I have just arrived back yesterday 11-7-04 and all I can say is do not worry this hotel is brill! I read the reports & was a little worried about going, but there is no need. You will find it hard to find another hotel that is to the standard of the "Holiday Village" If you have a family then you will have no fault with this hotel.

The hotel was very clean & the only time it was dirty was when some children would drop food & didn't pick it up!

The food was excellent with lots of choice for both adults & kids. I always found the food to be hot.

The location of the hotel didn't bother us, as when you book this hotel you know from the brochure that the location isn't great so can't really complain afterwards. It cost 10 euros to the port in benalmadena.

The staff were all very pleasent, no problems there.

The entertainment's team worked very hard, as did the kids reps. There was mini disco every night for the kids & our little girl loved it. The entertainment team did a few shows while we were there & they were a laugh! Jason the entertainment's manager is very funny & will have you in stiches.

We would visit the hotel again.

This Hotel Was Fab, for group with 5 children, ranging from aged 13 down to 3. The all inclusive is an excellant idea and all the kids loved the independance of going to the bar / restaurant etc with their own card. The food was excellant in the restaurant , the main restaurant had something for everybody and they also had an italian and a mexican, where all inclusive guests could eat in each one one a week . The Italian is fantastic. The onebedroom apartments were excellant, and very big, the bathrooms were great for families as they had a bath (ideal with small children) with a shower over it and a seperate stand alone shower.We had two apartments side by side overlooking the pool area which I would request again, as the view is fantastic. The location didn;t bother us as a group as we knew when we booked we would stay in the complex, but having said that fuengerola and benalmadena were only a short taxi ride away , and the cost to either was between

We went with our friends, both having 11 year old boys. We read previous reports,having mixed feelings, but we said lets wait & find out for ourselves(we were informed by the tour operators that the beach club would not be open when we would arrive on june 27).

When we pulled up to the security gates in the coach from the airport, we couldn`t believe how spectacular the hotel looked, it was far beyond our dreams. Our room was very immpressive with views out to the villa scattered mountain.

I don`t know why people complained about the train noise,it was barely audible ,it never ran during the night when it matters.

May i say that the entertainments team was first class,they were brilliant in their own individual way . as for Jason (a.k.a. marco), the entertainments manager he was a class act on his own, very funny.
He made my 50 birthday a one not to forget.

I could not fault any part of the hotel from the excellent food which had countless choices through to the maintenance technician who came to clear a blocked waste pipe in our enormous bathroom ,and who came after reporting it to the reception 10 minutes earlier. He nearly beat me back to my room.
The beach club was out of this world, of which our friends made full use of ,even though being all inclusive.

We tended to stay around the large hotel pool solely because the all inclusive bar was nearby. May i add that both pool areas had more than one lifeguard on duty at one time ,and safety regulations were very strict.

Although the hotel is positioned on its own travelling further afield was no hassle in the scorching heat.

Bus stops to torremolinos or fuengirola were right outside the hotel and were quite cheap.
There was also a taxi rank at the entrance and a railway station 20 minutes walk away if you wanted to go to the beautiful city of Malaga. We did all this and opted for hiring a people carrier (a must).
A trip up to mijas and further into the montains to Coin is not to be missed.
But the biggest attraction of them all is gibraltar. We drove there injust under 2 hours. But my advice take the toll road its even quicker and costs around 5 to 6 euros. While in gib dont use the organized trips on offer up the rock, use the cablecar next to the rock hotel its better value for money and you get a breath taking view.

So if anyone has any worries about the holiday village put it to the back of your mind,you`ll have an unforgettable time ,we did.

We went to The Holiday village on the costal del Sol with my family in May 2004 and would have to add what William said in an earlier report about this hotel.

There were a number of travel agents at the hotel and I am sure they are giving a positive report as I assume thier trip was free as the owners of Holiday Village have put a lot of money into the project.

1) There is no Beach near the hotel. They are building a pool/restaurant complex on the ocean but it is hi up on rocks and no beach nor anywhere to swim that we could see.
To get to this complex from the hotel you will have to cross a large moterway that is noisey with trucks, coaches etc. Loud and polluted.

