Hotel Cabana

The food and music are very Spanish, so if that’s not your thing, Spain may not be for you. I’m not fussy with food, but I ended up eating a lot of salad because I don’t like fish served with its head and eyes, or hot stew in 31-degree heat. The entertainment was a young woman calling herself a DJ, playing old-fashioned Spanish music from her laptop while people danced. We had more fun watching people from our balcony. Still, you get what you pay for, and the hospitality was good. The hotel itself was clean and well kept, with a nice reception area. Our room wasn’t ready until 1:30pm, but we could leave our cases and have something to eat and drink while we waited. Prices were cheap: cocktails were €6 and a pint of Heineken was €3.20. The room was very basic, with no kettle. For coffee before 8:15am, we were told to use the vending machine, where it cost €1.50. The coach dropped us a short distance away, and getting to the hotel meant walking uphill or climbing some steps. That’s just the hilly area, not something the hotel can change. The receptionist spoke English. It’s about a 15-minute walk into town, with plenty of cheap shops and bars, though many don’t open until 10. I’d also recommend the boat trip to Benidorm Island for €23 to see underwater, and feeding the white pigeons in town.

The food was really tasty, with plenty of variety, and the hotel is in an excellent location. It’s a high-class place with an all-inclusive kitchen and a large pool on site. My only complaints were that there was no mini fridge or drinking water in the room.

We only lasted three days before finding another hotel with rooms for the rest of our holiday. It was an unexpected extra cost and not a choice we wanted to make, but we couldn’t carry on there. The service was dreadful, and the staff’s behaviour was disgusting. The pool had no water and was coned off when we arrived. A desk staff member said it was broken and they didn’t know when it would be fixed. He then called our room number out loud in front of people in the lobby and shooed us away. We’re two young women, so we felt the room number should never have been announced. We let that go, but made sure to block the door while we slept. The room had broken drawers, and one leg of the second bed bent when you lay on it, which felt unsafe. The balcony door wouldn’t lock, even though we were only on the second floor. We asked for another room and were flatly refused because the hotel was full, then shooed away again. It took two days for them to replace the bed with a safer one, and the pool was still out of use. After we complained about the room and pool, the cleaners kept taking our towels without replacing them, so we had to go to reception for more. The food was always suited to Spanish guests, with very little that felt English. For entertainment, there was a man repeatedly playing the same Spanish instrumentals while people line danced. It was just a disappointment. The hotel looked amazing from outside when we arrived, but that didn’t last.

The staff were lovely, and the bar was well stocked. Reception, bar staff and cleaners were all friendly and helpful. The room was basic but clean, with a good shower. We went all inclusive, though the food was poor, very salty and with few appealing options. A bottle of wine was put on each table. The hotel mostly caters to older Spanish guests, which was fine for us since we spent little time there and weren’t interested in the entertainment. The pool was empty and had apparently been that way for some time. The location isn’t ideal because it’s at the top of a hill, with steep steps up, though you can take a longer route around. It’s close to two shops and a short walk from bars and the old town. There was no fridge or tea and coffee setup in the room, and the TV had only two English channels. A loud fan on the balcony made the room noisy, and music from a school just yards away woke us at 9am every morning. My wife and I stayed last week, and all in all we had a good experience. Some of those drawbacks might bother others more than they bothered us. The main ones for us were the food and noise.