there". Nobody came, so we placed the "do not disturb sign" on the door as we wanted to get ready to go out (not wanting someone to unlock the door whilst in the shower, not hearing them). When we left, we decided to talk to the reception to see what was happening, at which point they started to argue with us because we had the "do not disturb" sign on, and the repair chap came to fix. In the end they still had to get him back, and the argument was not required.
When we arrived back late at night, we found that the problem had been fixed, but they had left the floor covered with water and muddy footprints. We complained to both the hotel and the rep, it was 3-4 days before the cleaners actually cleaned it (we left it for them), even though they were in each day (note, there was no mop in the room).
The lifts are dangerous. There is no sensor when the doors are closing, and my girlfriend got her arm trapped, which was very sore. The lifts had no sensible programming, we found we would go UP even though we pressed a button to go down, and when it arrived at a floor, it would "forget" where it was to go next. You MUST press the buttons again. There was at least one lift broken EACH DAY.
The indoor courtyard area seemed to come to life around 10pm, where karaoke and music would seep up into your room until 2am. Kids were left to their own devices, we counted 12 playing outside at 1am, screaming, on one night. (Note there is a kids supervisor available between 9-10pm).
We had an aggressive guest (Spanish) verbally abuse my girlfriend in English, when she tried to take a sun-lounger padded mat from a communal pile. He wanted to keep them for himself. My girlfriend was extremely upset, and I asked the hotel to do something as the chap wasn’t going to apologise. They said there was nothing they could do (even though the gates to the hotel have security). We had to call the police in the end to get it taken care of. The hotel just wasn’t interested.
Scottish currency will get you less than English is you exchange at reception, even though' they are both Sterling, and both are the Queen’s money.
The hotel shop marks items up by at least 50%. Internet is ridiculous price.
This hotel was meant to be for "couples", whereas the partner hotel was for families. This hotel was packed with families. The pool was completely full at all times, finding a sun-lounger was a real task, no matter what time of day you appeared.
In conclusion, I could probably say that this hotel would be 4-star and a good choice, once all the building work was completed, and if it were cleaned every now and then, as well as improving the overall service. They certainly know how to take the hospitality out of hospitality service.
If you are used to low-3star hotels, then you will enjoy this. If you are used to 4 or 5 star, you will be sorely disappointed. We specifically booked this holiday because of the 4-star rating, we will not make the same mistake if we return to Costa del Sol.

I cannot understand how anyone can give this hotel a good review ! On the first evening that we arrived we could not even make a hot drink after our long journey as we had no kettle! We asked for one but the hotel staff were not interested!
The only plus point about this hotel is that the rooms were spacious and tastefully decorated.
We could not believe the location of this hotel, it was not far off the top of a mountain! However, the hotel kindly provided us with a bus to travel up and down this monstrosity. Although we did not realise that you had to pay for this privilege and it only ran for a limited time. On numerous occasions we had to wait in excess of 15 minutes just to ride on the bus we had paid for!
The supermarket on site had unbelievable prices on it's produce. Not only did you have to pay through the nose for most of the items, most of the time it was either out of date or had gone off!
The bar we could just not afford as we had 3 children, so we decided to take a carrier bag with pop crisps and alcohol bought from a supermarket in local town. At first we felt a bit awkward until we realised that most of the other guests also had carrier bags!
The pool itself was quite nice, however the pool bar service was appalling. One person was behind the bar most of the time and could not cope with drink and food orders easily. So we resorted in making our own toasties in our own kitchens and bringing them down to the poolside.
Each evening, we had to get a taxi to go out into Benalmadena which cost a minimum of 10 euros, we had to do this as there was no entertainment at the hotel apart from 2 nights of our 11 spent. When you are holidaying with your family, you expect some sort of entertainment each evening. The hotel management need to have a long hard look at how they run this hotel!
I have never been in a 4 star hotel where every facility apart from the outdoor pool had an extra cost!
If money is no object, and you are a bit dull and enjoy being bored, then this holiday is for you, otherwise, give it a very wide berth!! I have holidayed in many places around the world but this experience is one which I don’t wish to repeat!
ALCATRAZ!!!!!

First thing to say is that a rating of 1 out of 10 is too high for this place, but that is the lowest rating available, if it was possible to give a minus rating, I would do so.
Next, where is the overhead walkway with direct access from the hotel to the beach? It certainly was not there when we stayed.
"THE HILL", reading other reviews, I find it hard to believe that some of them were staying in the same place. 30 degree heat and a steep incline of about half a mile with no shade, are not a good combination. The "courtesy" mini bus, had to be paid for and only operated from 10 am to 6 pm, so we had to spend £300 on taxis during our 11 night stay.
The hotel address is Benalmadena, but it is about 6km from the centre and the marina and there are no eating places or bars within 30 minutes walk of the hotel.
