Magic Cristal Park

The reception staff were kind and tried to help, but the stay still fell short. We booked for four and arrived to find one bed missing. They eventually brought one after some back and forth, but there were only two cups, two glasses, and not enough towels. Just two of the five plugs worked, including no working socket by the kettle and TV, so I had to keep switching things around to use the kettle. The room didn’t look like the pictures online. Housekeeping never cleaned it during our three nights, and we had to find someone each day to get fresh towels. The hotel feels like an outdated care home, with a 1970s look. There are four lifts, but only two work, one sounds close to breaking down, and the fourth seems to disappear. The entertainment had that same care home feel. There are two restaurants. One appeared nicer and seemed to be for Spanish guests, but we didn’t eat there. The other was questionable. It has tables and chairs, but the food was no better than 3/5. Some dishes were edible, while others were undercooked or overcooked. You can get tea and coffee at breakfast, but not at lunch or tea. The bar on the main floor was okay, and the drinks were okay too. If you want a cheap hotel about a 20 minute walk from the old town and can put up with the broken plugs, lifts, and general lack of things, this might suit you.

The cleaners were the friendliest people we met, always helpful, and reception staff were polite too. Our room was clean and tidy, though the view was a bit grim, and the hotel itself is dated. The location is really good, about 10 minutes from the beach and handy for the old town. We only ate in the downstairs restaurant, and the food wasn't great, but there's plenty of cheap food nearby. The lifts were slow and always full, so we took the stairs. This is only how we found the hotel, you might have a better experience.

We came in November with our two 16-year-old sons, and the rooms were very strange. The boys each got a bed in the bedroom, while my husband and I had to use a dirty pull-down sofa with a badly stained mattress. The floor would have been softer. There was no balcony, and our windows looked straight into other rooms and a dining area. They had cigarette ash on them, and the curtains had burns. The bathroom was okay apart from the shower head being positioned over the middle of the bath. We'd paid for ultra all-inclusive, which was meant to include trips to places like the theme park, sister hotel water parks and go-karting, obviously things to keep two 16-year-olds entertained. We were told none of it was available because everything had closed the previous week for the end of the season. Instead, they offered us a FREE all-you-can-eat BRUNCH at a bar near the beach, even though we were already ultra all-inclusive. Don't get me started on that bar. The food was always cold, the staff were rude, and the lifts were awful. Tables outside the hotel were constantly full of very drunk adults who let their kids run wild. Police were called repeatedly over fights in the pool area where children were present, yet those guests could still stay. Cockroaches were in the dining room and all over our bathroom and toilets. The entertainment was ridiculous, like watching auditions for Spain's worst entertainer. It started at 10 and finished at 12. The kids' games room was always closed, and the arcade machines took your money without giving you a game. We paid for top-brand drinks and were served cheap ones. When we explained, staff acted as if we'd done something wrong. On our last day, our room was locked two hours early while we were out for a final walk. Luckily, the boys had stayed in, so we got back in. Our all-inclusive bands were also stopped at the same time, leaving us to pay extra for food and drinks until our coach arrived. We told reception about everything at the time, but they said there was nothing they could do and that we should take it up with our booking company. After getting home, we complained to the holiday company and sent pictures of the cockroaches and stained mattresses. The hotel claimed the mattress complaint was a lie because all its beds have plastic mattress protectors, which is a lie, and said there probably weren't many cockroaches because it has pest control. They also said these things hadn't happened because we hadn't filled in a complaint form at the time. Nobody ever offered us one. The moral of this review is, don't use this hotel. It needs knocking down and starting again.

The location is what keeps bringing me back. I've stayed here three times, and it's my usual Benidorm hotel, between the old and new towns and about 8 minutes from Levante beach. The staff are helpful and ready to answer questions or sort out problems. My rooms have always been really clean, with no trouble getting fresh towels. The lifts can take forever, though I can use the stairs if I get fed up waiting. The food is hit and miss, but over 21 days of three meals a day, I've only struggled to find something to eat or had a reason to complain three or four times at most. The place is a bit dated, but you get what you pay for. I'm already looking forward to coming back in November.