Calahonda holiday apartment: Dona Lola

We stayed at one of these houses for two weeks in June.

Firstly, the resort is fantastic, with the best pool we've ever had and plenty of comfortable loungers. The gardens are fabulous. The food is slightly higher prices than elsewhere but not much. Our kids had very reasonably priced swimming lessons in the pool. The beach next to the resort is adequate and safe for swimming, but does have some rubbish on it. Our 4 & 7 year old did not really notice.

Calahonda is very "English" and not terribly attractive. However, there's a good supermarket just over the road and plenty of good restaurants. A car is really not needed and taxis are about €100 return from the airport.

The house itself is very well located and if you consider it a one bedroom house, very spacious. However, it is somewhat in need of refurbishment. The bunk bed room really is only the size of the bunk bed, is terribly claustrophic and quite smelly. I could not squeeze down the side of the bed. Our kids refused to sleep in it and we ended up all crowding into the other bedroom. The bathroom was pretty worn out. The bidet was cracked, the sink taps held together with mastic and the loo seat was discoloured. One of the floor tiles was loose and the shower door did not close properly. The sitting room was very spacious and we had cable TV. However the sofa-bed was the most uncomfortable thing we had ever sat on. It looked pretty bad to sleep on too. The other chair bed had broken slats. The kitchen is very small at under 6 feet square, but everything worked - except the tray to hold the milk etc. in the fridge was broken. There were only the most basic utensils (not even a wooden spoon).

I know that may sound negative about the house, but it's very cheap compared to the other ones on Dona Lola and we spent most of the time at the pool. If the house had another bedroom like the main bedroom or we were travelling as a couple we would definitely stay there again.