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No. 54 of 84 in the list

Hotel Meliá Benidorm

The Meliá Benidorm is not a beach hotel but an events venue with a lagoon pool. Two high-rise wings, opened in 2002, are joined by an atrium with panoramic lifts.

Benidorm skyline drawn from building data: heights to scale, west to east Poniente Levante TM Tower · 230 m Intempo · 187.1 m Gran Hotel Bali · 186 m Gran Delfín · 158 m Torre Lúgano · 158 m Sunset Sailors Tower 1 · 151 m Neguri Gane · 148 m Edificio Kronos · 140 m Benidorm Beach · 126 m Edificio Don Jorge · 124 m El Mirador del Mediterráneo · 123 m Torre Levante · 120 m Costa Blanca I · 116 m Miragolf Playa 2 · 115 m Gemelos 26 Torre I · 114 m Gemelos 26 Torre II · 114 m Torre d'Oboe I · 114 m Torre d'Oboe II · 114 m Sunset Sailors Tower 2 · 113 m Sol de Poniente 2 · 112 m Beni Beach · 110 m Sunset Cliffs Torre 2 · 106.2 m Miragolf Playa I · 105 m Playa Azul · 105 m Torre Pinar · 105 m Residencial Islamar 2 · 104 m Residencial Islamar 3 · 104 m Torre Poseidón · 103 m Sunset Waves I · 101.5 m Sunset Waves II · 101.5 m Hotel Port Benidorm · 101 m Las Terrazas de Benidorm 1 · 101 m Las Terrazas de Benidorm 2 · 101 m Torre Doscalas · 100.4 m Gemelos 22 Torre 1 · 100.2 m Gemelos 22 Torre 2 · 100.2 m Coblanca 41 · 97 m Delfín Tower · 95 m Hotel Flamingo Oasis · 95 m Gemelos 20 Torre 1 · 94 m Gemelos 20 Torre 2 · 94 m Torre Coblanca · 94 m Sol de Poniente 1 · 92.7 m Tropic-Mar · 92.6 m Edificio Ónice · 92 m Sunset Drive East · 92 m Sunset Drive West · 92 m Londres II · 91 m Torre Sakura · 91 m Costa Blanca II · 90 m Coblanca 40 Torre 1 · 89.3 m Coblanca 40 Torre 2 · 89.3 m Hotel Meliá Benidorm · 89.3 m Hotel Meliá Benidorm Torre 2 · 89.3 m Principado Marina · 89.3 m Edificio Circo · 89.2 m Torre Benidorm · 89 m Cibeles 1 · 88 m Cibeles 2 · 88 m Sunset Cliffs Torre 1 · 86.7 m Balcón de Poniente 1 · 86 m Balcón de Poniente 2 · 86 m Coblanca 37 · 86 m Eagle Tower · 86 m Edificio El Olivar 1 · 86 m Edificio El Olivar 2 · 86 m Sierra de Bernia 1 · 85.9 m Sierra de Bernia 2 · 85.9 m Torre Capri · 85.9 m Torre San Remo · 85.9 m Gemelos 12 Torre 1 · 85 m Gemelos 12 Torre 2 · 85 m Las Damas · 85 m Sandos Benidorm Suites · 83 m Residencial Miranda 1 · 82.6 m Residencial Miranda 2 · 82.6 m Hotel RH Victoria · 82 m Parque Europa 1 · 82 m Parque Europa 2 · 82 m Parque Europa 3 · 82 m Torre Europa · 82 m Coblanca 32 B · 81.1 m Old town

The story

The Meliá Benidorm stands at Avenida Severo Ochoa 1 in Rincón de Loix, just under a kilometre from Levante beach. It was designed by Carlos Gilardi, an architect from Altea who also drew the Torre Levante in Benidorm and later the SHA Wellness Clinic in Alfaz del Pi. The hotel consists of two buildings of 23 floors each, joined by a large atrium with an indoor garden and two panoramic lifts. According to hotel portals it opened in 2002; another source says it was built in 2001.

Meliá markets the hotel as a ‘tropical paradise in the city of skyscrapers’. Its centrepiece is a lagoon pool with waterfalls and tropical plants, next to a children’s pool with two slides and a heated indoor pool. By the big pool stands ‘La Palapa’, a Caribbean-style bar. The 526 rooms have a balcony or terrace overlooking the pool or the mountains; the suites in the ‘The Level’ category are on floors 20 to 23, with terraces of up to 55 square metres.

Conferences rather than package tourism

Unlike most of Benidorm’s hotel towers, the Meliá lives largely from events. A conference portal counts eleven rooms totalling around 2,200 square metres; the largest, ‘Torreta’, measures around 750 square metres and seats up to 848 guests at banquets. According to the manufacturer Saxun, which covered the terrace with bioclimatic pergolas, more than 100 events take place here every year. The hotel was renovated in 2011.

The hotel consists of two towers of equal height on Avenida Doctor Severo Ochoa; the list of tallest buildings gives only one, the directory rascacielos.be both with 27 floors. According to the architect himself, the complex was designed by Carlos Gilardi of Altea, who also planned the Torre Levante.

Good to know

  • The list of tallest buildings gives 89.3 metres and 27 floors; the hotel itself speaks of 23 floors.
  • Four restaurants and bars: El Curt, El Moralet, La Palapa and L'Illa.
  • When six Meliá hotels and two stakes were sold to Victoria Hotels & Resorts in 2021, Benidorm was not among them.
  • From 2012 to 2019 the hotel hosted the talk series ‘Los cafés del Meliá’, according to the blog Astrolabio.

Open questions

  • Floors: 27 (Emporis list) or 23 (Meliá, tourist office, portals).
  • Who commissioned the hotel, who owns the property and what stood on the plot before is not documented.
  • SkyscraperPage lists two towers, the list of tallest buildings only one entry.

Sources