Myramar Castle Beach Reviews

The hotel was a bit further from the town and beach than some but this was ideal since we had young children with us.It was a perfect base hotel where we could venture into town but still had enough to keep the kids amused. The fact there was a seperate childrens pool was great as there were no worries about them being out of their depth. The apartments themselves were spotless and the resturant immaculate with a great choice of foods even for our fussy lot. Staff were discreet in appearance but there if needed.Transfer from hotel was a nightmare though as such a distance away,this is the only reason i would consider not returning.

We stayed at the Myramar Castle Beach in July 2009 and were really pleased. Its a little further from town than most of the hotels, but still only a 10 minute walk to the beach.

There is an excellent shopping centre just behind the hotel, which has a supermarket, cinema, several restaurants and clothes shops. The main town of Fuengirola is just a short walk over a bridge, and certainly not too far for a stroll or evening meal.

The hotel is split in to 3 buildings. We stayed in a studio in the main building - note that studios do not have balconies. It was large enough for the two of us, and had a safe. Maid service was every day, providnig clean towels and bed making. One day we didn't get any towels, but this was quickly rectified by a call to reception. We were self catering, but didnt actually do any cooking. There was a small hob and fridge, but no freezer.

There are 3 pools: indoor (which we didnt use), children's (again didnt use as we have no children, but was plenty big enough for those that did want to use it) and a main pool, which is brilliant. It was large enough never to feel full, even though we stayed in peak season. A lifeguard is present every day to watch the two outdoor pools. The main pool has steps leading into it and is then deep enough for an adult to stand in with head above water, ish 5 foot. Only downside is that diving is not allowed. Waterpolo is organised every day at 4 in the main pool, and for kids some days in the small pool.

One of the best things about this hotel was the number of sunbeds - as usual people were putting towels down hours before using them, but we turned up at 11 one day and there was still enough to choose from. We often went out around Fuengirola in the mornings and relaxed by the pool in the afternoon. We never had to manage without a sunbed, even when arriving mid-late afternoon. This is a definite bonus!

The bar at the hotel does chips, burgers etc during the day. Chips were 4 euros and there was enough for 2 to share at lunch. Ice creams, lollies etc. Happy hours on drinks every day. Entertainment on a night included flamenco dancing, mixed dancing, a magic show, a bird show, and discos for the kids. Pretty much what what you would expect from hotel entertainment, nothing special. Would recommend the flamenco dancing for a bit of Spanish culture, everything else just take it or leave it. Some nights we just sat far back from the stageand had a couple of drinks. Two drinks for 7 or 8 euros ish.

There is a restaurant. We went in on the first night and it was just a buffet, nothing much. It was 15 euros, and as most nights we ate in town for 20 to30 euros including drinks I wouldn't bother. For same reason wouldn't recommend all inclusive, although we didn't bother trying the restaurant again so that may be unfair.

I would definitely recommend this hotel, but dont expect to be in the centre of town. This however is a good thing, and the hotel was well worth what we paid.

I just came back from the Myramar Castle Beach and one thing is for sure: don't go there when you have kids. We booked the hotel because they had entertainment but when i saw Marta (one of the entertainers) smoking her joint at the staff entrance, and 10 minutes after that working in the hotel having control over the kids while she was stoned doing swimmingpool games etc. i found out that this is not the right place to take my family on holidays. So we went to the hotel that is only 4 minutes further away (Fuengirola beach). That's where we spent the rest of our holidays. If you have kids: don't go here they are very inresponsible!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuengirola is very nice though.

The hotel is clean,the pool excellent but the food and entertainment is very poor. A good tip? Eat out every night! Prices are too high for drinks and staff not very easy going? Hard work getting to know any of them.Location is ok.

