Fuerte Marbella

A luxurious hotel, by the sea, with swimming pools and its own sun loungers on the beach, a 3-minute walk from Marbella's old town - you couldn't find an alternative that met exactly the same conditions.

The exterior of the building, seen from the sea, is a rather featureless concrete colossus, but the interior is excellent, tastefully modern in style, but not boring monochrome minimalism, but rich and intense.

There are a lot of different categories of rooms and it was difficult to understand what the exact difference was besides the price. The Classic Double Room was not very spacious, but of sufficient size and there was also space on the floor to open suitcases. The interior design was well thought out down to the smallest detail and, for example, the closet doors opened at such a height that the suitcases lying open on the floor did not interfere with opening them. The room solution was unique, there was no classic corridor and the entrance to the room was through the bathroom, next to the door was a sink area and on the other side were a shower and toilet behind separate doors. It seemed strange at first, but this solution made it possible to create a very spacious and comfortable bathroom. A good large shower cabin and a “Japanese” toilet with a washing function.

There are many sun loungers by the pool, but during peak times they can all be occupied by towels, as many customers do not remove their towels when leaving. Fortunately, the pool staff resolves the situation and frees up some sun loungers that have been empty for a long time.

The adults-only pool is an OK size and is also suitable for swimming, only during peak times it is full of people walking aimlessly back and forth in the middle of the pool and swimming between them is very difficult. You would think that there would be a lot of children at the other pool, but during our visit there were very few children in the hotel at all and at the pool I saw one mother with a child under a year old and one teenager in the jacuzzi. The shallow pool was full of pensioners lying there.

The beach here is better than in Malaga’s old town, but I still didn’t like it. Frequent visits to good Asian beaches have made my expectations of the beach too high. Right in front of the hotel is a beach with very large underwater rocks, but if you walk about 100 m to the right, there are much fewer underwater rocks.

The breakfast selection was good and of high quality. You can order various egg dishes from the Egg Station, but it would be good if there was some more detailed information about what you can order. The coffee served at breakfast was terrible. When I was leading the table, I was offered a pot of coffee that had been prepared earlier, and when I asked if I could also get fresh coffee, I was shown to the coffee machine where I could get my own coffee. The coffee from this self-service coffee machine was terrible. For an additional fee, you can order better coffee from the bartender, but for a breakfast of this price, you would assume that high-quality coffee is already included in the price. There are many waitresses, but their mission seems to be only to lead your table and bring a pot of coffee and orange juice to the table, and then they lose all interest in you.

The visitors were mostly middle-aged and pleasantly dignified, but there was also a younger crowd.

Although the location is in the city centre, we did not hear any street noise at night, at least not in our room.

Vallet parking, some parking spaces are in the parking lot next to the hotel, but our car was somewhere in the parking garage under a cool roof.

I did not like the bed mattress, too soft and shapeless.

The amenity kit was strange, it had products that are not often available (make-up removal cloth, feminine hygiene pads), but there were no basic products like cotton buds, which are always present in even the most modest kits. There was also only one toothbrush for two.

We ordered a quiet room further from the elevator, we got the first room next to the elevator and every movement in the corridor could be heard all too well in the room.

The hotel's advertisements show a rooftop pool and rooftop restaurant with a panoramic view, but during our visit they were closed for renovation. I would have expected this to be announced in advance.

I think the price is a bit too high, but the location probably plays a big part in the price, as it is really great if you want a beach holiday and exploring Marbella's old town at the same time.

Excellent experience exceeding my expectations