We booked to stay at the Turmalina Apts but on arrival we were offered the Hipocampo. What's the catch? we asked but it appeared that there wasn't one. The Hipocampo is far more modern and has aircon in all of the rooms (although we never quite got the hang of it). Nonetheless the exterior fan on the aircon unit on the balcony was fantastic for cooling you down whilst you were sunbathing.
There is only a pedestrian promenade between the beach and the front-line hotels and apartments so the Hipocampo is literally is on the beach and that, coincidentally, is who we booked our holiday with.
We took our walking boots and a guide book/map so we could head into the mountains but we were there during an exceptionally hot period so we mainly chilled out. The balcony was an absolute godsend. Ours was on the 9th floor and was chevron shaped so the sun shone on it from 8.30am to 5.30pm. Plenty of room for two loungers and a table and 4 chairs and a great view of the beach and most of the Penon Ifach rock which is well worth climbing early in the day.
Later in the day you could move to the pool area (generally deserted) just before the sun disappeared behind Calpe town.
There is cable TV with about 400 channels but once you've mastered how to access it you'll only find BBC World Service and German Eurosport of any value.
There was a fridge/freezer, a washing machine, a full 4 burner cooker/oven and a microwave but no kettle. We only needed a one bedroomed apartment but it also included a convertible sofa in the living room.
We never needed to use the staff but on the last day they agreed to let us stay on until 5pm as we had a late flight home.
There are two main beaches in Calpe, we were on Levante beach, the other beach is on the other side of the Penon Ifach rock which splits the town. The other beach is nearer the old town but in my opinion is not a patch on the Levante Beach which is cleaned with special machinery every morning.
We used the beach for strolling back and forward on during the hottest part of the day as the sea breeze was very refreshing. The people in town were mainly elderly or were families with pre-school children and the Germans seemed to be the majority visitors. It's still easy to get an evening meal for less than 10 euros (try that in Dublin!) and a large beer was rarely more than 2.50 euros.
The Wok is a chinese buffet restaurant on the Moraira road about quarter of a mile past the Diamante Beach Hotel. I don't think I have ever seen as much unlimited quality food in a buffet. After you've had your fill of starters you take your uncooked steak or fillet of fish or squid or giant prawns or frogs legs or salmon steak or octopus or chicken kebab to the chef and he'll cook it before your eyes in a choice of a dozen sauces, all for 9.95.
October is the end of the season so there were lots of establishments that had already closed and the promenade was generally deserted by 11pm but you'll always find a beer at a late hour if you want one.

Hipocampo or Hipocampos in Calpe! The real name is Hipocampos I think!
We had a very nice holiday in the apartments of the group Calpe Rent Apart in Hipocampos: we were there for 1 week and we had a lovely time. The apartment was very nice, fresh with a lot of colour. We had a large terrace with direct views to the sea.
We have rented this apartment because a friend of mine went there and he was very pleased. The service we had was very good: they showed us around, how to use the keys, where the supermarkets are, how to use the TV and the airco...! By renting directly with these people, I think you get a more personalized treatment because we did not notice anything of bad service! Maybe the other travellers rented with another company???
Anyway.. WE had a lovely time!

Just back from a two week stay at the Hippocampos with our three children aged 9 to 18.
We had two, one bedroomed apartments on the 9th and 10th floor, and I have to say that they were well equipped, furnished and spotless just as the previous previewer had mentioned. The balconys were very big with table chairs and sun loungers supplied and we were lucky enough to be on the top two floors which ensured we had a great sea view and had sunshine on some part of our balconys from around 10am right tru till after 8pm
The pool although it seemed small was very clean and never seemed to get packed as even though the apartments were fully booked while we were there, most people only seemed to use the pool for an hour or so before going on to the best beach (only yards away) I have ever been on, or when returning from the beach. As a result there always seemed to be enough loungers and parasols available.
As diy annie said in her review . The janitor/concierge did a great job at the upkeep of the whole block and was very vigilant, ensuring guests did not bring a load of sand from the beach on to his very clean terrace at the entrance to the apartments.
The apartments were very quite at night time, as all the guests seemed to be families and young and old couples. Actually Calpe itself was quite in itself and was ideal, if you wanted a safe quite place with beautiful beach and a wide range of restaurants with prices's for all pockets availablefor your holiday.
I did not notice any trouble or rowdieness once while we were there, and I have to say that peaceful/feel good atmosphere was quite addictive.
Downsides are that the reception office only opens for certain hours during the day, so if you are checking in or out, outside of these hours, then you have to use an office in an apartment block that according to their website is on the next street from theirs, but what they fail to mention is that the next street to theirs is around 500m away which can be awkward when you have to lug cases around at 5.30am with you.
There are also no safe deposit boxs available at the Hippocampos and the nearest available ones are in a hotel further up the resort.
I also found the chap that worked in the office to very rude and not very helpful when we looked for local information or when we enquired after the first week if the linen or towels get changed, which it turns out they were supposed to twice a week, but somehow they wern't and when we politely enquired about it we were given the impression that we should be happy with what we have instead of what most establihments would do which is explain why it did'nt happen and then get it done.
But all in all we enjoyed our stay in the Hippocampos, and would not rule out returning there sometime, but I have stayed in a lot of establishments that although provide a lower quality of accomadation, they certainly provided a much higher quality of customer service.

We stayed in the Hipocampos for 7 nights at the beginning of May. We had originally booked a one bedroom apartment at the Turmalina, but were moved to the Hipocampos on arrival. We were prepared for this after having read some reviews that said it might happen. It was to our advantage as the Hipocampos is much more modern.

We had a lovely one bedroom apartment on the 8th floor with sea views. It was very comfortable with a bid double bed, nice bathroom, well equipped kitchen with hob and washing machine. There was also a nice dining/living room - although it was hard finding an english speaking TV channel even though they had satellite. The balcony was huge and had a table and chairs and two sun loungers. The bathroom wasn't as clean as it could have been, but that's our only complaint. The on site janitor guy did a great job at the upkeep of the whole block.

The apartments are on the second beach in Calpe, so it's a bit of a walk (but pleasant) around the headland to the old town of Calpe. When we were there the second beach was quieter than the one closer to the old town, which was good.

There were quite a few nice bars and restaurants nearby (the mosquito bar and coconuts) and we ate in a really lovely french restaurant at the end of the beach called La Regatta, which I would certainly recommend for fresh local seafood (the garlic prawns were fab!). There were also 2 big supermarkets within a 5 minute walk along the road which was handy as the apartments were self contained.

We used our apartment as a base for exploring further inland too. There are some stunning walks up in the mountains and May is a lovely time to go as it's not too hot and the wild flowers are still in bloom. We also climbed the Penon de Ifach while in Calpe which was definitely worthwhile for the views (although watch out for swooping seagulls trying to protect their young!).

Overall, our stay at Hipocampos was great and I would definitely recommend it to others.