Before you read this, you must understand that we somewhat knew the area, we booked the hotel "room only" (no BF, LN or DN) and knew we had to have a car.

So, maybe this is more of a guide rather than a review.
1) You do NEED a car, no doubt about it
2) The kitchen has a couple burners, a fridge, dishes/silverware and two pots (small & big). No Pan!
3) PARKING at the hotel during high season will be difficult to be polite. You can use the Hotels garage and we paid €7 per day - well worth it in my opinion.
4) We did not use the Hotels Spa or Restaurant, so I can't comment

Rooms are clean an spacious. Nicely equipped. TV has several english channels, a couple german at least one french and of course spanish.

Maids will NOT wash your dishes. There are NO cleaning supplies (dish soap, sponges or the alike).
You can buy everything you need at the two supermarkets at the bottom of the hill. Right at the exit is a Marcadero as well as a SuperSol (SuperSol a little hidden: go behind the Mercadero, turn towards the highway, it's next to the yacht dealer, a little in the back). Both are excellent though the Mercadero has a much better selection of fresh fish and meats.

The pool is nice, big and busy. There were a lot of families with kids. There are rules posted all over about proper attire, opening hours, taking shower before hopping in, balls, floaties etc. etc. The lifeguard made a few futile attempts to enforce the rules but gave up after a few days.... So, as long as nobody's getting hurt, it's all fair game.

The staff was nice, spoke reasonably well English (better than my Spanish anyway - wink at those who complain about it, how good is your Spanish???).

It's a Hotel I would stay in again, no question.

the bad points
its really hard to find
its a long way from the beach
the parkings a problem
breakfast not good
you need a car its a must
the area is just for a base

the good points
its a nice hotel
good pool
relaxing
good rooms, sky news , cnn,eurosport only english t,v
price can be amazing

i paid £23 per night, hardly anyone there, until the weekend when there was a cocaine ex users seminar, so it got a lot busier,
and the people were fine, no problem at all,
really nice rooms, very peacefull at poolside, just use supermarket to stock up, i saw rooms as cheap as £17 a night,
self catering,
this hotel is good value up to £40, after that its to dear because of position,
if you dont mind driving, and using this for base for gibralter, puerto banus, and inland andalucia stop here its fine,
no golf course isnt finished, and the resort of estapona i think is very overrated,

This is the second time that we have stayed in this hotel. The first time in 2005 the construction was not quite complete so we got a very very good deal on a half board for our entire family. The pool was nice for the kids and us to relax in at the end of the day. The food was average but we put this up to it being new and we thought things would improve when it was complete.

We went back a second time just this past April. We paid quite a lot more for it this time. It was absolutely packed. There was absolutely no parking except on the road about four blocks away. The service was terrible and the staff not very helpful. The food was still average at best. The worst thing of all though was that I had booked this hotel again because the kids loved the pool and games/play area. But, this time we had to pay 15 euros per person per hour for use of the pool and had to book it ahead of time(and it always seem to be full). It was very crowded and had limited space to be able to go in with children.

I would never book this hotel again.

I had booked this hotel and then read the reviews from tripadvisor and felt really nervous about it. But when we got there, the hotel was lovely, our room was very nice, clean, and pretty big. The staff at the hotel was really helpful. They gave us advice on where to get the buses, which places nearby were worth going to, and most of them spoke English although some better than others. The hotel is on the top of a hill, and a car is nice, but the public transport isn't too bad. There is a main bus stop right at the bottom of the hill, and the walk is only about 15 minutes. For the great price, I would definitley recommend this hotel.