Just got back from a week's holiday at the Myramar Castle Beach. Hotel OK with not bad standard apartments, nice safe outdoor pool and during our weeks stay plenty of sunbeds available, although hotel was not full so this could have been why. Hotel food is very basic buffet style, most is not very hot and was very bland. Drinks from the bar were ok, not too bad prices but some of the staff were bit grumpy. Evening entertainment was ok if you were between 2 and 12, it would rate as the worst we have seen. Hotel is situated close to the motorway and next door to a very large shopping centre, which was useful for buying food. The beach is about a 20 minute walk and hire of 2 sunbeds + sunshade was 9 euro. The beach bars sold wonderful fish which was cooked on the beach over an open fire, not to be missed. Their is also a small waterpark about a 20 minute walk from the hotel, worth an afternoon visit if you go after 3pm you get 40% off the gate price. Overall we went on a last minute break to find some sunshine and this is what we enjoyed. As we were a group of 7 we made our own entertainment so the lack of it at the hotel was not a problem. We did not find the location too much of a problem although the hotel is situated a bit out of the way. We would not return to this hotel although we love Spain and the Spanish so will return.

Hotel reception very nice, rooms basic but plenty of space. Rooms cleaned and towels changed on a daily basis. Hotel staff friendly, entertainment quite good. You need to get up very early to put towels on sun loungers otherwise you dont get 1!
Location not very good especially with 2 children, approximately 30 minute walk to centre / beach. Taxis approximately 7 -9 euros.
Food adequate however not always very hot.
Pool's fantastic both good size.
Bar snacks nice and reasonable price however drinks quite expensive (3euros for a soft drink).
Dunnes store next to hotel wth large variety of clothes and food. Also large shopping centre close to hotel with many shops and large supermarket.
Overall a nice hotel defibnately worth 3 star.

After having to wait for 3 hours to check in, we finally got our rooms and i must say, these were of excellent standard. They were very clean, spacious, with a nice balcony. Entertainment was a bit repetative, bingo every night, quite expensive aswell. Shopping centre is brilliant! Wanted to buy all of the puppies in the pet shop. Self-catering facilities were excellent as there were plenty of supermarkets close by with good prices. Although there were some good walks along the beach front, there was a lack of public toilets which ment that you had to walk back to your hotel. The indoor swimmingpool was excellent and well heated.

Overall this was a brilliant holiday and we would deffinatly go again! :-)

We travelled to the Castle Beach apartments out of season and so therefore cannot comment on the pool/entertainment situation.
I feel very strongly that I need to comment on the ";Bridge issue";. I was terrified before we left given the reviews we had read, however, we didnt see/experience or hear about anything whilst we were there, in fact mum and I found the bridge to be a fantastic passtime. Considering the location some of the wildlife to be seen was extrodinary. I appreciate that this is not everyones cup of tea but in comparison to the scare stories written here i think it is note worthy. Obviously we took the appropriate precautions and didnt cross alone or at night because of what we had read.
On to more informative things. The Zoo was not what you would expect. I, personally dont like zoos but given the crap weather we decided to go for something to do. Take the time to read the stories about the animals they will both appall you and warm you to the plight of the zoo, most of these animals are rescued from horrendous situations and depend on us visitors for funding to keep them out of the 2 foot cages they have lived in in the past.
I have to tell you one other thing. We had a late night flight home and were left hanging for days about late checkout, We offered to pay a fair bit of money and still no joy. It meant we had to check out at 10am and didnt leave intil 12midnight. Speak to your rep, do not let this happen to you, it spoilt an otherwise relaxing holiday

The Myramar Castle Beach (Myramar is a big construction company in the area) is situated about 15 minutes walk from the seafront of Fuengirola. Unless you really like having the beach on your doorstep, don't let this put you off, for us the location was fine.

The hotel consists of three buildings, which surround the swimming pools, all three buildings have apartments. Building One holds reception and the indoor pool, gym and sauna (Gym and Sauna have a daily charge). Rubber hats have to be worn if using the INDOOR pool, you can buy them there. Building Two holds the restaurant and Pub. Building Three is accommodation only.

The public areas are well maintained and we always saw hotel staff cleaning, sweeping, watering, trimming and generally keeping things looking good. The reception staff speak very good English and were always very helpful.

