This is an excellent hotel, very clean with good ammenities. Would definately recommend the All Inclusive.

Food is plentiful with a good choice and the Al a Carte restaurants are OK if not brilliant. Facilities in the Hotel and at the beach club are very good. Drinks are now free to AI guests at the beach club so would recommend you use it as it does not get so busy over there in the day.

Location is lacking (there's no beach) but a bus stop is on the door step. Bus to neighbouring resorts is just 1 Euro but the buses are often full! (taxi's also avialiable around 10-15 Euros).

The kids clubs are well organised, safe and run by qualified British staff. Other hotel staff are well presented, polite and hard working but they could do with a few more behind the bars.

Entertainment was OK - local duet tend to play the same songs each night so when professionals are brought in it is a pleasant relief!

Would return but would probably try a similar resort in a new location.

We arrived at this hotel on 8th May 2005 and were very surprised at the layout. It was the best hotel we have ever seen. Our little boy who is 3 1/2 thought the yacht and inside water fountains a delight. When we arrived at the reception desk we were deal with in courtesly and quickly. We were on the first floor and that there were lots of lifts which was ideal for the grandparents. On arriving to our rooms (next to each other) we were amazed at the size of it all. There was a fully fitted kitchen, large bathroom with two sinks, huge mirror, two shoers and a full size bath not forgetting the toilet and bede (or as our child thought another little sink just for him). the bedroom was fantastic with 2 large beds next to each other (so no pushing them together) large wardrobe and a dressing table. There was also a door onto the balcony in this room. In the living area there was another large wardrobe (fitted) a large sofa bed which was very comfortable, draws, and a television for which you paid a small deposit at reception to get the remote and another door to access the balcany.

Our rooms over looked the large pool the sea. I was very surprised that we never heard any noise being over the pool, it was very quiet. The rooms seemed to be sound proof.

The restaurant was okay. I expected the food to be a little better for a 4* hotel but there was plenty of choice. Best meal had to be breakfast. They made the best scrambled eggs. The desserts are out of this world. Must try the blamange. They had a couple of theme nights in the restaurant but again nothing exiting. We found that the Sangria in the restaurant was much nicer than what you got in the bar. The staff were not very cooperative in the restaurant but it was busy so that would explain why they looked fed up.

The entertainment on a night time was poor, the same two singers most of the time who sounded more like backstreet karakoe singers. The First Choice reps were very good at entertaining the children. There was more than enough for the kids to do everyday. Only wish mine was older so that he could have went off to do more.

The pools were very clean and the poolside snack bar was excellent. Lifeguards around pool all day which was great. Only problem was coming out of pool as tiles were very slippy around edge. Watch footing. There is a childrens climbing activity at other end of pool for children who are bored.

The Beach Club was very good. A short walk over bridge and your there. Pools were excellent with huge statues of elephants pouring water into pools. Very picturesque. The pirate ship is a must for cildren who like these things but would advise that they had freezing cold water pouring onto ship and down slide. Husband ended up with cold for the duration of the holiday after using this. But still worth going to see. If you venture further up the Beach Club there is an excellent playground for children but don't let little ones run around free up there as one child fell off climbing frame and ended up in hospital so supervision needed around this part. Elsewhere children could run around freely as there was a huge fence all the way around the hotel ensuring that no uninvited guests could get in. There is also a guard at main entrance checking everyone, including cars to make sure that they are actually guests at the Hotel.

The only downside to this hotel would have to be the Piano Bar. There is no queing system in place therefore expect to wait anything from 10 mins to 30 mins at night.

All in all a most enjoyable holiday and would definitly return.

Checked in about 12.00 ish, but as we had been warned before, are rooms werent ready but you do get your A1 wristbands so we could go and have a drink and something to eat.

The rooms are very nice. The bedroom is very big, 2 large queensize beds pushed together and the bathroom is massive, 2 showers a bath and 2 sinks, toilet, bday etc, and enough towels for a football team.
Kitchen is ok but we never used it apart from storing empty suitcases and making a coffee in the morning.
The living area is not as big as I expected. The third bed is a sofa and the fourth bed you have to pull out from underneath it and drag to wherever you want. We did what other people had done and had to put the coffee table and other items out onto the balcony to make room for it. How people with 3 kids managed to fit a camp bed in there as well I have no idea.
The balcony is massive, we were on the 5th floor overlooking the crazy golf course and had lovely views of the mountains and down into benalmedena.

