if you get their late or on a sunday better be prepaired to sleep on the street as no one will bring the key we spent 2 hours trying to get in we had a 6 month old baby and despite agents in britan ringing round to get keys none came we were told to book into a hotel for 1 night we did at a cost of 260 euro which we were told will be refunded only 95 pounds has been offered to date and refuse to offer more when we did get in appartment was good but beware of man pretending to be a rep hes going to try to get 8500 pounds for a time share if you let him in

We are a family of 4 and stayed at Casinomar for a week at October half term in a 1 bed-roomed apartment. The apartments are in 3 blocks in a quieter part of Benalmadena directly across the road from the Torrequebrada hotel and casino and close to the golf course. There is a combination of timeshare, full ownership and holiday rental usage in each of the blocks.

Our views on the accomodation and Benalmadena are very mixed. Firstly the positives, the accomodation was really spacious with a large living area, kitchen, bedroom with ensuite bathroom, a large hallway and 2 really good size balconies. The layout could have been awkward if we had been 4 adults, as per the capacity, as the only bathroom was ensuite however it worked fine for us . The whole site is gated and required a key for foot or car access into an underground parking area with allocated parking spot. Access was directly from the car park into the internal stair well of each building. Our apartment had lovely views of the ocean and the sorrounding mountains. There was a pool with a children's section sorrounded by a grassed area with parasols, there were no sun loungers but the grass was comfortable to lay on with towels and the area was really clean and well tended. The apartments are a bit out of the centre but on the road to the side of them were a couple of cafe/bars, a brilliant minimarket which was crammed to the rafters but had just about anything you could want, a hairdressers, pharmacy and a couple of banks. About a 5 minute walk away was another row of new looking and good quality restaurants and a large supermarket . To get into the centre of benalmadena was about a 25 minute walk or a bus ride from directly outside the complex( 1.15 euro each way No's 110, 120)

The negatives, there is no proper reception on arrival I had to ring a number for someone to come to the property with a key- on ringing the number was unavailable and caused several minutes anxiety until I saw a sheet of paper stuck to the window giving an alternative one, the person with the key arrived after about 5 minutes-luckily we arrived at 10.00pm apparantly if it had been after midnight we would not have been able to get the key till the next morning- on departure we had to leave the key outside in the open which hardly seemed safe. Despite being generally really nice internally the apartments were starting to look a bit shabby and could have done with sprucing up, some of the door frames were slightly rotten and some wall tiles were cracked. The kitchen was wonderfully equipped with electrical equipment with full cooker, microwave, fridge freexer, dishwasher and washing machine but lacked the provision of the basics there was insufficient crockery and only one huuuuuge saucepan this made preparing even a basic breakfast and eating it at the same time impossible. Probably the most annoying thing however was the noise caused by really poor sound proofing and inconsiderate apartment owners( we know they were owners as they checked in at 3.00 in the morning). The doors to the apartment were metal and had huge gaps under them unfortunately our apartment was situated in a stairwell, thus every door slammed in the stairwell, of which there were many sound like cannon fire going off. For the first few days we didn't pick up any noise from surrounding apartments but then had the misfortune of having the nosiest people above us, as mentioned they arrived at 3.00a.m and for 2 hours proceeded to bang every cupboard and drawer while their children ran around screeching and shouting loudly, at about 5.00am things seemed intially to quieten down but they then decided to get intimate directly above us and didn't finally stop until 6.00a.m. Had this been a one night only event I could probably have lived with it but it wasn't and was repeated the following night from midnight until 4.45 and our final night. Shamefully I decided to get at least a little revenge on our day of departure when we had to be up at 8.00( only an hour after they had finished a further night banging -in more ways than one) and I slammed every door at every opportunity and left my hairdryer running in the bedroom- that's what sleep deprivation can do for you!

While I wouldn't be put off the apartments altogether I would definitely try and get a top floor one away from a stairwell.