Medplaya Hotel Flamingo Oasis

First of all, we don’t usually do holidays like this. I have been to Benidorm nine years in a row when I was much younger, so this was more of a last-minute, nostalgic trip to take the kids somewhere I used to visit. Because of that, this isn’t necessarily the type of hotel I would usually choose, but I wanted to share an honest review of our experience and a few things that may be helpful to other families considering staying here.

The lifts: There are six lifts serving 25 floors and at busy times they can be a nightmare. We regularly found ourselves waiting 10–15 minutes to get into a lift when there was a queue. There is also a separate lift from reception down to the restaurant/pool level, which is a great feature for anyone who struggles with their legs or has mobility issues.

The pool: For me, this was the biggest downside. The pool looks like a decent size in the photos, but in my opinion it simply isn’t big enough for the number of people the hotel accommodates. I personally get overstimulated when there is too much going on, and if you are similar, this is something I would definitely consider before booking. They also play two lots of music at one time and this was at a high volume.

You are only allowed rubber rings in the pool, with no other inflatables, but even with that restriction you are constantly bumping into other people or their inflatables. We didn’t find there was really a quieter time to use the pool.

I also noticed that the pool often looked quite misty. Around the pool area, there were regularly paper cups, crisp packets and other rubbish left around the sun loungers. Some of the loungers don’t have adjustable backs and are simply flat, and there seemed to be a limited number of parasols. The parasols are also fixed into the ground, so you can’t move them to follow the shade.

One day, someone noticed what appeared to be faeces in the pool and also around the sides and gutters. What surprised me most was how long it took for the lifeguards to clear the pool. For the first 10–15 minutes, they appeared to be looking at the situation while there were still lots of children swimming nearby. Eventually everyone was cleared out, although it seemed that other guests getting their children out and people gathering around the area helped draw attention to what was happening. They should have dealt with this much quicker with knowing how many children were in the pool and at risk of swallowing water.

All-inclusive: You are limited to two drinks per person at a time, whether ordering from the evening bar or the daytime snack bar. During the day, the snack bar offers things such as crisps, burgers and ice creams. I personally found that the water from the snack bar had a strange taste, although the water from the indoor bar tasted absolutely fine.

The rooms: The air conditioning worked very well, which was definitely appreciated.

The two single beds pushed together were comfortable and the room itself was clean. However, the yellow material on the children’s single sofa beds was very worn and stained. One had a particularly large stain, which I wasn’t comfortable with my child sleeping on, so I had to cover part of it with one of our towels.

The bathroom was a decent size and the shower worked well. There was shampoo, hand wash and body wash provided. However, the bath had quite a lot of white staining, including around the plug area, which made it look quite unclean even though the rest of the bathroom appeared to be clean.

Food: The food was ok, but I felt the choice of meat was quite limited. I found myself eating a lot of cheese, pickled onions and carbohydrates, as there weren’t as many meat options as I would have liked. There was a lovely red Thai curry one day, which was a highlight for me.

The dessert selection was also quite limited and personally, I didn’t find it particularly impressive.

Overall: This hotel may suit people who enjoy a very busy, lively holiday environment, particularly families who want plenty going on. However, if you prefer a quieter, less crowded pool area or can become overwhelmed by lots of people and activity, I would definitely take that into consideration before booking.

For us, it was a last-minute holiday and ultimately about taking the kids away and making memories, so we made the most of it. I just wanted to give an honest account of the things I noticed during our stay, as these are the sorts of details I would personally want to know before booking.

We have just returned from a week-long stay at Hotel Flamingo Oasis in Benidorm. This was our first time staying at this hotel, although it certainly wasn’t our first visit to Benidorm. Overall, we had a lovely holiday and enjoyed some fantastic family time, but unfortunately there were several things about the hotel that meant we wouldn’t choose to stay here again.

The room: We were really impressed with our room. It was very spacious, with plenty of wardrobe space, a large bathroom with double sinks, and everything was very clean. We genuinely had no complaints at all about the room.

Evening entertainment: The evening entertainment was absolutely fantastic. There was a really good variety and something for everyone. This was definitely one of the highlights of our stay, and we thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment each evening.

Food: We stayed all-inclusive, and unfortunately, this was one of the biggest disappointments for us. There wasn’t a great deal of variety, and it felt as though much of the same food was being served day after day. If you’re happy eating chips every day, then there was certainly no shortage of those! Unfortunately, we also didn’t find the food particularly tasty. We appreciate that food is subjective, but for us, this was an area where the hotel could improve considerably.

Pool and pool area: The pool itself looks lovely and is very appealing to look at. However, we did have concerns about cleanliness. On one occasion, when we got into the pool, we felt something under our feet and found a ball of hair along with quite a lot of grime. There also seemed to be hair floating around the pool on several occasions, which made us question how well it was being cleaned.

The pool area was lovely and clean first thing in the morning, but within a couple of hours of the pool opening, there were paper cups and rubbish everywhere. The bins didn’t seem to be emptied regularly throughout the day, so people were often left with nowhere to put their rubbish. This resulted in litter being left beside the bins or around the pool, and unfortunately, cups and paper would then blow into the pool area and sometimes into the water itself. There was a separate bar for the pool but this was very busy with constant long queues..

Sunbeds: The sunbed situation was probably one of the worst parts of our experience. Every morning there seemed to be a mad dash, with people actually running and pushing others out of the way to get a sunbed. We even witnessed two men having a fight over one. There simply didn’t always seem to be enough sunbeds for everyone, which created a very unpleasant atmosphere first thing in the morning.

Staff: Unfortunately, we didn’t find the staff particularly friendly or approachable during our stay. We found that there wasn’t much interaction, and staff generally didn’t seem very welcoming. Of course, this may not be everyone’s experience, but it was certainly how we felt during our week.

Overall: We want to stress that we did have a lovely holiday and enjoyed some really special family time, and there were definitely positives to the hotel, particularly our room and the fantastic evening entertainment.

However, taking everything into consideration, the issues with the food, pool cleanliness, litter around the pool, sunbed situation and the general friendliness of the staff meant that, unfortunately, Hotel Flamingo Oasis wasn’t for us.

We will definitely be returning to Benidorm because we love it there, but sadly, we won’t be returning to this hotel.

Went here 3 years ago and it was such a great hotel and great staff which is why we chose to return again this year however sadly it wasn’t the case this time. All the bar staff were rude from the main bar to the pool bar, entertainment bar and restaurant bar, they were all miserable clearly hate tourists, never smiled and were just plain rude. Restaurant staff just took your plates without asking and multiple times without you even finishing was just big rush for breakfast lunch and dinner. I had come down to grab a coffee once I finally got my children to sleep to bring up and was in my pyjamas and told nope I have to pay it was 1 minute past 11 the cut off time for all inclusive which I would of made in time had I not had to wait so long for a lift to come to my floor. I would have understood if I was ordering alcohol or a round of drinks but it was just one small coffee from the machine. They just made us not feel welcome and was so abrupt that in the end we didn’t even really use the all inclusive we paid for and ended up eating out and getting stuff from surrounding supermarkets. Sadly because of the staffs attitude we would never return again and so many people I spoke with also staying at the hotel all said the same.