Although rated 4* this I believe was generous as I would have rated it a reasonable 3*, and is very typical of the other hotels in the Servi Group.
The Castilla is clean and tidy and the staff are friendly. The hotel has predominately British clientele of the older age group so we found it all very friendly. At the time we were there a 2 for 1 offer on all drinks throughout the day, which made the evenings quite pleasant as there was an atmosphere in a hotel for once.
The restaurant is smallish, but we always found an empty table to use. The food, although I found it ok and typical of Servi Group was a source of complaint by some of the older guests who have been using this hotel for years. By no means the best food I have had in a hotel but I didn't think it warrented criticism.
The hotel bedrooms were box standard, also typical of Servi Group, clean and very ordinary with an average sized balcony. One plus point was the fridge in the room, very handy for those drinks on the balcony.
The pool area was very nice and laid out well with plenty of sun beds, chairs and tables.
Evening entertainment was ordinary, with four visiting acts during the time we were there. Plus music to dance to two nights from the regular keyboard player, as there was more in due to the cheap drinks it was all very nice and chatty.
Although I believe this hotel is very average & ordinary I would no problems going back there.
One thing I would point out is that there is a very large construction project straight over the road on what used to be the kiddies football pitches. Works starts at 8am until 1pm and again 3pm until at 8pm at the earliest and during working hours the noise is quite intense.
Nothing to do with the hotel, but any one staying around this area should try to avoid using the Yellow Brick Road as this appears to be the hot spot for crime and muggings. From our balcony during daylight hours we observed an elderly lady being followed by to youg girls and as she stopped to look at the boards outside of the Duke of York pub they started to dip into her bag. It was only because of our shouted warning that the lady turned around and one of the girls had to sharply revove her hands. I am not sure that to this day the old lady was aware of what was going on

The food was great. There was plenty of choice. For breakfast you could have a full English breakfast, cereals, yoghurts, fresh fruit etc. There was also a chef that cooked fresh omelettes with fillings of your choice. The only problem was he was rarely there. You had to wait for him to come out of the kitchen before you could order one. Breakfast was served between 8.30 - 10.00.

Evening meals again had a fair amount of chcoice. Usually there was two types of fish and two types of meat as well as salad, chips, vegetables etc. Also a wide choice of desserts. This was served between 19.30 - 22.00. We were told by another guest that evening meals were served earlier but that due to the Spanish complaining, the time had been changed to a later time. Personally this was too late for us to eat.

The hotel was lovely and clean. The beds were made every day and the cleanliness coculd not be faulted.

The location was ideal for the night life as it was a couple of minutes walk. The beach was about a 10 minute walk. The brochure said 500 metres to the beach but it was definitely further than that.

The staff were excellent. All staff in the restaurant were very friendly.

As for the entertainment we looked in the room on about 3 occasions and the room was dead. The entertainment seemed to be a chappie playing the organ and singing. Not our cup of tea.

Just returned from a hen weekend at the Castilla.

It didn't seem like this hotel was not the normal place that you get a group of girls staying in, but this didn't cause a problem. We respected the fact that others in the hotel needed their sleep so we came in when they were getting up for breakfast!!!

The hotel is beautifully decorated, clean and tidy. The staff are all really friendly and helpful.

We only made breakfast and dinner once while we were there but the food was lovely.

We had 3 beds in each room and there was still plenty of room to walk about.

I would definitely stay in this hotel again (maybe not with a group of girls) and would recommend it to others.

I stayed in the Hotel Castilla, Benidorm with my partner in a twin room.

We were half board & so had breakfast & tea included. Some poeple were complaining that the time of the evening meal was too late (7pm) and so the hotel allowed them to swap to breakfast and lunch.

The food chice was good,all meals were buffet style. Breakfast consisted of a cooked breakfast if you wanted (english sausages but spanish bacon), pastries, freash fruit, cereal, pancakes that were cooked infront of you. Basically there was loads of choice.

Tea had a good choice aswell. There were various differ3ent themes, indian night, chineese, mexican but there was also various other things aswell.
the choice of deserts was fantastic also. Also at dinner there were freashly baked baguettes which were still warm.

The rooms were big with a fridge & saftey deposit box that you had to hire from reception. The keys for the room are card keys which i thort was good as if you lost it it could be instantly reset and so the old key would not work (the same went for the safe)it was nice to have that added piece of mind. Also we could have2 copies of the key, which was good as some hotels i have stayed in in the past have only allowed 1 which is a pain when someone goes out.

The daytime entertainment was really good, we stayed around the pool and joined in a few times while we were there. It was ran by Raul a spanish guy (totaly crazy but in a good way) and Mel the Thomson rep. There were various activities such as pool compertitions, darts, bowing and lots of people joined in and so you got to know lots of people staying there by the end of the week & everyone was very friendly and chatty.

The night time entertainment was either really good or really bad. We watched 4 shows before going out 2 were fantastic and the other two were awful.

The hotel staff were fab. The Reception staff and the thomson rep were always really friendly & helpful. Also Paulo the bar man was very friendly. All the staff other than the dining room staff spoke a very high standard of english.

The hotel was located just off the main strip but far enough away to not get bothered by the noise.

We would definatley visit this hotel. The hotel was brilliantly clean & the staff made a good holiday fantastic.

