Hotel & Spa Benalmadena Palace

I have just returned after a weekend break from the Benalmadena palace with 4 friends we are all in our fifties before we went I read other guests comments and wondered if we had made the right choice, especially comments about the steep hill, well what a surprise we had when we arrived, yes it was a steep hill but not as bad as we thought but the hotel more than made up for that.
On our arrival there was fresh fruit in our rooms bottled water and the rooms were spotless and very well equipped with everything you needed. The staff were wonderful, and the meals were first class, also the entertainment in the evening was a lot more than we expected.
We were in walking distance to the lovely marina and shops, I will be going back to the Benalmadena palace but next time ill go for two weeks as there is so much to see and do. Mrs S Swambo.

We weren't sure what to expect when we booked this holiday as we haven't been to Spain before.
The flight was good & relaxing & the transfer was short.
We got a bit of a shock when we arrived & saw the hill leading to the hotel, the coach had to reverse up as there wasn't anywhere for him to turn at the top.
The hill is very steep, we were worried as we took my parents with us that are in there 70's & my father has had a heart attack previously, I wasn't sure how we would manage but it wasn't a problem for him & he was fine. It is steep & I wouldn't like to think someone in a wheel chair would try & get up it. Like what has been mentioned in previous previews, if you go up the main part of the hill to the hotel car park you can use your room key card to get in to the car park & walk right through to the lifts & you’re in the main part of the hotel, the indoor swimming pool is on this floor.
The worse part of the hill is past the car park which is extremely steep but you should be able to avoid it.
The reception area is lovely & clean & bright, plenty of places to sit & it has a veranda area to sit out on.
The staff are pleasant & helpful speak good English.
There is also a little shop on this floor which sells basic things you might need.
8 of us went in total, we had a 2 bedroom apartment & my parents had a one bedroom studio.
The 2 bed roomed was lovely & spacious, twin beds in each room with mirrored sliding wardrobe doors & a set of draws. In the sitting area a sofa opens out in to 2 single beds which are quite comfortable. There is a good size TV with BBC's 1 & 2 & ITV2 plus news channels. The kitchen area is tidy but basic, a 2 ring hob, fridge & microwave, we didn't use the microwave as it wasn't very clean but the rest of the apartment was. We only had 2 pans though to cook with & if you intend to cook your own meals I would recommend you take a tin opener & tea towel.
Please remember if you go out to leave a key card in the electric slot as you will need it to keep the fridge cold, the reception will give you as many key cards as you want.
The rooms were cleaned about twice a week with fresh towels left & the beds were made every other day & changed once in the second week. We found we needed to get bin bags as the bin in the room is tiny & so are the bags they put in, we filled it very quickly. You can ask reception to get someone to collect your rubbish but we took ours down to the car park where we found skips to put the rubbish in.
There were 2 bathrooms in our apartment, one had a bath with over head shower, toilet & bidet. Also it had a hair dryer & toothbrushes, shower caps & toothpaste in little packets for guests to use.
The second bathroom had a low shower with chair, ideal for the disabled.
My parents were on the 7th floor in a one bed roomed studio, this had the kitchenette like ours but a much smaller living area. The bedroom was small with a very sloping roof which they found a bit annoying. There balcony also faced the sea but they couldn't really look out as it was a high wall which was a shame.
On the second floor there is a bar & disco room which has entertainment every night. 9pm is children’s disco followed at 10pm by different acts.
There is also a cinema room on that floor with a film for the grown ups at 3pm & a children’s film on at 10pm which we thought was strange but realised the kids were shoved in there while there parents went in the bar, this was our only complaint as we were on the floor above right next to the steps leading from that floor, the kids were running riot till well after midnight.
On the ground floor you will find the restaurant & the snack bar leading out to the out door pool. We found the restaurant food was just ok, a bit boring & bland. The breakfast was €8.50 each & the evening meal without drinks €11.99 each, both are self service.
The snack bar serves food till 7pm & you can order what you want from the menu but we found it a bit expensive.
On the basement floor is the car park on the right & indoor pool, gym, sauna, massage & Jacuzzi on the left. If you go out by the indoor pool there is a path leading down to the Burger King & a large Netto type supermarket, this path is easier to walk up from the road than going up the front of the hotel.
When we booked the hotel we thought we would be near the Marina but it was a long walk away around 4 miles I would say.
The hotel is out of the way a bit & there isn't anything right on the door step. The beach is over a busy road but it is very coarse sand & can be painful on bare feet with a lot of pebbles, the best part is near the marina where it is proper sand.
When you get to the bottom of the road from the hotel turn left & after a good walk you will reach the start of the shops & bars, there is a local English mini supermarket & then further down a super sol supermarket which sells a lot of what you would need for meals including cooked chicken which we enjoyed. Further on & you start to come to more shops, bars & cafes.
We spent most of our time eating at the Penny Farthing as the food was great & a great price too. A full mega breakfast for €5.50 which would set you up till tea time & then the evening meals were beautiful & home made, I would recommend anyone try it.
There is also a park if you turn up at the big roundabout. Its got lots of chickens, ducks, peacocks & rabbits which if you take bread or biscuits they will come & eat out of your hand.
Further up the top of the park you will find the Dolphin park, this is €15 per adult & half for kids. You get to watch the dolphin show which lasts about 15 mins & then you can see the sea lions, penguins & parrots.
I think if we go again we will only book 1 week as we found it hard to find things to do in the second week.

