Hospes Amerigo - Alicante, Spain     

We booked a five night stay at Hospes Amerigo through alpharooms.com as they offered the best rate - ?43.50 pppn room only. The hotel used to be an abbey or convent and upon entering its cool, high ceilinged interior we were impressed from the start. There's a high staff to guest ratio and they were delightful and professional. Our room was tastefully furnished to a high quality. Importantly, the beds were very comfortable and the room also featured a flat screen TV and DVD player. It also boasted an old-style small verandah overlooking a pedestrianised street. Breakfast cost 17 euros and was served to 10.30 am (11am at weekends) and was excellent. Cereals, fruits, quality fresh pastries and bread, cheeses, yoghurts and fresh fruit juice. Scrambled egg and bacon were the hot choices. The mezzanine restaurant was attractively laid out. The hotel has a spa which we didn't have time to try - it seemed quite expensive too for the massage treatments and it also features an unusual "sleep room" with two contoured chaises longues - good for an afternoon snooze if you've had to check out at noon but your flight is later in departing. We found Alicante to be a great weekend break. In July the tourist office ran some free guided walking tours and we went on one of these - it was really worthwhile. We also took the "tram" (more a modern electric train) to Denia. Although a 2 hour journey, you pass through some lovely hillside scenery. Denia is a beautiful small fairly upscale resort and worth a visit - even a stay. One street down from the Amerigo hotel is a bar called Tri Be Ca - we loved it, good music and some good German food like sausages and frankfurters. On the Rambla, a main street round the corner from Amerigo, you'll find a Tapas bar called LizArran - we went on Friday night at 10pm and they came round with platters of freshly made tapas. You take what you want and the cocktail sticks that remain after you've scoffed the delicious morsels indicate what you've had and the cost was something like 1.5 euros per item. We also ate in a couple of the more upmarket restaurants at the harbour. Oveall, a weekend to remember, made all the more special by a first class hotel.

My wife and I stayed here for 4 nights at the start of July, staying in a standard room. We booked direct with the hotel via their website and paid Eur 120 per night for the room. The hotel is in a perfect postion, two minutes from Plaza Espana and five minutes from a really nice beach. This was our first time in Alicante an we loved the city with numerous restaurants and cafe/bars. It really is a delight to go out and eat with so much choice and atmosphere. We can cerainly recommend the lunch time Menu del Dia, three courses and a bottle of good wine for Eur 9. Just walk into the small streets behind the hotel. We used the hotel as a base as we found it overly pretentious and the public areas almost empty. I think this is mainly due to the hotel prices which are way over the top. The bar was always empty and the attached tapas bar about three times the price of other better ones in town. The roof terrace is worth trying if you can find a lounger. It is very small with about 8 loungers which were always taken. The pool is tiny, however is nice and refreshing. The daft thing is that the terrace closes at 7pm when it would be ideal for an evening drink with great views over the city. The rooms are really nice, however, make sure you book one at the front or back as some look out onto a central ventilation shaft. The bathroom as has been said is different in set up, but we found it to be really good. The shower is great, but again has a tendency to flood the room if used for too long. Again, the hall carpets look awful, cream with dark stains, which should be replaced. The reception staff appear to think they are too important to assist the guests,however, the cleaners are always friendly and happy. Overall, I think this is probably the ideal hotel for a stay in Alicante, use it as a base and enjoy a fabulous city