The pool area is very attractive with lots of trees, plants and water features. There is a children's pool and a main pool, which is huge. The pool is unusual in that when you look towards it, it is about 50 metres wide by 10 metres long. Along it's entire width the pool gradually slopes towards 3 large steps (just like stairs, not metal steps), which run the entire length of the pool before you get into the deep water which is only about 1.7 metres deep. This gives the effect of being on the beach. You can only get to the water via the 'beach' as the other three sides have subtle fencing which prevent them from being walked on which means there is no diving. There are lots of sun beds (even in peak season there were spaces) and umbrellas right along the 50 metre beach and a lifeguard. Also, no inflatables allowed in main pool.

Dotted around the grounds there is a football/tennis court, golf driving net, many pool tables, table tennis, crazy golf and air hockey.

We were lucky to get a ground floor room in Building Three facing the pool which meant we had a large patio (2-3 times bigger than balconies on other floors) and could sit out on the sun beds with a gate to the pool area - best of both worlds. There was a bedroom with plenty of wardrobe space, a little entrance lobby that had a small bed/settee big enough for a toddler, a lounge with two settee/beds, a kitchenette with hob, fridge and microwave, table and chairs. The bathroom had a bath (with shower head), WC, sink and shower cubicle. The room had good aircon, which was controlled by a thermostat in the lounge, but the patio doors had to be closed for it to work. There was also a safe that cost 15 euros a week.
The only minor issues we had were:-
1. The walls appeared to be quite thin so if you had noisy and inconsiderate neighbours on one side (not British) like we did, you could hear them shouting and sliding the wardrobes doors shut - take ear plugs!
2. 75% of the towels we got we very worn and about as effective as drying yourself with a plastic bag
3. There was no hot water on a morning but plenty after about 11am.
We put 2 and 3 on our Hotel feedback form.

The daytime entertainment was very good as the Airtours Team were enthusiastic, particularly Andy who was a bit camp, but great fun - think of a rotund Dale Winton. There was a mixture of activities for Adults and 11-16 year olds but in the main everyone took part in most things. In the mornings there was normally a table tennis/killer darts/killer pool competition, followed by aquasize in the pool (aquarobics), especially good if Andy was in charge, a Quiz at 12:30 to win a jug of Sangria and in the afternoon a game of Water Polo for 12's and over which has anything between 5 a side and 17 a side depending on who joined in. Then another game of something mid afternoon.

The evening activities started at 20.30 with a mini disco, Bingo or something similar at 21.30 and the main event at 22.00. This was either a show/singing/audience participation show done by the entertainments team or a magic/singing/flamenco act. We only attended a few which were fine. Based on the noise we could hear from our room, which usually stopped before midnight, the people that did go seemed to have a good time).

The hotel was about 5 minutes walk from a large indoor shopping centre (think Meadowhall, White Rose if you know Yorkshire). You had to walk round the hotel to get there but it did mean that the only people walking past the hotel reception were from the hotel, not people just passing through. The shopping centre had a large Eroski supermarket which sold everything you could possibly want.

Going further a field you had to cross the river to get anywhere other than the Shopping Centre. There are two bridges, the main road bridge and the footbridge. The reps advised us to use the road bridge owing to stories of unsavoury characters/muggings etc. To be honest the only reason that it would be quicker to use the footbridge would be if you were going to the Dunnes Store or the Wok Restaurant (highly recommended). All I would say is, use your common sense. We used the footbridge when it was light and when there were other people using it and never had a problem. A couple of times at dusk we did see people hanging about at one end and to me that would be a sign not to use it.

To get into Fungiorola, the road bridge is the quickest way. The route is not straight forward but the best way we found was to go over the road bridge, under the dual carriageway, past the SsaanYong/Kia garage, turn first right and go past the Red Cross office, cross over the road at the pedestrian crossing and turn left, go past the Mosque and then cut across the scruffy car parks until you get to the front. The front is not as nice as others in the area (Marbella, Puerto Banus) as although there is a good wide footpath next to the beach, there is also a road which brings the obvious traffic noise and smell which means eating on the front is not that tempting. The best places to eat are in Fish Alley, which is a series of back steets (walk down the bar side of the front until you see a sign for Maxis Disco and then turn left) containing eating-places. Ours favourites were El Castillo Argentinean Steak House and Shaafi's Indian where we ate twice, along with the Wok back near the hotel. There we many others but the ones we tried were nothing special. If you don't want to be approached by North Africans selling sunglasses, DVD's and watches ask for a table inside.