On site facilities can be summed up in one word, abysmal. 9 euros for breakfast, when you can buy a full English breakfast in Benalmadena for half that. The on site supermarkets prices are nothing short of outrageous, many items are not priced, so you get a shock when you pay, basic items such as milk, sugar, bread, butter etc. are around twice the price of the supermarkets in town. The poolside bar offers next to no choice of menu.
Entertainment on site is virtually non existent, so unless you are prepared to walk a few km, a taxi is the only choice.
I think they should consider renaming the hotel, possibly ALCATRAZ would be more appropriate.
Finally, I would not recommend this hotel to anyone, even my worst enemy.

We booked this as a last minute deal (£164 per person) for a week self-catering. Our expectations weren’t particularly high given the price so we were delighted when we arrived to find we were in a four star hotel.
The hotel itself is large and very modern looking lots of marble, glass and chrome. With a gym, sauna, steam room and heated indoor pool (cost 5 euros for a morning or afternoon or 8 euros for a day) and a large external pool, which was free. Hotel residents could also use the facilities including the pools of the sister complex which was down the hill from the Sirenis Palace Hotel.
The appartments were very roomy with air conditioning (no extra charge) a separate kitchen complete with kettle, microwave, fridge and hob, bathroom with two hand basins, bath with overhead shower, bidet and separate shower and lots of fluffy white towels. Then there was the living/dining room with a huge table and chairs, huge built in wardrobe, sofa*****couch bed, TV and modern looking furniture. There was a separate bedroom with a second huge built in wardrobe, safe (for which there is a charge) and 2 3/4 sized beds together with modern looking furniture. There was a cleaning service provided in the price and the standard of cleanliness in the hotel was excellent.
Reception, shop and bar staff were very friendly and spoke good English we had two early morning wake up calls which went without a hitch and money can be changed in the hotel at a cheaper rate than I paid at a bank in Fengeroli. The shop was a bit more expensive than the supermarkets it was about 50 cents more for a litre of milk there than at the large supermarket in Benalmadena. There is also a cash dispenser on site which money can be obtained from.
In terms of location the hotel whilst being Benalmadena was about five minutes from the border with Fengeroli apart from the facilities offered in the complex and that of the sister complex Holiday Village it was fairly quite however there were half hourly buses to either Benalmadena or Torremolenous on one side of the Road or to Fengeroli on the other side of the road. The buses ran approx every half hour up to about 11.00 p.m so nowhere was very far away. Taxis were also available. It cost 9 euros about £6.30 to get from the hotel to the Torrequebrada golf course.
The Sirenis Holiday Palace has breathtaking views of the sea, however it is up a hill, which is fine for walking down, but can be a bit of a pain walking up. The first time was a bit daunting but towards the end of the holiday we had gotten used to it. Having being to Crete a few times I’ve faced far worse hills and in no way could it be described as a mountain. I understand that the hotel do provide a mini bus service and there are plenty of taxis waiting at the bottom of the hill which charge 4 euros £2.80 to drive you up the hill.
We found plenty of things to do, including a guided tour of the caves and the opportunity to see the Gibraltar Apes, boat trips, a visit to the fantastic harbour at Benalmadena and to the crocodile park at Torremolinos, a trip to Fengeroli which also has a zoo which we didn’t manage to fit in, a huge Saturday market at Benalmadena which had lots of hand made clothing, jewellery, leather shoes, purses, etc and a trip to the park at Benalmadena which has free roaming peacocks, rabbits, etc.
We went for a week but could easily have found enough to keep us occupied for a fortnight. Things that we didn’t get round to doing was visiting the Theme Park, visiting Marbella and visiting the North Coast of Africa.
I would definitely go back to Benalmadena and to the Sirenis Holiday Palace and on that basis would recommend it to others.

We booked last minute to go to the Holiday Palace, and did a bit of research so we knew the hotel was only just open, and in an area surrounded by nothing much (having looked on the internet beforehand) AND that it was up a steep hill, but were still pleasantly surprised when we arrived.
Having been driven through Torremelinos (which looks very run-down, and the traffic congestion was a nightmare) we breathed a sigh of relief when we found out we were some way away from all the other hotels – obviously this won’t suit everyone though. I’m sure a lot of people would have preferred to be in the heart of all the action. The Holiday Palace looks very attractive from outside, and inside the reception area is very open and airy, with lots of greenery and comfy seating areas. It IS on top of a steep hill, I won’t lie, but I felt a bit better knowing I was walking off some of the extra calories I’d consumed twice a day……At the bottom of the hill is the ‘sister’ hotel (the Holiday Village) and the Beach Club. Having looked at all the Sirenis publicity in the beach club it looks like eventually the whole site will consist of 9 hotels plus a golf course, and be called ‘Holiday World’
On the ground floor of the Holiday Palace there is a supermarket – a bit pricey but OK for essentials if all you will want to eat in your apartment is breakfast and a snack lunch. There is also a small amusement arcade, an internet café and a restaurant – but not all the facilities are open all the time – this may change I guess when it has been in full swing for a while. The lifts are glass sided and give a good view of the place as you glide up and down. The lifts are the basis of one of our moans – although nothing to do with the hotel. There was a group of kids who played in the lifts constantly throughout the whole holiday, and succeeded in jamming most of them at some time. One even thought it was funny to ride up and down in the lift with his fingers stuck between the doors to see if he could touch the inside of the lift shaft. There were notices inside and outside the lifts informing guests that children under 12 should not ride in them alone, but they were largely ignored. If any parent reads this before they go – please keep an eye on your kids on holiday – it can’t be long before a really nasty accident happens…anyway, to continue!
