By the way - weather was fantastic and in the 30's.
We had a fantastic holiday of lazing around by the pool and took a day trip to Gibraltar.
I'm not going into the food side of things too much but for two course meal for five it was around 50 euros including a drink each. This was same in all restaurants we visited on site.
Club La Costa is a timeshare company who has links with RCI who are one of the largest in the world. They have around 45 timeshare locations around the globe.
Club La Costa has its Head Office in Fuengirola, which is a resort that is around twenty minutes from Malaga airport on the southern coast of Spain.
* Why Go? *
We were invited to a timeshare meeting in Maidenhead last November and were promised Marks and Spencer vouchers and a free holiday is we attended the meeting (which lasted three hours).
The cost of the vacation club was £3,550 which gave you six weeks holiday over three years plus £150 maintenance fee per year, plus your flights.
After three years you have the chance to buy a week slot in a three star apartment which starts at around £10,000, the week is valid for just under 30 years. There is an additional charge for site maintenance which is £450.00 per year, plus flights.
We received the vouchers and the free holiday was not as fantastic as they made out, so we said our goodbyes and ran, hoping never to see them again.
However, Club La Costa invited us to experience one of their apartments in Fuengirola, their Head Office to see if they could coax us into buying a timeshare. This was on condition we attended another meeting so they could try and flog us one of their apartments.
* Cost Of Holiday *
Two flights at £75 each and £145 each for other three flight from Gatwick to Malaga (five of us went)
(Club La Costa paid £140 towards two flights as an assentive to get us out there, that's why two flights were £75)
£75 3* Apartment
Self catering
* What's Special About Club La Costa? *
Club La Costa is a mini village twenty minutes (32km) from Malaga airport. It is just off the main costal road, the A-7.
All the apartments
look neat and well kept, and the gardens and fountains are immaculate.
There are fourteen swimming pools on the complex and all are child friendly. There are no diving boards and the pools are not deep. The water in the pools is tested everyday. Our was tested at 4.30pm on the dot by the gardener who weeded the weed free flower beds.
When you are allocated your apartment you are also allocated three swimming pools which you are allowed to use. The other swimming pools are allocated to other apartments on the complex. This is to ensure that there is no over crowding, and I admit this works well. Sometimes there was just my family in the pool, though all the pensioners nicked the sun beds and slept there for most of the day.
Rubbish bins and recycling bins are situated all ove the site and empited daily.
There are two free trains that run around the complex (takes an hour to do a route around whole complex). They are always around when you need one. Good for passing time with the kids. Though the spanish train drivers tended to stop and chat to friends at every opportunity, the train never seemed to be late.
There is a luggage room (never used this) and telephones all over the camp, vending machines and cash points.
You can take your pick from the taxis waiting to take you into Fuengirola town centre or anywhere you wish to go. They also run a mini bus to various destinations.
* Reception *
Typical spanish wooden, old fashioned reception. The spanish in here were not over helpful, but polite. There was a supply of leaflets on where to go and a gift shop (La Boutique).
*Bowls and Crazy Golf *
There was a place where you could play bowls, and also a crazy golf course. The crazy golf course looked great until you saw it and realised it was very small and portable. (Extra cost for this).
* Sams Pantry *
This is where you could buy homemade ice cream and basic groceries. You could also have a sit down snack of pastries and drinks.
* Costa Cars *
You can rent a car from these, but they are more expensive than elsewhere.
* Zacharys *
This was a nasty restaurant but the kids loved the nuggets and chips. The spanish casserole was ok and the fish was a bit bony and orange. Chicken was tough and nasty.
There is also a popular bar attached with a pool table and two big TV's where supporters gathered for the football.
Two swimming pools and jacuzzi were also with this bar for use with the surrounding apartments.
* Games Room *
Ropey. Small with a couple of pool tables and games machines and a lonely looking dart board at one end. There were also toilets here.
* Team Marina *
Kids Club to us. A ropey shed. This was run by two spanish ladies. Their English was ok but not excellent. The games they played were basic cat and mouse chase games, disco, face painting, trip to crazy golf, pirates day, party. Some things such as the pirates day and party cost 15 euros each. This was a bit steep but kids did get a t-shirt. Some kids clubs give these out for free on past experience.
Eldest two Kids 7 and 6, seemed to enjoy the evening activities of discos, mini cinema (watching a DVD) and trips, and the eldest enjoyed the afternoon swimming.
The youngest child (3) was too young to join in with his sisters, so did not attend any sessions.
* Access To Beach *
The was via an underpass which resembled an underground tunnel the height of about five foot.
The beach was grey gravel with lots of shells and rubbish. The backing wall was full of graffitti. The beach was just a small strip about twelve foot wide and half a mile long. Not good or suitable for kids. Didn't seem very popular.
We ate here once and the food was good. There was live music and a large garden with tables, bouncy castle and child friendly play area. A few market stalls were also here one evening and regular laser clay pigeon shooting took place in the garden. Many kids had a go at shooting the clays with nice large realistic guns.
