A Weekend In Benidorm | MundoMar & More

Hi beauties!

If you follow me on Instagram then you may have noticed that the weekend before last I was lucky enough to be spending my time in the beautiful España, where I went with my best friend to celebrate her birthday.

This was a very spontaneous trip as we actually only booked it last month, since we had no other plans for my friends birthday we thought let’s just go away for a couple of days, do something adventurous and different! It was the best decision we could have made.

Emily celebrated her birthday on Friday 13th, the same day we flew out to Spain. For our trip we stayed in the Spanish town of Benidorm, famous thanks to the TV show of the same name.

Benidorm is nothing like I expected, it was a thousand times better. There’s so much going on and so much to do there. Emily and I only spent four days there but I could easily spend a week, especially in peak Summer time when the weather is hotter so I can spend my time sunbathing. Even though it was hot when we were there, I wouldn’t say it was bikini weather.

We arrived on Friday evening at around 9pm and we checked into our hotel, the Magic Rock Gardens, straight away. This hotel is lovely, located at the top of a hill but only about a five minute walk (if that) from the beach / restaurants and shops. The hotel has an African / animal type of theme to it which is super fun and the pool area is awesome. There is a hot tub, TV and even waterslides! Unfortunately the water slides weren’t open whilst we were there I believe because it’s not peak season yet, but in the Summer they will be so much fun.

The only thing I could fault about the hotel is the food, as we had breakfast and dinner included in our booking but both buffets were awful. If you think you can’t go wrong with pizza, think again. It was gooey and slimy and made me gag on the first bite! We did not have dinner there again. The breakfast was bearable if you like a plate full of scrambled eggs and a dry pancake but honestly, not the best. In fairness this addition of breakfast and dinner only cost us an extra £2 overall so I can’t complain too much but still, not fab.

Anyway, moving on from the hotel review, let me tell you more about the actual trip itself!

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Night One

As I said Emily and I arrived at around 9ish on the Friday night and we were pretty tired, so we had quite a chill evening. We checked out the hotel, got some pictures then grabbed some food from the hotel buffet which as you already know, was not delicious or nutritious. But it is what it is. After we ate we headed outside of the hotel into town to see what was about but it was actually pretty quiet. Most of the bars / cafe’s along the beach were closed and after our search for a scoop ice cream proved unsuccessful we decided the best thing to do was to settle for a supermarket bought ice cream and head back to the hotel for an early night.

Back at the hotel we got ready for bed and I decided that before I went to sleep I’d take advantage of our relaxed evening and put my energy into blowing up my inflatable banana pool float the girls had bought me for my birthday. It turns out I didn’t need to worry about whether I had much energy or not, as the ‘jumbo size aqua fun’ banana ended up being the tiniest thing I’d ever even seen! Just look! I’m honestly not sure what the designers had in mind with this product or what they thought people were going to achieve with this, but it was a laugh nonetheless.

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Day Two

Day two of Benidorm was much more eventful and for sure one of my favourite days of this year so far. Guess why!? Because I got to see the dolphins! My favourite animals ever, anything to do with dolphins will fill my heart with the most joy.

Emily and I started our Saturday with a spot of breakfast and with plans to spend our day at MundoMar, the local marine park, we ended up waiting for a whole hour for a bus until deciding to get a taxi! It seemed we’d be waiting forever otherwise. We arrived at MundoMar at the perfect time, just half an hour before the dolphin show was due to start. We took some photos and had a little stroll before settling down to watch the show.

Woweeee! The dolphin show was beautiful. I absolutely adore dolphins, they are my all time favourite animal but this was my first time ever actually seeing a dolphin show. It was incredible! The dolphins were doing backflips, jumping over water jets and playing catch with a ball. I’ve never seen anything like it before. They did dance routines with the trainers (who clearly have the best job in the world) and my favourite part was the Moana scene. I love Moana so my heart exploded when ‘We Know The Way’ came on as the backing music! It was magical! Not only was the show spectacular, but afterwards we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to get a photo with a dolphin which of course I had to do! It was quite a brief experience but wonderful all the same and I’m so happy I got to meet a little dolphin again! I love them.

After the dolphin show we explored the rest of the park a little and saw sea lions, meerkats, lemurs and more! At the entrance of the park there is a gorgeous bridge you walk across from which you can see beautiful flamingos and we stood here for a while taking in the beauty of the place. It really was dreamy.

Once we were finished at MundoMar, Emily and I headed back to the town centre and chilled at the hotel for a while before getting ready and heading out for dinner. Word of advice guys, don’t dress up in Benidorm. I wore my red jumpsuit and Summery heels and gosh, you’d think people had never seen someone ‘glammed up’ before. I was getting shouted at on the street, stared at and beeped at, it was so funny! Next time I’m going more casual!

Anyway, all dolled up Emily and I headed to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Thankful to escape the horrors of the hotels food we ordered rice, chicken and noodles and like a blessing, it was delicious. We had a couple of drinks, headed to another bar for some more and played Heads Up then after checking out an Abba tribute where the venue was really quiet, we decided to head back to the hotel and watch the karaoke that was going on there which was pretty fun and a great way to end a wonderful day!

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My first couple of days in Benidorm were brilliant and I fell in love with the place instantly. I hope everybody enjoyed this post and if you’d like to see more, stay tuned because part two of my Benidorm trip is coming soon where I will be telling you all about my trip to the zoo!

Have you ever been to Benidorm before? Let me know in the comments below!

Thank you all for reading.

Lot’s of love,

Jennie.

♥