Club La Costa World Marina Sel Sol, Fuengirola, Malaga, Spain

Visited Club la Costa at Costa del Sol recently, during a promotional 7night stay offered by CLC, thinking it would be a good getaway from the cold London weather in November. However, it turned out to be a nightmare experience, it was so appaulling we had to leave CLC & Costa del Sol after just 4 nights.

People who have been on similiar CLC promotional holidays would remember how frequently the CLC team rave about the hygiene and maintance of their holiday homes ( to people who ave not been yet – they talk about it all the time when comparing themselves to AirBnB). However, as you might be able to see from the pictures added below, the first room they offered us (536 – Marina del Rey) was full of bugs and flying ants. It was bearable at the begginning but it got disgusting as we started looking around. The bugs were everywhere – including bed sheets.

We called them to inform them of the problem and they sent a cleaner with a spray to kill them, which obviously did not work as they were everywhere. After another heated conversation, the manager came around, had a look and decided to shift us to a room next door late evening after speaking to the cleaner in Spanish (531). He also mentioned someone from the management team would contact us about this issue next morning but surprisinginly we received no apology or explaination for this badly maintained room apart from the few lines the on-site manager made while he was inspecting the room.

Also, in both the rooms, on multiple occasions we struggled to get hot water. It was evident that after 1 person had taken a shower the second would have to wait at least for any 45 mins before they had the pleasure of hot water again.

I think my wife and me both had enough share of disappointment in the first 4 days that we decided to cut short our vacation and head back home early than planned.

In my opinion, I would Highly, highly recommend NOT TO be a part of CLC in any way, part or form.

We were originally contacted to say we had won a free accommodation at one of 4 CLC world sites. What’s the catch I asked… no catch, no obligations, just enjoy and share your experience via social media. All we require is 90 mins of your time at our travel centre in Manchester to look at the destinations they said… so we went, and it quickly became a sales pitch for CLC membership… after sitting through it and saying no, they handed us the travel and shopping vouchers as promised with a parting shot that we would be required to attend another one in Spain, which we did and lost 5 hours to it but they did give us breakfast :-) In a posh restaurant too… the one that charges 17 Euros for fish bites and chips :-D so it must have been great.

We still said no… like it was ever going to change. The accommodation was big, adequate for needs but had an ant problem, not realising how bad until we dropped some food in the latter part of the week.
Also, the apartment 2B1 was inside a maze of steps completely unfit for families with children in prams.

Other than that, everything was so spread out on the site you end up walking uphill and down Dale if you want to do anything. As a former runner, this wouldn’t normally be an issue but with a 5yo and a 15-month-old, it became a joke. There was a train but they didn’t like pram on it. Every time you rocked up with the pram it was like you’d stolen away with his life savings, and he talked on the phone all the way around. Then there’s the expense… 17 Euro fish bites and chip, 20 Euro 3 drink rounds, 100 euros on a meal out. You find yourself stopping in at night which isn’t what a holiday is about for me…

This kind of package isn’t for me… cooking, cleaning and shopping have no place on my holidays and no matter how big and luxurious the apartment is, you just can’t beat the good old All-Inclusive :-)

Received a random phone call in April to experience Costa world. £99 out of season £199 peak. We were told we had to go for a 2-hour presentation for this offer which we took up. Firstly the resort is on a busy dual carriageway very noisy, plenty of bridges to cross to a below standard beach. 30 minute walk to the centre or £1.50 for a regular bus each way

The accommodation was 2.5 star although the facilities are much higher including on-site restaurants reasonably priced. There are many resorts in 1 huge complex. Timeshare pitch, although now called fraction ownership, was at least 3 hours, some couples stayed for 6 hours.

The pitch is on a 1 on basis.

I won’t discuss pricing although if you purchase on the day there is a really good offer. Very friendly sales pitch not pushy but they won’t like a no.

They show you a state of the art apartment to get your juices flowing. Good local transport to nearby places. €45 each way to the airport. Prices have risen in the past few years, local shop a bottle of wine €3, restaurants €15.

The good is that the resorts are safe, clean and very well maintained with pools, restaurants and basic shops on site.

Where you you have to be extremely careful is with what they offer you as a ownership proposition as it is a condition of the the promotional week that you spend five hours with the sales team.

To cut to the chase you enter into a 19 year contract where you own a fraction of a property which when sold you will get your percentage of the sold value back at the end of the contract. The big sales push is that with the points allocation you get allocated every year you can reserve up to two year an advance accommodation on either their complexes or the massive company they associate with, Interval.

Simple you think but apart from the cost of the ownership which can vary according to budget, you have to pay annual membership for access to Interval of £175 but also annual maintenance charges of currently £900 approx that are not fixed and if you don’t have have the ability to buy the share up front 11.9% interest to repay month.

We gave a budget and what they could offer was so limited that you would have to wait until three months before you hope to go to be able to afford anything with the points allocated. For families looking to book around school holidays and jobs where leave has to be booked much earlier than that. In short can possibly work for people with time on their hands and those that can afford at least two or three holidays abroad but for everyone one else it does just not work.

