Following on from 'thisisdidi' review...
4 day holiday. Boxing day on the beach!
Room was great, staff were indeed helpful - Paco at night time, Augustin and another guy I can't remember by day. Bar shuts at 2am. I advise you to be subtle at breakfast time if you are looking to make a few 'lunch-time sandwiches'! I was spotted putting stuff into our bag and told we weren't allowed, but that didn't stop my girl from walking out with a plate of food!! She got chased and told off!! (Still makes me chuckle!) Great breakfasts though. Hot and cold. There's a pool table and computer in lobby. Swimming pool and gym.
Bus straight into town but you can walk it in 45mins. Beaches were great. I'd say it would be epic in summer! There were a few swimming but not us! Too cold. Boat trips are available but not over Xmas. The coolest thing about Benidorm I think was the one stair-case with all the pad-locks along the hand rail!! If you want to leave your mark, bring a padlock!! 'Old Town' streets were okay. Same shops over and over though! A lot of tapas bars and nice restaurants. Bars along the beach front were standard. Read other reviews for more info. Small gay area which we checked out. We went to "Company' - small bar, english guys run it (Mark & Phil I think). Very welcoming. Caramel vodka recommended! She likes that vibe, and for a straight guy I had no bother. I think there's a bit of a drag element to the town too. We didn't do any of the big tourist trap shows tough.
Definitely recommend renting bikes. Best way to see the town. (The team we rented from are Marco Polo Activity Rental Centre on Avenida de Europa, close to beach and English area. Good lads, Dutch and Belgian. They rent quads, safari tours, cars, bikes....) Very reasonably priced. Everything was really good value actually. Means you can tip!
Benidorm is in 4 parts: Old Town, English side, Spanish side and local Benidorm. Great park down the local Benidorm bit with an ice-rink! There's a market too somewhere but we didn't see it.
Cinemas aren't really worth a look if your English speaking because the Spanish dub everything, but there was 1 movie on in English so it might be worth asking anyway.
Definitely rent a car though for a day and get up into the mountains and into Guadalest or somewhere and away from Benidorm for a bit if you can. It was my first time driving a foreign car but it was okay, not too fast and well sign-posted.
Yeah, we had fun! Good memories. Benny was good to us!
