We arrived at Hotel La Barracuda and were very happy to be given a very nice modern room on the sunny side of the hotel - pool and sea view. My husband and I have stayed at this hotel twice in the last few years. We enjoyed it very much. Half board was good value. The buffet salad was good but I think the hot food was limited and sometimes it was cold. We have stayed in a few different hotels in Benalmadena/Torremolinos and I think Hotel La Barracuda is definately the best location. We had clean towels every day and the beds were changed a few times while we were there. The staff were very helpful. The view from the balcony was terrific and we would stay at this hotel again.

Arrived Sunday 2nd December 2012 . 7 days Half board
Room 219 2nd floor, overlooking the street where the main entrance is situated. Residents call this “the dark side” because it gets very little sun on the balcony this side of the building. The room was quite spacious. Very clean, and nicely furnished.
The Hotel is well situated being right on the beach promenade, only a couple of minutes walk to the sea.
The hotel gardens are kept clean and tidy with a reasonably large swimming pool
Maid service every day and clean towels daily. Staff very helpful and friendly, throughout our stay.
Food lacks a little variety but was wholesome and you could make up a meal from what was available (although most things were Spanish style). Which, doesn't bother us. (We were in Spain after all) The menu was a reduced one because there seemed to be a lack of guests. It's a large hotel and the dining hall was only about one third full at most. If you're looking for English food at every meal this Hotel might not suit you. Breakfast still had Bacon- eggs – sausage and beans. Cereals (a choice of two) and the usual cakes croissants and pressed meats and cheese, bread rolls, toast, tea and coffee, fruit juice. As you would expect!
Evening meals consisted of a choice of two meat dishes and a fish dish, always seemed to have Spanish omelet, both at breakfast and dinner. There were pressed meats cheese and salad also a pasta dish, with plenty of fresh fruit available.
This Hotel is more used to having Spanish clientèle. During our stay we saw Germans Swiss and Spanish as well as a good number of British guests. Which we were expecting as we had read some previous reviews and this had been pointed out.
On the downside, a safe deposit box costs 14 euros with 5 euros deposit. The box is not in your room, it's in a small side room next to the reception. The box being quite small there's only room for passports and money, purses or wallets.
The bar/lounge, where entertainment takes place on occasions, is accessed by a quite long steep staircase. Which is OK for able bodied people, but my wife has mobility problems and could not descend or climb the stairs (no lift to the Bar/Lounge..below ground level). So we weren't able to use that lounge. Entertainment consisted mainly of a keyboard player and dancing which attracted local Spanish people who came just for the dancing. Sometimes the keyboard player played in the restaurant during meal times, which I thought was a nice touch. They had Flamenco dancers one night of the week, but we didn't get to see them (because of the stairs as previously mentioned).
However we did enjoy our stay at the Barracuda, made more so by the extremely friendly and helpful staff, both on the reception and the restaurant. Nothing was too much trouble and they were always pleasant and smiling.
The holiday was booked through Sun-master Holidays and was a real bargain. Yes we would use this hotel again, despite a few shortcomings. The welcome from the staff made all the difference
Regards Mick

I stayed her during October 2012 half term with my mum and two children (aged 3 and 5) and also my sister and her two children (aged 10 and 14) in a different room.

Having read the previous reviews i was ready to be disappointed by the holiday - we booked it late and got the hotel, flight and full board for a really good price.

The reality was a really good hotel, good food and great location.

As we'd booked a cheap holiday we were put in rooms that backed on to the lifts and right nest to the stairs, we were room 425 and my sister had 725. I thought that this would be really noisy but we didn't notice any noise from either at all. Having said this, i would imagine during the summer it could be noisy. The rooms were really spacious. We had 4 single beds in our room and there was still plenty of room to let the children wander about while getting ready to go out etc. There was a funny smell in our room when we arrived - as others have said previously it smelt like stale smoke but i honestly don't think it was. We kept the room well aired during our stay and it was fine. The room itself was clean and tidy. The maids did a great job of cleaning up after us and our towels were changed regularly - i would say they were changed every other day which to me is fine as it's not a 5* hotel so i wouldn't expect any more than that.

The meals were really good. We were full board so had all meals in the hotel. There was plenty of choice. My son certainly at more than his monies worth. Even my daughter who is a bit of a nightmare had plenty of choice and ate a good amount. It did get a bit repetitive but at the end of the day it is mass produced food and therefore it's bound to be a bit like that. My main gripe with the food was that they didn't put paella on enough for my liking. Also the fruit was a bit sparse but i would assume that was because they generally use food that is in season.

There were plenty of places to take the children if the weather was a bit dodgy - which it was. The lounge downstairs was brilliant. We were able to have a drink while the children let off a bit of steam but without annoying other people as there was plenty of room.

The swimming pool was great - a bit cold but then i would imagine you'd only be going in it in the autumn/winter if you are a bit mad!

Generally the people staying at the hotel were spanish or french so if you prefer to holiday with a load of British people then stay away. We prefer to holiday with locals so it suited it totally.

The local was amazing. Right by the beach and a 5 min walk into some lovely shops. I was also amazed to find that we were a 10 min walk from Benalmedena marina which is a really nice area.


All in all it was a great holiday in a great location and i really don't have any complaints about it.

We stayed there for a week in December, half board. The room was adequate and clean the food was terrible! We paid extra12 euros per night to get a room on the pool side and glad we did because the people who were on the other side said their rooms were so cold.The best thing about this hotel is the location!