Benidorm is a sprawling mass of high rise apartments and hotels, lining the coast like a ribbon of kilometre-wide architects competition to see who can produce the tallest, glossiest, uniquest building. However, not many of them were occupied when we were there over the Easter holiday. Buildings with hundreds of apartments only had a few lights on at night.
The beach is divided into two parts, separated by the mirador peninsular where the castle used to stand. Levant beach, on the east, is the archetypical Benidorm, loud and brassy full of Brits Abroad on hen and stag dos. Poniente beach, on the west, is the height of beach civilisation: sections of beach for sunbathers, volley ball, kids play area, Zumba, salsa, a choir, marina, and boating and jet ski schools, paragliding, trips on cruisers to the island and along the coast. The sand is golden and cleaned each evening, the sea is unpolluted and life guards have a birds-eye view from their tower perches near the shore.
Restaurants abound, Spanish, British, Italian, American, Thai, and there’s a whole spectrum of bars, cocktails, wines, pubs, karaoke, drag queen. Theme parks are plentiful, acqua, dinosaur, animal, you name it, it’s in Beni.
What was surprising was the fact it wasn’t all English as we’d expected. The Spanish love it too!