The Pool Area and Beachclub.

The pool area is very nice with plenty of sun beds, but you need to be down quite early to get a sunbed with an umbrella as these are hard to find after 8.30 am. The most annoying thing was that people were getting the best sunbeds early in a morning then not turning up until dinnertime.
The pool is shallow at both ends and dips in the middle and is about 5 feet deep. A lot of children got cut feet from loose tiles including my 2. I would recommend getting watershoes to be on the safeside.
The lifeguards are strict on inflatables, anything bigger than a beachball and they will tell you to take it out of the water, this doesnt apply to the kids pool or the beachclub.
The beachclub is very nice but very busy. Unless you are there very early you have no chance of a sunbed as there arent many.
To answer everyone you can get A1 at the beachclub, but only drinks, food you have to pay for. But be careful only 2 bars do it, the others you have to pay in. The A1 bar is behind the waterfall near the pirate ship the other is right at the top somewhere.
This was done because no one was using the beachclub. We only found out about A1 because another guest told us, they dont tell you in the Hotel.

Entertainment.

Entertainment was very good, if you like that sort of thing. My kids loved it, especially Jason, Katie, Gemma, Vinnie and steph. They work so hard doing activities during the day, then the shows at night time. It was 15 euro for the songs cd which my daughter loves. I ( karen )have finally learnt to do the actions to the Court of king caracticus, so i no longer look like a loony waiving my arms about!! My 12 year old loved the computer room, 1 euro for 10 minutes, he tried wavelength but prefered not to go. My 9 year old did the day time activities, ranging from crazy golf, to shuffle board, her winning certificates are her pride and joy!

Overall we had a great holiday. We did the Gibralter trip from the hotel, which took over 3 hours to get there because for some reason it stopped at a service station for coffee and then took 45 minutes to get through passport control. We only paid for the shopping trip and then paid ourselves for a tour of the rock, which was fantastic. Becareful when you buy any fags or drink in Gib, they are very cheap, stick to your limit because you do get searched by Spanish police when you leave Gib and they will take it off you.

Went to Tivolli World for the evening, great for the kids, not to busy so didnt have to cue ages for rides. Cost 4.50 to get in then 10 euro for a wristband to go on all rides. If you go on log flume beware as you will get drenched but great fun.

Torremolinos water park expensive for what you get 30 euros for me and son. If you have never been to a waterpark before it is ok but if you have done the one in Tenerife or Bodrum youll get bored very quickly, not many slides and long walks in between them. 9 Euro for a locked and 3.50 for a sunbed.

Bad Points

On 2 occasions we went out for the day and came back to find our room door wide open, on one of these occasions the wardrobe with the safe in had been opened. After the 2nd time we spoke to the manager who said it hadnt happened before, it would not happen again. But then a rep told us that it had happened the week before we arrived. Whilst we were there, there were 3 seperate incidents of wallets stolen from the hotel, 2 of them had just changed travellers checks at reception.

Cues at the bars, watch out for the ignorant ones who push in and refuse to cue. If people were polite and waited their turn the waiting time would be cut by half. Admittedley the bars are understaffed but they did there best.

And my last gripe goes to the parents who completely ignored there kids and just let them run riot. Screaming and shouting till all hours, playing football where people were trying to have a quiet drink, and that was inside the hotel. They were running around different floors, playing in the lifts, screaming ect and this could still be heard until the early hours of the morning!
Would we go back? kids definatly would, we would not. It is to isolated, to far to walk when hot ( although we did use the buses they could get very busy ) and we like to try different places every time. We would recommend this hotel to others thinking of going, but go AI or upgrade when you get there as it is expensive.

The only down fall was that the apartment doors didn't lock from the inside having a 2 year old toddler who has a tendency to open doors was a nightmare at night we had the door barracaded.

We found the cost to visit Gibraltar was a bit steep it cost us 140 pounds when we visited Torremolinos by taxi 13 euros it was a lot cheaper.

Would recommend upgrading to pool view and sea view this is the first time we have been all inclusive found it worth while

We booked this holiday as a self catering holiday. When we arrived we soon decided to up grade to all inclusive as the supermarket was expensive

Holiday Village Costa Del Sol,

Had a very enjoyable week in the 1st week of the new 2005 season.

If your used to a traditional concrete skyscraper type hotel your in for a shock as it really is in my opinion a refreshing change in spanish tourist hotel design encompassing lots of steel and glass and giving an airy feel to the reception and public areas although quite rightly it could also be compared to a shopping mall.

