Playa Principe

“Fantastic beach and, never too busy”

Miles of beach for a strole or find your own quiet spot. many accesses and places to park. Warm (in August!), shallow, clear water. Few occasional 'weedy' bits but there's plenty of pure sand. Not much in the way of shops of restaurants though you're only a short drive from some if needed.

“Fabulous Penthouse Apartment”

Apartment 9M is fabulous. Tony and Haley the owners were very helpful with the booking. They provided Google map instructions for travelling to the apartment from the airport. I copied the destination into iMaps which was a big mistake. The IMaps were good for getting to the strip but woeful on fin… more

Apartment 9M is fabulous. Tony and Haley the owners were very helpful with the booking. They provided Google map instructions for travelling to the apartment from the airport. I copied the destination into iMaps which was a big mistake. The IMaps were good for getting to the strip but woeful on finding the actual apartment. Thankfully Tony was able to direct us by phone. Used google maps later and this proved much more effective in locating the actual apartment. Important to note the apartments are on the right hand side and opposite there is the Mar Menor with no buildings and it is just before a blue building which is a gym. There is a sign on the building with Playa Principe but this could not be seen as cars were parked in front of the sign. On arrival Tony and Haley met us and showed us around the beautiful apartment. It is furnished to a high standard with plenty of wardrobe space and comfy sofas. It would have been nice to have pure cotton sheets rather than poly cotton. So much cooler in the summer. Kitchen is very well equipped and great for cooking meals. It has everything you need and for us that was important as we are both trained chefs. The views from this apartment are lovely of both the Mar Menor and Mediterranean. The private roof top terrace is such a sun trap and a great place to relax on the comfortable sun loungers provided by the owners especially on windy days as it is well protected from the wind. We enjoyed BBQs on the terrace. Beach chairs and parasols are provided by guests. After speaking to Tony he was the one that confirmed these had been bought by previous guests. There were a number of broken beach chairs and parasols and we disposed of to ensure no one else took the chairs down to the beach and found they were broken as we did unfortunately. We had not pre booked the Wi-fi as we thought we would use our phones as we had plenty of data and could tether to our iPads. However the signal was not too good so we did pay for the Wi-fi and this enabled us to watch sky Go without buffering. The Wi-fi was very good. We did pre book the parking in the underground garage. Tony showed us the parking space which is actually an individual garage and they are all numbered. It seemed easy when Tony showed us. However it was an actual nightmare to find the actual garage as there are no signs within the parking structure. My husband had to walk it and write down instructions to actually drive to the numbered garage. Well it is so tight in there with so many tight turns and barely enough room to get you into the actual garage. We had a Renault Centure and it was impossible to get this car round the tight turns let alone get into the actual garage. Gosh only knows what would you would do if another car was coming out. Needless to say we did not use the garage even though we had paid for it. Must admit we did not see any cars entering or leaving the parking structure. It took us a few days to work out how to use the showers by the pool. By trial and error we worked out that the small brass key on the key ring with the apartment keys is actually used to operate the showers. We were both very surprised that there were no sun loungers by the pool and you are not allowed to take chairs into the pool area. The beach by the apartment is lovely and slopes gradually so is ideal for children.it is about half an hour walk to the Marina and there are some nice restaurants. Good job we had a car as the nearest shops are some distance away. It is a nice place for a relaxing beach holiday but not much else to do. It would have been very helpful if there had been a folder in the apartment with useful information such as instructions for use of the showers by the pool, restaurants to visit nearby, local shops with directions, places of interest to visit. The information that was sent to me with my finalised booking was useful and informative. Must admit this is the first apartment we have visited where there was no folder. It would not take long to produce one and would be most helpful to guests and just gives that personal touch. Perhaps this is not done in Spain and we had not stayed in an apartment in Spain before. A safe would also have been a useful addition. Must admit the shutters gave you peace of mind and the lock on the entrance door was substantial and you need a key to get into the building. However we did notice on one occasion the door to the building has been left wide open so we closed it and it locks automatically. Hope the building that is being built next door will not obstruct the views of the Mar Menor as that would be such a shame. Would definitely recommend for a lazy beach holiday.

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