Home of the original british package holiday, images of Benidorm, home of many a cheap package holiday and drunken British jobs may send shivers through people looking for a sophisted gay friendly resort.

However in recent years millions of pounds have been spent upgrading Benidorm into a slightly smarter holiday destination. With excellent beautiful beaches and a healthy collection of small gay bars situated in the old town might tempt you to have another look. In many respects, it is still wonderfully tacky at the ITV Comedy series Benidorm though.

The Costa Blanca has one big thing in its favour - sun. If you are depressed by the lousy british summer and need to top up your gorgeous tan then you could do worse. We spent most of the week lying by the pool, soaking up the sun, flicking through the odd magazine or book and knocking back the ocasional gin and tonic. Heaven! Pack the sun cream though as temperatures were in the mid 30's all week and "queen a la lobster" can be painful if you overdo it. Not that it stopped our friend Lois and her perma tan. The weather on the Costa Blanca is good all year round making it a good alternative to the Canary Islands for a winter break as well.

Gay bars and clubs: There are numerous small gay bars and one gay club (La Terraza) in Benidorm). Most of gay bars are situated in the "old town" which is the strip of land sticking out into the sea right in the middle of Benidorm. Many of the bars are situated on San Vicente or San Faz. None of the bars really get busy until late evening or after 1am. Most of the bars are hidden away behind closed doors although there is normally an illuminated sign outside or on the wall. Peak season for Benidorm is also July and August. When we visited in early June there didn't seem to be a great deal going on. You should be able to pick on a free gay bar guide in most venues making it easy to work your way around. The bars we visited were all very clean and the bar staff friendly with english widely spoken. Bars and clubs have a habit of coming and going all too readily. We visited the People bar.

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