The apartment was luxurious, with very good facilities – a separate kitchen (unusual for self catering, more often than not there kitchen facilities are in the main room) decent sized dining table and chairs (although they do scrape a bit on the marble flooring) a good size sofa bed and a large bedroom with 2 queen sized beds. Also there was a TV with a couple of English channels – enough to watch some of the Olympics and the English weather forecasts to have a good giggle. It was plenty big enough for us – 2 adults and a small 6 year old. Our kitchen DID have a kettle, a toaster and a microwave, although I know that some did not – I heard the guests complaining. Very good air-conditioning as well. The balcony was VAST and came complete with a table and 5 chairs, so we had breakfast out there some days in the cool of the mornings. All in all we didn’t spend that much time in the apartment, but it was nice to come in at night after walking up the hill and getting all hot and bothered and know that you can sleep in a really cool room.
On to the pool – it’s not a bad size, although I did notice that some of the tiles are coming off already, which isn’t a good sign. The pool parasols had a hard time standing up to the wind – it was very windy some days however – but there are also fixed umbrellas, which had no problems standing up to the stiff breeze as far as I could see. The pool loungers come with big soft cushions – much better than having to lie on a rock hard plastic bed. The pool bar is slow for service though, so take your own drinks to the pool….or prepare for a wait. The staff are almost going as fast as they can – it’s just that not enough of them have been employed! The pool is relatively quiet and we didn’t have to fight for a sunbed. The lifeguards were always watching and no inflatables were allowed in the pool (thankfully)
If you don’t want to sit by the Hotel pool, you can use the Beach Club facilities. The Beach Club is a purpose built water park that guests from the Holiday Palace and the Holiday Village have use of. We absolutely loved it. My 6-year-old thought she was in heaven! There are 5 or 6 pools of varying depth, and the whole area is themed. The water fountains are life-sized elephants that spray water from their trunks, and there is a real pirate ship to explore! Even the showers by the kids’ shallow pool are baby elephants. The food in the Beach Club is pretty standard stuff (chips, chips and more chips) and again, the service a little slow. I think Sirenis have been a bit negligent in anticipating the numbers of people who are going to be using the facilities in all the hotels. I hope they have more staff next year when it’s full….
I know there were quite a lot of complaints from guests about building works – we saw some lorries up and down the hill beside the hotel for 2 days at the beginning of the holiday then nothing else. True, the hotel surroundings were not as picturesque as they WILL be when it’s finished but nothing you couldn’t put up with. Having stayed in Cyprus many times, where most places look unfinished even when they are, we didn’t find it unacceptable.
Getting out and about in the evening can be tricky, and the best thing we found was to walk down to the main road (not too bad going downhill!) and just wait for a bus. The bus stops to Benalmadena and Fuengirola are directly opposite each other on the main road outside the Beach Club – so we just stood around there and waited until the first bus came along, and went wherever it was going! Bus fare is 95 cents wherever you go (about 65p). If you go to Fuengirola it’s best to get off at the bus station, which is pretty central. When you’re going home it’s also best to get the bus back from there. You buy your tickets at the ticket window and get straight ion the bus. Also if you get on at the bus station you get a seat, which is unlikely if you get on anywhere else along the route! We didn’t succeed in getting a bus home from Benalmadena so got a cab instead – about 10 euros (£7.50)
We only ate once in the Hotel restaurant – and the food was, um, interesting! I wouldn’t recommend it yet, I don’t think they have quite got the hang of putting together meals; the ice cream desserts were yummy though. You can eat down at the Holiday Village – they have a Mexican, an Italian and a buffet style restaurant for their all-inclusive guests. Self-catering guests can use this facility – you just have to pay at reception in the Holiday Village (18 euros per adult, 40% off for kids) and go stuff your face. You’ll need to walk up the hill and back again twice afterwards to work off the extra food!
If you’re in reasonable enough health to walk up the hill (not really such a big deal, my asthmatic husband and 6 year old managed it easily enough) and don’t want to be stuck right in the middle of all the action, give the Holiday Palace a go. We thoroughly enjoyed our 2 weeks and would go back – but I don’t think we’d enjoy it quite as much when it’s full! I’m sure that any complaints you may have read about on other review sites are only teething troubles, and they certainly didn’t affect our enjoyment of our holiday.