At the bottom end of Poniente Beach, this is a world away from the Benidorm of legend. With a mostly Spanish clientele in the hotel and surrounding accommodations, this is a Benidorm we could enjoy.

The hotel is low rise, built in the 60s and refurbished in the 90s. Located in nice gardens with a pool area. Just across a narrow, fairly quiet road is the wide and sandy Poniente beach which is beautifully maintained by the Benidorm Ayuntamiento.

There is free covered parking for your car and a fairly limited range of eateries in this mainly residential area.

A long and beautifully furnished lounge leads to the comedor. The lounge could at first seem gloomy but it's a tranquil, comfortable place to relax with Internet access, sometimes!

We got a "Superior" room on the top floor, with stunning views from the balcony of the sea, sand and Benidorm skyline.

These rooms are a little larger than the standard ones with a lobby with wardrobe and then inner door to keep any external noise out. We always try for a top floor room to avoid the clip-clopping of people above which you always seem to be able to hear in Spanish hotels.

Air-conditioned, very clean, we found no fault at all with our room or bathroom. Not the latest in furnishings but then, not everything can always be brand-spanking new.

Breakfast was fairly standard buffet fayre but with a far bigger selection than that found by a previous reviewer. Staff in the restaurant, cafeteria and at reception were all unfailingly friendly and helpful.

The walk to the Old Town was indeed quite a stretch. After doing it once, we got the 41 bus from outside the hotel and a taxi back. Early evening, in mid-October, the Old Town was full of mature Spaniards enjoying their promenade. And we loved it!

Our mini holiday here was not the typical Benidorm holiday our friends imagined we were having. We had a great couple of days. Todo Español!

The location of the hotel as mentioned is good and quiet, my wife and I found it just a little too far from the `old town` as we used to walk it quite often, somewhere just a little nearer would have been better.
The hotel is mainly for the spanish people and we found the food not to our taste at all, hardly any selection and everything was always cold, I complained on both the first and second night
( it`s no good complaining when you are home) at the quality of the food on offer, some of the choices looked like they were for the dog, just bones and fat. There was bacon in the morning and eggs but again it was always cold. Apart from fruit, there was only a choice of 4 or 5 tired looking cakes and it was the same every night.
I have a wide range of food taste and will try anything but this was one hotel I would not go back too.
The room was comfortable and bathroom well set - out, if you want to give it a try please go bed and breakfast or room only.

We arrived after midnight and having checked in and located our room we went out onto the balcony and were stunned by the view across the beach. The location is fabulous and very quiet. The walk into the Old Town is about 2KM along the sea front which we tried on the first day in temperatures approaching 40C. It was the last time too! Fortunately there is a bus stop outside of the hotel and the fare ( at the time of writing, Oct 2011) was only 1Euro 30 each. The bus runs every 15mins or so. The taxi fair is around 5 Euros. As for the hotel, it is, for the most part very good. Our room was good but the bathroom in particular looked 'tired' and in need of renovation. Tea and coffee making facilities in the room would have been nice. The mini bar was expensive. We only had breakfast there and the catering seemed mainly for the Spanish taste but it was ok. On the last day we were to be picked up by our transfer at 20.00 which may have presented a problem for us ( check out was 1300) but the receptionists were very helpful and allowed us to keep our room until 1700 and then stored our luggage until we finally left. 5 stars for them. My preconceptions about Benidorm were completely false and we would go back to this hotel.

Lovely location by the sea, very quiet area with little to do and a walk uphill to get a paper.
Beach front location but at least 30 mins walk to the old town.
We were lucky to get a superior room at the front so had a beautiful view of the beach but the food was poor. Not a lot of choice and all the food was cold, not even a microwave to heat anything up.
Also the hotel would not provide a courtesy room to change in & would'nt let us keep our room a few hours extra despite the hotel being only a quarter full.
Fortunately, the sea view was the only good point otherwise we would of checked out earlier than the 3 days we were staying there.