It's difficult to say more than is said in the Tripadvisor reviews, but here goes.
Thanks to Scrooge's recommendation, I took an executive decision that this was the hotel we were going to stay at for our short Easter break 2007. A bit peremptory on my part, and it caused a few "well-we'll-see" looks from within the family, but I can honestly say that rarely have I made a better judgement call.
First of all, the booking experience. Still a little small to carry an on-line facility, the process was conducted efficiently through email and phone. All subsequent questions / concerns I raised were answered promptly, some directly by Marcos (the owner) others by members of his staff (principally Bolivar and Ana). Communications included the offer to provide a collect-from-airport service, and when I said I'd opted to get a hire car, clear instructions on how to get to closest public car park and a number to call when we got there.
So when we did get there (slightly frazzled after taking a wrong turn in Malaga and the usual challenges getting used to using my right hand to change gear) we phoned. Bolivar (for it was he) then trotted over from the hotel to greet, direct and help us with the luggage. A short stroll directly into the old town of Marbella, all narrow passages and tiled houses, and then to a discreet sign and doorway.
Once inside, the hotel reveals itself as a tall, narrow building. Four rooms in total (there are a number more in another building close by), two one the ground floor, two on the centre accessed via a wooden spiral staircase, all topped off by a roof terrace. Decoration and theme throughout is eastern / asian, something Marcos brought with him from years in Singapore (I believe).
Short formalities concluded - including making breakfast selections - a welcome drink was offered, recommendations made for eating and sightseeing and then we were introduced to our rooms, Yangon and Jaipur. Both had the same facilities - excellent bathrooms, CD player, TV, satellite, in room safe (the entertainments discreetly hidden so they didn't impose on the room) - but each was individually decorated. No standard furnitures here.
And that was it really. We then used this gem as a base to explore the town and some of the surroundings based on the recommendations of Marcos and his staff. Walked to Puerto Banus, took the mountain switchback drive up to Ronda (amazing gorge spanning bridge and bullring), sat on the beach (when everyone else was wrapped up in scarves and coats..)..and slept. It's amazing how disorientated you can get about time when in narrow streets and in a room with shutters. Didn't matter though - breakfast was from 8.45 through to 1 in the afternoon, taken upstairs on the roof terrace, where we also gathered for pre-dinner drinks in the evening.
The hotel is also (free) wi fi enabled, though Marcos questioned whether he should have done this, expressing some astonishment at the number of people who used this as a reason to work instead of relax. It did, however, allow Tom to do his essay on Hamlet which allowed him to relax and provide several other guests with a method of scouting out golf courses around and about.
Nothing in Marbella is more than a quarter hour's walk from the hotel, and we were very pleasantly surprised at the relaxed cosmopolitan feel of the town. Perhaps I'm just victim of a stereotypical image of "The Costa", but it was much more upmarket than I thought it would be.
One aspect of Marbella life that we hadn't anticipated were the Holy Week processions. From my rather shaky knowledge....each day of the week sees one, possibly two, of the religious guilds staging a procession representing the events between Palm and East Sundays. Each procession focusses on the carriage round the town of huge effigies of Christ and The Virgin Mary in combination with rows of hooded penitents, women dressed in black mourning clothes and bands. Getting a balcony view of one of these is quite a coup, and as luck would have it the Monday evening procession ran underneath our bedroom window. Not a sight we see in the flatlands of East Anglia, to be sure.
Eating out well was simplicity itself. Orange Square in the centre of the old town is surrounded by restaurants and most streets leading off have at least one or two eating places. We followed Marcos and Bolivar's recommendations, at one extreme eating at a restaurant almost exclusively patronised by Spanish family groups and at the other a gourmet italian restaurant run by a two german ladies. We made some poor judgements of our own, but never went hungry and never felt ripped off. Even our most Fawlty Towers dining experience had us exiting the restaurant in great good humour.
I think the only thing maybe I would do differently, particularly on a short break, is have not hired a car for the week, as it proved to be steady euro-pit for parking fees. That said, it did serve as an insurance in case we needed to escape..
I understand that Marcos is currently expanding his operation a little with Marbella Heights. I don't doubt that the same attention to detail and service will prevail. One for all V-Flyers who value quality. (Edited as the last statement is redundant, obviously.[8D]
Paul
We can get better, because we're not dead yet
