The hotel was spotless, absolutely beautiful modern spacious rooms. The bathrooms are just fab, marble with both a bath and shower.

Loads of wardrobe space, nice balcony, decent sized kitchen with a fridge full of coke and fanta every day.
The food was alright, a fair amount of variety every night.
Resutaunts: mexican was not good at all, but the Italian was nice enough. There seemed to be plenty to do for the kids, even a cinema with different films every night.

Here is the main reason I'm writing this report, a major warning, DO NOT GO ON THE BLANKET TRIP.
Under no circumstances go on this trip, we got trapped in a damp basement of a nasty hotel to listen to a wierd woman raving about blankets for 2 hours. One of the biggest nightmares of my life.

We have just retuned from the hv 10/9/04 and we all had a lovely time the rooms were very nice and as described. The fridge was stocked with water, fanta and coke every day and although we were all inclusive we had a kettle, toaster and microwave in our room. On reading previous reports I understand that some people did not have this. The rooms were cleaned every day and there were always plenty of towels in the room.

I found the hotel itself very impresive, the children all had a lovely time and made friends. We did get bored of hearing can I have a euro for the games room though because after mini disco they went to the games room whilst we played bingo.

We found the Beach Club very good and didn't mind paying for a couple of drinks over there, we didn't buy food as we either ate before we went or when we came back.

The food in the restaurants was very good the Italian and Mexican were also very nice.

Staff were very good and most could speak a reasonable amount of English

It amazed me how rude some English are as when we were stood at the bar one night somebody was moaning at the staff because they could not understand what they were saying my friend then asked this person that if a Spanish person came into their work and asked for something in Spanish would he be able to understand, and he replied by saying if they are in our country they should speak our language!! So we told him that he was in their country so instead of moaning he should make some effort to speak their language !

We had such a good time we would recommend this hotel to anyone with children but on an all inclusive board because as others have said it can be very expensive.

I thought the reps worked really hard and this showed because although it was the end of season none of them had a suntan which goes to show that they must spend the majority of their time working

Rooms excellent, food excellent, Beach Club brilliant had to pay for food and drinks, worth it though.

Only complaints were with the speed of service in the Mexican (Italian was great) and they do not clean around the pool very well.

Kids entertainment and facilities were very good and reps were great.

Needs to be All-Inclusive as no shops and expensive.

We only booked half board when we arrived. 520 Euros for 12 days. This was for 2 adults and 1 child under 3 which had a 40% discount. The food itself was very good with a huge choice. Half board included breakfast in A.M and dinner at night.(Drinks were free).

Hotel was clean and rooms cleaned frequently. Location of hotel is not ideal. If you want to stay in the complex
you're sorted but if you want to go to neighbouring towns it will cost you 10 euros each way in a taxi. There is a bus service but the busses are always full and come about every 30 mins.

Entertainment for kids is excellent . They are really looked after and there's plenty to do for them.

I would revisit again but only if the transport was improved e.g. courtesy bus or something similar.

The supermarket in the complex is quite expensive. You can get 6 bottles of water in the local petrol station for the price of 1 in the supermarket.

We found this hotel like a glorified Butlins.

I was really worried about the pools but there were loads of different types of pools to choose from. Very shallow or deep. Life guards were at every pool. Our toddler had a ball.

The hotel was not as clean as other 4* hotels that I have been to and I was disapointed that being so new that the floor and tiles in our room were stained and the wallpaper in the coridor was torn. Also one of the lifts was frequntly not working.

Around the pool area there were a lot of cigarette buts and these were never picked up.

We had intended to hire a car for a three days but instead hired it for a week because it was so much hastle getting any where. The buses were hopeless and it cost arount

Rooms - Fantastic
Food - Fantastic
Entertainment - Fantastic
Kids Club - even better
OVERALL HOLIDAY - FANTASTIC!

We stayed at the Holiday Village on a self catering basis with our two children,aged 4 and 2.We felt that "All-Inclusive" would be too restrictive and certainly being able to eat in different restaurants every night proved a big hit for us.

The accommodation was first class.The rooms were modern,fully air-conditioned and spacious enough.The balcony was huge and provided ample space for sunbathing and for the kids to play.The bathroom was also excellent with two showers and two sinks.

The maids cleaned daily,although we noticed the day they cleaned the best was when we remained in the room! There were occasions when we were out that floors were not even swept and sheets not changed.

