This stylish adults-only hotel boasts a state-of-the-art wellness area, a speciality restaurant, and smart bedrooms.
This smart, modern hotel ticks all the right boxes with TripAdvisor reviewers. Their approval of its contemporary looks gifted the hotel a Certificate of Excellence.
Rooms feature a stylish slate-grey colour scheme, and come with plump beds and sound-proof double glazing. Premium rooms even have hydro-massage baths.
Breakfast and dinner are served here with show-cooking and carving stations, a SENSFresh salad bar and special themed evenings twice a week. Gluten free and vegetarian meals available with prior notice. There is a dress code for the restaurant – men can wear smart shorts when dining, but leave the swimwear, flip-flops and sports vests in your room.
You'll find Mediterranean and international cuisine on offer here. The Culinarium, hosts themed evenings that revolve around the likes of seafood, sunsets and local specialities. You'll have one meal per stay included, don't forget to make a reservation at reception.
These sleek and stylish, premium double rooms provide you with plenty of space. And they come with a large balcony, offering views of the sea. Plus, you'll also find air-conditioning, and a flatscreen TV included. You'll be able to connect two devices to the Wi-Fi for free.
These bright, modern double rooms come with a balcony, air-conditioning and a flatscreen TV. You'll be able to connect two devices to the Wi-Fi for free.
Stay in Benalmadena
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Another lovely hotel. Also operated by TUI Sensimar, so no bairns allowed (perfect for me).
Have been twice as of writing this review (March, 2019 and February, 2020), and both times have been amazing.
The hotel is right on the promenade, there are two ways to get down there. The direct route uses a lift which we reach by going down a corridor near the lobby, whilst another is down several flights of stairs by the pool. There is a gate which exists onto the promenade, you can open it normally from the inside, but to get in from the outside you need to use your hotel key card on the lock pad.
Lovely walk along the promenade, but it is best to go in the evening when it is a bit cooler and the African peddlers (probably illegal aliens) who line the promenade during the day have left back to their no doubt dingy lodgings somewhere near Malaga. They don't seem pushy (too much) but are a bit of nuisance, some of them selling small items such as rings or watches walk along the prom bothering those sat in the beachside cafes on the prom.
The dining room is nice and spacious with the standard fare for TUI Sensimar hotels (breakfast and evening meal, with themed evening meals that change every day).
The bar serves snacks during the day, though is a bit pricey, so we didn't use it much.
I'd recommend trying to book a room with a balcony looking over the beach. Rooms come with Tea and Wine making facilities, I'd recommend waking up around 6 AM (if only for a short while) and having a tea (or coffee) whilst watching the sun rise. Complimentary wine, water and apples are also available. I'm not a fan of wine normally, being an ale man, but the local Vino Tinto was nice, I'll admit.More
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Yorkie501, 186346
Great place to stay
A little late writing this review, stayed here in March for a week leaving the day Spain went into lockdown. Everything was brilliant although we were slightly anxious about looming lockdown, enjoyed daily fitness & yoga classes with a lovely entertainments rep who made everyone so welcome. Food was good, restaurant & hotel very clean. As I write this review I’ve decided to book again for October, hoping to book a room with balcony overlooking sea this time. Can’t wait to return for a post lockdown break.More
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Linda M,
Good hotel with great location, but restaurant a bit of a disappointment
The Riviera is a medium-sized hotel located on a steep slope between the busy Avenida Antonio Machado and the seafront promenade, to the west of and for most people within easy walking distance of Benalmádena Marina. Frequent local service buses pass the hotel, to Fuengirola or Mijas (across the road) or Málaga (same side), standard single fare 1.70€. Longer-distance services also pass by. Reception is accessed by a fairly steep vehicular ramp from the Avenida and is effectively one floor level below the highway. The promenade is three floors below Reception, helpfully very accessible by a lift from Reception level. The two main lifts are separate from the promenade lift and service the Restaurant level one floor below Reception, up to the rooms. The lifts are usually adequate, but we experienced some lengthy waits at busy times, notably mealtimes. Although the lifts were very useful, the disabled often had to contend with a few steps or a steep ramp or a circuitous walk, even just to get to the restaurant or pool area. Those with a slight disability should be fine, but wheelchair users may have a problem, depending on their individual needs - if in doubt, e-mail the hotel and ask. Getting from the restaurant to the adjoining pool area could be a bit difficult for the disabled; but ask the staff, and they would open the usually-locked doors and allow guests to escape the easy way.
The hotel is an oblong block with the shorter sides facing the sea and the Avenida. The rooms facing west overlook a car park and storage area. Those facing east overlook the pool, and potentially have great views over the beach and sea towards the Marina, though a large, and quite magnificent tree blocks a fair bit of the view - a bit of a trade-off there. The few rooms right at the seaward end facing directly seaward are undoubtedly those to seek. All rooms other than perhaps the seaward-facing suffer from a lot of traffic noise from the Avenida, notably from motor bikes, and the light-controlled junction immediately to the west does not help. We did not use our balcony because of this, and even the rooms overlooking the pool have little protection as there is little physical barrier between those rooms and the highway.
