Residence Benalmádena Príncipe

As a family of 3, we have just come back from an 8 night stay at this apartment complex and have to say, it's a decent place. If like us, you prefer self-catering holidays due to it being a lot more free and unregulated of your time, rather than being tied into the meal times of a catered holiday, the expense of all-inclusive then this will serve you well. The complex itself is clean and well maintained, with staff on hand at all times. There is a poolside bar area for all your drinks and light food items, clean poolside toilets that are large, and 3 poolside showers. There are plenty of sun loungers which become available from 10am to 10pm, and whilst we were there, there was some sun lounger grabbing, but if you're there at 10am there are plenty to go around. There is a main pool and a toddler pool, the toddler pool is tiled, with the main pool being a pool liner. The whole pool area is a sun trap for pretty much all of the day, so the pools warm up pretty quickly. The surrounding area to the pool comprises of tiles and fake grass. The apartments are well fitted out... The living room area with a TV, sofa that pulls out into a bed, armchair, dining table and chairs, drawers and a cupboard with ironing board, sweeping brush, mop and bucket. There are also doors onto the balcony area. The bedroom has 2 beds, which are queen size at best and are very much on the firm side. Plenty of wardrobe space (the iron for clothes is in there) and drawers and doors onto the balcony area. The bathroom is clean, with what you would expect, over the bath shower (great water pressure for getting the sun cream off), toilet, bidet, sink, and hair dryer. Shower gel and shampoo is provided via on the wall pump bottles. The toilet roll is also provided as are towels, which are changed halfway through the stay. The kitchen area is well fitted out with a full-size fridge freezer, an electric stove top, kettle, microwave/cobi oven, coffee maker, the most bizarre toaster I've ever seen (see photo), dish washer and washing machine. Washing up liquid, dishwasher tablets and general cleaner are provided, but not liquid for the washing machine liquid, which is cheap enough to buy from the mini market on site, which I'll get to next. There are enough knives, forks, plates, etc, for a family of 10. There are 2 shops on site. The main one is a large mini market type shop that sells everything you would expect, including the washing machine tablets that were extremely cheap, as is everything else in there. I'm not sure what time it actually opens, but it's open 7 days a week until 2am, so there's no issue grabbing a couple of cold balcony beers from the well stocked fridge for that night cap we all love on holiday, oh and they have a massive selection of snacks. The second shop sells tobacco, spirits, and all of those kinds of bits and bats. They also sell all of your inflatable pool toys, but be aware that the poolside staff aren't keen on people using large inflatables in the pool, which trust me, is a good thing. The staff in both shops are extremely helpful and very friendly. They also both take cash, card and contactless payments. The complex is also situated about a 4 minute walk from a large Mercadona if you want to do a larger shop. Exit the main front door, turn right and walk up to the junction, turn left, walk straight up the road and you can't miss it on your left. To get to the beach is no more than a 5 minute walk, come out of the complex main doors, walk past the mini market, turn left and walk straight down. The beach itself is not quite sand, but nearly sand which I prefer because it doesn't get all over you and is still nice to walk on. You can take your own beach gear, or rent sunbeds and large brolly for 14 euros a day (that's for 2 beds) and that area is roped off. There are also toilets and washing stations. There are plenty of shops, bars and restaurants in the area which are all cheap (less than 3 euros for a beer generally) and all within a short walking distance.