My nine year old son and I arrived at the HV expecting the worst, and in fact had a wonderful surprise.

This is a modern, state of the art complex, immaculately clean, totally geared up for families,and considering it had been only open for three weeks,was remarkably well organized.

The location isnt great, you are well off the beaten track, but there are plenty of buses and cheap taxis to get you out and about.

With regards to comments about noise from trains and the work at the beach club, I can honestly say that this is the quietest hotel Ive stayed in, no noise disturbance at all.

The entertainment wasnt great, however, bear in mind that this is a new team of reps trying their best, and hopefully this aspect will improve over time.

I had no complaints about the food, Ok it wasnt labelled, but there was a good selection, which was always appetizing and hot.

The day before we flew, we got the call from First Choice informing us that the Beach Club would not be open at all during our stay, despite the letter saying it would be open 21st May. So, it was with heavy heart we went.

As we pulled up at the hotel, we could see how much work was left to do at the Beach Club, so we dreaded going in to the actual hotel. However, we were very surprised! The hotel is not like anyone we have staying in before - with the inside of one wing looking like a shopping mall. It was all very shiny and new!

The rooms are spacious enough - though we did a bit of interior redesigning to accommodate the kids sleeping arrangements! The maids did a good job with cleaning.

The food is ok, with service being acceptable. Can't say that about the pool bars or the piano bar. The hotel was only 2/3 full, so I would hate to go in August if they struggled now. The pools are a bit dodgy, with tiles coming loose (this morning, before we left, the indoor pool was drained and the tiles being replaced).

After they look at the complaint forms, and rectified the teething problems, next year this will be a 4 star hotel, but at the moment, it's not.

My biggest gripe was the location - and the free bus to Fuengorola being packed, with little chance on getting on it unless you are prepared to wait for 30 mins.

On the whole - a lovely hotel, which I will go back to.

We arrived at the Holiday Village late evening ,but could not gain access to our room.
It took 3 visits to reception & 40 minutes later before we could get in as the batteries had gone on the device which opens the door.
The rooms are beautiful,however ours wasnt clean. It had marks on the floor & sofabed. The microwave had what looked like dried on gravy inside it ,the crockery had the same substance on. We had no bedding for 1 of the beds,no remote for the tv, the toilet blocked on numerous occasions.
The hotel itself is lovely.The indoor pool had tiles missing & others coming off,you could literally feel the grit from the tiles on the bottom of the pool as you were in it.We went to see the reps ,who gave us a customer service report.
We actually felt sorry for the reps as they were doing their best to sort things out for people but it seemed to be 1 thing after another. We had no problems with noise,there is a trainline but we didnt hear it.
There was some noise from the builders but nothing to cause a problem.

The location though was a problem ,as the beach club wasnt finished you were restricted on what you could do.We seemed to be permanently on buses of one sort or another.
The local bus ran from outside the complex so it was possible to get to Benalmadena,and there was a free bus to Fuengirola provided by the holiday village,although on market days you could take your life in your hands trying to get on it as it was a free for all with people getting annoyed & being abusive because it was so busy & they couldnt get a seat.

The prices in the bar were extortionate,as they knew you were stuck there. The entertianmemt wasnt up to much either. The hotel staff were mostly very good and the maids were excellent.
We wouldnt go to the holiday village again,although we like First choice and have had many good holidays with them we feel we have had better service and treatment at lower star accomodatoin than we had this time at what promised to be an excellent new 4 star complex,and as we said at the time ,the indoor pool should not be in that condition after only being open a month.

Just returned (29th) still no beach club, don't think it will be ready until late july or maybe august. Rooms were huge and well thought out. village shop not very well stocked and very very expensive - 2.50

We have just returned from a two week stay in holiday village, what a fantastic time!! If you are travelling as a couple (minus kids!), or you like peace and quiet, or travelling out to see the local culture and tasting the food, then this is not the place for you. However if like us you have small children and you want your time to be as relaxing as it possibly can with the darlings,then this is for you. The kids facilities are fantastic, the reps are very friendly. The hotel had everyting that we could have wanted. The beach club is no where near finished, but we didn't miss it. We will definately be returning next year!

Hi folks,

I'm just back from the holiday village, and, after reading the reviews on here - I was more than a little nervous about going. It turns out there was no need to be at all.

The hotel itself is gorgeous, really modern, spacious, clean. The bedrooms, as stated in previous reviews, are really big, bathrooms were great (bath, separate shower, 2 sinks...) If you've got the telly on in the living area - you can turn on speakers in the bathroom so you hear it in there too!!

All inclusive food was pretty good and they have now started to label the food (obviously following on from visitors suggestions). I can't really fault any of the food or drink (even tequilla is free with the all inclusive package for those who fancy it!!). Earlier reviews complained a bit about the service being slow - it really wasn't that bad. The waiting time was the same time or less in fact that it is in the UK so yes, if you expect to be served in 30 seconds then yeah, it's slow.

We were there with a 3 year old and the lack of the beach club didn't really affect us. The kids club area was good for him as was the games room. The night entertainment was excellent for kids - kiddies disco's and games etc. The pool is full of kids and he had a ball there - as did the rest of them! The pool is supervised at all times by at least 2 lifeguards. There's also a wee play are with a chute and climbing frame outside for the kids.

