Debbie Watkiss. Date of travel: Sep 2005
On reading others comments I am in agreement with them. Albir Gardens is aimed at the Spanish holidaymakers and I certainly got the impression that the Spanish didn't like the English being on their territory. They were very rude at meal times, pushing in front of us, looking and talking about us. The complex itself seemed very clean and nice looking on first impressions but during our 1 week stay I was disgusted with the cleanliness of the apartments. The towels got changed once on our last day and the sheets never got changed at all. Our kitchen bin was overflowing - surprised we never had rats. Very small rooms with no air conditioning and dangerous electrical wiring. We spent most of the time lying on lilos by the pool as sun loungers were not available because people put towels and chairs on top of them. Entertainment poor and in Spanish most of the time. Cinema showed Spanish films with English subtitles. I strongly advise all you English holidaymakers to leave well alone. One thing I will add is that I booked the holiday by allocation on arrival so I never chose to go there, but be very careful when booking allocation on arrival for the Costa Blanca. Tour Operator: First Choice

Sarah O'Doherty. Date of travel: Jul 2005
Myself, my partner, our 4 & half yr old daughter, his parents & 12 yr old brother are just home from a 2 week stay at Albir Garden. Sadly for us this is not a happy review, although we did enjoy our holiday to a certain extent purely beacase we made it fun for ourselves. Our overall view was very dissapointing. Myself & my partner were disappointed with many aspects: the apartments are tiny & cramped & how you could expect 4 people to share one apartment, never mind 2 adults & one small child, is beyond me. There is no airconditioning in the apartments which, fair enough, they never said there was, but it makes it that much more unpleasant. They rent fans for 18 euro a week, which when we rented two for two weeks we ended up paying 112 euro with a refund of 40 at the end of the two weeks. A pure money making scheme if you ask me. The housekeeping services were desperate. In 2 weeks we only got clean towels twice and clean sheets twice. Now some people may see no problem with that but in that heat and sweating as much as you do I prefer to feel clean & comfortable as much as possible. We found most of the bar staff to be extremely rude, except for 2 or 3 of them. We also found the evening entertainment very poor & at times unsuitable for young children. It was very clear that it was a very Spanish resort and geared more towards their Spanish holiday makers. Our daughter decided once to join in the games in the kiddies pool & ended up walking away half way through because she couldnt understand the woman speaking in Spanish all the time and the children were very rude to her. I also had a lovely encounter with one Spanish child who decided to jump into the pool over my head & ended up kicking me in the shoulder & in the temple... although his father did get into the pool and give out to him in Spanish neither himself or his son apologised to me. All shops & decent bars & restauraunts are at leats a 10/15 minute walk away and also the beach is a 15/20 min walk away which is no fun with a small child. We didn't bother going to any of the theme parks or water park as they too were pretty far away & would be expensive to get to as taxis only take 4 people & there were 6 people travelling in our party. And any people that we spoke to who did go to the parks said they really weren't worth the money. I can say that the pools and pool area was lovely but you had to be up at 7.30 or 8.00 in the morning to get sun loungers, umbrellas & a good spot beside the kiddies pool. With regard to Benidorm.. Well it is an absolute dive. Myself & my partner went out two nights in Benidorm ourselves and were not impressed. Benidorm square where all the bars are fine if you're English, Spanish, German, Dutch, Norwegian or anything else but we did not come across one Irish person.. Unless they were all hiding!!! The market in Benidorm was brutal as well, the same rubbish on every stall for ridicilous prices, & if u were a bit soft or didn't have much of a brain you would be fleeced... Food and drink were not much cheaper than home and some things were way over priced. A packet of Walkers crisps at the hotel bar was 1.60 and in the super market you could get them for .40c. Although Albir itself is a nice place and quiet, there was nothing in it. I don't know if I would bother booking another budget travel holiday as in the past I haven't found them to be that good. I would never go back to Albir, Albir Gardens or Benidorm and maybe not Spain. And I certainly wouldnt recommend it to anyone & to be honest if someone told me they were going there I would try convince them to go elsewhere. The Spanish people we came across there were extremely rude. The only positive thing is that we met some lovely Irish people from villages close to our own and the two kids made some nice friends, so all and all we spent a fortune to go away and make friends with people who live a couple of minutes out the road.. Ah well you live and learn, and we certainly learned alot. Adios!!! Tour Operator: Budget Travel