The staff were still feeling there way as they were very slow to check us in and the drinks service was also slow at times as everything had to registered into the computer even though you had the all inclusive wristband and this caused a few frayed tempers at the bars but was made worse by inconsiderate people not waiting their turn at the bar.

The sports and daytime activities/sports courts for the kids was second to none which meant mum and dad could relax as the kids were taken off for soccer, basketball etc and returned to us suitably exhausted 3/4 hours later.

The food in all sittings was very good ,by no means a gourmet fine dining experience but the dining room served us well for all meals with a varied choice and it meant we were fed and watered within about 25 mins which kept the kids happy.

Entertainment in the ballroom by the first choice team was very poor although it wasn't for the want of trying as they are a great bunch who really work hard but a rep singing off key to a bad kareoke track doesn't cut it for me, I have been on Thomson superfamily holidays before with a different good quality cabaret/tribute group /singer every night and I feel First Choice should invest more in this type of entertainment rather than leave it to the poor reps.

Overall though a great hotel if you dont like touring and your with kids as you can just relax by the large pool or the superb free beach club across the road (which we did).

The rooms are comfortable with a great bathroom with 2 showers which is a boon when your all getting ready.If your a couple who want a touch of sophistication and relaxation avoid hotel like the plague as it is targeted for families so there are lots n lots of kids from 18 months to 16.

As a self contained family hotel I rate this excellent and would return at the drop of a hat.

We found this hotel modern, clean and very spacious. The staff were very pleasant.

The only downfall was at meal times when they wanted you in & out of the restaurant as quick as possible.

There are plenty of activities to keep the kids occupied, clubs for the toddlers, a seperate room for the teenagers to hang out with a PS2 console and pool tables etc. There are 2 cinemas which show a film every night at 5pm & these are also used for live football if the game isn`t being shown in the Irish bar.

Food is good but evening meal could be better.

Club reps are great with the kids and try to get every activity to be filled up so the kids aren`t disappointed. The shows at night are what you`d expect from the reps but Jason made them very entertaining!!!

As an All Inclusive hotel/resort I cannot recommend it enough. Both drinks and food were in plentiful supply and there's no limit to what you can order/consume.

As a group of 5 (3 initially) in their mid twenties we were more than happy with the Entertainment. Granted we ventured into Benalmadena on 4 of the nights but earlier in the evenings and on the other 3 nights we were more than happy to relax at the hotel.

Hotel staff, ranging from maids, receptions to bar staff, we all really friendly and helpful.

In short if you are looking for a self catering destination from which you can explore the area then this is probably not for you. If you are after a very comfortable, clean, entertaining and friendly All Inclusive resort then this is for you!!

When we arrived at the Holiday Village we were very pleased with the look of the place it was far nicer than pictures had shown. After a quick check in we were straight up to our room, changed and around the pool by 2 in the afternoon!

The rooms and whole hotel were beautiful and usually everywhere was very clean, there were always staff cleaning something.

We went for 2 weeks from 24 April the first week was very quiet and staff and the entertainers were still finding their feet at times but by the second week everything was getting into full swing. There also seemed to be more entertainment with a resident singing duo and plenty of acts on different evenings.

The food was pretty good with quite a lot of choice and some good speciallity cooking. The snack bar was also pretty good but could have been better for kids.

We as a family would recommend a break here to anyone but especially families.

We used the buses to get about and found them both cheap and fairly regular.

We have just got back from the holiday village after going on a late choice deal and it was surprisingly enough one of the best holidays my family have ever had. The place itself is very modern and spacious,clean and the rooms are absolutely beautiful too.

Entertainment was fair but the variety of aminities seemed endless!!. Although you could tell it was the end of season as no one had suntans, the staff, although most looked exhausted!! continued to smile and make our holiday most enjoyable... Big thank you to the First Choice Reps in the office, Gill, Ivor, Leona and Huw!!, very helpful staff and thanks for the handy tips for a rainy day!!.

Reception staff were brilliant especially Jose who made us laugh on several occasions. I found the security of the complex a big plus, I felt very secure to let my children run around freely and I didnt have to worry about them.

I found the shop very expensive and the beach club was great fun, but come on First Choice, Make it All Inclusive as well!!. All in all we had a fab time, definatley would love to see the Holiday Village in full swing in July or August, and will be looking a the brochure for next year and i hear there are going to be even more facilities. Great stuff and well done First Choice, again.