I’ve just returned from a 6 night break at the SH Villa Gadea. We were looking for a hotel in Altea/Calpe for a sunshine break at the beginning of September ’09. We couldn’t get into our first choice hotel further along the coast and we were a little nervous about this one as there aren’t many reviews on it.

We flew from Manchester with BMI Baby – flight is less that 3 hours. The hotel is 60km from Alicante airport and getting there is not easy via public transport so either hiring a car or getting a taxi is your best bet. We opted for a taxi and it cost around 80 euros.

On arrival at the hotel (around 4pm ish), we were checked in by the staff at the front desk. Not the quickest and most efficient service I have ever experienced but non the less, they were all polite, spoke good English and a young lad took our bags up to our room. We were more than pleased with the room, as we had been upgraded to a Superior Room on the first floor (room 1110). We had a fabulous view over the pool from the main window and the balcony looked over towards the Old Town and the mountains. Great start!

The Rooms

The room itself was very spacious, with 2 single beds that had been pushed together to create a 6ft Super King bed, a sofa, smallish LCD TV. There were 25-30 channels available on the TV inc a couple of sports channels but most channels were in Spanish (BBC world service, CNN, Fox the exceptions). There were no mirrors in the bedroom, but there was a large one in the hallway and obviously one in the bathroom. The bathroom had a Jacuzzi bath, a huge walk in shower, his and her sinks and a toilet and bidet. There was a hairdryer in here – it is a bit gutless though. The bathroom was huge. The room was in great condition, tiled floors, curtains on the windows which were all double glazed so no noise from outside, and there are loads of powerpoints dotted around the room. The hallway had the wardrobes with ample hanging and draw space along with a safe deposit box.

Restaurants/Food

The hotel has 4 restaurants. On the ground floor is the Vitelio. This is the hotel buffet restaurant where you would have breakfast. We were staying on a B+B basis and I have to say the breakfasts were superb. There was a terrific selection of fresh fruits, pasteries, breads, cereal, cold meats, cheese, smoked salmon to help yourself to. There was also a hot buffet section where you could tuck into American pancakes, any type of egss, bacon, hash browns, Spanish omelette, roasted vegetables etc. Coffee, tea, juices, along with Cava were all also available. The quality of the food was also excellent. There have two sections within the restaurant – the terrace – which is a covered outside area and inside the main restaurant. We preferred being on the terrace – felt more like you were on holiday somehow! The waiting staff were again excellent, very helpful and spoke good English – but you will need to give them a gentle push if you want a top up of coffee or tea. Breakfast ran from 8am until 11am.

The Fine Dining restaurant is called Miramar. It is quite a formal restaurant and there is a formal dress code enforced. They suggest booking dinner but in the 6 days we were there it never seemed particularly busy. We chose not to eat here as the restaurants in Altea are just so good and it was a nice change of scenery in the evening.

Vitelio is the hotel’s Italian restaurant. Less formal, but it does have a no swimwear policy. The food is fairly typical Italian – Pizza, pasta, salads, with some meat dishes such as veal and steaks. Not a huge amount for vegetarians unless you like a pizza. They again suggest booking a table but unless you are there in the peak season, I suspect this isn’t really necessary.

Bar la Palapa is a lovely outside eating area around the pool area. It is a restaurant/bar within the garden area. They have a different menu at lunch and dinner but it is predominately BBQ meats, fish and paella. It is always heaving at lunch.

Veranda is the buffet restaurant where breakfast is held. They also serve a buffet lunch and dinner in here. Lunch is relatively light – salads, meats, fish and various hot dishes each day. Dinner is generally slightly heavier with more hot dishes available. Each meal taken here is a fixed cost of 35 euros per head.

The Pool/Beach Areas

The pool are is open from 11am until 8pm and is broken up into 3 sections. There is a shallower ‘child’ friendly pool, a middle section which is deeper and more suited for doing a few ‘lengths’ and there is third pool which holds the swim up pool bar. All the pools are kind of interlinked and have the look of a lake. On a couple of days they did play music down by the pool but it was rather loud and slightly intrusive on the otherwise peaceful surroundings. The swim up bar was open from 11.30am until 7.30pm and sold all the usual drinks – beers, cocktails, softs and water along with some bar snacks. There were plenty of sunbeds around the pool and the surrounding grassy areas. There were numerous fixed umbrella’s to sit under if you are more of a ‘shade bather’.

The beach is accessed via security gate that requires your room key to let you in and out. It take a couple of minutes to walk down to the beach and it is a public beach. On the beach there was a life guard when we went down to have a look. It is pebbly/stony beach but you can hire sunbeds and umbrella’s if you would rather sit by the sea for 3 euro’s each a day. There were a couple of little beach bars to grab a drink or lite bite near the hotel entrance/exit and if you head towards Altea on the beach, there was a small vendor hiring out pedello’s and kayaks for 10-15 euros an hour.

The Spa

The Spa offers dozens of treatments from nails, waxing, massages, facials, packages etc. They treatments are not cheap when compared to UK standards (50-60 euros for a 40 min massage) but some of the packages do offer better value – ie hydromassage, seaweed wrap, jet shower, body relaxing massage, relaxing tea – 2hrs costing 95 euros. The spa pools are not included in the hotel room rate. If you want to use this it is 21 euros for use of the indoor and outdoor pools or 10 euros for the outdoor one only. This is well worth it as they are fantastic; it takes about 2 hours to do the full cycle.
The gym, however, is included in the room rate. It contains 2 running machines, 1 X-trainer, 2 bikes and various weight/resistance machines along with some free weights.

The Staff

The staff were really very good. There were no significant language barriers and most were keen to help when required. The only exception to this was when I went to the reception desk to organise an iron and ironing board. The chap behind the desk said no problem and disappeared; he promptly reappeared and handed me an iron and an ironing board in the middle of reception!

Value

I booked the hotel separately from the flights via lastminute.com. Having scanned the Net they seemed the cheapest place to buy from. I paid £680 for 6 nights on a bed and breakfast basis for 2 people. The hotel, in my opinion, is not a true 5* hotel if you compare to some of the 5* hotels around the world, particaully in the Middle East. However, I would definitely say that the hotel is a very good 4* hotel. Check Out is 12noon at the hotel and should you wish for a late check out it will cost you 35 euros for 2 hours or 75euros for 5 hours.

Altea Itself

To get into the old town from the hotel costs around 7-8 euros each way. It is walkable, but takes around 45 minutes each way. The only downside is that there are no pavements along side the road. The Old Town is a must do if you stay here. It is absolutely beautiful and the restaurants are fabulous. If you get a chance to visit, I would recommend Oustau and Restaurant D’Els Artistes. The food and service are just superb at both venues. You will need to book at both these restaurants if you want to eat there on a Thursday to Sunday. They are heaving! On a Monday, most places are shut in the Old Town so be aware if heading out for dinner, you choices are limited.

Would I Recommend/Revisit?

In short, yes to both. If I was back in Altea I would definitely stay here again. The hotel is the great, and having to spoken to other guests who had visited the hotel in The Altea Hills, definitely thought this one was better. I couldn’t comment on this but the service, food, and overall experience was lovely. The majority of the guests were Spanish – they come down from Madrid for long weekend either as couples or as families. The rest of the guests were Brits, Irish, a few Germans and some Dutch. I hope you enjoy and relax as much as we did should you decide to visit.