I'm at a loss as to what hotel the other Calypso guests in this forum where staying at as it certainly wasn't the Calypso I went to. Fancy big front entrance, looks very dramatic from the outside, but once checked in it all changes.

We stayed on the second floor which overlooked the roof of another part of the building. First impressions of the room didn't meet my expectations and the picture in the brochure certainly put a good light on the room. Its basic, three beds crammed beside two side tables and a TV hanging in one corner. A very loud air-conditioning unit accompanied the lights on the wall which looked like something out of an office. One plus is the bath room was of reasonable size.

In general I wouldn't say the room was particularly clean, in fact we seen stains on the floor which remained for the whole trip. Yes the cleaner will visit everyday and make the beds and also replace ALL your towels if need be. However that's about as far as the cleaning goes. I didn't see a mop in her hand once, which doesn't make the floor pleasant to walk on after a weeks holiday. Now lets get to the balcony, I personally found it comforting to be able to sit out of the glare of the midday sun as our balcony never got full direct sunlight. This would have been great if it wasn't for the view we witnessed for almost two full weeks. On the second day of our stay two Spanish gentlemen where seen climbing onto the roof which we over looked and they spent a good half hour cleaning what appeared to be typical holiday mess which had fallen from the rooms facing this roof. You know the sort of stuff, the odd towel, maybe a ball or two and lots of cigarette butts. However after day two these cleaning guys never came back again, so you can imagine the view. Towards the end of the holiday there was all manner of rubbish lying one floor below our balcony, including underpants,balls,litterly hundreds of cigarette butts and last but not least, two used condoms! which lay for over a week. Not a pretty sight as im sure you can imagine.

The pool isn't bad however its not too big, so when there's a crowd you can forget it. Also in the afternoon there are pool games, which means if you prefer not to take part, you would be better getting out of the pool.

Now to the meals. What can I say, If you like the same food everynight, not to mention usually well undercooked, then Calypso is for you. We were full board, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Breakfast is about the only thing worth eating and its Kellogg's Cornflakes out of a box. The cooked breakfast is reasonable if you like the Spanish sausages and as for the bacon, there's no meat on it, its all fat.

Lunches were ten times worse, usually chips obviously left over from the night before, you know how you can tell when chips have been reheated, that's what lunch was reheated food form the night before. It was difficult to even look at never mind eat. Dinner was ok for the first few nights, but then we got to see how repetitive the menu was and we quickly became sick of it. The meats were on most occasions undercooked and once cut into we just couldn't touch it. As some of the other reviews have noted, the Calypso are big on their fish, in fact it can be found somewhere on the menu every night without fail. If you like salads, then your laughing as there is a good selection of this type of food, but again try eating it for two weeks when the other food is inedible. The restaurant staff seem friendly and do a good job to what is a very poor selection and quality of food. We didn't stay in to watch the hotel entertainment as it seemed to be the same Spanish dancers on everynight. At around 19.30 there is a kids disco with games, that's good if you have young kids, but again its the same routine everynight, so even my eight year old got bored with this. On the whole I wouldn't say this Hotel deserves a three star, I've stayed in better Hostels than this Hotel. Its no more than an average two star hotel but because it has air conditioning (which barely works) its given three stars. My advice, don't bother look else where closer to the centre of benidorm.

If you get feed up with the food on offer, go to the Country Ribs which can be found 100 meters down the road. Its on the same road as Calypso and heading towards the centre. The meals in here are fantastic. If its a cheap pint you want go across the road to the Fast Sports bar, its right beside Morgan's Tavern. Two Euros for a pint. Be warned though the food in the Sports Bar is awful during the day when the Spanish cook is on. If the big Scottish lads is cooking then you will be OK. You can also get a nice curry chip at night from here.

There are so many clubs and pubs to choose from there's no point going into them in detail. A word of warning though if you have kids, there are sex shows and strippers all over the place, so be careful which bar you go into. Another pain is the people who give out leaflets, you'll be handed one of these every 30seconds and you will soon get feed up with this believe me. Also they don't care if you have kids or not, they will say its kid friendly but it usually isn't. A good bar for all the family is Cafe Benidorm.

All in all even though the hotel was awful Benidorm is a great place if not a little big!

I would return to Benidorm but will never again stay in Hotel Calypso so long as I live.

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Calypso Hotel - Benidorm

Operator and Date: (Airtours Direct) Airtours _june 2006