Globales Los Patos Park
Globales Los Patos Park is a 4-star all-inclusive hotel on the seafront strip at Benalmádena Costa, on Spain’s Costa del Sol in Andalusia. Families come for the pools: four of them, two with slides, with mushroom showers and tipping buckets in the children’s area. The sand is a flat 200 to 250 metre walk from the door, the coastal paseo runs past with its shops, restaurants and beach bars, and Málaga airport is about half an hour up the road.
On this page
Is it worth it?
The quick read before the detail: who it suits, what the pools and the all-inclusive cover and where the gaps are.
Globales Los Patos Park is a 4-star all-inclusive on the Benalmádena Costa seafront, and the pools are what most families come for. There are four of them, two for adults and two for children, and two of the four have slides, with water slides in the adult area and slides and games for smaller children in theirs. You don’t pay separately for any of it, which is the difference between this and a hotel where the water park is a day ticket somewhere else. It sits at the budget end of this coast’s family hotels and doesn’t pretend otherwise: a straightforward hotel with a lot of water play. The beach is a flat few minutes away and the paseo starts at the door, so you can manage a week here without a car.
The gaps matter as much. There’s no crèche and no supervised care below the mini club’s four, so with a baby or a toddler you are the carer all day, every day. The rooms are the weak point: dated décor rather than a recent refurbishment, and the complaint families make most often. A Family Room takes two adults and up to two children, and there’s no suite tier or connecting-room product, so three children means two rooms.
Best for
You want a 4-star all-inclusive with its own pools and slides in the price, a flat walk to the sand and the paseo’s shops and restaurants at the door.
Maybe not for
You’re travelling with a baby or toddler and want supervised childcare, you have three or more children or you want a recently refurbished room.
Best ages
Children old enough for the Mini Club Pirate Cave, which runs from four to twelve.
What stands out
Four pools, two of them with slides, all included in what you pay. Málaga airport is a short drive away.
What to check
That the slides will be running for your dates, and whether a Family Room’s two adults and two children is enough.
Where is it?
Benalmádena Costa, the seafront strip on the Costa del Sol in Andalusia, about 16 miles (25 km) from Málaga airport.
Quick facts for families
What the resort is like
Where it sits in Benalmádena, how the site is laid out and what’s on the doorstep.
Globales Los Patos Park is run by Globales Hotels, a Spanish independent chain with hotels along Spain’s coasts and in the Balearic Islands, rather than a one-off independently owned hotel. That’s worth knowing when you search, because there’s more than one Globales hotel on the Costa del Sol: Globales Playa Estepona, further west along the coast, is a different property, so check the name and the address match before you book.
Benalmádena is three places with one name. There’s the historic hilltop village, there’s Arroyo de la Miel, the commercial and residential part inland, then there’s Benalmádena Costa, the densely developed seafront strip where this hotel sits, on Calle Torrealmádena. The marina and the busier middle of the strip are about 1.5 miles (2 km) along the front rather than next door. The coastal paseo starts a couple of minutes from the door, with restaurants, bars, shops, souvenir shops, beach bars and supermarkets on it. For the coast itself, its resorts and when to go, see our Costa del Sol guide.
The hotel is one building rather than villas or scattered blocks, so there’s nothing to shuttle between: you walk it, and there are lifts. Around the pools there’s a solarium and sunbed area, a chill-out zone and TV rooms, and there’s an outdoor playground in the grounds. Globales rents cars at the hotel if you want one for a few days. What isn’t here is a spa, a gym, a sports academy or any wellness offer, so if one of you wants a sauna hour or a morning in a gym while the other takes the children, that doesn’t exist on site.
The ground between the hotel, the paseo and the sand is flat, with no steps and no road to cross, so a pushchair does the daily beach run and the walk to the shops without a fight. If someone in the party needs step-free detail beyond the lifts, ask the hotel before you book.
