Magic Natura Animal, Waterpark & Polynesian Resort

Pros; Pools - cold pools but enough space. Entertainment - although it starts at 9pm. Good range and great staff. Kids club - indoor soft play area/drawing and games. Park - onsite small park area. Zoo & Waterpark - spacious, 5*, can be enjoyed by all ages. Shuttle bus - free to Benidorm/beaches. Cleanliness - great throughout hotel. Location - taxi €11-€15 into Benidorm. Cons; Check in - waited 4 hours for room upon check in Wifi - codes needed from reception every 4 hours to use WiFi Cots - €50 for a week (travel cots aren’t free) Cleanliness - had to contact reception for bedding and towels to be changed on 2 occasions. Cleaners also left door room open. Bathroom wasn’t cleaned once. Hotel layout - huge and very hilly so not great for prams/wheelchairs. Lodges - walls paper thin Onsite shop - extremely expensive. Go to supermarkets in Benidorm. Food - cold and mostly pork or fish Kids food section - cold and mostly pizzas, hot dogs and battered pork/fish. Sometimes nothing left due to adults using it. High chairs - more needed in buffet. Drinks - €1 per drink voucher. You need either the cup or voucher to get a drink. Staff - some helpful others not so Not worth upgrading to ‘all inc plus’ as there’s also ‘premium’. Restaurant meals included in all inc plus are set. In the meat restaurant you get - kangaroo, buffalo, ostrich and Zebra meat slices with a side salad. In the Italian it’s either pizza or bol/lasagne. Didn’t use the Rice restaurant. Pizza delivered wasn’t the best. Didn’t use beach bars. 1 hour Spa isn’t free there’s additional costs.

Overall it was an acceptable holiday for the price we paid. We got a late deal, so paid a lot less than we would have done if we’d booked in advance. I therefore think value for money was reasonable, however we probably wouldn’t return as the hotel just wasn’t for us. I’m also glad we didn’t pay full price. Pros: - Journey to hotel only took 45 mins (we were expecting 1.5 hours per transfer information) - Our lodge had been upgraded upon arrival which was a nice surprise - Bags taken to our room by golf buggy which was great considering how steep some of the hills were! - The zoo was great, this was our favourite bit. You could get so close to some of the animals which you wouldn’t typically be able to do in a UK zoo. The tigers - wow! And you can see parts of the zoo from the hotel pool, specifically elephants! - Plenty of sun loungers so we didn’t find ourselves having to scramble for one. - Staff were polite, and doing what they can to clear tables as quick as possible at the buffet. - We had pizza delivered to our room on the last night - There was always something going on entertainment wise OK: - Food was OK. We are fussy eaters but did manage to find something to eat, although we did end up eating the same things. Things are not properly labeled, so as a fellow fussy eater I felt I couldn’t try some things as I didn’t know what they were. The buffet was also absolute carnage if you went at the wrong time, we didn’t have premium so I believe if you had premium this wouldn’t be the case as there is a separate area. Cons: - Most of the lodges are actually joined to another room. They have the thinnest walls ever so you could hear everything and sometimes feel the vibration of your neighbour moving around. It so happened we had very noisy neighbours who were up until 1/2am the first 2 nights we were there. We asked to change rooms 2 nights in but unfortunately the hotel couldn’t accommodate this due to being fully booked. It’s completely luck of the draw who you’re attached to, and we drew the short straw. - Entertainment was really loud, and carried on until midnight. There was no way you could get to sleep before this as you could hear it from your lodge. Especially when it’s karaoke!! - If your lodge is near the aviary, you may be woken up by the birds at the crack of dawn. There are some very loud ones in the morning! - There were sunken grids right outside our room, so every time a golf buggy drove past, we heard the clatter of the grid. This one is a small point, but if you combine it with all the other noise points, it becomes equally as irritating!! - Parts of the lodge could do with some TLC. We stayed in a Polynesian lodge. - The free bus to the beach was booked up the entire time we were there. The noisy bits really put a dampener on it for us as I am quite sensitive to noise especially when trying to go to sleep. Even headphones were not drowning it out for me. Of course some of it is luck of where your lodge is and who you’re next to, but I do think if you’re going with noise sensitive people, you really need to consider whether you want to risk this.

I had a great trip was one of my favourites, all inclusive drinks and pretty much everything you would want out of a get away, Cristian Carla were great hosts for most of the entertainment and were amazing when it came to host people on the main stage through the zoo entrance, would 100% go again

Cristian Charlie and Carla were amazing with the entertainment, by far the best entertainment through out the whole hotel; they had all the adults and children involved very easily, all the adults loved their entertainment as well as all the children. As well you the crowds stayed for their shows. 10/10 for me.

Great location and brilliant for family. Though many hidden costs, like free spa is not really free massage and have to pay for hygiene kit, also have to pay deposit for drink glass vouchers. Staff is also not very customer friendly. Though absolutely brilliant TUI rep Trecia, made our stay very pleasant. I also had a medical emergency during our stay and she organised doctor visit very fast to get me urgent care.