Vacanza Apartments, Benidorm

...were dropped off outside the Vacanza apartments and were left there for 30 minutes standing outside with our cases. The apartments were unaccessible as the were surrounded by security gates and there was NO RECEPTION in the complex. We were not advised where to go or how to get our keys, Reception was a 25 minute walk away into the centre of Benidorm near the beach but this shut at 19.30. It was only when 3 nice english women from the complex spotted ...
...had nothing to do with Vacanza and simply held onto the keys for guests we were just giving an envelope. There is 4 blocks to the complex and we had to spend another 30 minutes working out which block we were in. We finally established it was the vacanza block which is the smaller of the 4 but finding the room was just as difficult as they were all numbers then a letter (i.e 1a, 1b, 1c, etc) but they were not on the same floor we were in 4d which ... more

We have just returned from these apartments yesterday after spending a week in Benidorm and I personally would not recommend them to anyone who is traveling as they were terrible.

We arrived at Alicante airport at 19.30 and jumped on our transfer to the resort, we were dropped off outside the Vacanza apartments and were left there for 30 minutes standing outside with our cases. The apartments were unaccessible as the were surrounded by security gates and there was NO RECEPTION in the complex. We were not advised where to go or how to get our keys, Reception was a 25 minute walk away into the centre of Benidorm near the beach but this shut at 19.30. It was only when 3 nice english women from the complex spotted us standing who advised us we needed to pick up our keys from nearby Palm Beach Hotel which was nearby up a steep hill. So 2 of us walked up while 2 stayed with our cases and got the keys.

The next problem was finding our room, as plam beach had nothing to do with Vacanza and simply held onto the keys for guests we were just giving an envelope. There is 4 blocks to the complex and we had to spend another 30 minutes working out which block we were in. We finally established it was the vacanza block which is the smaller of the 4 but finding the room was just as difficult as they were all numbers then a letter (i.e 1a, 1b, 1c, etc) but they were not on the same floor we were in 4d which was actually on the 6th floor yet 4f was on the 5th (yes work that one out) anyway a nice spanish man who lived there took us to our room after we raked in the dark for the rooms for ages!!

The room itself was great, spacious 2 bedroom 1 with en suite, nice balcony etc but there was no maid service - now i usually always go self catering and you always get a maid at least twice a week to change towels and importantly bed linen as with the heat you sweat loads, but they only come once a week on a saturday so we didnt see one at all. The washing machine was broke so we could not use to to clean our towels as it kept tripping the electric so we had to buy spares so we had clean ones to use.

The complex itself has no pool bar, no toilets around pool, no reception, no shop, no sun loungers, no airbeds allowed in pool, no entertainment, and is more like a spanish housing complex than holiday one as most of the apartments are privately owned. We did speak to one woman who has been a couple of years running and said this year is the only year the pool bar and everything is no longer there due to the fact tour operates pulled out of this complex a few years ago so the apartments were either sold off to spanish folk or rented to spanish people on a yearly basis which is why there is no reception, no maids, nothing!

In our envelope we had a letter telling us we must report to reception to hand in a €100 deposit within 24hrs or face being evicted, yet reception was shut sunday so we were panicking that we would come in to find our cases out. We went to reception on the monday morning and spent half an hour looking for it to be greeted with a very unhelpful woman who advised us she could not find the safe key so we could not have one, and she would ring us when she spoke to her boss to find it but never did, so we had to resort to hiding our stuff while we were out which is not good at all.

On the last day we had to get a taxi to the airport as we were out our room by 11 and not being picked up by coach till 3.30 but with no facilites, no room key, and the fact to ket to the pool you had to use a key to get through the locked doors, no where to keep cases, and no toilets we lost a day and thought it best to be at the airport.

Benidorm itself is ok if you like blackpool with sunshine, but was not really my cup of tea as its to build up with 20+ stories of apartments and hotels. The weather was great and there is plenty of bars and restaruants. We went to the water park which was fab and only €4 from our apartments.

With our experience of this holiday we will no doubt be writing to escape who we went with as there were just as unhelpful and would never go back to these apartments due to all the problems mentioned. We were told when we spoke to our travel agents that it really was not good and that if this was the issues guests have they cant see them offering it as accommodation on the future!

Also we were not the only ones all these issues happened to EVERYONE, we saw one woman and her son sitting there for half an hour while her husband raked for receoption but as it was after 13.30 it was shut so god knows how long it took them to get their keys, we did help by directing them to palm beach but didnt see them around the pool so could not ask if they got sorted!!! 

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