Food and drink
What the buffet is like, the four board options and what children actually eat.
Eating here is simple. There’s one buffet restaurant, a cafeteria and a bar. There’s no à la carte dining room, and nothing needs booking, because a buffet takes no reservations, so you eat when a toddler is hungry rather than holding a table for 7pm.
The buffet serves national and international dishes with show cooking, desserts and drinks. Families describe it as varied and plentiful for what they paid, and it’s the most consistent praise the hotel gets. It’s a buffet, so children pick their own, and there’s plenty on it a child will eat.
Four board options are sold: bed and breakfast, half-board, full-board and all-inclusive. What separates them is drinks. Half-board and full-board don’t include them and all-inclusive does, so the step from full-board to all-inclusive is the drinks rather than the meals.
The rooms
The four room categories and who fits in them, then the pools, the slides and the walk to the beach.
There are four room categories and no suite tier. The table is the full line-up.
| Room type | Size | Sleeps | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double (single use) | Not published | 1 adult | The standard double, sold for one adult. |
| Double | Not published | 2 adults | The standard room. Children can share it, though the Family Room is the category with a stated child capacity. |
| Double pool view | Not published | 2 adults | The standard room with a pool-facing outlook. |
| Family Room | Not published | 2 adults and up to 2 children | The family category, designed for two adults and up to two children. |
The Family Room is the category built for a family, designed for two adults and up to two children, and no room here takes more. Children can share a standard Double too, but don’t read that as the roomier option: it isn’t. With three children or more you’re booking two rooms, and there’s no connecting pair to ask for, which is a limit families flag.
If a separate sleeping space matters to you, ask the hotel about the Family Room’s layout before you book. It matters most for early bedtimes and naps. In one open room, a child going down for the night or an afternoon sleep leaves the rest of the room dark and quiet too, rather than somewhere the adults can read or have the TV on low.
Every room has a terrace or balcony, air conditioning, satellite TV, a hairdryer, a telephone, free WiFi, a minibar or fridge and a full bathroom. Floors are tiled, and some rooms look partly out to sea. The in-room safe is charged as an extra.
Rooms are functional rather than recently refurbished, and dated décor is the most consistent thing families flag, set against what a 4-star means elsewhere in Europe.
The pools and the water slides
There are four pools: two for adults and two for children. Two of the four have slides, and the slides run to both, water slides in the adult area and slides and games for smaller children in theirs. In the children’s area the water features are mushroom-shaped showers, water diffusers and tipping buckets. There’s a pirate ship with a water cannon too, and it’s what families mention first alongside the slides.
Families say the water feels cold, particularly in May, June and September, so for a shoulder-month stay don’t count on warm water.
The slides and water features are seasonal, and the dates aren’t announced in advance. If your stay falls in early May, late September or October, ask the hotel or your tour operator whether the slides will be running before you book.
Official UK advice for Spain is to keep small children within arm’s reach in and around pools, even if they can swim and even if there’s a lifeguard, and to do the same in the sea.
The beach
The beach is about 200 to 250 metres away, on the flat, with no road to cross, so you can do a pool morning and a beach afternoon without a car, a shuttle or a hill, and push a buggy the whole way. It’s the Torrealmádena and Torremuelle stretch, mostly sand with some coarser shingle sections, which is normal for the western Costa del Sol rather than the fine sand of a Canary beach.
Benalmádena holds four Blue Flags for the 2026 season, at Carvajal, Fuente de la Salud and Torrebermeja-Santa Ana beaches and at the Puerto Deportivo marina. The stretch by the hotel isn’t among them, and the awards are renewed every year, so the list shifts. Check the beach flag system when you get there: a red flag means don’t go in the water.
The sea reaches 24°C in August and drops to 16°C in February. July and August, at 22 to 24°C, are the months for swimming with a young child, and May, June, September and October sit at 18 to 21°C, which is viable on a warm day. Water sports, jet skis, boats and windsurfing, run from the broader Benalmádena waterfront around Torre Bermeja rather than from the sand in front of the hotel, so they’re something to go and find.