2) The hotel itself is fine but once you step outside in any direction is a large construction area that appears will take a couple of years to finish.

And, yes one wing of the hotel faces a train track and the other wing faces the motorway, so noise is a real problem.

It is not a place to take children

I cant recommend the hotel as it will be just another massive complex on the already crowded southen coast of Spain

I visited the hotel on May 3 2004 and there are several problems with it.

They have only built the first hotel out of 7 on the site so the area around it is a massive construction site with huge earth movers and tractors that start at 8am, so the noise,dust are tremendous. It has taken just over 2 years to build this first hotel, so it will take another 2-3 years of massive construction to finish.

One wing of the hotel faces a railroad track about 10 meters from the rooms, so every 15 minutes starting at 6:30 am until 12 midnite, there is a train that goes right by the rooms. If I had one of those rooms I'd be furious.
There is no beach walking distance from the hotel just a small rocky area. In the summer it will be jammed.
When all finished, the hotels will have just over 10,200, yes 10,200 guests,(These are the hotel's figures) in a small area, so crowds will be horrendous.

The hotel is also built right on a large motorway.Only 10 meters from the rooms) Noise is another issue with cars and trucks passing close by. Also take care with children. There is no way I would let my child out of sight with the motorway so close by

The publicity only shows paintings of of the hotel. They obviously dont want to show photos as who would want to vacation at an over crowed construction site.

On top of this many of the locals in the Benalmadena area are upset at the complex as they view it as a "land rape."

They will be a lot of hype and deals to get people to vacation at the Holiday Village complex as a lot of money has been invested it it.

I really would avoid this place if you want a relaxing Spainsh vacation. No wonder they are offering free drinks to stay here.

I have just returned from the Holiday Village after a week being one of the very first guests staying there.

I had a really good holiday, the room I stayed in was furnished to a very high standard, marble floors throughout, bedroom had 2 queen sized beds, in the living room there was a sofa bed, a proper one like you

We were one of the many families who arrived at the Holiday Village, Belamedina,on its first day of opening on 1 May with some concern as to what would meet us. Was it open?, were there any facilities?, would we end up somewhere else?.

We need not have worried as everything was in place and we were delighted with our surroundings. The rooms were excellent as described in the above review and despite some building work in the immediate vicinity of the hotel we were never once bothered with any noise. Yes, trying to walk along the main road is a bit hazardous at present but the rate of the workmen should soon resolve this problem.

The main restaurent food was excellent with plenty of choice for everyone and attendant chefs who would cook you something special if you asked nicely. The two `theme` restaurants were however a little dissapointing with a limited menu choice.

The hotel coach service ran on a regular basis with extra schedules being included for market day to ensure everyone was provided with a lift to the town. We even managed a leisurely stroll into Belamedina successfully negotiating the roadworks outside the hotel.

There are still a lot of little matters to be perfected by the staff however they tried very hard and by the end of the first week a noticecable improvement was evident.

However as someone earlier commented I don`t think I will visit this complex when it is fully opened, unless you like crowds.

We stayed at the Holiday Village for 1 week the second week it was open.

I'm not going to descibe the complex fully as that has been done in other reviews but I would like to say the following:-

We did not find the hotel noisy. YES there is a train line next door but it is a single line railway that runs relatively slow trains. YES there is a dual carriageway a few metres away but the hotel is built with it's back to the road so you have to walk several hundred metres before you are by the road. The hotel and grounds are fenced off from the road and there will be a bridge (it's currently built but not open) across the road to the beach club. On a previous point, what kind of responsible parent lets their child play unsupervised OUTSIDE the grounds of the Hotel anyway. If you are a parent you need to be aware of the road but it shouldn't be a problem.
The beach club is still being built, they have a crane and lots of equipment but we were not bothered by any noise, there was no dust either. The beach club is still a shell and there is not a hope of it being open by the 21st of May, I'd say a more realistic date would be the end of June.
The surrounding area is currently just a big pile of earth and at some point this is going to developed. There is nothing around the hotel in the way of shops, bars or restaurants and the beach is unusable. Fuengirola is only 10 mins away on the free bus and has a reasonable beach and the zoo. Benalmedena is the other direction and has some nightlife and restaurants.
We choose the Holiday Village because we knew that First Choice run the best Kids Clubs out of any of the travel companies. Last year we went to the Holiday Village - Sun Tropical in Lanzarote so we knew what to expect. Here is typical day of Kids Clubs:-
9-10am - Kids Club Breakfast (reps supervise the kids having breakfast so you can enjoy your own)
11:30am-1-30pm - Fun and Games
3:30-4:30pm - Themed Event (Ghost Stories or Sweety Time)
5pm - Kid Film in the Cinema (unsupervised)
6:30pm-8pm - Kids Club Dinner (reps supervise the kids having dinner followed by some games)
8pm-9pm - Kids Disco (reps do dances and games with the kids but you need to be present)
9pm-11pm - Chillout Night (reps supervise kids watching videos while you enjoy the bar and entertainment)

