Hello Benidorm

Its been a couple of years since we went to Benidorm. as Phil and Irene were there from the UK for a weeks holiday, we booked a night in the same hotel, all inclusive, so we could spend some time with them. As we payed very little for the aparthotel room. we wondered what it would be like but when we arrived at around 11.45 the hotel receptionist let us check in straight away into the spacious, clean 1 bedroom apartment. We met up with Phil and Irene and went for lunch,the food was very good, hot and with plenty of choice, this was the case throughout our stay. Usually with the bar in an all inclusive hotel you end up in along queue for drinks but although the hotel was full, service was extremely quick.
After the urbanisations of the Vega Baja the Benidorm skyscrapers are quite imposing and since we were last there a new bus station and fire station have been built. There seemed to be a lot of holidaymakers around so maybe they are going to have a good year, in fact, New statistics are showing that tourism to Spain has risen for the first time in 18 months with 119000 more tourists arriving in January this year, making a total off 2.66 billion, half a million of those being Brits.
Only an 1 hour and a quarter drive from Guardamar, it is certainly another world for us for a couple of days.

Christmas at The Albir Gardens Hotel

We have just spent Christmas with Bec and Joaquin in the Albir Gardens Hotel in Albir just outside Benidorm, we had the all inclusive package so were able to eat and drink as much as we liked, the food and service were excellent, included was a fantastic six course Christmas dinner, starting with canapes of cheese, prawns, avocado, next soup, then a fillet of Salmon, then Turkey with all the trimmings, followed by Christmas pudding and mince pies, as much wine as you wanted and Champagne, unbelievably, some people just picked at the food or turned it away - - It was just too different for them.
The Albir Gardens is an aparthotel with apartments in blocks set among grass and trees, each apartment has bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, lounge and balcony and our accommodation was spacious and clean. There is a large outside swimming pool, indoor pool, Jacuzzi, Sauna and Gym among other facilities.
The weather was not that good but we still had the chance to do a bit of walking and we thoroughly enjoyed a very relaxing Christmas.