We got back yesterday and can honestly say we had a lovely time !
Before going i had read all of the reviews here and was expecting the worse but thankfully in our opinion none of it was true.
The rooms were lovely,spotlessly clean and ours had a fantastic view of the sea & pool.
We were upgraded for free to full board from half board as we were there in May which was a pleasant suprise.
The food was lovely. It was very mediterrainian,lots of fish,olives & fruit but they also had meat,chips,yoghurts & ice cream too. The selection wasn't huge but then again neither is the hotel.There were at least 2 main dishes to choose from but also salad with salami,cold meats,fish is you didn't like the choice.
Breakfast was always cereal,toast,cooked English breakfast,salad,yoghurt or fruit.You also got orange or tea/coffee served at breakfast too.
The hotel had a mixture of Spanish & French famillies plus lots of elderly couples. All of them were polite and friendly. There were quite a few Brits there too including a large party of English school children who were very well behaved.
The pool was very clean with plenty of sunbeds.There is a terrace that you could use to have a drink from the bar if you didn't want to sunbathe or swim.
The area around the hotel was quite limited.The beaches have quite rough sand & it costs 8 euros to hire 2 sunbeds with a shade.The beach near the hotel was a little bit windy but if you walk about 5 mins further up it turns a corner and the wind drops from there onwards.
We went to the Crocodile park which is about 20 mins away.We enjoyed it but to be honest you can only really spend a couple of hours there as the crocs just laze around without moving.The guide was great,he got in a few of the enclosures and got them moving.The talk he gave was in both Spanish and English & there was plenty to learn! We got to hold a baby crocodile at the end of the tour and see Big Daddy the biggest croc in europe.
About 15 mins walk from the hotel is a park called Paloma.The park is amazing.It is lovely to walk around as there are rabbits,chickens,pidgeons,ferral cats,terrapins,peacocks etc all running freely around. On Fridays there is a huge boot sale at the far end of the park.Lots of the stuff on sale was from English family's.There were lots of books onsale if you forgot to take one!
Torremolinos is nearby.We walked it in about 40 mins.It's a lovely place,very similar to Benalmadena.Plenty of shops and restaurants etc.
The Bendalmadena Marina is a nice place to visit.It also has the Sealife center there too. You can see loads of yaughts & cattermarans plus you can book a boat trip too for around 15 euros per adult.
We also went for a trip to Gibralta.It cost 90 euros for 2 adults inc a trip up the rock to see the monkeys. You can clearly see Africa from there too as it is only 12 miles away. The monkeys were fab.One of them sat on my shoulder for ages. The trip up the rock is a bit scary as you have to go in a mini bus.The road is sometimes only as wide as the bus with a shear drop on one side. Half way up the rock is St Michaels cave.Elton John once gave a concert in there! Be careful though as the floor in there is quite wet.
Shopping in Gibralta is quite good.You are allowed to bring back 200 cigarettes per person or 5 packs of tobacco.You are also allowed to buy a 1 ltr bottle of spirits back per person too. The cigs were around £10 for 200 and the spirits are around £6 for a litre. The currency is sterling though.If you use euros the exchange rate is terrible-around 2 euros for each £.
We enjoyed our holiday,it's not an area i'd rush back to but i would go back again in a few more years :-)