Costa del Sol

Between Málaga and the Strait of Gibraltar, the Costa del Sol unites Andalusian light with polished coastal living. Golf valleys, white hill towns, beach clubs, marinas and a mild climate almost all year make it one of Europe’s most lived-in luxury coasts — as much a place to stay as to visit.

The Costa del Sol runs west from Málaga towards Gibraltar, between the Mediterranean and the mountains of the Serranía de Ronda. Málaga, its gateway, has become a city of museums, including the Museo Picasso in the painter’s birthplace. West of it lie Torremolinos, Fuengirola, Marbella, Puerto Banús and Estepona, and behind them the hill villages of Mijas and Benahavís, with Ronda an hour inland.

Marbella is the heart of the luxury coast. Its old town keeps the whitewashed Plaza de los Naranjos; the Golden Mile, between the town and Puerto Banús, holds the villas, beach clubs and hotels that made the coast famous from the 1950s onwards. The valleys behind Nueva Andalucía are known as the Golf Valley, and Estepona, further west, has become a quieter alternative with a restored old town.

With around three hundred days of sunshine a year, the Costa del Sol is a destination for every season. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant, warm enough for the beach from May and still so in October, and ideal for golf and for visits to Granada, Seville and Córdoba. July and August are hot and busy, the height of the beach-club season in Marbella.

Winter is among the mildest in Europe, with bright days that suit golf and long lunches outdoors. Holy Week brings processions to Málaga, among the most impressive in Andalusia, and the Feria de Málaga fills the city in August with music, dancing and horses. Marbella holds its own feria in June.

The coast’s classic addresses are in and around Marbella. Marbella Club Hotel, founded by Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe in the 1950s, still sets the tone on the Golden Mile, with Puente Romano Beach Resort, built around its Andalusian village gardens, a short walk away. Further west, Kempinski Hotel Bahía, Marbella Estepona faces the sea near Estepona, and Finca Cortesin stands in the hills of Casares with its own golf course and beach club.

LVXVRY books Kempinski Hotel Bahía through Kempinski Club 1897 — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges the programme attaches to the stay. For Marbella Club, Puente Romano and Finca Cortesin, LVXVRY advises on choosing between beach, golf and seclusion, arranges the stay, and can combine the coast with Ronda, Seville or Granada.