Grand Luxor Costa Blanca

Grand Luxor Village We stayed in a villa within the village for two weeks during mid August. When you drive upto the entrance you are greeted by security who work 24/7. Once you have been supplied the paper wrist band you just simply show that to security to entre. Please keep in mind that a hire car is essential staying in the village because you are not within walking distance of the beach. You get a lovely bonus of unlimited access to Aqualandia Water Park, Mundomar Animal Park, & Terra Mitica Theme Park, which is connected to the hotel. Aqualandia & Mundomar are about a 20 minute drive away,  but are situated next to each other. ***Tip*** get to Aqualandia around 9:30 am because being there early gives you access to the slides with minimal queuing & you have a better chance of doing all the slides. ***Tip*** get to Mundomar around early afternoon when it's not so busy to see all the animals, especially the dolphins up close through the under water walk through. At the villa there is plenty of parking available & only a short walk to your accommodation. The villas are cleaned everyday, but remember to place the red side of your card on the external door handle, or be prepared to be woken up around 8 to the voice of "House keeping". When you do require your villa cleaned simply leave the green side of your card on the external door handle & they will clean ir during the day. The only issue with the villa is there is no oven to cook with so keep that in mind if you go shopping. You do have a microwave, coffee machine, fridge freezer & two hobs with frying pans. The toilet rolls are replaced too. That's a nice touch for a villa complex. There are plenty of pools situated around the village & some nice nice ones by the hotel which you can access by a private road.  We tried the buffet within the hotel & for 36 euros per person & the added extras of paying for you drinks. The food choice was sadly lacking & we tried it once, but never again. Overall this place is top quality but the little things can have the biggest impact which is why I've scored this 4 out of 5!

I don’t generally like leaving negative reviews, but some things are simply unacceptable. First off the hotel complex and themeparks included in the price seem like a very attractive offer promising lots of family fun. I stayed with my daughter 7 and son who is 12 in one of the villas with a private pool. No complaints with regards to the accomodation, I paid just under €500 a night, and it was only a 2 night stay. The overall complex looks good, however its obvious the parent company is some serious financial trouble, and I base this on the following observations:- 1. Check-in was late. Generally speaking in Spain you can check in at 2pm and check out and 12 noon. we arrived at 2pm and were told we could use the facilities, but the room wasn’t available until 4, not a major issue at first. However the place is entirely understaffed and they practice price gouging everywhere. We were also asked for a €150 security deposit at check-in, I expect this at a small private airbnb but not at a large family resort with no minibar in the room. Also, I booked directly on the website and this was hidden in the small print. 2. Half Board option, isn’t bad, and the price is reasonable, however its here where the 1 star review had to be made. They make it very clear that drinks are not included, and whilst I accept this, what I find unacceptable is being charged for drinks before being seated, and then not having enough attentive staff to actually bring you your drinks. As a family resort, in Spain where the temperatures are high, especially after kids have been walking around a theme park, at least make sure water coolers are in the buffet hall for when the staff fail at dispensing drinks to the table. With 2 very hot and aggitated children, who just want some water with their dinner, it seemed obvious how desperate for money this establishment actually is. When you’re seated you have to compete with 15 -20 other tables who also haven’t been brought drinks by waving a reciept at the waiter. Then depending where you are sat, you have to wait for said waiter to walk passed several other tables even ones that arrived half an hour after you did, or tables ordering their second round of drinks before you have even been noticed, despite being forced to pay before you sit down for your beverages. I’d like to take the opportunity to suggest to management that you should have a water cooler in the corner of the buffet hall for when staff fail, or at least have a waiter seat you at your table and bring your drinks whilst you’re off at the buffet, as this would have spared you a negative review, but hydration is quite key for humans, don’t overlook that, because in future people will overlook your establishment and so they should. 3. The parks:- Terramitica was dead, so dead that the main roller coaster Collosus has been closed for a decade because they can’t afford to run it. However they insist on placing massics placards near the entrance of the park saying

The staff and villa itself are great. I think it's more suited to couples or families with older children. Massive perk having theme/water/animal parks included for free. Be sure to check when low/high season is as this affects what's open. There's not much to do on site - most things are 0.5m away in the hotel; a bit tricky with young children (age 3&1), but could be suitable for older. The staff really wanted to make our stay as comfortable as possible. I do recommend it and we had a great time - just do your research on facilities that are actually on site.

Lovely location , but would have benefited from a hotel shuttle bus service into Benidorm town . (Spent a fortune on taxis ) Accommodation was lovely but no water in rooms , no kettle, rooms and balconies were plagued by ants . Our room had no cover on the smoke alarm in the bedroom. Lacking in hooks and shelf space in the bathroom . We had breakfast included but we arrived at different times each day and each time the food was cold ( great selection though)and no one to cook fresh omelettes etc . Also we had a 8am checkout, so we couldn’t get breakfast . It would have been a nice touch to provide us with a basic packed up breakfast ( fruit, filled rolls , water or fruit juice ) The on-site mini market( as advertised) was pointless as had hardly anything there and it would have been nice to have had outside seating at the cafeteria. Positives were .. free passes to Aqualandia , dolphin show, use of Grand Luxor Hotel swimming pool which was a short walk away . All in all not worth the money we paid .