Family summer holiday travelling with mum (with mobility limitations), dad, 14 year old son & 8 year old daughter. We researched fully & read all the reviews of this hotel before booking one week in early August.
Flew with Jet2 & they had informed the hotel of mum's walking problems & reserved our Junior Suite on 3rd floor beside the elevator. Perfect start.
We also realised that the coach doesn't drop off at the hotel but at the Polynesia 180-200m, with an uphill walk. Jet2 changed our coach transfer to private taxi both ways for an extra £16, perfect again.
The flight was without incident & mum got assistance when required.
On arrival our taxi driver couldn't be found by the Jet2 rep, so we had a delay of 15 mins. The taxi driver didn't seem to care & there was quite an unexpected walk to his taxi, although it was all on the flat. He keyed in our hotel into his satnav & off we went. The satnav directed us down nearly impassible narrow windy streets. He couldn't find our hotel. We don't speak Spanish & our driver didn't speak English either, so dad got his phone out with directions, & we soon found ourselves at the elephant roundabout.
First thing that really impressed us was the security. Holiday Palace is one hotel within the gated Holiday World Resort. There is Holiday Polynesia, Holiday Village, The Hydros (adult only) & all guests can access the Beach Club over a bridge.
Check in was quick & our first impressions of the hotel - spacious, clean, modern, impressive.
Our room, 317, a junior suite comprised of a small kitchen, huge bathroom, living area and bedroom. The bathroom gave us 2 sinks, toilet, bidet, bath with shower & a separate shower cubicle with waterfall type shower head. This meant that 2 could be getting washed/showered at once.
Bedroom comprised of plenty of wardrobe space, a door out to a large balcony overlooking sea and mountains. 2 queen sized beds gave plenty of space & very importantly the beds were extremely comfortable. No thin lumpy mistresses here.
In the living area there was a sofa bed with a trundle bed to pull out. We did a bit of furniture moving to make space so my son had the sofa & daughter had trundle bed (which raised up on its own legs). This gave them their own privacy, separation & space. There was a second door out to the same balcony. Bedlinens were plenty. Maid service daily.
In the fridge was bottled water. Also provided a microwave, kettle, toaster & hob.
The pool area provided plenty of sunbeds & the best bit was that no-one could lay claim to these with their towels until after 10am. Though most went to the Beach Club. The pool area has bar & snack area. Kids club & fun pool games, family games for adults too throughout the day. Very clean & comfortable.
There is a courtesy bus to & from the security gates. There is a walk within a gated enclosed area over a bridge to the Beach Club. It's open 10-6, with last bus at 6pm. You have to rent the club's inflatable rings for the slides. Cost €20 per ring getting €14 refunded, so this was quite expensive as there were only 2 slides. In the main pool my daughter was allowed to use her own inflatable ring. There was an underground cave area with fabulous waterfalls - great on your back & shoulders! Above the caves were about 12 submerged Jacuzzi seats with lovely views out at the Mediterranean Sea. Bliss!
Drinks were included as part of all inclusive, but if you want lunch here you must book the day before at your hotel. There is a main bar area, but we also found a kiosk bar near the wavepool for cold drinks. You can also book a picnic if you're sight seeing.
The sunbeds & especially those with a sun parasol, are occupied very quickly. If you want to be sure of one you need to be there at 10-10:30. You can also use your room card key to open a gate giving access to the beach below. We didn't, but the beach looked sandy and clean. Need to bring your own beds & parasol.
The courtesy bus is frequent to Holiday Palace & Polynesia.
The gym in Palace was broken & unsafe to use. Dad & son got permission to use a slightly better one in Holiday Village.
Food was plentiful, good variety, tasty. Something for everyone. Themed nights included Mexican & Japanese. Plenty of breads, fruit & salads. I don't know how others could complain about the food. One night was the best - a chocolate fountain with fruit, waffles & profiteroles to drench in chocolate!
A variety of house all inclusive cocktails available. Bailey's coffees - hot or cold - were available. Branded spirits used with very generous measures. Ice cream in tubs available without restriction. A gin menu available for extra.
Staff were helpful, polite, a few even taught some Spanish phrases - dos cafes d'Bailey's por favor (2 Bailey's coffees, please!)
All in all, the rating is often in the answer to the question 'would we go back?' - in a heartbeat! There was something for each one of our family, so it couldn't have been much better.
To get 5* rating - gym needed to be state of the art, direct transport to Beach Club, more cocktail selection, better water slides.
I have mixed feelings about this hotel but all in all, we would not stay here again.
LOCATION: The hotel is located in Benalmadena but closer to Fuengirola, in an area where there is nothing around, no shops, no restaurants, bars, etc. Holiday Palace is on top of a steep hill along with Hotel Polynesia, about half a mile from the beach. However, it would take about half an hour to get to the beach on foot as you have to walk up and down the hill, first to the main road, then down to the beach area, which does not belong to the hotel, so there are no amenities, sunbeds or parasols available unless you walk a little more (10-15 minutes) towards Fuengirola and rent one there (the beach is also nicer there and there are some shops too).