After stepping off the plane once we had been sitting in the 'door' seats, we were definitely in the holiday mood. Once we had arrived, the check-in was smooth, the hotel was clean and are apartment was very big. The staff were pleasant and all spoke very good English.
The holiday itself was perfect. A week was just enough too for everything that we wanted to do and the weather was exactly how we wanted it to be.
The coast is lovely with views to the Med which were spectacular. We ate out at three different restaurants at night and they were absolutely superb with English speaking staff and very varied menus. The views looking over the harbour and the expensive boats were fabulous.
All in all, the holiday was brilliant and exceeded all expectations and was well worth the money.

Returned yesterday from the Benalmadena Palace after possibly the worst holiday I have been on, although perhaps suprisingly travelling in a group full of my in-laws was not the problem.
Upon arrival our room had not been made, we had no linen, no towels and no blankets. The children had to sleep on the sofa*****camp beds which made little sense as the television is also in the living room. Parents looking after young children had better take some books to read! The following day we found out that despite having two showers on one of them the shower head in the bath was broken and the shower cubicle sheet was not long enough for the shower hence the water went all over the floor. Despite reassurances from reception that they would look at it immediately my wife and I were still on our hands and knees 3 days later in 2 inches of water in the living room.
The clientele at this hotel over the half term were lower class at best, full of Irish gippos and teenage chavs who found it hilarious to smash glasses in the kids games room and get scare young children out of the jacuzzi en mass. Although there is a lifeguard there, Dale Winton has more balls than him re sorting the trouble makers out.
The pools and surrounds although nice and clean are cleaned with a jet power washer very early circa 7.00am and very loudly outside the poolside verandas. If anyone fancies trying the theory of cryogenics, try the outside swimming pool, my 5 year old went in once and refused to go in for the rest of the holiday.
I have seen other reviews commenting on the food, well if you like potatoes cooked and swimming in butter, ham floating on cooking fat then this is the place for you. We also watched the same contents of slow spinning cold areas were left for days if nobody picked them up.
This hotel is 4 stars for the facilities they have, I am sure there is a points system for hotels to calculate what star level they should be. But this is a poorly run hotel, with no customer service, poor food, and I haven't started on the entertainment, truely awful.
I told Nicola, our rep, that this hotel is the pits and we would be complaining about the standard levels at this hotel on our return, and we were not the only ones planning to do so.

Very good Hotel. Bedroom accommodation; good beds. could have done with some drawers/shelves for clothing.
Kitchen facilities; needed a few more utensils- got them when we asked.
Dining Room; evening meal, breakfast and snack bar; good choices of food and plenty of it.
Pools good.
Very helpful Staff at Reception and room service.
Holiday Reps Richard and Nicola attentive and pleasant.

Excellent hotel / apts. Highly impressed with the facilities i.e. indoor heated pool, outdoor pool, plentiful loungers, snack bar, disc bar, gym, massage and beauty treatments and lots more. Even more impressed by the staff, nothing was too much bother with even the simplest request attended to right away. It is on a quite daunting hill but most time we took a taxi back so it was not a major factor.
One major problem to highlight DO NOT CHANGE MONEY AT CHANGE PLUS S L, DARSENA LEVANTE, PUERTO MARINA, BENALMADENA COSTA. I handed over 3 x £100 Sterling travellers cheques, agreed the rate of 141 EUROS per £100 and was handed 344 EUROS - which I rejected. It was impossible to fight your case as the operative suddenly lost his understanding of English. I called +34 902 102 112 and reported the matter to the police. I then had to go to LAS FLORES 5, POLICIA NACIONAL and quote the reference number previously given. This proved a waste of a taxi fare as none of the Spanish police spoke English either.
Through broken English I established that it could take up to 10 days to get back to me and as I was only there for one week I had no option but to return to change plus and accept the 344 Euros as i could not afford to leave £300 in dispute. I witnessed a similar confrontation in Torremolinas so be on your guard. I changed the rest of my TC's in the hotel at 139 Euros per £100 which is a far cry from the 20% commission paid to a licensed bandit at Change Plus.

