We are currently staying at the Hotel del Alba oustide Alicante, as part of a 'long-weekend' (end of March 2008). We booked the hotel because the other reviewers on Tripadvisor had rated the hotel well. So what were our findings?

The hotel is about 5 miles outside Alicante, surrounded by a golf course, holiday villas,... and lots of greenhouses. Upon check-in we asked how to get into the car-park, and were advised of a 6-euro charge... odd for the middle of nowhere! Anyway, they also usefully advised you can park on the street, so we did... right outside the hotel, as it's as if no one else is staying here.

The hotel has therefore been very quiet... in fact it seems almost shut-down at this time of year, which is a problem. The main pool is closed, and half-drained. It looks nice, but cannot be used! I'm sure it would be great in summer.... but that's no good now.

There is a much smaller 'indoor' pool, which the room brochure advertises as being opened 9am - 9pm... however we just went to use it at 7:55pm, to be told it actually closes at 8pm... and also doesn't open till 10am, so we won't be able to use either pool at all during our stay... very disappointing as that's half the reason we came here.

We were allocated a room on the 4th floor, and the first impressions were good... it's a new hotel, so all the furnishings are good, there's an LCD widescreen TV, free internet (which is being used to type this review!), nice bathroom, and so on. There's an in-room safe, but it won't hold much more than a postage stamp (or passport), so don't imagine it'll hold your laptop. It looks like they were going to make the rooms 'suites', and include a cooker as there's a small sink and cooker-hood... but no cooker, the cut-out is covered over by a wooden box! Still, there is a fridge, which is useful.

Less useful is the air-conditioning... we turned it on the first night as the room was hot when we arrived... within a couple of hours the room was even warmer, so we switched it off and opened the door... this did the trick, and yes is probably a much greener option anyway... but was slightly odd. We asked in the morning, and apparently (but there's nothing to indicate this), the air-conditioning is switched off as it's 'winter'.

The hotel looks clean and spacious, and is therefore nice. They've taken energy saving to a bit of an extreme with the corridor lights, which are all off (and there are no windows at all), so the corridors are all pitch-black (there are no night-lights, or anything on) until you emerge and activate the motion sensor. It's a little scary as it only illuminates a small section of the corridor though... they could really do with one light in 5 being on, or some natural light, or something!

We've not eaten here yet (and probably won't as we've not found the menu, besides room-service... even the restuarant looks almost closed). We asked ar reception about local restaurants, but they seemed clueless.

We ate lunch at a place a minute by car down the road called Oliver's which was good.

I'm sure if you came here just to play golf on the course next door, or came in the middle of summer when it's presumably packed, it would be a great place to stay. In March, I can't really recommend it however.