We stayed in the Castila Hotel for one week, we were surprised when checking in that we had been given full board but only paid for half board.

The hotel was we went as 2 couples ages from 43 to 51 the hotel was very clean, the food was very good, although only made it to breakfast once there was full English, the location was good not noisy at all our room had a side sea view hairdryer and fridge.

It was about ten minute walk to the town centre, the staff were friendly, don't know about entertainment as went out every night, as for the TV there was a UK gold channel that had films on and comedies so it wasn't just news and sport channels they advertise what films are on every day inside the lift and the times that they were on.

The pool was very clean and you could always get a sunbed we weren't going down to the pool until around 11 or 12 every day and never had a problem with getting sunbeds, there was a lot of older people in this hotel but no children.

It is said that the older we get the less sleep we need. In the Hotel Castilla many people were up and about very early in the morning, and the walls are very thin. You could here them moving about ,moving the furniture, flushing the lavatory, having a shower, and this is one of several reasons why I think the Hotel only deserves a three star award.

Let

The Castilla Hotel is situated in a very queit part of the 'new town' of Benidorm but within easy walking distance of an abundance of shops, bars, restaurants and Nightclubs.

If you are familiar with the Rio Park Hotel and its location, well the Castilla is directly next door.
The Hotel, built in 1962, was renovated and refurbished in 2002 in which an eleventh floor was added and an atttractive rockfall water feature added to the main entrance. This is a trade mark of the ServiGroup of Hotels of which the Hotel Castila is part of, being a Four Star hotel with 135 rooms.

The Castilla Hotel is spotlessly clean and well kept. There is a very attractive entrance and reception area and all the rooms are extrememely spacious. If the Single rooms (very limited so if you are a single traveller you need to book early) are huge. There are only two lifts, but these are adequate for the size of the Hotel. Be advised though that only the left hand lift travels down to the basement restuarant and sauna/gymnasium.

The bar evening is bright and attractive. However, evening entertainment is limited to the odd 30 minute 'caberet act', most of which I saw were pretty amateurish, and aimed at the more senior Client. Not much in the way of entertainment for children or teenagers, but there are plenty of clubs etc within easy reach so this should not be a problem.

Meals are all self service, and although very good, the variety is somewhat limted and a lot of the dishes are repeated or rehashed into something else the follwing day. Far too much fish as always!! There are no Wine Waiters, but the Dining Room maids 'double' as waiters and will serve you your drinks (you pay extra for these at midday and evening meals, but morning tea coffee, milk, water, juices and champagne, yes champagne are free at breakfast time). All the staff from the Manageress to the Maintenance men are all very friendly and extremely helpful.

Check-in is fast and smooth. Hotel Rooms are secured by the use of a coded card swipe system, and you need to use this card to insert into the slot inside your room in order for the electricity to stay on. However, if you take an old credit card or loyality card this does the trick and you can then leave the lights on in your room at night for security purposes, or your air conditioning on during the day. (Remember to take it out until after the maid has cleaned your room though!).There is a small fridge in each room, which is adequate to keep bottled water and drinks cool, but not cold as the fridge is to be found in a cupboard under the television which allows for no air circulation, so this cupboard does get very warm. This means you can use the shelf inside as an airing cupboard for your 'smalls'!!.

There is a Hair Dryer in the bathroom, and also a bidet. Balconies are very private and extremely spacious, but they have glass panels along the front, which although this means you have unobstructed views from your balcony, you do need to excercise caution and keep an eye on your children, never allow them out on the balcony on their own. There are small gaps between the glass panels and the walls in which small arms and hands could become trapped. So please bare this in mind if you have little ones.

There is a safety deposit box (small addtional charge) inside the same cupboard as the fridge.

The Pool area is very private and attractive but please note there is no pool bar or bar service. The pool is not heated, but there is a small section for children and a very small kiddies play area. Beautiful, relaxing 'Piped' music is played EVERYWHERE in the Hotel, except inside the lifts and your rooms.

This Hotel is EXCLUSIVE to Thomsons and no other Tour Operator makes use of it, but Spanish Tourists do stay here.

There is a small separate Bar called 'The Piano bar', but do not expect to find someone playing jazz at a grand piano here, its only a name for what is in effect a public television room. Its small and VERY stuffy, although the seating is quite comfy.

First time we have stayed at this hotel and the location was great for the night life which was a good thing due to very little at the hotel.

The food was very good.The pool was small and with all the lilos and kids playing ball in the pool makes it hard to swim the pool opens at 9am with all the sun beds gone in 5 minutes what annoyed us was people putting the towels on the beds and coming back around 2pm.

This was our second visit to this hotel -

We are booking to visit this hotel again in January 2006.

A warning - there are currently seventeen large hotels closed due to refurbishment - A large drop in English tourists was observed. Understand that most of the closed hotels will reopen at Easter

The rooms in this hotel were very spacious and very clean the beds and towels wer changed every other day. The buffet style food suited everyone including my parky eater son who enjoyed it.

The hotel is located not far from the main pubs and about a 5 minute walk to the beach. The staff we all very friendly and polite. The entertainment was okay they had a good puppet show on for the kids/

I would definatley visit this hotel again and I would recommened it to anyone.