Family Camping at the Impressive Alannia Costa Blanca Resort

Introduction

Offering a chance to get away from the normal routine of everyday life and spend some more time outdoors, camping has always been a firm family holiday favourite. Whether you are one of the millions of tourists who flock to this part of Spain each year, or somebody living locally just looking for a fun short break escape, the Costa Blanca is the perfect place for a family camping trip.

Being blessed with year round sunshine, beautiful sandy beaches and an array of local activities on offer for all the family, this stretch of mediterranean coastline in Alicante province provides the perfect setting for family camping.

Forget any old fashioned ideas of camping as ‘slumming it’. Far from it. The modern campsites of the Costa Blanca generally offer state of the art swimming pools and facilities, spacious and shaded pitches, modern and clean washrooms and full programmes of activities and entertainment. For those without their own camping equipment or live-in vehicle, many offer a range of bungalows and other accommodation options on site.

Amongst the many campsites on offer, Alannia Costa Blanca stands out as being one of the largest resort campsites in all of Spain, with over 1000 pitches. It even has its own land train to transport guests between the different areas of the resort!

If you are deciding between staying at here or at La Marina Resort, another of the area’s fabulous campsites, also see our comparison review of La Marina vs Alannia: Which is the best camping for kids?

Here though, we share our experiences of our recent family stay with 4 young children at the impressive Alannia Costa Blanca resort.

Where is Alannia Costa Blanca located?

Alannia Costa Blanca resort is located in countryside close to the town of Crevillent in Alicante province, Spain. It is very easy to locate and access, being adjacent to the main AP-7 autoroute.

The campsite resort is an approximately 15-20 minute drive from the nearest coast and beaches. These are beautiful golden sand beaches that are some of the best in the area.

The nearest airport is at Alicante, which is less than a half an hour drive away. It is a large international airport that serves a huge range of destinations all around Europe and beyond. For more information, take a look at our top tips for travelling with kids at Alicante Airport.

What Facilities does Alannia Costa Blanca have?

Just like at other resort campsites in popular tourist areas, the action centres around the swimming pools. Alannia Costa Blanca has a good assortment of pools to suit all ages and interests. More on these below.

As well as the pools, this impressive and enormous campsite has many other facilities on offer for all the family. The large central square area provides an attractive outdoor meeting and socialising space, complete with 2 restaurants, a small supermarket and stage for hosting evening entertainment.

Sports lovers can enjoy the tennis courts, table tennis tables, mini golf, petanque lanes and multi-use ball pitches. Adults have access to a gym, spa and hairdressers, while kids can enjoy both indoor and outdoor playgrounds, a computer arcade room and a dedicated staffed kids club during the peak season.

There is plenty to keep everyone entertained during any stay.

What is the Pool Like at Alannia Costa Blanca?

Alannia Costa Blanca actually has 2 entirely separate pool areas, located at either end of the resort. All pools have been beautifully landscaped and planted to create the feeling of being in a tropical oasis.

It is worth noting that other than drinking water, you are not permitted to take your own food and drink into the pool areas.

The Tropical Pool

The Tropical Pool is the main pool area and best for kids, boasting a very shallow baby and toddler pool surrounded by fun, life-sized model animals, a kids pool with several water slides, and a larger and deeper main pool for swimming. Entering into this main pool there are 3 larger water chute slides, 2 of which have a minimum height requirement to ride (and although only short are quite ferocious!).

At busy times there is often a queue for the larger water chute slides, although this is usually only 5-10 minutes.

Surrounding these pools are a good quantity of sun loungers, available for free. One thing I liked was that at lunchtime the pool staff removed any towels from any loungers that had been obviously left for a long time, making them available again. This ensured we always found some available loungers, without them all being ‘reserved’ for the whole day. There is also a bar area with shaded seating.

Throughout the day the staff hosted a range of fun activities around the pools, including aqua aerobics, sports competitions and bar games.

The Tahiti Pool

The Tahiti Pool is a large, salt-water pool located at the other end of the resort. It is better for adults wanting some relaxing and quiet time. No such luck for us with 4 kids! It is beautifully designed and features private bali beds that can be hired, with drinks service. It does a pretty good job of replicating a tropical holiday in more of a far flung and exotic location.

Is There a Kids Club at Alannia Costa Blanca?

Each morning throughout the full summer season there is a daily kids club for children aged 4+. The kids animation team organise games and arts and craft activities to keep the little ones entertained. Kids can be left unattended to give parents a much needed break.

The kids club also makes use of the indoor soft play playground and ball pool, located next door.

What is the Evening Entertainment Like at Alannia Costa Blanca?