Also attached to this complex is a resort called Cqalifornia Beach. This seemed like the upper class part of Club La Costa which had superb reception area, pools, restaurants and bars. We could use the bars and restaurant, but there was a dress code for the evening dinner in the restaurant. This is also where the five star apartments are kept.
* Our Apartment *
This was a house made up of four apartments with it's own hedged garden surrounded by similar houses in a nice well kept street. It was white washed and well kept. The grass and flower beds were weed free and a gardener came each day to cut the ever so short grass and weed the weed free flower beds.
You use a card key to enter the big double wooden door and our apartment was on the left.
On entering the apartment there was an overwhelming smell of cleanliness in the air which was almost choking. We opened the windows.
To our left was the lounge with a blue and yellow stripped sofa, limed oak coffee table with glass in it (it did survive the kids) with a silk flower display that matched the blue and yellow decor, two covered poufees, a limed oak sideboard with glasses, fruit bowl and other household useful things, above this was a large mirror, pictures on the walls of monet paintings and dodgy flowers, a TV and separate stereo also on a matching limed oak unit. Ceiling fan.
This led to patio doors which led to a small patio with plastic chairs and table.
The was a cupboard in the lounge with portable heater, laundry airer, parasol, mop, bucket, brush, ironing board and iron. They ask you not to hang towels etc over balconies as it doesn't look nice and to use the airer supplied.
There was a limed oak table and chairs next to the kitchen.
The kitchen was very english looking with limed oak units and beautiful solid granite worktop. On opening the fridge we found a welcome loaf of bread, milk, orange juice and eggs. There was a coffee maker, freezer, coffee, filters, milk, sugar, pepper and salt. Fitted oven and hob, microwave, kettle, toaster, sink, bin and washing machine.
Overall a fantastic clean kitchen.
The bathroom had a bidet aswell as toilet, sink and bath. A hairdryer was also in here and three rolls of loo roll and clean towels, shampoo and soap.
Bedroom two had double bed with tables, lamps, chair and wardrobe plus ceiling fan.
All bedrooms were pleasantly decorated with matching curtains.
A maid came to clean on Tuesday, there was also a phone in the room and sky TV.
You were not allowed to make any noise past 11.30pm, so a good nights sleep was had by all.
* Points System *
As a member, every year you are given points and if you don't use these points or don't use all of them, then you can carry them forward to the following year and maybe next year have a five star apartment. You have to 'save up' and collect points for a four or five star.
On talking to members, you can't just pick say Mexico for next years holiday, you may have to wait a couple of years to go here as accomodation is full for a couple of years.
* Meeting While Over At Club La Costa *
This was Sunday morning at 11.00 and we had a free breakfast at Zacharys. Our guide met us at our apartment and drove us to the restaurant. Breakfast lasted over an hour as we ate our toast and our guide ate the restaurant out of food. He said breakfast was his most important meal of the deay. I think it was his only meal as he ate so much.
He then showed us a four star apartment which was lovely, like ours but with modern furniture. (I was pleasantly suprise with ours!). The five star apartment was lovely with on patio jacuzzi. Ok if you wanted naughties in it if you were on top floor. Unfortunate if you were on other floors, as top floor could look down and see you. This was like a show home and done out lovely with dining table set out for a banquet and plush velour red sofas.
He then took us to the office where the kids played in the playroom and we had orange juice and coffee.
He tried to explain the points system and cost of a three year package and showed us brochures of other Club La Costa sites. Then asked if we were interested in buying one, which we were not.
When we said no, he ushered us to his car and drove us back to our apartment. His normal friendly self disappeared and he seemed to have lost his voice. Must have been the sea air?
The salesmen were showing people around the complex all day everyday trying to sell these timeshares. It was amazing to see. Same speal each time.
* Over All Opinion *
We didn't buy a timeshare as Club La Costas main focus in on the attractiveness of the apartments which are indeed lovely. The swimming pools are very clean and well maintained aswell. I was not impressed with kids club and there was a distinct lack of kid activites to keep the little ones amused. On site restaurants were a little pricey too.
I also hated the 'class' thing too. Five star apartment people seemed to have better lifestyle to four and three star people. It was not just a case of stylish apartments, but also better area and factilies which should have been open to everyone. Such as we could not use their lovely pool and had to dress for dinner in their restaurants.
If you were retired, or kids were grown up, this would possible ideal as there were alot of reitred people here and couples without kids.
There was no nightclub, only restaurants with bars. Once you had eaten the only thing left to do was drink or go home to bed.
An American teenager was chatting to his brother on the train and said "There's only two things to do here - and one is to eat", his brother replied "And the other is to f***ing swim". It sums it up for the youngsters and the rest of us!!!!!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
We've just come back from our prelude week, we took out the trial membership and have to say despite how impressive this resort is we made use of our car and went and looked at two others near by and they were nowhere near the same standard. Our "Sales rep" was incredibly pushy but once we said no he was alright but after that our room cleaning seemed to become non existant
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exceptional by (11%):
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helpful by (4%):