Being away from the beach was the only thing that I didn't like - the nearest one was quite a walk with no pavements for about 3/4 of the way - should be okay when they have the pavements finished though if you're up for the walk!

I didn't experience any noise at all, you don't hear the road or the train. We occasionally heard the work on the beach club but it wasn't enough to annoy us. And you don't really see it from the pool area either. I've got some photo's which I'll try and post in the gallery (once I figure out how to get the photo's on the computer that is!)

All in all we had a great holiday. My view is that folk who are going to complain are going to complain whatever the hotel is like. I don't have any reason to say anything negative about this hotel at all - we all had a fantastic time and I would reccommend it to anyone!!

we visited the hotel the end of May. And before i went i was very close to cancelling the hotel after reading some of the reports on the forum. so as you can guess i was expecting hell when i arrived. let me tell you we all had a great time there. yes there are teething problems - slowish service in certain bars at certain times ( but isnt it always in busy bars?), yes we did get grazed feet, i think this was due to the grout on the pool tiles not having time to settle. And yes the beach club wasnt finished and i would be very suprised if it was fully completed for this season?but there were alot of possitves - great food and variety, plenty to do in the hotel for kids and adults, lovely large rooms, great pool and lifegaurds, local buses every 20 mins for only 95 cent you can go to benalmadena or feungerola. And the building work didnt bother us atall. infact i printed of the complaints form before i went ready to fill in, but when there i seen no need to fill it in. yes there were teething problems and in a yeasr time it will be an excellent hotel. But even now it was a very good holiday ( i personally would not go self catering - too expensive and you would be limited to the hotel.

hotel on the hole good but not up to 4 star rating just yet , still teething problems with paved areas pools with loose tiles food chices good location a little remote not very scenic as the cleaning process still ongoing outside hotel area. bus needed to reach resorts bus provided by hotel if you can get on it! staff need to step up a gear service rather slow, sit in bars and get waiter service fr drinks much quicker. entertainment varied good on most nights.i would visit hotel again maybe next year when all completed.anyone travelling with small children take plenty of your own baby food shop very limited and make sure if you want a late checkout book in uk you cannot book in resort no matter what they tell you we had a problem over this.

Holiday Village- Costa del Sol

I am a professional travel agent and have been reviewing large resorts in the Med for nearly 20 years for one of the largest agencies in the UK.
I visited The Holiday Village resort on the Costa del Sol near Benalmadena in Malaga in May 2004.

The resort is newly built (opened May 2004)and while the interior of the hotel, rooms, food are fine it is the exterior that has several, in my opinion, fatal problems and can not recommend this hotel.

While the resort is constructing at a furious pace the problem is two fold and will not go away even when construction is done.

One wing of the hotel faces a railroad track. The track is about 10 meters from the windows of this wing of the hotel. Anyone on this wing will not have a sea view but will face a massive construction site and the rail tracks. The train is now a single line and in the next couple of years be expanded to a dual line. As of now the trains start at 6:30am and go to 12 midnite. There are two trains per hour in each direction so every 15 minutes a train passes by. (This line serves Malaga- Fuengirola, two cities along the coast.)

The other problem is that the other side of the hotel (South - Facing towards the Sea) is built next to a major motorway. In fact the outdoor pool and rooms facing the pool(are on a hill) overlook this motorway. Its about 20 meters from the south wing of the hotel.All of the advert photos and paintings of the resort are carefully angled so as not to see this motorway. So if you are lying down next to the pool you will not see the motorway but if you walk close to the edge you will see and hear the motorway. In fact if you want to go to the not yet finished "Beach Club" you will need to cross a foot bridge over this motorway to get from the hotel to the "Beach Club." Do you want to cross a busy motorway on your holiday?? And the
"Beach Club" is a total misnomer. It is on top of rocks and cliffs next to the sea, but the only swimable beach is about 2kms away and you have to walk along this motorway to get there. There is no beach at Holiday village.

One hotel has been built and there are plans for 8 more on this site (all by the same developer) so there will be 2 to 4 years of massive construction (noise etc). The Holiday Village people have spent millions of Euros developing the hotel but I find it hard to understand how they can be so naive as build such a complex so close to a rail track and motorway. Do they think we are so dumb?

I was paid to give Holiday Village a good report and my company stands to lose a lot of money on this. But in all honesty I cannot. If you want to go to the Costa del Sol there are several other resorts that I do suggest.

As previous reports have said, we were a bit apprehensive about going when we read the bad reviews, but we needn't have worried because the hotel is fantastic. Very comfortable and clean, we had one bed with no sheets when we arrived but soon received them after a phone call to reception. There was a problem with the wardrobe door which came off the track, and we couldn't use the wardrobe for most of the holiday. It was reported but not mended.
However not even the dust outside from the building work spoiled any part of the holiday, we found it fairly quiet. We went self catering, but ate in the restaurant which is buffet style and very nice. Our two teenagers found the internet cafe an excellent idea!! all in all a fantastic holiday and would go there again.