Paul Denieffe. Date of travel: Jul 2005
The safety deposit boxes get locked down at ten o' clock so you have to make sure you have what money you need for the night; there is a bank machine in the reception area but it is not always in working order. It can take in your card and for no reason spit it back out and shut down. There are 5 barmen: 2 of them were very nice, a Spanish barman and Andrew from Liverpool. The rest of them would rather be washing up the glasses than serve you and they will let you know too. If you were at the bar looking for a drink and then a Spanish holiday maker came to the bar before you got served they would be served before you. The surrounds and the pool are lovely but you have to get out early in the morning to get a lounger because they would have towels on them and the Spanish get very upset if you sit on their loungers. One of the days we were out at the pool all day there was a lounger beside us with a t-shirt on it. My mother, who came in from the shops, sat on the end of the lounger. About 2 minutes later a Spanish woman started screaming at her in Spanish and pointed at the lounger. We all got up and went to the apartment. An hour later we had to go to see the rep about water park tickets in the reception area. We sat down waiting for the rep and the woman from the pool came in shouting at the receptionist in Spanish and pointing at my mother. The receptionist came over to my mother and said, 'you sat on this woman's chair'. My mother said that she only sat on the end of it for a minute while we were getting the children out of the pool, that there was no one there all day, and she didn't mean any harm in it.. was there a problem? The receptionist, who was male, said in a angry voice that the woman wasn't happy about it, so my mother apologised and the receptionist translated it to the Spanish woman, but that wasn't good enuogh for the woman, so we just walked away. To get to the theme park Terra Miticka you have to get a taxi 15euros up and 15 euros back. The water park is 8 euros each way. You can get a bus into Benidorm for 90 cents but the bus stops at 10 o clock. The morning of check out the cleaners knocked up one of our apartments at 8.30 am and said that they had to get out; that they had to clean it for the next people. The person who was with our party came to me and told me what happened, and I told her that 12 o clock was the European time you had to be out. So she pulled the cleaner and then the cleaner apologised. At 11h30 they were waiting out side the apartments; one of are party started moving his bags to reception. When he came back the cleaners were in and he noticed some of his presents had gone missing from where he had just left them on the table. He started shouting at the cleaners: they had the stuff wrapped in sheets and hidden in the laundry bin. They gave them back when we told them we were getting the police. Another couple who were on the tranfer bus had a mobile and a 150 euros taken the same way. I could tell more but I will finish by saying Benidorm is a lovely place. In the main centre of Benidorm bars cater for all ages from children to oaps, but I would not recommend the Albir gardens to any one but the Spanish. You are better off getting accomodation central to Benidorm. I would go back but it would have to be in the centre of Benidorm. Tour Operator: Budget Travel

Sarah. Date of travel: Jul 2005
I stayed at Albir Gardens last July. I kind of disagree with the last two comments although pieces of them were true. There was a lot of spanish teenagers staying in an appartment straight across from ours everynight me and my younger cousin (who is 14) would walk to our appartment from the bar and have abuse shouted at us which we thought was quite ignorent. The entertainment wasnt very good for the adults or the children but we just made our own by staying in the appartment with our own music and some home made sangria. Appart from the two things i have just mentioned the holiday that i went on to Albir Gardens was one of if not the best holiday i have had. I met some friends who i will never forget. As a teenager i would deffinately advise other families with teenage children to go there. But this is jus my oppinion and everybody's is different. Tour Operator: My Travel