Review : Rio Park Hotel Benidorm

Thanks to a recent travel agency fam trip to Benidorm staying at the Rio Park, this post has been updated and moved to a new home here :

Rio Park Benidorm holiday review

Quick summary : Great location, good value hotel punching above it's weight considering it's a 2 star.

Review : Fiesta Jungla Apartments Magaluf

Fiesta Jungla Aparthotel, Magaluf, Majorca,

Overview

Part of the Fiesta Group of hotels, the 3 star Aparthotel Fiesta Jungla is in central Magaluf.
One important thing to note is that your holiday experience will very greatly depending what time of year you stay at the Fiesta Jungla aparthotel. Particuarly in the high season June-September this hotel will be full of "young and lively" types intent of having a good time and not much sleep. Outside of the high summer months it will be a bit more laidback.

Book Fiesta Jungla Magaluf at:

Room

Clean and tidy but basic. Ceiling fan, no air conditioning.
Basic cooking facilities, most importantly for most guests there is a fridge for keeping drinks cool. Some apartments have bigger balconies than others.

General hotel amenities

Huge pool, sunbeds to use on the pool terrace. Other leisure facilities include a multi-sports activity area for five-a-side football along with both table tennis and pool tables.

Food & Beverages

Pizzeria/snack bar and both lounge and pool bars. Due to the locaction in "downtown" Magaluf there is a wide choice of bars and restaurants in the vicinity. Most of these cater for British clientelle. You know the sort of thing, full English breakfast and a pint of Carling.

Location and surroundings

Fiesta Jungla is situated around 300 metres from the beach in the lively resort of Magaluf on the south west coast of Majorca. More specifically, right next to the infamous BCM nightclub in Magaluf.

Location of Hilton Sa Torre Mallorca

Map showing location of Llucmajor on Mallorca where Hilton have a new 90 room hotel called the Hilton Sa Torre Mallorca. The hotel will open in June 2008.


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Hilton Sa Torre Mallorca Official Page
Hilton Sa Torre Mallorca Review

4 nights in Turkey, 2 people, under a fiver !

What can you get for under a fiver these days ?


















* About 60% of the London congestion charge - 1 car, 1 day.











* 2 pints of Stella in an average boozer.












* 1 studio at the Kaan apartments in Dalaman, (fly to Dalaman, DLM).
It's got a pool, darts board, snack bar and is about 500 metres from the beach.
Total price for 24 May - 28 May, booked at sunshine.co.uk, £4.87. (!)




Now if only we could find some cheap flights to Dalaman to go with it . . .

Review : Radisson SAS, Biarritz

Overview of Radisson SAS, Biarritz.
Lovely food (well it is France) in a very nice resort. Would recommend this hotel for a short break.

Room
We had a ground floor room with no view but that was OK as we had a baby and stroller so ground floor was sensible. We pre-ordered a cot (free) which was in the room and was lovely. Lovely bed as in all the Radisson SAS hotels I have tried. They get the important things right (Breakfast, Bed & Service?)



General hotel amenities
There was a good spa that tempted me but in the end I didn't have any treatments. The pool was small but was very inviting and there was a good towel service and guests went up in the dressing gowns from the rooms. Architecture of the hotel is nothing special but the views from the roof are excellent and sunsets make it very memorable.

Tip: Compare prices at multiple sites using Kelkoo hotel

Food & Beverages
1 restaurant at the hotel and 1 cafe on the rooftop, rather unusually for me I tried them both and can heartily recommend the restaurant for excellent food, presentation and service. The cafe is OK food but the location / view makes it a winner too. Breakfast was very nice, good selection from the buffet, all the usual plus very wide range of teas.

Location and surroundings
On a hill just outside the centre, driving is a bit tricky due to a lot of one way streets. Walking to town is no problem but lots of hills and small pavements so a bit tougher with suitcase / pram. Good thing about the hill though is fantastic ocean views and lovely sunsets.
No noise problems from our room. One of the great things about Biarritz as a short break destination is the fact that the airport is so close to the town. A short bus ride for a couple of Euro in fact. You can see the runway in the satelite photo of Biarritz below.



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Review : RIU Palace Riviera Maya

A wonderful Cancun Holiday



The Hotel Riu Palace Riviera Maya is one of the latest addition to the Riu family in Playa del Carmen. The hotel is located in the Yucatan peninsula that is 2.8 km / 1.8 miles from Playa del Carmen.



Official website : RIU Palace Riviera Maya, Mexico

Also available to book RIU hotels at Thomsons online :

















General hotel amenities

The hotel is very grand but also modern, there are some very impressive features - massive ceilings, lots of marble, nice chandeliers for example. The pools are superb. There is one that is like a raised infinity pool and then there is a large pool linked to that by a waterfall. There are swim up bars of course. The gym was nice, all brand new equipment and good air-con. Lots of American and Canadian guests when we visited.

Room

We were on the highest floor, with a sea view.
Cleaning was excellent with different "sculptures" made out of the towels each day.
I think this is a RIU trademark - there was optics in the room!

Food & Beverages

While a lot of people are now familiar with the all inclusive service concept, RIU All inclsuive is a class above, even more so in Mexico and The Caribbean. The all inclusive facilities are available 24 hours a day.

We tried all 4 la carte restaurants and weren't disappointed at all. In a way I preferred the buffets just because of the massive choice but the service was very good in the a la carte restaurants.

You could eat and drink 24hours a day because the sports bar was always open and apart from the bar had a bit of self service food - fruit, sandwiches and nachos.
Did the buffet for breakfast which was superb and catered for all lifestyles /nationalities, you could go healthy with lovely fresh fruit, yoghurt etc or pig out on fresh doughnuts or pancakes.

Location and surroundings

Nice beach, a little bit slim ( I think a hurricane a few months before had "taken" a lot of it away!), lovely blue sea, but we spent most of the time by the pool as there was more shade there. There were some nice hammocks on the beach. The resort of Playa Del Carmen is just about walking distance if you are fit and is very nice, a lot more laid back than Cancun.

Location of Rio Park Benidorm

Rio Park Hotel, Benidorm, Costa Blanca



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Satelite image or Rio Park, Benidorm