Go reader Brian Hipwell and his wife, from Glenageary in Dublin, got in touch to tell us about their experience in Spain. They took up the Spanish government’s offer of a subsidised holiday for over-55s, which cost them €700 for seven days in a four-star hotel in Benalmádena, including flights and meals for two.
Calling it “a very sorry experience”, with bad food and overworked, unhelpful staff, he says he regrets he didn’t spend the money on a good hotel in Ireland.
He says on his wife’s birthday they gave up asking their rep for advice on good restaurants in the area because she was “always rushing around at a great rate”, not saying a lot. “If you wanted to talk to her about something she had four planes to meet.”
He says there were no shops or places of interest within walking distance of the hotel, which was on a main route between Malaga and Marbella.
“There were no bar facilities in the hotel except in a function room in the basement, and this was accessible only by lift.”
The dining room was “chaotic, the food was cold and unappetising, and the free bottle of wine was of inferior quality. As a result we only dined there on three occasions”.
He had a bruising experience when the chair in his bedroom collapsed under him on the first night, “but little interest was shown at the reception, where the main interest seemed to be only to replace the chair”.
A free coach trip to a historic town was “a complete fiasco”, he says. “The guide had very little English and was unable to explain where to meet for the return trip.”
His verdict? “Out of 10, it barely registers a two.” To help remedy the chaos, a choice of two fixed times for all meals was introduced during their seven-day stay.
“It reminded me of holiday camps,” says Hipwell.