We also ate twice at the Hotel. It was pretty standard hotel fare but there was plenty of it and it was very reasonably priced, 44 euros for 3 Adults and 1 child with 2 bottles of water and a bottle of house wine thrown in. The three places mentioned above came in at about 65-75 euros.

We hired a car and visited Mijas, which was very picturesque with great views of the area; it was also very busy but somehow retained its charm. We also went to the Aquapark at Torremolinos, recommend that you get there before 10am, which is when it opens, hit all the rides early and you shouldn't have to queue. By 11am it was very busy and the queues were horrendous. They also have a bizarre money making scheme where as well as paying the entrance price (18 Euros each) you could hire your own rubber tube for 10 euros to save you queuing for rings as people came off the slides - IE queue for the ride if you hire a ring, queue for a ring AND then queue for the ride if you don't have a ring. That being said, there was a good selection of slides plus a wave pool.

In summary I would say that Fuengirola is very commercialised and built up and not as smart as other resorts we visited, but if you are a family looking for a good hotel based holiday in the sun, with good eating/shopping on the doorstep I would have no hesitation in recommending the Castle Beach.

we would like to comment on our recent holiday to the costa del sol where we stayed at the castle beach.

the hotel its self was very nice how ever the food left alot to be deciered the entertainment was excellent, the shows were however ruiend by a bad sound systeam and why did we have to listen to some spanish guy speaking three diffrent langueges when it was clear the room was full of british the daytimes were very quiet although the entertainers did try to get people joining in liam one of the entertainers is a good entertainer and very good with our kids he deserves a medal for putting up with children. ally is the team leader of entertainments and is very loud and should be praised for what she does and has a very good voice. martin is very freindly and good at his job and is good with the adults witch gives the team a good variety. jodie and sarah are great dancers and did well in the shows.
the down side about the entertainment is that there is no bingo as the spainsh team leadere mark says no as he is a boring guy and doesent do anything but play football and give the entertainers a hard time.
christina another spanish entertainer has a fantastic voice and should be on pop idol.the hotel would be better if they had no spanish entertainers and pure english.

in genral the hotel is fantastic and is a shame that airtours is pulling out as they have done well keepingg us entertained. recommend this hotel to everyone of all ages but only for the rest of this year.

Just returned from a weeks break staying at the Castle Beach and I would like to stress that we didn't feel insecure at any time after reading the stories about the gypsies and the muggings. Yes there are two foot bridges but there is only one which is fully iluminated during the evening and we walked back to the hotel every night at around midnight with no problems. If you choose this accomodation you will see that the footbridge is used by a lot of guests and there is no more of a risk in this resort than any other you may choose.

The hotel is spotless and the rooms are a good size, we stayed self catering so I can't comment on the hotel meals but I certainly had no complaints on the cleanliness or the friendliness of the staff.

The resort itself is very British so if you are looking for a piece of Spain you have to look pretty hard, having said that if you like home from home that is what Fuengirola offers. Personally I wouldn't return but if all you want is home with the sun the go for it!!

We have just returned from a week at the Castle Beach Hotel in the half term break. The hotel itself is well maintained but the location leaves a lot to be desired. We are all reasonably fit but the walk to and from the beach, shops and bars, particularly at night and unfortunately for us, in the rain for half of the holiday, was a little offputting to say the least. The route was poorly lit and we had to walk due to a lack of taxis and a very unreliable bus service which though cheap and available to catch oppostite the hotel, very often didn't turn up at all.