Kids Clubs run seven days a week and you can send them to which ever sessions you want. They also run a 4 hour trip once a week to the Zoo or Sealife Centre although it is quite expensive) A few of the evening sessions you have to pay a euro for and the Sweety Time you have to pay towards the sweets but the rest is free.
The kids loved it, my 8 year old was in tears when we left and wanted to stay for 2 weeks.

Don't bother with the hotel excursions unless you fancy Gibralter for some cheap fags and booze!
Get the Free bus to Fuengirola Market on Tuesdays but start queueing early as the bus gets packed.
If you have kids under 10 then take them to the theme park Tivoli World, it is 9-10 euros each way in a taxi. Alton Towers it isn't but it had lots of rides for younger kids, free shows and reasonably priced food. The zoo at Fuengirola is good for an afternoon although it isn't that big.

If you are going to this hotel make sure you are All Inclusive as everything is very expensive if you have to pay and there are no alternatives close by.
The restaurant was quite good. It was the usual buffet style affair but there was usually something for everybody unless you are the fussiest of eaters.
There are still niggles with the hotel, for instance none of the buffet food is labelled in the restaurant. There are people to ask but I wouldn't of liked dining there if any of my family had an allergy say to nuts for instance. I'm sure Sirenis (who run the hotel) will sort this out as I recently stayed at another Sirenis hotel and everything was labelled. The service is also very slow as your card has to be swiped for eveything and selected on a slow touch screen system. I guess the staff will get faster as they get more accustomed to it.

The hotel was beatifully furnished, the rooms were spacious and everywhere was marble and spotless. It felt like being on a Cruise Liner.

All in all we had a fantastic holiday for a very good price.

My boyfriend and I have just returned from the Holiday Village. We didn't like it at all. The way this hotel is built it made me feel like I was in a bright, cold empty shopping mall. The actual rooms are beautiful and well equiped but as soon as we stepped out of our room we felt we could be anywhere in the world (almost like being in an airport).
Was not impressed with the food and drinks. Not only did we not know what we were eating half the time but very often there wasn't even anything in the containers to help ourselves to! The food was almost always cold, especially the cooked breakfast.
Everywhere we went in the hotel was absolutely freezing (especially the buffet restaurant).
Finally the entertainment was anything but entertaining! The bars have absolutely no atmosphere and are again cold and brightly lit.
Sorry to be so full of bad news but we actually paid extra to get moved to a s/c apartment in Benalmadena we were so unhappy. Moved to Sunset Beach Club which was lovely. Lost our All Inclusive though and what should have been a nice cheap week turned into a very expensive one!

Excellent holiday though I do agree with some of the previous niggles - food should be labelled, at times you had to wait a short time for service, beach club clearly not ready and won't be for some months. My one other gripe is that after an early morning flight we checked in at 11:30 am and due to the room not being ready, we couldn't go into the room until 15:00. Night entertainment was a bit hit and miss and was amateurish at times.

Hotel is so clean (as it should be only being open a matter of weeks) everybody was helpful and look forward to visiting again next year.

For an all inclusive holiday, I would recommend this hotel to anybody. Yes it is a bit remote from anywhere else, but there's so much to do within the complex, you don't really need to leave if you don't want to. However if you're looking at it for self catering - think again, if you're paying for drinks / meals they are a bit pricey, no supermarket nearby,and then the "remoteness" does become a problem.