Marbella and Puerto Banus – May 2023
This has become a little annual tradition for us, we send Frankie off on his own little holiday to stay with his Aunt and Uncle in Brighton, and we head off for some quality us time. This time Amy found us a gem of a hotel in-between Marbella and Puerto Banus, Spain.
After dropping Frankie off in Brighton, we headed to Gatwick, ready for an early Friday morning flight to Malaga, we stayed in the Premier inn, yes not quite the glamour you would expect from us, but it works. We would highly recommend staying at this premier inn, there is a good restaurant (well good enough!) and bar. Seeing we were therefore literally 10 hours, you don’t need much apart from a comfortable bed with we got.
An early morning flight to Malaga, meant we arrived in Spain in time for Lunch. We stayed at the Boho Club Marbella (https://bohoclub.com/) which is actually closer to Porto Banus. What an amazing hotel, there web site says “We believe in an experience liberated from formalities and conservative stiffness” and they truly live up to this.
The hotel is spread over a wide area, with low level bungalows, and lots of grassy areas inbetween, you are welcomed in to a relax reception area, which is part of the restaurant. Music is pumped throughout the resort (including the rooms if you wish) playing Boho Radio, which gets you 100% relaxed and in to the mood.
There are two restaurants on site, the main one, doubles up, as restaurant come bar, come lounge. It is amazingly decorated and the sort of place you don’t want to leave. The second one is the pool restaurant, where we ate lunch on two occasions it was so good.
There are two pools at the hotel, our room looked out on the smaller of the two, but it was being repaired, but that really want an issue for us. We spent time at the main pool, which is surrounded by sunbeds with thick cushions, and pillows.
On Friday evening, we decided we wanted to relive our Dubai lives, and headed to Puente Romano Beach resort, we had originally planned to stay here, but after seeing Boho, we decided we made the right choice. The resort is vast, and is home to restaurants such as Nobu, Cipriani, Coya and many others (you can see why it feels like you are back in Dubai!) we choose to start the evening at La Plaza (https://www.puenteromano.com/dining-and-drinks/la-plaza/ ), which is an outdoor atmospheric square, which is a great place to start the evening, the people watching here is amazing. Cocktails as the sun starts to go down, is maybe our favorite time of the day. After a couple of drinks we headed to Supper Club ( https://www.puenteromano.com/dining-and-drinks/supperclub/) having been before in the Middle East, we kind of knew what we were expecting. A dinner and show, followed by dancing. It lived up to expectations, with good food, and a show that impressed. However it was full of Hen and Stag groups which gave it a different vibe to what we had expected.
The following morning we headed to Puerto Banus, walking around the harbor, checking out the yachts and cars, again a great place to people watch, the harbor front is full of designer shops, but if you head inland you find the smaller back street shops. We didn’t go back in the evening, but can imagine the place is alive once all the bars and clubs are open.
In the afternoon and after some sunbathing, we were off exploring, we wanted to find a small beach bar that wasn’t white table clothes and cocktails. We found the perfect place, about 15 minute walk from Boho club was Victors beach bar. It appears to be family run, and according to their tshirts has been for over 40 years. The restaurant is perched on a cliff top, and with its own (small) beach, it may be the perfect spot to spend the afternoon, so much so we also went back on Sunday before our flight for lunch. The sardines, were amazing, the beer was cold, and we soaked up the sun both in the bar and on the beach front. Highly recommended especially to get away from the madness that is Marbella.
Our final evening was spent in Marbella old town, and however much we enjoyed the glitz and glamour of Puente Romano getting in to the old town felt we had finally arrived in Spain. It is everything you expect, small old street, tapas bars on top of each other, we basically spent the evening getting lost and ended up at a small tapas bar, I would suggest just wondering around and see where the evening takes you, but 100% head to the old town for a real taste of Marbella.
After 3 nights away, we headed back to see our little man who had enjoyed his break as much as we had, but not before we had one last porn star martini in the Boho Club. We will be back !