Babies and toddlers
The Mini Club Pirate Cave, what there is for children below it and what to ask for at booking.
The Mini Club Pirate Cave is the children’s club, themed as a pirate cave, and it takes children from four to twelve for crafts, games and workshops. Below four there’s nothing: no crèche, no supervised childcare of any kind. With a baby or a toddler, one of you is with them every hour of the holiday, and it’s the gripe families raise most often after the rooms. If the club is part of why you’re choosing this hotel, put its hours and whether it’s included on the board you’re taking to the hotel before you book. Twelve is the club’s upper age.
On baby kit, cots are what the hotel provides, on request and subject to availability, so ask for one as soon as your dates are firm. There’s no named baby-kit service beyond that, so bring the baby bath, steriliser or bottle warmer you need rather than expecting to borrow one. Baby food you can leave at home, because the supermarkets a few minutes along the paseo stock it.
On resortThings to do
An entertainment team runs a programme through the day and into the evening, and families rate it: lively and well run is the recurring verdict. The daytime crafts, games and workshops belong to the mini club, so they’re for children of four and up, and there’s no daytime activity schedule for anything younger. Evenings are dances and shows. There’s an outdoor playground, and indoors there are TV rooms and a chill-out area for a wet day or the hottest part of an August afternoon.
What isn’t here is sport. No courts, no gym, no fitness equipment and no organised sports. There’s no watersports, kayaking, sailing, diving or tennis programme either, and no spa. This is a pool, beach and entertainment hotel, so if someone in the family wants a week with a tennis coach or a daily swim in a proper lane, they’ll be going off site for it.
The area and days out
What’s walkable, the days out within half an hour and the coastal train.
The paseo is the walkable part, and it’s flat: restaurants, beach bars, shops, supermarkets and pharmacies, all within a few minutes. Benalmádena’s marina, Puerto Marina, is about 1.5 miles (2 km) along the front on foot or by taxi, for boat trips and eating out. Past that you’re driving, and the hotel is well placed for it: Fuengirola is about 5 miles (8 km) south-west, Torremolinos about 4 miles (7 km) north-east and Málaga city about 12 miles (20 km).
The days out that suit young children are close. Selwo Marina, a zoo and marine park in Benalmádena itself, is about five minutes’ drive, with sea lions, penguins and monkeys; tickets are cheaper booked online than at the gate, and the price moves with demand, so check the official site for your dates. SEA LIFE Benalmádena, an aquarium about 2 miles (3 km) away, suits the youngest. Aqualand Torremolinos, a large external water park, is about ten minutes’ drive, and this hotel doesn’t include entry, so that’s a day ticket on top. Bioparc Fuengirola, about fifteen minutes away, is highly rated by families; some hotels nearby bundle its tickets and this one doesn’t, so budget for entry separately.
With older children the range widens. Málaga city is about thirty minutes’ drive for the old city, the Picasso Museum and the Alcazaba castle, and it’s an easier day once a child is past four. The Teleférico cable car climbs from Benalmádena to the 771m summit of Monte Calamorro and runs seasonally, which makes a half-day. Further out, Marbella old town is about 22 miles (35 km) for an afternoon. Ronda, a scenic gorge town, is about 62 miles (100 km) and a half-day with older children. Gibraltar is about 56 miles (90 km) and needs passports for UK nationals.
You can do Málaga without a car. The Cercanías C-1 line runs from Málaga airport and Málaga city west through Torremolinos and Benalmádena to Fuengirola, and the nearest station is Benalmádena-Arroyo de la Miel, roughly a mile (1.4 km) from the hotel in a straight line. That isn’t a walk with luggage and a pushchair, so it’s a taxi or the local bus to the station and the train from there.
