Marbella Club Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa

Marbella Club opened in the 1950s on what was then an unremarkable stretch of Andalusian coast, and it is fair to say the rest of the Costa del Sol followed. Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe's private estate became a hotel, and the aristocratic house-party feel has proved surprisingly durable through seventy years of development on either side.

The accommodation is unusual for a hotel of this size: alongside conventional rooms there are garden bungalows and private villas with their own pools and staff, scattered through gardens that have had decades to mature into genuine subtropical density. The beachfront is the hotel's own, with a chiringuito grilling fish over coals in the traditional manner.

Facilities extend well beyond the beach. There is a Thalasso spa, a kids' club, an equestrian centre and a golf course a short drive inland at Benahavís. Marbella old town and Puerto Banús are both close enough for an evening out, though the gardens make a reasonable case for staying put.