Estival Torrequebrada — Hotel in Benalmádena

Traveled as a same sex couple in August on an all inclusive packing @ £2500 total. Average temperature 30°C. No rainfall and a little breeze||||The Location ||Set right in the front of a picturesque Rocky beach You cannot fault the view of this four star, previously five star, hotel. There is a small sandy beach to one side. 2x sunbeds + 1x umbrella is €12||||To the other side is a bar and restaurant on a second larger beach||2x sunbeds + 1x umbrella is €14||||half a mile away is a third beach which is a nudist beach with restaurant (accept cash or card payment), if that is your thing. ||No sunbeds or umbrellas are available so bring your own towel or chair plus umbrella as there is no natural shade||||Outside the hotel is a small row of shops approximately 500m away. They include a restaurant that serves breakfast all day. The restaurant is cash only for everything ||||The location is generally very hilly and remote, although buses serving the centre of the resort are frequent, costing €0.62 from the hotel to the centre/ marina ||||Buses do not accept payment by bank cards or phone. Only by cash or a prepaid green bus card which can be purchased from any tobacco shop. ||The card itself costs €1.50 and you then top it up with whatever amount you want, minimum €10||||The hotel ||Styled in a traditional Spanish style, it is beginning to look a bit dated, with chipping paint and things needing repaired here and there. Eg bulbs missing from the strings of outdoor lights|| It is particulary noticeable around the pool areas where some sunbeds are broken and there are not enough umbrellas. The existing umbrellas are fixed into The ground. the hotel is in dire need of extra portable umbrellas, and a lot of them. ||It was 32C when I stayed and you really do Need shade ||||There’s also not a lot of room for sunbeds, and some grassy areas are used to put sunbeds on. However, these areas have been irrigate and are muddy and slippy, not conducive to a good sunbathing experience||||There are chill-out sun loungers but none of the roller blinds on them work||Although the hotel is clean, the loungers give the impression of a second rate run down hotel, as does the rust on the legs of the tables at the pool restaurants ||||After check-in, you are instructed to go to the spa to collect your pool towels. However, after you have traipsed the half mile around corridors to get there, you will find that they require a deposit of €20 by cash only. They refuse to take payment by card or charge it to your room. And after you traipse half a mile back to reception to the hotel ATM , you find you are charged €5 by the machine for your withdrawal -on top of any other Charges that your bank will make. ||after exploring outside the hotel, other ATMs will charge up to €7 for a withdrawal.||||Pools||a double adults-only, a shallow adults only with beds in the pool and one large general pool||There is also a water slide pool for kids||||There are 2 poolside cafes one in the adult section and one in the general section. In both you can serve yourself soft drinks and beer which cuts down on the queues ||||The “do not reserve sunbeds” rule is strictly enforced. The lifeguard will rigorously patrol and remove any towels on beds which are not occupied up to around 10:30 am. ||||Bars/ restaurants ||There is one indoor bar in addition to the outdoor ones. Seating seems adequate ||If you are all inclusive you will be palmed off with local products when in fact, if you ask, you will generally get premium brands eg Gordon’s gin. However, there are some unexplainable exceptions like baileys for which you will pay €1 all inclusive top-up. Weird||||The one restaurant services breakfast lunch and dinner. ||||The hotel breakfast ends at 10.30, with the poolside bar then serving a small variety of fruit and snacks||||There were two themed dinner nights during our stay, one Japanese the other Mexican. Dinner in the restaurant is questionable; always the same repetitive base dishes of paella, chicken and pizza with some lunchtime leftovers, plus a few new dishes thrown in. It is Sometimes acceptable but on two nights there was a very poor choice||||Apparently jet2 holiday customers get 1x a la carte meal inclused during their stay. We were not jet2 so cannot Comment on that ||||Room||The room is basic but adequate with plenty of storage and electrical outlets. We are on a low level, therefore could hear the sound of the sea from our room when we left the balcony doors open. The balcony doors had been poorly repaired||||once you used the complimentary tea & coffee, you had to pay for more. This also applies to the one bottle of complimentary water ||This gives a 2 star feel rather than the advertised 4 star||Room Towels are changed daily. The room is serviced daily and sheets changed at your request||There’s no iron or ironing board provided||||Would I go back?||No||||We paid £1250 pp and so expected a premium experience, not broken beds and a lack of umbrellas. But when I checked the off season price it’s around £650, so perhaps it is a budget hotel||The is nothing really wrong with the hotel but nothing outstanding either||The hilly location also knocks a star off my rating||||Conclusion ||A bit of a mixed bag||We would normally stay at premium adult only hotels, and felt a bit let down by this one||It is perhaps OK for a family with young children on a budget||||I think it is the niggly things that detract from The experience; having to ask for brand drinks, paying a surcharge for some branded drinks, and why not use a card system for the pool towels like every other hotel does? You also need to present your room card on entry to Restaurant at every meal, even though you were wearing an all inclusive armband.||||A makeover and fixing the sunbed/ umbrella issues might give a bit more of a premium look, but stop charging...