Nappies, chemists and the nearest doctorSupplies, pharmacies and medical help nearby
Because the hotel offers nothing for a baby beyond a cot, where you buy things matters more here than at a resort with a kit. Supermarkets are an easy walk away on the paseo and the streets behind it, and they stock baby food, nappies and formula, so you can travel light and buy when you land. Pharmacies are spread across the Benalmádena Costa strip.
For anything more, there’s a health centre at Arroyo de la Miel about 2 miles (3 km) away, and Hospital Costa del Sol at Marbella, about 14 miles (22 km), is the main referral hospital for the western Costa del Sol. Carry a valid GHIC, the UK’s Global Health Insurance Card, or an EHIC if yours is still in date; Spain uses the scheme.
Loves and gripes
What families rate and what they flag, then how it sits against the other Costa del Sol options.
The praise clusters on the water and the value. The complaints cluster on the rooms and on what isn’t there for the youngest children.
What families love
- The water park and the pirate ship, the thing young children talk about.
- The value against Costa del Sol hotels of a similar standard.
- Having the pools and the beach both within a short flat walk.
- Daytime and evening entertainment that’s lively and well run.
- All-inclusive food that’s varied and plentiful for the price.
- The paseo at the door, so restaurants and shops need no car.
- The short drive in from Málaga airport.
Common gripes
- Pools that feel cold, particularly in May, June and September.
- Dated décor, functional rather than refurbished, against a 4-star billing.
- Facilities that carried extra charges they hadn’t expected at booking.
- No supervised option for children below the club’s four.
- The four-person cap on a family room, awkward with three children or more.
How it compares
Set against the other Costa del Sol hotels we’ve looked at for families, this one sits at the budget end, and what it holds is that the pools and slides are its own and included in the price rather than a day ticket somewhere else. What it doesn’t have is anything below the club’s four, so the fit is a family whose children are old enough for the club rather than one travelling with a baby or a toddler.
| Hotel | What it is | What that means for a family |
|---|---|---|
| Ikos Andalusia | A 5-star all-inclusive with nine pools. | Three children’s clubs including a crèche, at several times the price. |
| La Zambra by Hyatt | A luxury hotel inland rather than on the beach. | A Baby Club from six months, the only care for babies on this list. |
| Elba Estepona Gran Hotel | 5-star and beachfront, with a thalasso spa. | Considerably more expensive, and no care under four either. |
| Iberostar Waves Málaga Playa | A 4-star beach resort with a splash park, at Torrox Costa. | A longer drive from Málaga airport. |
| Holiday World RIWO | A mid-tier hotel with a dinosaur theme. | Further from the coast, so not a beach-walk hotel. |
| Sol Marbella Atalaya Park | A mid-tier beachfront resort. | Its kids’ club starts at five, so it leans towards older children. |
With a baby or a toddler, two on that list do more. La Zambra has a Baby Club from six months, which is the only care for babies here, if an inland hotel rather than a beach one suits you. Elba Estepona is the one to look at if the budget stretches, for a 5-star beachfront setting and a thalasso spa, though it has no care under four either.
Getting there and when to go
The drive in from Málaga, the months that work and the weather behind them.
Málaga airport is about 16 miles (25 km) away, and the drive is around 30 to 45 minutes depending on traffic and what you’ve booked. The shorter end is the drive itself; the longer end is door to door once you’ve cleared the airport. Jet2, easyJet, Ryanair and TUI all fly there direct from a range of UK airports. With young children, luggage and car seats, a private transfer, a taxi or a hire car is the straightforward way in; a shared coach costs less and takes longer, because it drops at other hotels on the way.
On timing, the months to aim at are May into early June, and September into October: warm, quieter than the school holidays and still beach weather. July and August are the hottest and the busiest, and 29°C in the middle of the day is a lot for a baby. From November to April it’s mild rather than warm, so that’s a paseo-and-beach-walk holiday rather than a pool one.