If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

I received a phone-call offering me a week’s holiday at this resort for £99. We had to find our own flights and transfers. The offer was for self-catering and I was told we would have to give up a morning or afternoon of our time to attend a presentation. As with all these things, we had to decide there and then to get the offer so there was no time to check the internet for reviews.

Checking in was a delight and a porter delivered our luggage to the apartment. So far, so good. The apartment was lovely. It was showing it’s age a bit, but there was a fully equipped kitchen with dishwasher, toaster, microwave, washing machine and full fridge.

There was a welcome pack with milk, orange juice, water, bread, and sachets of coffee, tea and sugar with mini pots of margerine and jam. There was a full dining table with chairs plus a really comfy 2 seater sofa and chair.

The t.v had satellite channels including English football matches, BBC, ITV etc. We had a two bedroom apartment with the main double having a full en-suite with bath and the second twin room had a separate shower room. There was also a free safe available. We were delighted.

Outside there was a fully furnished patio area, an area of grass and a heated swimming pool shared between just a few apartments. It was rarely busy.
The beds turned out to be too hard for a good night’s sleep, as were the pillows.

We ate a few times at Zacary’s bar which had average tourist food at higher than average prices but as the complex is almost mid-way between Fuengirola and La Cala de Mijas, sometimes it was just easier to stump up. The staff were friendly and football was showing on multiple screens which we appreciated. There is also happy hour 2 for 1 between 5.30 and 6.30 on drinks.

The complex is set on a hillside so there are lots of steps or slopes. Luckily, we stayed in the Castilla del Rey area which was close to reception and Zacary’s. We didn’t use the resort train but were told the diesel fumes made a ride unpleasant. It also seems to go one way around the whole resort so depending on where you wanted to go, it could take some time. It passed each point every half hour.

We are not the type to stay in resort all the time so we went to Fuengirola most days and once to La Cala de Mijas. The first time we went to Fuengirola we took the bus and this was a mission with a disabled person. Getting to the bus stop was the first problem, then getting on and off the bus. We returned by taxi and didn’t bother with the bus again.

The beach to the front of the resort is not very nice, just a thin strip of sand below the walls of the dual carriageway. The road noise didn’t bother us at all whilst in the resort as it is set down.

Then the whole thing is totally ruined at the presentation. We were collected by Paul at 9 am and taken to the Safari restaurant at the other end of the resort. The good-natured questioning started as soon as we got in the car. Paul was lovely with impeccable manners. We had a buffet breakfast which was very nice, but all the time, Paul was with us, with the subtle questioning and being put at ease continuing. We were introduced to a woman who appeared to be one of the main sales people. The ones who pick you up are the nice guys!

We were then taken to a large room filled with desks, computer screens and chairs. We were shown to one desk and there were various other groups of people at other tables. If you have children, unless you have someone to look after them, they will be with you throughout. It made me laugh afterwards to read about an excursion which included a 30 minute presentation on health foods and was therefore deemed unsuitable for children.

We were told by the saleslady that everyone there is very nice, there is no high pressure selling and they understand that sometimes the product just doesn’t suit. This is a lie.

Our circumstances had changed since we booked the trip and the product was totally unsuitable. Typically, all the pro’s are drip fed to you and the cost part is almost brushed over. We finally got to the 999 Euros per year maintenance charge, then another £125 to have membership to more variety of resort, then another £75 if you wanted to use their hotel partners (all top notch).

This was without buying anything at all. It was by now 1.30pm and we had had enough. Morning had come and gone and we still had 3 types of accommodation to look at followed by further discussions about costs. I refused point blank. This was when the threats started coming. I had contracted to the entire presentation, I was informed. I was told it would be a morning only.

By my reckoning, morning ended at 12 and I had already given 90 minutes more than I contracted to, but no, the sales bit only started at 11 because we had been at breakfast beforehand and the small print said otherwise but as a favour, because it was so obviously not for us, we only had to look at one type of property, which, after my husband became so concerned that we would be charged full price for the holiday, I reluctantly agreed to do, wasting even more of our time.

If you do a bit of research, despite all the reassurances, it is VERY difficult to get out of one of their contracts although CLC World lost a major court case in October 2015 and had to pay back all the money paid by one client, plus court costs.

It also seems very difficult to actually get a holiday with your points and you have to pay yet more money every time.

You get no choice on the day or time of the presentation so do not pre-book excursions.

All in all, we had a good time but I wouldn’t go back to this or any other CLC resort even if it was totally free with flights and transfers paid

Went to club la costa on one of those free weeks.

Nice accommodation but totally unsuitable for anyone with a mobility problem.

It was up hill and down dale. My husband spent most of his time pushing me up a hill or trying to stop me rolling down one.

No independent movement was possible unless you had one of those large mobility scooters (you could hire one).

When asked the timeshare guy bated of my questions about mobility access to CLC worlds accommodation. If you have a mobility problem don’t bother.