Regina Mare

The old Regina Mare hotel at Persia has been closed for a while now but is being completely refurbished as the Marbella Elix Hotel. It already looks fabulous. Anyone wanting to book a package from the UK then Olympic Holidays has that on offer now.

The Regina Mare hotel closed last year, or thereabouts. But the funicular railway is still there and it is possible to climb up the steps beside it and view the beach below from a good vantage point.The hotel is fenced off. No offers have been made so far as is known. And the beach below is really, really lovely. Turquoise sea, sunbeds at 5 euros for two and a sunshade, and the guy who services the sunshades is very friendly, comes round to the guests on the beds with pieces of fruit and he'll go off and get drinks and food from the nearby taverna and bring it to you Free carparking right by the beach, toilets (the old-style ones) are there with a good shower block and changing rooms.

The room was very small and closely spaced. The furniture was ancient and the bathroom looked very bad, the shower didn't work well. The worst of this hotel is the food. Everyday the meal was meat and potatoes, no fruits at all, no desserts. It wasn't all inclusive if you ask me. The photos show animators but at this time they weren't there. The most irritating thing was that the all inclusive didn't include coffee and we had to pay 3 euros for it, we say such a thing for a first time. In the evenings we were very bored, because the nearest town was approximately 20km away. If you need to buy medicine, there was no doctor and no pharmacy so you just hope not to get sick. After all, the beach was wonderful, the sea was crystal clear and turkoise green so we enjoyed the nature only.