The restaurants were poor.The Italian was expensive and the food looked as if it had been taken out of a packet.We ate only once at "La Perla" and it cost us 60 euro for the privilege.It was a huge disappointment and the staff were rude and unhelpful.The poolside snacks were probably the best.Decent variety and not too dear.

We found the reception staff to be utterly professional,helpful and charming.We were surprised to read critical comments about them elsewhere as they bent over backwards for us.The same could not be said,however about the First Choice reps.We found them to be disinterested,unhelpful and unfriendly,almost all of the time.Yet,to our amazement on the coach to the airport on the way home,they must have spent 5 minutes telling everyone to give them as much praise as possible so they could all get good locations for the winter and next summer!!They would put us off returning again.

Location wise,we feel that a car is a must.The village is pretty isolated.It is about 1-2 miles outside Fuengirola,and a little further to Benalmadena.We were told (but never used) that the bus service was chaotic and erratic and a single taxi fare was about 11 euro.We had a car for the whole two weeks and it was invaluable.The Costa el Sol does have great places to see and they are all so accessible if you have your own transport.( If in Benalmadena,go to the marina and try "American Jack's Restaurant - superb!!).

We know the Costa del Sol very well,having holidayed there about 9 times in all.This experience in the Holiday Village was certainly different.But you have to remember that the place is very new and there are going to be snagging problems for a while.I think that within a few years the place will be absolutely terrific and will be a real hit for families.

At the moment,though,the resort has to keep trying to iron out the problems and First Choice has to get its act together.

We stayed in the holiday village on a self catering basis. We found the village shop very expensive although there are some good supermarkets nearby. The hotel itself was superb, very large balconies and very modern in its style.

The children had a great time in the beach club and at night with the mini-disco. The reps work really hard although I would like to have seen some better entertainment at night.

We found the location a little bit of a problem, and I forgot my driving licence so we had to use buses and taxis. Taxis were reasonable but buses were very irregular. The weather was fantastic we didnt see rain at all.

The main downside for us was the way the locals welcomed us. Was not the friendliest place we have stayed. The complex itself though, is fantastic for families, and I would reccomend it to them. But if you want some really good shows at night, or if you like a bit more of a friendly welcome then this might not be the place for you.

That is not an insult to the staff and reps, because they were very friendly and helpful. I might take my family back in a few years, but they need to sort out the problems with the locals first.

Just a quick note, we found some things in the room were falling apart. The hob fell through its mountings, and knobs fell off doors etc. In our second week they were having a lot of problems with the electricity. It kept failing in the whole hotel. But I think they had sorted that out before we left.

The holday village is absolutely spotless! It is lovely and modern! The facilities in the rooms are good. The bathrooms are amazing there absolutely huge!! Two sinks, a big shower and a bath! This was great for when you needed to get ready in the night because there is a massive mirror right across where the sinks are situated.

The hotel food was ok...lots of choice but I personaly am glad we went self catering because you dont realy get you moneys worth.

Friends I made at the hotel where all inclusive and the said how there drinks where very limited as you could only have the spanish version of everything.

Entertainment wasn't very good there needed to be more and a wider choice. In future I think there should be a disco/club because there was no chance 2 dance(except for the kids dances with the reps).

Overall I would visit this hotel again it was in a ideal place as you could catch a bus or taxi in to both towns.

Bus's were often regular. And the beach is basically non exsistent you have to catch a bus to the nearest town, but its worth it anyway.

Me and my sister had great fun on all the water rides like the bannana boat. If you are self catering I would advise you would get the bus to the nearest supermarket as the hotel shops prises are sky high, no joke you will find the food quite good value!!

I would recommend this hotel for familys with young children as there is a kids clubs and a creche.
The children never get bored and if you fancy a night of there are trips to the nearest theme park arranged by the reps and is about 25 euros.

If your 16 like me there is not much to do except play in the arcade and lounge around the beach but if you make friends there you will have a laugh!!

Just returned from 2 weeks all inclusive. The complex
is very impressive and all staff are very professional and friendly. The food and drink was plentiful and of very good quality, although could have done with some spicy food after a couple of days, but they are catering for a large amount of people. The location is not great but buses into both resorts are frequent and there were always taxis at the gate. The beach club is fantastic and never really busy as most people stayed in the hotel to take advantage of the all inclusive deal. A lunch at the beach club, with drinks for four, never came to more than 25 euros anyway so it's not going to break the bank. The two theme restaurants are very nice. and there are so many bars and areas to drink you can move around in the evening, rather like a pub crawl!!
The apartments are fantastic...how I miss the air con!