There was very little to do in Fuengirola at night and we found ourselves sitting in bars watching repeats of the football matches on Sky every night. Our teenagers particularly found it hard to find something to amuse them. At night they either stayed with us or went to one of the two or so discos that we found on the beachfront. The weather wasn't very good and when it was sunny the pool was too cold to use and if they wanted to use the indoor pool they had to wear swimming caps which understandably they wouldn't wear.

We went on trips to Marbella and Tormelinos on buses from the bus station in the centre of town and about a 30 min walk or a short journey on the local bus, and to the zoo which is strangely situated in the middle of Fuengirola in the residential area.

Overall, the hotel itself was average and there was little to do in the resort. This is not a place we will be visiting again.

Just returned from Castle Beach and it was fantastic.

The hotel is spotlessly clean, the rooms are an excellent size and the staff helpful and friendly. We were half board and the food was great with a good choice and even a nightly bbq. If staying self catering I think its worth up grading to half board ( which is done easily when your there) as its a ten minute walk into town and restaurants. We enjoyed being away from all the hustle and bustle as it was quiet and relaxing.

Our room faced the pool and bar area but the music ended at 12pm so no problem sleeping.The entertainment staff were superb with boundless enthusiasm when I know I would have given up. Outside entertainers not so good the usual Spanish standard. Contrary to some reviews we did not see even one gipsy!!

The Myramar shopping centre was a stones throw away (we visited daily!!) Lots of good shops not usual tacky ones, lots of places to eat and even a cinema ( Some films in english i was told). It has a huge supermarket which stocked everything you could need and was local prices so very cheap. Those self catering could even push the trolley bag to off load. The town itself is a 10 minute walk , pleasant in the evening, not so pleasant in the day with the heat. There is a cheap bus that stops right outside the hotel. The town itself is very spread out so still don't know if we saw it all. The zoo is well wort a visit it was fabulous. The Gibraltar tour was great the monkeys lovely but the shopping not all it was cracked up to be and you have to get off bus and go through a customs check point on way back, and they certainly checked you didn't go over ( our rep had to pay as he chanced his luck!!)

We would highly recommend this hotel we had a great time and would definately return.

This aparthotel was excellent, and have just booked to go back.
Rooms spotless, beds very comfortable, good air con, great having the kitchen for snacks, fridge a bonus for drinks etc.
Very comfortable sofas in lounge area, always fresh flowers in reception. Staff very helpful and friendly. Food good and the restuarant open late so quieter once kids have gone to bed.
Entertainment good - don't miss the magic show. Located out of town suited us and our room was at the back so nice view of hills and very quiet only the sound of the crickets and frogs croaking!
Buses in and out of town very easy to use. Good Zoo in town, we are not usually ";zoo people"; but I were impressed with this one. Would highly recommend this hotel - it is the nicest I have been to in a long time. Large shopping mall and Dunnes store beside hotel so don't worry about not packing enough clothes Dunnes is very cheap and also had Kellogs cereal and other UK brands.

Day trip to Gibralta was very good, the views from the top of the rock are fantastic, we made our own way up on the cable car which was much cheaper than the minibus tours.

After reading some of the reviews, i was a bit concerned but i needn't have worried. the hotel was great! the room was very clean and the maid service was much better than we expected - the room seemed to be cleaned every couple of days. even though we were half board, we had kitchen facilities. the food in the restaurant was good with plenty of choice. the bars were a bit expensive but that's only to be expected and with 2 happy hours per day, you couldn't really complain! you can't take kids inside the english pub but you can sit outside with them so this was never a problem.

the reps were fantastic - especially andy, martin, ally and matt (escape) - we know they read this!!! there was something going on most of the time - in fact we had a hard time getting the kids to leave the hotel at all!
the hotel is a bit out of the way but there is an excellent bus service and the myramar shopping centre next door has a large supermarket so distance was not really a problem.
only negative was that our room overlooked land awaiting development so we didn't really use the balcony. we would have preferred a room overlooking the pool.

we have been told that this hotel won't be offered to british holiday makers after this year. this is a real shame as it would definitely have been worth another visit.