Month by monthWeather
The figures below are typical averages for Benalmádena, from the Málaga station about 5 miles (8 km) away. Two things shape a family week here. Summer is dry, drier than Spain’s western Atlantic coasts, with almost no rain from June through August. The wind is light year-round, at 1 to 2 m/s. The comfortable stretch for swimming outdoors runs roughly May to October.
| Month | Daytime high | Overnight low | Rain | Wet days | Sea temp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 17° | 8.5° | 62 mm | 5 | 16° |
| February | 17.5° | 8.5° | 56 mm | 5 | 15° |
| March | 19° | 10° | 66 mm | 5 | 16° |
| April | 21° | 12.5° | 41 mm | 4 | 16° |
| May | 24.5° | 15° | 23 mm | 3 | 18° |
| June | 28° | 18.5° | 4 mm | 1 | 18° |
| July | 30.5° | 21.5° | 0 mm | 0 | 21° |
| August | 31° | 22.5° | 3 mm | 0 | 23° |
| September | 28° | 20° | 25 mm | 2 | 21° |
| October | 24° | 16° | 61 mm | 4 | 20° |
| November | 20° | 11.5° | 77 mm | 5 | 17° |
| December | 17.5° | 9° | 88 mm | 6 | 16° |
Typical monthly averages from weather-station records. Sea temperature is the open-water figure, so a sheltered bay can feel a degree or two warmer.
Questions
The things families ask most, the official pages worth a look and when this guide was last updated.
We’re looking at October. Will the slides be running?
Ask before you pay. The slide season isn’t announced in advance, so it’s a question for the hotel or your tour operator rather than something to hope for, and the same applies to early May and late September. The weather that month is on your side either way, with 23°C days and a sea at 18 to 21°C, so the beach and the paseo hold up whatever the answer.
We have three children. Does a family room work?
No. A Family Room stops at two adults and two children, and there’s no suite tier and no connecting pair to ask for, so three children means two rooms. Price it as two rooms from the outset, because it changes what the week costs and it may change which hotel you end up choosing.
Which board makes sense?
Bed and breakfast is the one to weigh if you’d rather eat out, because the paseo and its restaurants are a few minutes’ walk and you’re not tied to a dining room. If you’ll eat at the hotel anyway, the only thing all-inclusive adds over full-board is the drinks, so it’s worth adding up what your family actually drinks in a week before you pay for the step up.
What should we ask before we book?
Put it in one email: whether the slides will be running for your dates, what hours the mini club runs, whether it’s included on the board you’re taking, that a cot is booked for you and whether they can put a high chair in the restaurant. Nappies, formula and baby food you can leave off the list, because the supermarkets a few minutes along the paseo stock them.
Is the beach in front of the hotel a Blue Flag one?
No. The stretch by the hotel isn’t one of the four in Benalmádena that hold one, and the awards are renewed each year, so the list shifts. Carvajal is one that does, and it’s a stop on the coastal train line, so it’s a morning out rather than a walk.
Can we get to Málaga without a car?
For a day out, yes. The coastal train runs into the city and out to Fuengirola, and a taxi to the station at Arroyo de la Miel is a short hop. What it isn’t is your airport transfer. The line does reach Málaga airport, but doing it on arrival day means a train plus a taxi at the far end with luggage and a pushchair, which is more work than the transfer you’d otherwise book. Train for days out, transfer or hire car for the airport.
See more Globales Los Patos Park photos
Open the Globales Los Patos Park photo gallery →Useful links
- Globales Los Patos Park: the hotel’s own site for the rooms, the board options and the mini club.
- Email [email protected]: the hotel direct, for the cot, the mini club’s hours or the slide season.
- GOV.UK Spain travel advice: entry rules, safety and the water-safety guidance before you travel.
- Costa del Sol with little ones: our guide to the coast, its resorts, days out and when to go.
Last updated 15 July 2026.