Our room was of a good size, with a well-equipped en-suite complete with walk-in-shower, including both fixed overhead and flexible movable outlets. The shower suffered a bit from the age-old problem of swings in temperature, presumably when other guests in nearby rooms turned their showers on or off, so just be wary. The room had some sort of flooring rather than carpeting, presumably badly fitted as it squeaked loudly whenever we walked on it. We were frequently woken in the early hours by squeaking floor noise from either above or adjacent rooms - difficult to be sure in the middle of the night! The walls seemed to be very thin too, as we heard a lot of conversation and TV noise from adjacent rooms. There was a 32” TV on the wall, with a few British channels, but the sound quality seemed to vary from programme to programme and the guide didn’t work, so we never knew what was coming on when. Room safe and aircon were not separately charged for. The book of words said that the aircon could be individually controlled in the rooms, but there were no instructions - a few symbols on a wall-mounted controller, but meaningless for those of us from northern climes who are rather more accustomed to de-icing than cooling down.
The restaurant was pleasant, and the food was of a reasonable variety and quality, though not really to our liking and we often struggled to find something we wanted to eat. Two sorts of bacon were available at breakfast - streaky, which had the consistency of a credit card dipped in sump oil, and some other sort of a dark brown colour which the guests seemed to inspect rather than take. The fried eggs were almost invariably solid - perhaps too many put out at once and just left over heat to dry out. There always seemed to be dishes misdescribed or without cards, and trays empty for long periods. There was probably more dirty crockery and cutlery than clean, both in the place settings and in collection points. This was our first visit, but a number of returning guests said they felt standards had fallen. There was an evening dress code for the restaurant, described in somewhat ambiguous terms about “maintaining the stylish ambiance that you would expect …”, but apparently floppy jeans complete with brickies’ bottoms are OK for both sexes, as are football tops hanging down over scruffy jeans, so it seems to be pretty well go-as-you-please. Incidentally, is it just me, or do the male supervisory staff in a Spanish restaurant always look like they’ve borrowed their suits from their somewhat larger brothers?
The main plus point of this hotel is perhaps the pool area, with its excellent view over the sea towards the marina, with parrots nesting in the trees immediately in front of the hotel (in March), and the snow-capped Sierra Nevada just visible past Torremolinos. Strangely, there were no toilets immediately accessible from the pool area - a visit necessitated either a trek into the hotel, or a climb down either a lot of stairs or a steep slope. In both pool area and bar, the ambiance was rather destroyed by large groups of guests gathering, spreading over a large area and shouting over each other. The constant drone of jet skis was also a bit of a downer. One unusual feature was the artificial eagle owl (I think) set high up on the wall of the building immediately to the east of the pool area, presumably to deter dick dicks from doing their doo doos all over the façade. It seems to work too, for the façade was quite clean.
Because of the excessive noise level in the hotel bar, we opted out and used ‘Scruffy Murphy’s’ bar directly opposite the hotel, throughout our stay - and the drinks were cheaper there anyway.
Finally, two thoughts which the management may wish to consider. First, guests receive only one key card per room. Provided couples always go everywhere together, this is fine. However, if one decides to stay by the pool whilst the other exits for a walk along the promenade, either the stayer can’t access their room for any purpose, or the walker has to take a climb up a steep access to enter the hotel from the Avenida rather than just open the very useful gate from the promenade with the key card. Would it really break the bank to let adult couples have a card each? Secondly, recycling. The hotel guide refers to green policies, etc. There is a set of recycling bins by the pool area, but not where most guests enter or leave the pool area, which is when they are most likely to wish to deposit items. Perhaps relocation to the edge of the pool area towards the promenade lift might increase usage. Worth a temporary trial, perhaps? Also, it would surely be sensible to put one set of recycling bins on each floor with bedrooms, straight opposite the lifts? Many guests would then be able to use them on leaving or entering, rather than filling the general waste bins in the individual rooms.
All the staff we met were pleasant and helpful, as were the TUI reps. Overall, we had a pleasant holiday, but I think other Costas hotels are more to our individual taste.More
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WartsAndAll,
Brilliant as always.
This was our 7th visit to the Riviera and we have yet to be dissapointed. Credit must be given to all staff in reception, restaurant, bar and entertainment staff and of course our room cleaner. We must also, in particular, mention Manolo, our favourite waiter who, sadly, will be retiring soon after 32 years service to the Medplaya group. We will feel his absence during our next visit. Happy retirement Manolo.
We have also been very impressed with the standard of entertainment.
Our thanks to everyone and we hope to see you all again when we next visit.
With regards,
Maggie and Gordon.
Llanelli, South Wales.More
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gordon_jones37, 776264
Brilliant under the circumstances
We went to the Riviera on 12th March 2020 for a week and this is the Fifth time that we have been to this hotel.
After three days we were all in lockdown because of the coronavirus by the Spanish government ruling, even though this awful problem that was about the hotel were still first class in everything that they did for the holiday makers, the food stayed the same which is excellent and the staff were also so good to everyone and even the hotel owner came in and spoke to us and thanked us and said that he hoped to see us again when things get better.
The TUI reps Nicola and Hanna were also on hand everyday to help with anything that we wanted to know , people treated them awful over the problem and it was nothing to do with them but they took it , great respect from them on the professional manner that they had.
Well done to everyone of the staff that was at the hotel to make our holiday as comfortable as possible .
We will be back ASAPMore
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