During summer there is a full programme of nightly entertainment. The central square area hosts these events and makes for a great venue, with plenty of informal seating to watch the outdoor stage, all with table service for drinks and food if desired. This space also includes the outdoor children’s playground which, a little too hot to use during the peak sun hours of the day, comes alive with kids in the evening.

Each night has a different show, with the more premium offerings saved for the weekends. I don’t expect professional quality from a campsite show but I want it to be fun and engaging and they all succeeded in this regard. During our stay we had an eccentric chess-themed show, a foam party (really!) and a night of karaoke, which quickly turned into a succession of kids failing to sing various Shakira songs. As I say, all good family fun.

What are the Restaurants Like at Alannia Costa Blanca?

On site there are 2 different restaurants – a buffet restuarant and a standard bar/restaurant. I can’t comment on the buffet restaurant as we didn’t sample it but its fair to say we had mixed experiences from the other one.

During a particularly hot day, we enjoyed retreating indoors to the air con in the bar/restuarant. We were efficiently served and the food was decent, if not spectacular. We enjoyed our meal and left happy customers.

However, when we tried to order food to our outdoor table during an evening show we had a less favourable experience. The service was quite bad and the food not particularly well cooked. I guess we just picked the busiest time and the staff were all a bit over-run with orders.

Clearly the time and location of ordering, for us at least, had a big influence on our dining experience. I understand that things are harder when busier, but I wouldn’t expect the standard to drop as much as it did. The dining offering was clearly not the thing we enjoyed best about our stay at Alannia Costa Blanca.

What are the Staff Like at Alannia Costa Blanca?

Almost without exception the staff were all friendly and professional at all times. Our kids were always greeted with smiles and patience, something that goes a long way towards keeping everyone in high spirits.

The staff running the games and activities around the pool were always enthusiastic and eager to include people of all ages, abilities and nationalities. The kids animation team running the kids club were also always friendly and clearly competent to be left in the charge of a room full of excitable children.

Check-in and check-out were both very smooth. Prior to arrival I was sent an online link to allow me enter everyone’s details in advance. This helped speed up check-in enormously. I still had a small wait but the system at least seemed very well organised by the reception staff (which has not always been my experience elsewhere!).

Summary of Our Experiences

Overall, we loved our 3 day stay of family camping at the impressive Alannia Costa Blanca resort. As is usually the case for this part of Spain, we had great weather and were really able to relax, unwind and experience the best of what this camping resort had to offer.

Pool

The landscaping and range of plants around the swimming pools show a real eye for design and are more beautiful than we’ve ever experienced on any other campsite, anywhere. The small pools are perfect for younger children, with the smaller slides offering endless queue-free entertainment. The larger slides are fun but do generally come with a bit of a queue, something which may put you off too many repeat rides.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed the pool area, as was shown by us spending endless hours there during our stay.

My only negative would be that the no food around the pol rule, although admittedly not all that strictly enforced, seemed a bit overly strict. I understand they don’t want the mess of people setting up full meals but, when swimming for hours, kids definitely need snacks to stop them going into meltdown. Consequently, this rule felt not particularly practical for families.

Other Facilities

The other facilities were all great. My kids enjoyed both the indoor and outdoor playgrounds, as well as the evening shows. The central square area provides an expansive outdoor space which is very safe for kids to run off and have fun in while the grown-ups can enjoy a drink and a show.

The on-site shop was quite small but had most of the things we needed during our stay. The restaurants were a bit hit and miss. We found the toilet and shower blocks to be modern and clean at all times. We didn’t get chance to sample some of the other things like the spa, but they all looked good.

Location and Layout

Our pitch was located not too far from the main square and pool area, so the walk was very manageable. For those staying further afield on this enormous campsite, it is nice that they provide a timetabled land train to shuttle you around.

The countryside setting is for the most part very peaceful, with an attractive mountain outlook. Despite the proximity of the main AP-7 autoroute, we were never aware of any traffic noise while on site.

One downside is perhaps the distance of the resort from the coast or any major towns. While we were happy to just enjoy the self-contained facilities for a few days, anyone wanting to take more regular trips out to the beach or larger shops will have to drive the reasonable distance themselves, as there are no other transport options (other than organised day trips run by the campsite to a selection of surrounding attractions).

Overall

The location of Alannia Costa Blanca which may perhaps deter others certainly didn’t detract from what was a very enjoyable short break for us. It is amazing how we were successfully transported to what seemed like a completely different place, even though it was just down the road from where we live! All of the family really enjoyed their stay.

We very much look forward to returning again soon to this special and unexpected slice of tropical paradise, a hidden gem and definitely one of the best family campsites in Spain’s Costa Blanca.