We had the pleasure of staying at the Ribera Beach complex in september this year. the apartment was absolutely fantastic - just like a home from home. It was beautifully decorated with big chuncky dark wooden furniture that looked traditionally spanish but modern at the same time and was extremely clean through out. The only minor bad points I can think of is that the sink was a little loose under the cabinet in the bathroom - something though that can be easily fixed and did not effect the use of it in anyway and did not effect our holiday at all!! Also there was a hot tub on the front terrace and unfortunately this wasn't working when we visited - would have been nice to have been able to use it but again didn't really effect our holiday at all.

The view from the front of the apartment is absolutley stunning - over looking the mountains and at night looking at the local towns all lit up is a must! The front terrace of the apartment is beautiful aswell with some lovely plants and flowers.

Our children were very impressed that we had a flatscreen TV with all English channels and a DVD player in the lounge area! The apartment was full of lots of little extras like plenty of sun loungers, parasols and heavy duty bags to put shopping in to carry back from the supermarket!

Having a washing machine in the apartment was brilliant as it meant we could wash our beach towels before visiting the beach again!

The area is a little quiet but had everything you needed, two supermarkets, a few bars and restaurants. I would say that a car is definately needed to explore the surrounding area, however we managed a week with no car and still had a fantasic time. The nearest small town is about a 20min walk away.

We were very lucky that we went to the apartment after the Spanish holiday period had ended, this meant that we had the pool to ourselves near enough every day which our children thought was fantastic! The weather was still very hot for this time of year - reaching 34 degrees some days and only dropping to 29 at night. The apartment had a fantastic air conditioning system which made the heat not at all noticeable when in the apartment in the evenings!

If you visit here you must take a trip to Pepes Bar which is run by Muz and his wife Debbie - this is one of the friendliest bars abroad I have been too. We stopped by most evenings, the bar is used by lots of Brits aswell as the locals and made us all feel very welcome. Infact this bar probably made our holiday. Our children adored Muz as he always took the time to make them feel that little bit special in his bar!

All in all one of the best holidays we have been on. Local fruit, veg and meat was of excellent quality and very reasonably priced. You can buy a decent bottle of wine for about 1.5 euros and bottles of Sangria for 1.3 euros so my husband and I were very happy!

We had read a couple of reviews on tripadvisor about the area having a huge problem with flies in September and to not go to the complex as they described the apartments as being full of plagues of flies - we did not have a problem at all with flies - the odd one or too that you expect when abroad and when the apartment faces out over the farmers fields, so if flies were a cause for concern you would expect us to have them in the apartment. We were advised by some local brits that the farmer used untreated manure on his fields a few years ago which did cause a fly problem. The farmer now uses treated manure and the plagues of flies are no more so do not be put off by the reviews!!

The beach in Mar Menor which is a 5 min walk away is again stunning. Our children were happy to play here for hours! They loved the fact that they could walk really far out in the sea and it never got very deep, my husband is 6ft 1 and the sea never went above his waist. As parents this was brilliant as it stopped us worrying about our children in the sea!! Plus the sea was extremely warm - felt like you were getting into a nice warm bath infact!! The beach bar is great and you can hire sun loungers from there for about 5 euros each for the day. Relaxing in the sun with some music playing in the background was fab!!

I cannot rate the apartment at Ribera Beach any more highly - it was fantastic and so is the surrounding area. It was so good that we are making plans to go back and rent the same apartment next year!!!

We loved this flat the first time we rented it, two years ago, so it was our first choice for our holiday this year. The fact that it's on the ground floor makes it very safe for young children (as long as they're supervised at all times, obviously) and easily accessible if going out with buggy/pushchair. Also we liked the fact that we had our own private access to the flat through the terrace and only used the front door to go to the shared swimming pool.
The flat was clean every time and it has everything needed for self-catering.
The air-conditioning system is very good and the addition of satellite TV is also a welcome feature when travelling with young children.
We loved the jacuzzi and made the most of it every day.
We would love to spend more holidays in this flat in the future.

John, Magda, David and nanny