BEACH/POOL: The hotel shuttle only operates between 10-18.00, during the opening hours of the Beach Club which is a water park that belongs to the hotel and is included in your all-inclusive stay. The beach club technically allows an access to the beach but it is a rocky area, not that nice and no sunbeds either. So if you want to spend a lot of time on the beach, this hotel is not for you. The water park is ok for small kids (under 3) or children over 120 cm but there are no slides for kindergarteners who are too big for the baby slides and too small for the wave pool slides where you would need to use a swim ring (6 Euro per day). So we ended up spending more time at the hotel's pool, which was ok, but no slides there, or walked down to the beach. The shuttle bus only takes you to the Holiday Village hotel, so you need to walk over a bridge to access the beach world, and walk about 15 minutes to reach the beach. It's not so much fun with children and all sorts of inflatables :-)
FOOD/DRINKS: the food was ok, we had no problem finding suitable choices, I especially liked the Mexican and Japanese selection. On the other hand, the restaurant is rather small for such a big hotel so it can get really crowded. There are no other restaurants, only the one at the beach club, which is pretty much the same, buffet-style place.
For lunch and dinner, you could not get your own drink, you had to get them from the bartender which resulted in long lines even for a simple glass of juice. The slushy is not included in the all-inclusive (I found this ridiculous), but mixed drinks are.
ROOMS: Clean but the arrangement was not at all convenient. I am not sure why we would need a kitchen in an all-inclusive room, it just takes up valuable space. The rooms with no kitchen had bunk beds, so that was not an option for us. If you sleep more than 4 in the room, be prepared that there is one bedroom (two beds pushed together - not so cool), plus a rinky-dinky sofa bed. On the bright side, the rooms have large balconies overlooking the sea (beautiful view).
STAFF: I cannot blame them, they were trying their best within their limits. However, the animation/shows are geared towards Spanish-speakers, the mini disco starts at 9.30 pm, the evening entertainment at 10.00 pm. There seemed to be a lack of organization or resources, we stayed at hotels with much higher standard of entertainment for both adults and kids.
I also want to mention that the state of the playground and mini golf was horrible, especially the latter, very dangerous, you could easily trip and fall. In fact, uneven surfaces seem to be a problem, I witnessed a child fall on his face on the playground, and an adult falling on the bridge inside the building falling so bad, he ended up having to go to hospital. The hotel should take safety precautions more seriously as there is an accident waiting to happen on every other corner.
If you want real all-inclusive, close to the beach and water slides for everyone, choose another hotel.
Just arrived back from our break. We were originally at a 5-star resort in Estepona but they let us down, so we cancelled, got our money back and through booking.com secured our booking at the Holiday Palace. Ursula behind the desk really looked after us, knowing it was our 10 year wedding anniversary, upgraded us to an incredible room and made sure we had everything we needed. 12 euros also for wifi all week for 2 devices was also a great price. The food was fantastic, great selection, whether that's Veal, Clams, Prawns, wide variety of Salads, Fresh Fish, considering we were at that 5-star resort, this place completely walked all over that in terms of food, location and service. You didn't need to rush for beds at 7am neither, there were plenty, more than 50% normally around 11/12pm, so we had breakfast then went down to the pool and easily found us some beds. Plenty going on but the hotel was very well thought out, quiet areas, decent relaxing bar in the hotel and the other hotels in the complex were also very well thought out. The water park was an added bonus, it's brilliant, we never had the kids with us this time but we are certainly taking them back. A holiday we will never forget and it was made even more special by the friendly staff.
NOTE: Only one thing which wasn't right was the cleanliness of the plates in the restaurant. Apart from that, all was excellent.
Stayed here as a family of 2 adults and 2 children aged 5 and 8. We arrived at the hotel about 1.30 pm,check in was quick and easy and we were in our room within a couple of minutes. Our room was a junior suit on the fifth floor which was perfect for us, It had a large bathroom, bedroom, living area and a small but functional kitchen, although not very well equipt. This wasn't a problem as we was staying all inclusive so only really used the fridge. The Restaurant opened 7 till 10,30 am for breakfast,1.30 till 3pm for lunch and 7 till 10pm for your evening meal. We all enjoyed the food, every night we managed to find something we all ate and enjoyed, even if my 5 year old ate spaghetti nearly every day. also sandwiches and snack are served by the pool area 12 till 7pm daily. The entertainment was mainly in Spanish and wasn't the best, but you got the idea what was going on and it was kind of enjoyable. The hotel itself was clean and tidy, the pool area was great, you could go down to the pool area 11ish and get bed no problem which is half the battle when on holiday. If all inclusive you could use the beach club which wasn't to far away and you could use the shuttle bus from the hotel. The hotel wasn't in the centre of Benalmadena so it would cost about £12 euro each way to the marina if that's something you wanted to do. We did hear a lot of people moaning that the other hotels within the complex were much nicer, better looking, bigger, more facilities ect ect... my guess is those people wanted a cheapish holiday but expected the best (you do get what you pay for). Overall any holiday is what you make of it, we had a fantastic time, at the Holiday Palace, all the food, drink you need, a great swimming area mainly aimed for kids and most importantly the sun was shining and we were all together having fun, which made this holiday perfect, we would come back and stay again if we came back to the area.
Lovely clean hotel , apartment type rooms are great cleaned to high standard daily and two large bottles of water put in the fridge daily good choise of food, very helpfull staff , fantastic water park plenty to do ! Overall fab place would visit again