Sunset Drive Benidorm by Mar Holidays

Last year I absolutely loved these apartments — I honestly couldn’t wait to come back again! The location of the complex and the view from the terrace on the 22nd floor are absolutely stunning — truly breathtaking and unforgettable. It really feels like a movie! The apartments themselves are beautiful, and the facilities around the hotel are amazing too — everything you could possibly need is right there: shops, cafés, restaurants, and the beach is just a 5-minute walk away. It should also be mentioned that the staff were very polite and always in touch. There were absolutely no problems with check-in — the administrator answered both messages and phone calls quickly and kindly 👍🏻 Deposit been returned without any problem.

What I didn’t like this time was the quality of some items compared to the price per night. It cost a couns and customers deserve for a good ones. There was a lot of damaged or poor-quality kitchenware — for example, all the wooden spatulas had mold on them, and many of the plates and utensils were chipped or scratched. The apartment has everything necessary for cooking, but it would be great to have a bit more kitchen equipment — for example, a simple bottle opener, a grater, and a few other basic utensils. The air conditioner didn’t work. At least we couldn’t manage how it should work. Also a few blinds on the sunny side were also broken, and there was a very unpleasant smell coming from the drains, which made it hard to sleep at night.

Spacious clean and stunning views complex had everything you need

Hard pillows!

The apartment we were given was a beautiful, large, modern three bedroom, two shower room apartment on the 15th floor of the building, which I think had 23 floors. It had fantastic views of Poniente beach and Benidorm Island. We ate most of our meals on the balcony enjoying the fabulous views. There were lots of great restaurants nearby or you could walk along the seafront to the Old Town or even further on to the more bustling Levante beach area. The concierge lady in the office at the apartments was very helpful. We went to the Hotel Grand Bali one morning and you can go up to their Skydeck which has absolutely fantastic views and is only 6 Eur which includes a free drink in the bar. We had a great night out at the Benidorm Palace dinner show and we also went to the Sunday morning market near Levante beach. We got a taxi there because it's quite a way from the apartment. We also got a taxi from Alicante airport to Benidorm and back with Beniconnect, which was really good and very reasonable. Benidorm has plenty for everyone to do and there are so many different hotels and apartments to choose from. I don't think we'd return to these apartments because of the difficulties with the staff in the pool area.

The fact that we had such trouble getting the key to our apartment on arrival, as we couldn't get the keysafe open and the company office (about a 15 minute walk from the apartments) was already closed when we arrived, even though it was prior to 8pm. Then, luckily, one staff member was working late and came to our rescue. He called another staff member and after a bit of a wait, she arrived and gave us a spare key. (They were also unable to open the keysafe)! The next day, a member of staff came to our apartment and gave us the proper key. It was all quite stressful at the time of arrival, but it was eventually resolved. Also, they didn't tell us that the bar in the pool area wasn't in operation at all and that the staff there are instructed to stop everyone from eating and drinking anything around the pool area, even water in a plastic bottle! They also have a tag system to open the turnstile into the pool area and we had to pay 20 EUR per tag plus 20 EUR for wristbands for each person to show that we were staying at the apartments. And they only took cash, which was returned to you when you returned the tags and wristbands just before going back home. The lifeguards and the guy who appeared to be in charge of the pool area turnstiles are real jobsworths and seemed determined to ruin people's holidays. Some lifeguards were just chatting all the time and probably wouldn't have noticed if someone was drowning! But they noticed immediately if you tried to sneak a drink of water to the poolside area! Absolutely ridiculous! The grounds are lovely and well maintained but it's on quite a steep incline and there are lots of steps to get down to the street and beach level, so it's not suitable for people with poor mobility. There's a road and pavement too, but that's also quite a hill. The beach is beautiful though, so worth the effort.

Electric curtains did not work, Water doesn't drain well from sink and toilet, not very clean