This will be very honest and direct …the hotel is beautiful the setting and vista is breathtaking on our second day there I said to my husband I think will will book for next year by day 4 we said never again will we be back , we stayed 11 nights £2900 from Belfast all inclusive, the selection of food is very good there’s plenty of food at all times although the food is always cold they do have two microwaves but who can be bothered with that the food is fairly repetitive we are not fussy eaters love all the salads and cheese etc most of the meat was low quality and grizzly, we loved the pizzas but soon got tired of that the theme nights are not great Mexican,Asian etc ….the restaurant is very clean and lots of staff the wine is nicer in the restaurant than the bar despite trying my very best never once was I even tiddley on this holiday the wine and beer is like water …..what turned us the most was the sun bed wars they queue up from 8.30am if you are not in the line up that’s it you’ve had it out of 11 days we got a sun bed 4 times and never in a location we wanted and only once we got a parasol on the day we got a parasol the pool attendant told the lady beside us to put the parasol down because of wind it wasn’t even windy she was fair skinned and it was very unfair ….we would of had a reasonable time if the sun beds wasn’t such an issue we are home after 11 days with barely a tan we ended up spending most of our holiday jumping on and off buses to other towns because we had nothing to do other than sit at the bar ….there is not much around the hotel anyone on here saying the marina is a 30 minute walk needs to have a word with themselves I’m a good walker I walk 5 miles most days I struggled in the heat and dressed to walk such a distance it took us 50 minutes and we where wrecked once we got there and honestly the marina wasn’t worth it …there is an Indian / Mexican called amigos near the hotel it’s a chain restaurant and not authentic in either and expensive with not friendly staff however if you go out of the hotel and keep walking left there is a really nice Indian called Indian chef we ate there 4 times it was cheap free popudoms two main courses and a bottle of wine 44euro it was good portions and very tasty also cocos down from Burger King was a great bar restaurant really huge burgers …if I was to go back to this area I’d pick torremenlnous (sp) nothing about this hotel it’s in a residential area we spent our holiday catching buses or taxis the bus is very handy right outside the hotel taxi is 8 euro to marina this was an expensive holiday for us because we had to eat out every night because of cold food and find something to do during the day because there was no sunbeds ….at a push id return room only because hotel is beautiful and staff are friendly, room picture online doesn’t represent reality the rooms are a bit tatty we had sea view top floor 11 room views where beautiful….but it was grand cleaners worked hard …the casino is amazing we only visited on our last night wish we had of went in earlier they have Budweiser and san maguiel on tap in there till 5am I’m making us sound like boozers we aren’t but we like a holiday tipple you won’t get drunk on the drink in estival that’s for sure …I’m final gripe is it was 90% French while we where there and they are the rudest people the queue jump , the men would walk through you and they are very loud all entertainment is in french I have came home well brushed up on my gcse French that’s for sure one instance there was a disabled child in a wheelchair we where waiting on the lifts we where first but we offered the lift to the family and we would wait till next lift it’s a tight squeeze with a wheelchair the French couple in their 50s just bulled into the lift with the family super rude and inconsiderate…I said to my husband I’m too used to you being a gentleman he gives ladies the main walk way and opens the door the French men would just walk over you and close the door is your face ….ive been very honest with my review if your happy to stay put and get up to bag sun beds then it is a good hotel it’s very big and a lot of time trying...

Not usually one for writing reviews but I have just returned from my holiday and need to express how much I enjoyed staying at this hotel.||Rooms - rooms were clean, spacious and provided amazing views of the ocean. The maintenance and cleaning staff were constantly on hand if there were any issues. WiFi was the best hotel wifi I have experienced, whether you were in the room or by the pool - weak in the restaurant but of course this didn’t matter.||Food - I personally thought there was a lot of variety when it came to the food. Some themed nights such as Asian which included a sushi bar, and American in which you could build your own burger. Every lunch and dinner there were freshly grilled meats and fish, extensive salad bar but also stone baked pizza and pasta bars for the more “fussy” eaters. The pool bar also provided a variety of hot and cold foods which was switched out multiple times a day. We also had a free meal at the a la carte restaurant on our final night which was amazing and provided very big portion sizes. ||Entertainment - The entertainment team really make the holiday, working day and night, usually 14 hour days, to provide entertainment for all ages. Whatever they’re being paid, they need paying double. I was absolutely amazed watching the entertainment staff switch from Spanish to French to English depending on what family they were talking to (I understand this is part of the job but it’s still highly commendable). Each activity, they ensured they had a member of staff who could speak French, Spanish or English to ensure all guests could get involved. The team seemed to be loved by all guests overall due to their friendly and approachable nature - building relationships and learning the names of individual guests etc. We were lucky to experience the pool party as well on Friday night - the pool was reopened for guests with a dj, games, food, a 360 video machine and fireworks at the end of night. I have never experienced anything like it. For football fans, the bar has televisions in which they were able to get Premier League and La Liga games. ||Pool - there are 4 pools - 1 family, 1 children’s water slide pool and 2 adult only pools in the adult only area. You are not allowed to enter the pool area until 9am and any towels left unattended for over 30 mins will be removed (this only seemed to apply until about 11am). These rules really seemed to work and there were always spare sunbeds throughout the day with no arguments. There were a few cabana style sunbed areas but also many umbrellas - these were fixed to the floor but there were quite a few spare sunbeds piled up around the pool for you to take to an umbrella if needed. ||The only real “negative” is the location of the hotel. Only a 20-30 min coach drive from the airport however the main strip of bars, restaurants and beaches is a good 20-30 minute walk with the marina being about 45-50 minutes away by foot. There are buses and taxis to take you to where you want to go however we usually enjoy exploring by foot. We really struggled to find a decent street of bars that we could spend nights out at however with such extensive entertainment and all inclusive bar, this...