The hill is *STEEP* we took our 22 month old daughter and trying to push her in her pram up that hill was awful and when going out you get to the bottom you turn left only to find that there is yet another long walk for something to eat, and whilst walking the Spanish men stare at anything in a skirt. We ate in McDonalds once and a local was just staring at me and my daughter while we ate which was quite off putting to say the least.
The marina is a good uphill 45 minute walk away. The beach does get better the further up you walk though. We did find a lovely park where the rabbits let you pet them and the fish come to the surface to eat bread. There are ostrich’s, rabbits, fish, chickens, goats which was lovely. The park is located left when you get to windmill roundabout. Back to the hotel - our towels were changed once in the week we were there, our room was mopped once (not cleaned). Overall the hotel was lovely especially the Jacuzzi but we can now understand why it was so cheap - THE HILL. We wouldn’t go back just because of the hill. There are steps which lead down to the indoor pool which should have a gate to it as the steps are steep and my daughter found them very enticing when she noticed them.
The children’s entertainment is very good but we were told that as our daughter was under four she couldn’t join in with the dancing. I told them she was a great dancer and how do you tell a 2 year old they are not allowed to dance with the other kids but just got a blank look. The pools are clean. The launderette pricey as is the mini supermarket in reception. Overall not bad but as I say everything involved hills and walking and Costa del Sol isn’t the cheapest of places.

This hotel although only completed last year was listed in the brochure as being built on a slight incline, more like the mountains of Austria. The hill to the hotel was far too steep, not very good for young or old. You could take the lift to the car park then you only had half a hill to climb.
The hotel was listed as 4 star, NO WAY !!!.perhaps half a star for trying. Staff were OK, but the standard of cleaning was pathetic. Have a look under the beds, under the seats in the foyer, they tell another story. This hotel came complete with your very own OPEN dirty water drain from the adjoining development of new built villas. The open drain is right next to the archery board and also the enclosed football pitch. Just 20 yards away was the outdoor sunbed area next to the indoor pool.YUK,YUK,YUK.( by the way a dirty water drain is your toilet waste )
Towels were only changed twice a week as was the cleaning of apartments. The bars had happy hours. I have never ever seen so many children being given alcoholic drinks by their PARENTS at the happy hours. It was just plain idiotic silly.
My wife and I shant be going back to this hotel.
GD Elder

Just got back from Spain on Friday 19th August and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the palace.
The rooms were very clean and the maids did a brilliant job. All the furnishings in the rooms were almost brilliant, bar a dodgy ironing board.
The pool areas were brilliant, very clean and well looked after. I usually get ear infections off dirty pools but I didn’t get one whilst here. The snack bar staff are polite and speak good English. Service is good and the food is nice. We went half board for 4 days and nights and I have to say the food was delicious. The games room is excellent for children were the costs are between 1 Euro and 2. The cinema room is cosy with a wide variety of films like Robin Hood, Shrek, Shrek 2, Finding Nemo etc.
There are 2 payphones in the main reception and also Internet access with 3 computers which you need to pay for depending on the time spent there. There is a shop if you need any milk, water juice etc. as well as souvenirs and newspapers and magazines.
People over exaggerate the 'STEEP' hill, which is steep but walking up doesn’t take 2 minutes. If people have children or elderly people there is a car park which you use your room key to get in.
Down the hill are many bars restaurants and shops which offer a good variety of things. The beach is just about 5 minutes away and to get to the marina it takes about 30 minutes walking along the promenade which is lovely lit up on a night.
Day and night trips out with the tour operator are very good. We went to Marbella at Puerto Banus on a Thursday night which is a great opportunity to see how the other side live. The cars, yachts and shops are brilliant. The clothes shops are well priced considering we are at Marbella. You might even spot a famous face like Cilla Black or Westlife.
Overall we have enjoyed the holiday. However the only thing that has made the rating drop is that on a night you can hear a bit noise coming through the doors. We were on quite a busy corridor so we accept there would be some noise but not this much.
Thankyou for reading this and I would definitely recommend this to you.

We have just returned from the Benalmadena Palace and were, on the whole, very happy with it. The hotel was clean, the room was cleaned every other day and the towels changed every day.
There was entertainment on every night with a disco for younger children, there was bingo every Tuesday and Thursday but it worked out expensive 2E per game when the prizes were only chocs, flip flops or a bottle of wine, cash prizes would have been better. There could have been more things for teenagers to do as after midnight when the games room closed they all congregated around the reception and computer areas.
Unlike other hotels we have been to we found it very quiet during the night and had no trouble sleeping which was a bonus. There was an indoor and outdoor pool, both quite large but deep for younger children, lilos weren’t allowed in the pools but inflatable rings were.
Although we were told by the reps not to reserve beds by the pool we found ourselves doings so because after 9.30am every bed was covered with a towel so you had no chance of a bed unless you did the same yourself.
What can we say about the hill? Well it was quite steep, but once you got onto the beachfront where all the main bars and restaurants were it was flat so you soon forgot about the hill.
If you are soon going there yourselves please feed the hungry kittens that live on the spare ground in front of reception.