A Family-Friendly Week in Benidorm, Spain
A Family-Friendly Week in Benidorm, Spain. Photo by Hans Pama
A Family-Friendly Week in Benidorm, Spain
I must admit that I was a little worried at the thought of taking the children away for the first time, my youngest Mia isn’t yet one, while Charlie is approaching five and into absolutely everything. It would certainly be a test for all of us, but daily life had well and truly caught up with me and I thought that it was high time we enjoyed a holiday.
It being the first time that we had taken the children abroad, we knew that we wanted somewhere that wasn’t too different in terms of culture. Living in England, the Spanish resort of Benidorm is a popular resort because of its home away from home feel. We knew that the restaurants around the resort would serve food that the children would enjoy, if it turned out they weren’t interested in trying the local delicacies; which being in the region of Alicante include Spanish favourites such as Paella.
I’d worried about Mia on the flight and must have double-checked that we’d packed her dummy close to a hundred times. The sucking motion is supposed to calm babies during take-off and landing, when the air-pressure can get a little much. I’d read that we could take more than 100ml of milk on board, providing that I tasted it first for security reasons. Despite reading this I’d still fretted that what I read was wrong, however I needn’t have worried as it turned out to be the truth. Mia sat in my lap and to my delight spent much of the short flight asleep, only making a fuss as we came into land.
After a short transfer we checked into our resort, the RH Princesa and after unpacking and having a sleep and slathering the children in SPF 40+ we went to explore the facilities. The children loved the kid’s pool and we found a water ring for Charlie which he was content to sit in for ages. He also loved the hotel’s water slide, which we went down a couple of times with daddy. Another highlight for Charlie was the bouncy castle – the hotel runs one during the summer months. This soon lost its appeal when Charlie spotted the road circuit and cars (we honestly had trouble dragging him away).
I think Charlie would have been happy to spend the whole holiday in the hotel, but the next day we decided to go and explore the resort. The beach was amazing, with a long sandy beach and warm waters for paddling. Mia looked so cute in her sunhat and swimming costume, although we did have to stop her from eating sand!
A Family-Friendly Week in Benidorm, Spain. Sandcastles photo by James Duncan
That evening we went for our first meal in an authentic Spanish restaurant, whilst the children didn’t like the taste of my paella, Charlie was more than a little keen on some of the tapas that we ordered. His favourites were the ham croquettes that I’m going to look for back home.
The next day we decided to look at some of Benidorm’s more cultural highlights. Some people think that Benidorm is all tower-blocks and British bars, and while it has its fair share of these, there are some cultural attractions too. We wandered around Iglesia de San Jaime y Santa Ana and the kids enjoyed it as it gave the kids the excuse to get away from the sun. We also wandered L’Aiguera Park, a large public park, designed by the architect Ricardo Bofill in a neoclassical style. It was nice for my husband and I to do something for ourselves as the rest of the week passed by in a blur of waterparks, dolphin shows and theme-parks. The kids both had an absolutely fantastic time and it’s definitely made me less nervous about taking holidays in the future. I’d definitely recommend Benidorm as a great destination for that first family holiday.
If You Go:
