Marbella- Always a Good Plan
- Jul 11
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 15
Marbella has a microclimate that defies the calendar. Summer here is not a season — it is a disposition. The question is never whether to go. The question is only how you choose to arrive.
August in Marbella. To many, it sounds like a contradiction — the heat, the crowds, the known quantity of it all. But Marbella, unlike almost anywhere else on the Costa del Sol, has a way of splitting itself in two. There is summer crowded, and there is summer chic. Which one you inhabit depends entirely on where you choose to stay.
We made a decision early: to position ourselves away from Puerto Banús, away from the noise and the flash, and instead surrender to the landscape of golf fields and pine-scented air that lies just beyond it. It was one of the best decisions we have made.
WHERE TO STAY
Anantara Villa Padierna —Tuscany Meets Andalusia
The Anantara Villa Padierna Palace sits in its own landscape — a hotel that feels less like accommodation and more like a private estate you have been lucky enough to be invited into. The architecture oscillates between Tuscany and Andalusia: cypress trees lining stone pathways, terracotta rooftops against cobalt sky, fountains at the centre of Roman-inspired gardens. It is, simply, beautiful.
The pool is unlike any other I have encountered. A long, luminous corridor of water framed by cypress trees that reach toward the sky — it has the geometry of a Roman bath and the temperature of a Mediterranean afternoon. One swims here not to exercise, but to exist differently for a while.
Beyond the pool: a spa that deserves its own chapter. Golf courses that give the property its unhurried rhythm. And two restaurants that make staying in feel like the most sophisticated choice possible.
The pergola terrace at La Veranda — and a breakfast worth waking early for. Figs, local honey, tea from white porcelain.
La Veranda is the kind of restaurant that reminds you why dining outdoors in Andalusia is one of life's quiet privileges. Vines overhead, the pool shimmering at the edge of your vision, staff who move as though they have all the time in the world. Breakfast here — figs, local honey, yoghurt in a jar, coffee in white cups — is worth arriving for alone.
Sushi 99 offers a refined Japanese menu that makes perfect sense in a hotel of this calibre — a reminder that the world is both very large and very well curated here.
"Marbella at its best is not a destination. It is a state of mind — warm, unhurried, and quietly extraordinary."
ALSO WORTH YOUR EVENING
Marbella Club —Old School, As It Should Be
My husband and I went to the Marbella Club Hotel for dinner one evening and found exactly what we hoped for: an institution that has not moved with the times, because it has no reason to. Silver cutlery. Waiters in white jackets. A dining room that carries the memory of decades of elegant evenings. It is the kind of place that makes you want to dress properly, order properly, and stay for dessert. And yet, sitting there, you can feel and understand why this place was once the favourite of the jet set — and in many ways, still is. At the beach club, you can still feel like a celebrity.
If I were to return — and I will — I would consider staying here. The Marbella Club Hotel was founded in 1954 by Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe and has been a byword for effortless elegance ever since. There is something deeply reassuring about a place that has been doing this for over seventy years and still does it better than almost anyone.
THE BEACH CLUB EDIT
La Cabane, Fendi & Dune —Where Fashion Meets the Sea
What Marbella does in August that no other destination quite manages: it brings fashion to the beach. Not in a self-conscious way — simply as part of the landscape. The beach clubs here are environments, designed with the same intention as a great hotel or a great restaurant. You do not simply arrive. You enter.
La Cabane by Dolce & Gabbana is exactly what you would hope from that name: a feast for the eyes before a single dish arrives. Blue Majolica tiles everywhere — on the sign above the entrance, on the upholstered furniture, on the ceramics at the table. The sea visible from every seat. A menu that suits the setting: fresh, Mediterranean, beautiful. A table here in August is one of those experiences that photographs cannot quite capture — which is why you simply have to go.
The Tip:
Arrive before 13:00 for the best position and atmosphere
Reserve well in advance — one of the most sought-after tables in Marbella
The Fendi Roma beach pop-up arrived in Marbella this summer and did what Fendi does: made something simple look effortlessly extraordinary. Red and white striped canvas cabanas on a wooden deck, the logo printed large, the sea behind. A moment in fashion — and in summer — that felt exactly right.
The Tip: Puente Romano beach — seasonal, summer only
Club Puente Romano and Dune complete the picture: each with its own aesthetic, its own crowd, its own particular version of a Marbella afternoon. Together they form a rotating itinerary — a different table for each day of the week, each with a different view of the same beautiful sea.
"August or September, spring or a warm December — Marbella absorbs every season into its own. Which is why the answer to 'should we go?' is always, without hesitation, yes."
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