Alicante hotels, city centre

- Tryp Gran Sol and Estudiotel Alicante

TRYP GRAN SOL:

We stayed for 2 nights at the Tryp Gran Sol, the 3rd tallest building in Alicante. It has 30 floors and a rooftop restaurant and was built in 1971. Along the sides of this slim and tall building there are paintings in oriental style. It is a 4 star hotel, but felt more like 3 stars since it has a very basic interior and small rooms. At some occasion, the doors of one of the only two elevators was broken. It opened and closed for hours, disturbing us at the room, we had to go down by the cleaner's elevator. It was very kind of her, but not very professional of the hotel since it seems the elevators are not served often enough. Our room was small, simple but fairly elegant decorated in light colours and comfortable with a small balcony. Despite being a 30 storey tall hotel, we got a room on the 9th floor only, so the view towards the sea was mostly blocked by another building, of course disappointing. There was a minibar and locker in the room and the bathroom was quite nice. The wi-fi was ok, but a bit slow.There are also way too few connecting plugs for electronic devices, only two (and two people normally have 2-3 devices each). The staff in the lobby was as nice as they had to, and helpful. Once we visited the rooftop restaurant to take a drink and watch the views of Alicante, but we were not allowed to sit were if we didn't want to eat, but we had already eaten because the restaurant opened as late as 8 o'clock. And the staff didn't seem interested in the customers, so we just sneaked out on the balcony and took some photos. Breakfast was situated on the 2nd floor with views of the street and the harbour, but isn't it a waste to not place it higher up in such a tall building? The lobby bar was closed most times and looked really mediocre, it should also have been placed on the top. The parking garage costs 10 euros extra a night, and iss situated several blocks away, that meant that we had to look for a parking lot (nearly impossible) while checking in and getting to know where the garage was. The underground garage was extremely narrow and extremely curvy and and if you don't drive down fast enough cars will honk at you, but if you drive faster you really risk damaging your car!

The best thing about Tryp Gran Sol was after all it's location on Rambla de Menez Nuñez, just one block from La Explanada, the marina and just a few blocks from the beach and old town, in the heart of Alicante. And it is really easy to find, since it is so tall and slim.

ESTUDIOTEL ALICANTE:

Last night we had to find something cheap just to stay the last night before flying home, after returning from Valencia. We chosed the Estudiotel Alicante, where we got a double room for only 35 euro a night. Cheap, but not worth so much more. The hotel is Alicante's tallest building, 35 floors high, but we got our room on the 5th floor, a bit of a disappointment. It was built in 1962 and is 117m tall to the roof. The lobby is ok, but feel very outdated with worn furnitures that you can imagine were very fashionable in the 60s/70s. While walking through the corridor we passed a lot of painters that worked on renovating the rooms during our stay, not a professional impression. They stopped at about 8 o clock and we had to get up at 5 the day after for an early flight, but who knows how much noice from the workers we would have heard if you stayed longer? I think they should be more clear about that the floor was under renovation before hiring it out. Compensating for the limited views, the studio room was really large, with two rooms and three beds and a really huge balcony - with nothing in... The decorations were really impersonal and Spartan with white colours and nothing more, but the room looked fresh seemed to have been newly renovated. So definately priceworthy and large for a standard room, with flatscreen TV and a small desk. The bathroom (no marble here but we couldn't expect that for the price of course) had a WC and a shower, that's it. The largest problem is that the room was freezing cold until you turn on the AC (and we didn't find it until we felt asleep), after some unusually cold winter days in Spain. It shouldn't be that cold even without AC. The staff was helpful and helped us calling a taxi in the morning after.

The location is really good, next to El Corte Inglés department store and close to the railway station. It is also close to Plaza de los Luceros, and a short walk to the sea. You won't probably get such a large room/apartment in central Alicante for this price, and if you are lucky you might get a warm room high up with nice views...