Hotel Presidente: Hotel Spotlight

LOCATION

Avenida de Filipinas is one of those Benidorm streets that means something to those in the know.

It sits in the heart of the Rincón de Loix neighbourhood — the New Town’s busy, sociable pulse — and from the hotel’s front door the whole resort is effectively at your feet.

Levante Beach? A five-minute walk, flat all the way. No hills, no detours — just a short stroll to that famous strip of golden sand and the glistening Mediterranean beyond it.

Levante Beach – a 5 minute walk

The Casino Mediterráneo is about an 8-9 minute walk while Benidorm Palace — the resort’s legendary cabaret and dinner venue — is a pleasant 15+ minute evening paseo, though you may find, as many guests do, that you never quite make it there.

Because everything you need for a brilliant night out is already under the hotel’s own roof.

The New Town neighbourhood — lively, convenient, very Benidorm

Vibe

Let’s be clear about what the Hotel Presidente is, and equally clear about what it isn’t.

It isn’t a boutique retreat. It isn’t hushed corridors and pillow menus and the sound of distant waves. If that’s what you’re after, the Nomad Resort & Spa down at La Cala de Finestrat is the place you’re looking for.

What the Presidente is — gloriously, unapologetically — is a hotel that throws itself fully into the Benidorm experience. It has energy (the good kind).

And an infectious sense that everyone around you is having a very good time and would be delighted if you joined in.

The refurbishment back in 2018 has sharpened the look considerably.

Neutral tones, contemporary furnishings, a Gallery Lobby Bar that has the kind of easy sophistication that makes cocktail hour feel entirely earned.

The calm vibe of The Gallery Bar

The whole place feels cared for — staff who genuinely take pride in their hotel are the best indicator of a well-run property, and the Presidente has them in abundance.

Rooms

The rooms at the Presidente are modern, well-maintained and — crucially — genuinely comfortable in the ways that matter most to anyone spending a week or more here.

Think proper blackout curtains (important when the Benidorm sun makes no apologies for rising early), powerful rain showers that guests consistently rave about, and terraces with either pool views or resort views.

Corner rooms on higher floors, opening onto Avenida de Filipinas itself, are a particular treat — spacious wrap-around terraces and front-row views over the boulevard – worth requesting at the time of booking if you fancy watching the world go by from a vantage point no bar can quite match.

Standard Double with Pool View – we love the shower!

Practical details that make a difference: USB charging ports in the rooms, free Wi-Fi throughout, a kettle, air conditioning that actually works, and a generous bathroom that doesn’t require yoga-level flexibility to navigate.

Ground-floor accessible rooms overlook the pool directly, with a private section of terrace reserved for those guests — a genuinely considerate touch.

And although you are pretty much bang in the centre of the New Town area, the soundproofing is notably good.

CHECK OUT HOTEL PRESIDENTE AVAILABILITY & RATES

Food & Drink

The Presidente’s buffet is, in our view, one of the genuinely outstanding hotel restaurants in Benidorm. That might sound like a low bar — buffet hotels are not, as a rule, the destination of choice for gastronomes — but hear us out.

The kitchen here does things properly.

Breakfast delivers real, thick-cut back bacon cooked freshly and to order (not the thin, sad-looking variety that features in so many hotel buffets in Spain), poached eggs made on request, a serious spread of pastries, fresh fruit and continental options.

The kind of breakfast that sets you up rather than merely filling you.

Lunch and dinner maintain that standard.

Show cooking stations — where dishes are prepared in front of you — bring a theatre to mealtimes that makes the buffet format feel considerably more engaging than it might otherwise.

Themed dinner evenings have developed a following among regulars, and the coeliacs and dietary requirement brigade are well catered for, with allergen information clearly labelled throughout.

While the chef’s recommendations can often introduce you to something traditonally Spanish and maybe something totally new.

Neutral tones and a relaxed atmosphere

One flexibility that guests repeatedly praise: on half-board, you can swap your evening meal to a lunch sitting simply by letting the restaurant team know at breakfast.

A small thing, but again a nice touch.

For drinks, the Gallery Lobby Bar runs from morning until 1am while the pool bar is open from 9am to 7pm throughout the summer season.

Poolside Bar – always a winner

Facilities

The Pool

The Hotel Presidente’s lagoon-style saltwater pool is something of a design achievement.

A gentle slope rather than a hard poolside edge means you can wade in incrementally — a format that suits everyone from nervous paddlers to those who simply like to arrive at the water gradually rather than all at once.

Crucially, the pool is heated — from November through to the end of March — which makes the Presidente a serious year-round proposition in a way that many Benidorm hotels simply are not.

Fresh and cooling in the summer, heated for the winter

Levante Beach in February is a beautiful thing; the ability to follow a beach walk with a swim in a warm pool rather than a lukewarm (or chilly) one is the detail that converts the winter-sun curious into the winter-sun converted.

