Fantastic hotel, lots to do, great food, brilliant pools and an F1 simulator that kept the kids entertained

⭐️ Albir Garden Resort — the honest review 😂☀️ Right, after an absolutely brilliant holiday at Albir Garden Resort, I feel like I need to give an honest review because some of the negative reviews had me wondering what on earth we were walking into… 🤣 First things first — SUNBEDS! No, you do NOT need to get up at 6am like some sort of Olympic sunbed athlete 😂 As long as you're down before around 10am, you’ll be absolutely fine. Pool noodles are ESSENTIAL. 😂 Get one. Thank me later. A sunbed cushion also makes sunbathing approximately 847% more comfortable. And DRINKS CARRIERS are genius. Most people seem to gift them to the next arrivals at the end of their holiday, so if you're coming here, post on the group and see who's leaving what behind. 😉 If not, Buy More (basically Spain's answer to B&M 😂) has EVERYTHING you need and it's cheap! 🍹 The bar opens at 9am in the main building — and the branded drinks are actually really good! Cocktails were fab. Our favourites were: 🍭 Lollipops 🥭 Mango Rum 🍫 Baileys with chocolate milk — basically a dessert in a glass! The snack bar is AMAZING 👏 and was a massive hit with us. You can also book the BBQ, Smash Burger and Italian without restrictions, so you don't have to rely solely on the main restaurant. 👦 Kids' food: The children's menu is pretty basic, but there is still loads to eat and I'm sure they'll find something. My son ate loads throughout the day and was definitely not going hungry! 🎤 Entertainment: The entertainment team have AMAZING energy. They're genuinely fun to watch even when you're not taking part 😂 For us, the entertainment was absolutely fine and added to the atmosphere 👌 🏊 Pools open until midnight AND there's a lifeguard — which we thought was brilliant! 👍 🚌 The bus to Benidorm is literally just outside the hotel, which makes getting around really easy. The beach is a short walk away with loads of restaurants, and the Irish bar across the road is MINT 👌 Definitely worth a visit! 🍺 Yes, the queues for drinks can get long… BUT this is where those drinks carriers come into their own. Get one that holds 6 drinks and maximise every bar trip. 😂😉 Work smarter, not harder! 🏠 Our room: We were in Block J in a one-bedroom apartment. Yes, the rooms could definitely do with some upgrading, but ours was spacious and worked really well for us. 🌳 The green space around the whole complex is lovely. There's loads of it and it makes the resort feel really nice and open. 🐝 Wasps: I HATE wasps, so I was prepared for the worst 😂 I'd heard people calling them honey bees too. Honestly, they were fine as long as you don't completely freak out and you keep your area clean — cups, plates etc. straight into the bin. 🦟 Mozzies: We only really noticed them around the trees, so nothing that bothered us too much. And finally… Would we come back? 100% YES. ❤️ We've genuinely had one of the best holidays we've ever had. You absolutely cannot ask for anything more from this hotel for what it offers. So if you're booked to come here and you've been reading the negative reviews and panicking… DON'T Prepare yourself from day one with your pool noodle, sunbed cushion, drinks carrier and holiday attitude and you'll have a brilliant time! ☀️🍹😂 Albir Garden Resort — we'd do it all again tomorrow! ❤️🇪🇸

Overall it was a mixed stay, place could be amazing if they’d sort out a few issues.. Travelled as a family of four with a 9 and 11 yr old. Check in was good, we were straight into our room for 11.30am. (While others had to wait until 5pm!) although we were given next to no information on hotel facilities, everything seemed to be left for us to discover through various QR codes scattered around, which was a nightmare. Rooms are basic but as expected and perfect for our needs, lots of room, decent air-con, pool view, large fridge and regularly cleaned to a nice standard. Food times are great with Breakfast until 11am and plenty of basic and themed choices throughout. Peak times the place is incredibly loud and things like desert/sweets are all taken so may have to wait. Queuing for drinks during meal times is awful, one evening in particular I was queuing for nearly 15 mins for just a bottle of water, frustrating and so unnecessary. There is usually just 1 person serving and at peak times looks to be over 200 guests, doesn’t make sense. Note there is a separate themed meal option that can be pre-booked, we didn’t know this as it’s on another QR code we missed. Snack bar was star of the show for food, great choice of burgers, hotdogs, pizza etc, kids loved it and we chose this as an option over the buffet lunch most days. The bars in general are a joke, queuing forever for a drink while Spanish ‘mates’ push in line and greedy Brit’s will order up to 12 in one go to stockpile on their table. Quite why they decide to shut half the indoor bar during peak times is beyond me (usually opened on 2 sides) some ques can be over 20 people long. The staff are great, they just have an impossible task keeping up. Why not have self serve lager/soft drinks like every other all-inclusive hotel in Spain? The main pools are ok, a bit smaller than the pictures suggest, but kids loved it and the option to swim until midnight was amazing! The water park was also great, we spent a few hours here most days. The animation team were great in the day, putting on activities and really getting everyone involved, however it took us a while to find out the schedule as it’s on yet another silly QR code and not in English. Keep an eye out for the colour party, it’s not very well advertised and we nearly missed it - one of the holiday highlights! Great fun. Although the animation team clearly try hard, the evening entertainment isn’t great, we couldn’t get a seat to watch on ANY of the nights, but watching from a distance it mostly looked like Karaoke and random Disney dances on repeat.. With this entertainment plus the queuing, we had to cut most nights short. We enjoyed the 15min walk to the beach, and got the bus to Benidorm a few times which was as easy and good fun. There are some nice spots for a drink en-route to the beach. The all inclusive ‘plus’ option is just basic all inclusive, you don’t get anything extra and still have to pay if you want larger drinks (or just order 2 and hold up the que further) Note The football pitches and indoor pools shown on some websites are not available to guests. Overall, we genuinely had a nice time, it was the constant little frustrations that let the place down. Both kids say this is the best holiday they’ve ever had.

Just returned from a week AI as 2 adults and 2 children. Whist I am fully aware that it is August and it’s a family oriented hotel there are so many areas that can be improved. PROS- Decent pools one of which is super deep but you are only allowed pool noodles, no inflatables allowed, water also a nice temperature and the best thing ever is that it is open until midnight with a lifeguard…brilliant. The sun loungers are the most uncomfortable beds ever but they are plentiful which is better than a shortage of beds imho. Big and very cold fridge in room Rooms done every day but might not be until 5pm Room safe charge under £10 for a week Okay water park for a hotel CONS- Can have to queue ( frequently) for over 30 minutes just to get a drink in the evening and 15 minutes during the day. This can only be due to lack of staff because the staff work very hard to serve everyone. It was so bad we ended up having buy our refreshments over in the supermarket instead of spending the majority of our evening stood in a queue. The bar area is also pretty grim from 9pm onwards with spilled drinks and empty plastic cups littered on table and the floor. Many many flying wasps/ bees around bars, food area and waste bins. People getting stung. The whole hotel is pretty dated including the rooms ( main building) Our room was at the back next to the busy road which meant we couldn’t open the window because of the noise. The air con is decent but is only in the living room where the children slept on a pull out bed, our bedroom was extremely hot and stuffy The lunches were pretty bad but apparently the snack bar makes up for it As for the evening meals, we had 2 decent meals but every other evening it was pretty poor and we aren’t fussy eaters. Would I return? Never Would I recommend? No It may well be better when not so busy but it wasn’t for us Good pool, nice staff, friendly animation team and plenty of loungers Bad food, hours of queuing, wasps/ bees, dirty messy bar area, no air con in bedroom.