We have just arrived from a week half board at the Benikaktus hotel. This is a very nice comfortable hotel but let down badly by the quality of the food.
The hotel is on a slight rise at the northern end of Levante beach. This is just about as far away from the central areas of the resort as you can get but still within 200m of facilities such as shops and bars and a 15 minute walk from the British area. This is a very quiet area with not a lager lout in sight.
The rooms are spacious, clean and nicely furnished. The beds are twin, large and comfortable. Each room has a view of the bay. Note that the advice to request end rooms is incorrect. All rooms have the same arc of view so don’t fuss about end rooms as advised elsewhere. The balcony is enclosed by windows. Two windows slide to open. There is a folding door between balcony and bedroom which must be incredibly useful in peak summer weather. Maid service was excellent.
All meals are buffet service. The meals varied between terrible and very good. For the first 4 days of the week, the standard of all the various choices was poor, badly cooked and tasteless. For the last three nights, the standard suddenly improved and by the last night the meals were first class! Breakfast is identical each day and suffers from a restricted choice. There is an extensive fruit table at all meals but the quality is variable. Dinner suffered in quality as for breakfast. There is a soup course, a cold table, hot meal, sweet table and fruit. Main hot courses were a choice of three but apart from chips / mashed potato and sometimes rice there was only one vegetable accompaniment. Often this was tinned.
The bar area was very good and the terrace area recommended. Surprisingly there was only a choice of just one draught beer – Amstel. Prices were reasonable and service good. We saw three of the cabarets and they varied between good and very good. The bar at night reflected the age group of this hotel, 50 plus. There is ballroom style dancing every night to recorded music. The bar area closes at midnight.
The hotel catered for perhaps 20% English speaking visitors and the other guests were mainly from the Low Countries on packages and Spanish. Not sure which British tour operator uses this hotel since there was no holiday information in English in reception. This is not a children’s hotel.
Reception service was difficult unless you speak Spanish - as they do in Spain. I sent an e-mail prior to our visit but never got a reply. We had a bad start at our 2am arrival, where we were given the wrong key card and then not told about the card activator system for the electrics.
Note that all coach transfers do not go to the hotel. You are dropped / picked up outside Burger King by the beach and have to make your own way for the next 200m. So make sure you know where the hotel is beforehand.
A point of interest – the hotel Nadal next door is famous for an ETA bomb attack.
Satisfied overall with no real complaints apart from the food.
- Benikaktus Hotel Benidorm
- Benikaktus