The pool terrace itself is well equipped: Balinese beds alongside the standard sun loungers, a jacuzzi on the upper sun terrace, parasols throughout, and a freshwater children’s pool with a slide adjacent to the main pool.

Benicaldea Spa

Worth flagging clearly, because it crops up in a lot of Presidente coverage: the Benicaldea Spa is not located in this hotel. It sits in the Hoteles Benidorm group’s sister property, Hotel Ambassador I, a short walk away.

Presidente guests can access it — ask at reception for current arrangements and rates — but do go in with the right expectation. You’re heading out to a neighbouring hotel for the experience, not shuffling down a corridor in your dressing gown! A minor but important distinction, and one that some guests have been caught out by when they assumed spa time was a step from their room.

With that caveat in place: it genuinely is worth the short trip.

The Benicaldea is widely regarded as the finest spa in Benidorm — a water circuit, hot and cold pools, sauna, steam room and a team of experienced therapists offering authentic Thai massages.

The kind of afternoon that makes the rest of the week feel considerably more manageable – just factor in a five-minute walk each way.

Philippines 10

We should talk about Philippines 10.

You can get to Philippines 10 from outside

Located in the basement of the hotel — accessed directly from the lobby — this Art Deco-influenced cabaret venue is one of the most distinctive on the entire Bendiorm circuit. Singers, shows and tribute acts perform every night, and the rotation covers a roll-call that would make a solid playlist in any era: Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Wham, The Greatest Showman, Coldplay, Take That, Queen, Ed Sheeran and more.

Check out the evening’s shows at the basement entrance

The atmosphere is warm and genuinely fun rather than obligatory-entertainment-programme fun — a distinction that anyone who has sat through a poorly-performed resort cabaret will appreciate immediately.

The cocktails are reasonably priced and brought to your table by a team of waiters who clearly enjoy what they do – plus hotel guests receive a discount on their drinks!

Going out in Benidorm is, of course, the holiday gift that keeps on giving. But on the nights you simply cannot be bothered — and there will be nights — Philippines 10 is the very best argument for staying in, so to speak.

You can always keep an eye out on our SHOW CALENDAR to see the latest weekly updates from some of Benidorm’s best venues.

BENIDORM AND BEYOND RECOMMENDS

Benidorm is Big.

And if you are staying at the Hotel Presidente you might be in the heart of the New Town but don’t forget the Old Town.

New Town

The Presidente is part of the Hoteles Benidorm group who also have in their portfolio the Riviera and Ambassaor Playa I & II; pop your head through the door, they might inspire you to book into one of them on your next visit – they are both lovely hotels.

As well as accommodation, the group also own some of Benidorm’s favourite bars: Western Saloon, Surprise Attack, Bar Hotel California, The Explorer’s Club, Riviera Music Lounge and the famous Morgan Tavern.

Daytime relaxation on the Western Saloon Bar terrace

And as a guest of Hotel Presidente you also get discounted drinks in these establishments!

Old Town

From the hotel it’s around a twenty-minute walk along the promenade to Benidorm’s Old Town, and it’s a walk worth doing at least once in any stay, ideally in the early evening when the light over the headland is at its most flattering.

The labyrinthine streets of the Casco Antiguo are full of tapas bars, local restaurants and the kind of atmosphere that reminds you Benidorm existed long before the first British package tourist arrived.

Make sure to visit the Old Town, a different vibe altogether

The church of Saint James and Saint Anne sits at the tip of the headland; from the viewing terrace behind it, you get the view of Levante and Poniente beaches stretching in either direction that appears on roughly half the postcard racks in the resort. Earn it. Own it.

L’Aigüera Park

A 15-20 minute walk from the hotel, L’Aigüera is one of Benidorm’s most underappreciated spaces.

Designed by Ricardo Bofill — the architect behind some of the most distinctive civic spaces in Barcelona — this long, terraced park runs through the centre of the resort like a green spine, flanked by graceful colonnaded walkways and descending through stages to an outdoor amphitheatre at its heart.

L’Aigüera – the perfect place to start the day

The amphitheatre hosts live music and events throughout the year — check our EVENTS page for what might be on during your stay.

Morning walks through L’Aigüera Park, before the heat of the day arrives, are a genuine pleasure and a reminder that Benidorm contains considerably more architectural intelligence than its reputation generally allows.

The Wrap

As you can see, the Hotel Presidente isn’t trying to be subtle. It knows exactly what it is, it executes that vision brilliantly, and it has the loyalty figures to prove it. Guests who come once tend to come back — again and again.

Whether it’s the buffet that genuinely surprises you, the saltwater pool area that keeps you anchored to your Balinese bed all day, the short stroll over to the Benicaldea Spa at the Ambassador that dissolves the second half of the week’s tension, or Philippines 10 for a real blast of feelgood fun— well, frankly, all of the above — the Presidente makes a compelling case for the kind of Benidorm holiday that does exactly what it says on the tin, and does it better than almost anywhere else in the New Town.

So go on. Book yourself a week — oh, and say hello to Antonio in the restaurant from us.