The Dynastic is Fantastic in Benidorm (Hotel Dynastic (Benidorm, Spain))

Member Name: rosebud2001

Product:	Hotel Dynastic (Benidorm, Spain)
Date:	27/01/09 (432 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great location, good food, lovely rooms

Disadvantages: Pools could be better, not enough lifts, entertainment very basic

Last year I needed a holiday in a hurry - my husband had died and I had been through a tough couple of months but my finances were tight.

I managed to book a week in Benidorm with Thomas Cook for myself, my sister and my daughter and we stayed at the Dynastic Hotel. The total cost for the holiday was £800, flying from Glasgow.

Formerly known as the Dynastic Park Hotel, the new Dynastic opened in 2005 so is one of Benidorm's newer establishments.

The hotel is located in the Rincon de Loix area of the town, which is about a kilometre or so from the centre, but only a 10 minute stroll to the beach and very close to Mundomar and Aqualandia.

I had been to Benidorm a couple of years prior to this visit and knew the area reasonably well as we had stayed at the nearby Melia Benidorm on that trip. The location swung it for me when I made the booking, together with the fact I got a good price on an all-inclusive holiday!

We travelled in May 2008 and our first impressions of the hotel were good.

The reception area is marble and very large. Reception staff were friendly and professional and check-in was painless. The receptionist explained that as we were staying all-inclusive we had to have our card key on us at all times to enter the restaurant and to get drinks at the bar - the hotel isn't exclusively all-inclusive and your key is swiped to check which tariff you are staying on.

The hotel comprises two towers - the one closest to reception has 7 floors, the one further away has 21 floors. We were in the bigger tower.

Rooms are large - we had a double bed and a foldaway style bed in the room and there was plenty of room to move about - we had a large wardrobe area which also housed a safe, and there was also drawer space and a desk and chair, along with a TV.

Rooms are accessed via your card key and you also need to place this inside a holder beside the door to switch on the electrics in the room. I worried the room might be overly hot with the air conditioning off but the rooms seem designed to stay cool and this was thankfully never a problem.

The balcony was large too and in our room overlooked a wonderful swimming pool which sadly didn't belong to our hotel!

The bathroom spacious with a large mirror over a ledge which also housed the wash hand basin. There was plenty of space on this ledge for my sister and I to store our various lotions and potions.

There was a bath with an overhead shower but the shower was a disappointment - it was very paltry and sometimes it fell off its clip in mid flow. You also had to be very careful when pulling over the shower curtain - my sister made the mistake of not checking and as a result the bathroom floor got soaked.

The beds were very comfortable - I often worry about how comfortable my daughter is on foldaway beds but she loved this one and was vocal about it too.

Maid service was good with towels being changed daily and the rooms kept clean. We got to know the maids, who always said "hola" and had a smile for us.

The restaurant was large and airy and always climate controlled. Meals are served buffet style and I was very impressed with the food. I have been to several hotels in Spain in the past and even for a few days the food can end up being quite repetitive but the chefs here managed to avoid that but still displayed excellent food management.

There was always a varied selection of fish and meat on offer and dishes were marked in Spanish and English in case you were unsure of what you were getting. This worked fine until one evening my sister and I were looking forward to "steak" but when we tucked in realised it was liver - something we both dislike intensely - so clearly sometimes things get lost in translation.

My daughter always found something to eat, even if it was just chips and some vegetables, followed by fruit. I would add, however, that she is a very fussy eater.

The hotel has two outdoor pools - neither of which are anything special nor particularly large. The kids pool is larger than the main one but my daughter preferred the main one as she likes the water a little deeper. There were lots of sun loungers but as usual these were "reserved" early in the morning by people not planning on using them until the afternoon.

The bar area is situated close to the pool and you can get service outside (plastic glasses only) or go inside for a proper glass. I found the bar staff to be friendly and polite, which was more than could be said for a small element of guests who didn't have "please" and "thank you" in their vocabulary.

If you are on the all-inclusive tariff all locally produced alcoholic drinks are included, but if you tired of the local firewater, you could pay an extra Euro for an international brand. Soft drinks are also included.

There is also an indoor pool within the hotel but be warned you must wear a swimming cap if you want to use it. You can buy a cap at the hotel at an inflated price so my advice is bring your own. There is also a Jacuzzi area by the indoor pool.

Entertainment was provided by a small team of staff during the day and in the evenings. My daughter found it pretty dull - she was too big for the mini disco unfortunately - and some of the other stuff like bingo was of no interest to her. My sister and I found it perfectly adequate - the hotel attracts a lot of Spanish guests so the entertainment was done in both languages and we enjoyed getting to know guests of both nationalities. Audience participation was also encouraged.

However if you want to be entertained solely in English, this place probably isn't for you and it definitely isn't sophisticated either.

Free WiFi is available in the bar and reception areas of the hotel, but not in the rooms unfortunately. I took a small netbook with me and was able to surf every day without any problems.

My only complaint about the hotel was the lifts. There are 4 lifts for the 2 towers - so if you are in the small 7 floor tower you probably won't have too many problems waiting for a lift. However if you are in the 21 floor tower, as we were, you can find yourself waiting 10 minutes. When we were there one of the lifts broke down, which didn't help matters and staff seemed pretty unconcerned when guests complained.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the Dynastic - and would recommend it if you want a great quality 4 star hotel to stay at in Benidorm.

The hotel can be booked direct from several booking sites with rates for half board in May 2009 at £87 per night for a double room. You may find the tour operators offer a more competitive price and all inclusive should be considered given the weakness of the pound against the euro. Direct Holidays and Flyglobespan are offering this hotel for 2009.

http://www.sun-confort.com/index.php?seccion=dyna stic&menu=menu2menos

L'Ametlla del Mar, 15
03503 Benidorm (Alicante)
Tel. (34) 96 585 36 00
Fax (34) 96 585 89 33

Summary: Lovely 4 star hotel in Benidorm