Sign up to get Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
Join 350,000+ subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of
The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Fairmont La Hacienda Costa del Sol: a swish Spanish getaway
Stylish Andalusian resort with brand new beach club overlooks the Rock of Gibraltar
The Costa del Sol has had a bad rap. The ultimate package holiday destination, its name was once synonymous with mass tourism, cheap deals and expats seeking sun. But those days are over.
The 93-mile stretch of Mediterranean coastline in southern Andalusia has gone upmarket and repositioned itself as a year-round destination with an average of 320 days of sun annually. Five-star hotels are opening further down the coast away from Marbella’s flashy nightclubs, and attention has turned from the region’s famous beaches and golf courses to its whitewashed mountain villages, natural parks and cultural sights, including Málaga, with its Moorish architecture, art scene and huge range of museums.
Fairmont La Hacienda Costa del Sol – the only Fairmont property in Spain and which opened in 2025 – is at the forefront of the region’s reinvention and has recently added a new beach club. Unlike so many hotels there, it doesn’t close after the summer making it a great choice for winter sun.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
(Image credit: Fairmont La Hacienda Costa del Sol)
To switch off and enjoy the sea views with plenty of pampering. The hotel is on a quieter stretch of coast on the border of the lesser known Costa de la Luz, between Sotogrande and Gibraltar. If you’ve heard horror stories about the queues to register for the EU’s Entry/Exit System at busy Málaga airport, you can easily swerve them by flying to less crowded Gibraltar instead, just half an hour away.
Fairmont La Hacienda is on a hillside overlooking the Mediterranean, a golf course and the distinctive Rock of Gibraltar itself. On a clear day, you can even see Morocco. Cleverly, the whole resort is upside down to maximise the spectacular views through a wall of glass in the top-floor lobby. Rooms are below and the pools and gardens on the ground floor – though this does make the lifts a little confusing as numbers go up even though floors go down.
It’s all impossibly chic inside – shades of white and biscuit-brown with warm wooden furniture, dark green plants and rattan lamps. Corridors are cavernous and there’s space and dappled light everywhere, with lingering airport niggles soothed as soon as you walk in the door by staff proffering cold towels and fresh juice.
There’s no bad – or small – room. All 150 king rooms have private terraces, with pale woods and décor in cool taupe shades, while some of the suites have plunge pools, private gardens or two bedrooms. If you fancy more space, there are 47 villas scattered around the grounds with between four and nine bedrooms each plus full kitchens. All have a sleek minimal feel, with jute rugs and linen cushions adding just a touch of colour to the all-neutral palette. Marble bathrooms have pricey Le Labo products and my signature sea view studio suite had a free-standing bath almost big enough to swim in, plus a bath pillow and wooden bath rack with space to hold a wine glass. It was quite tempting not to leave the room at all.
Sign up to get Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the day’s biggest news and analysis – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Eating and drinking
Fine-dining restaurant Dalmar is the ultimate foodie destination
(Image credit: Fairmont La Hacienda Costa del Sol)
Food is a major focus. I felt like I was never more than a few minutes away from a platter of jamon croquettes or a bowl of juicy green olives. My favourite restaurant was Umbra, a poolside spot shaded by a bamboo ceiling and dotted with plants, which has a tapas-style menu of patatas bravas, fried calamari, prawn tacos and delicious roasted aubergine with sugar cane honey. Dishes can also be ordered straight to your lounger if walking the few steps from the pool feels like too much effort. Similarly, if you’re snoozing on the Blue Flag-certified beach, there’s no need to go far as the hotel’s new seasonal beach club La Cala de La Hacienda has Mediterranean dishes including gazpacho, grilled king prawns and burrata salad, washed down with a glass of cold Spanish albariño wine.
Back in the main hotel building, Il Faro Trattoria has sweeping sea views from its terrace and serves Italian classics including pizza and pasta. Desserts are the real stars of the show, with include limoncello sorbet with Italian meringue, mango and basil panna cotta and tiramisu all featuring. This is also the place for breakfast – a generous buffet of pastries, eggs, fruit and cheese. It’s worth arriving before 9am to avoid waiting for a table (and to try to nab one on the terrace).
However, the fine-dining restaurant Dalmar is the ultimate foodie destination if you’re hoping for a special occasion meal. Overseen by Benito Gómez, whose Ronda restaurant Bardal has two Michelin stars, it specialises in elegant Andalusian dishes such as marinated anchovies, chargrilled avocado with a spicy corn and vanilla dressing, and chicken roasted in a mushroom fricassee, all interspersed with tasty unexpected treats and served alongside local wines.
Things to do
The gorgeous spa features a heated indoor pool
(Image credit: Fairmont La Hacienda Costa del Sol)
Most guests do little more than walk on the beach, doze in the poolside cabanas or pop to the gorgeous spa, which has a range of hydrotherapy pools, a heated indoor pool, cold plunge baths, two hammams and a salt inhalation room for even more relaxing. There’s also a padel court, a 24-hour sea-view gym and a yoga studio with a resident teacher for those who really can’t sit still, while the neighbouring golf course is one of the best in Spain.
To explore further, the hotel can arrange trips to lively Marbella, the village of Jimena de la Frontera with its eighth-century castle or to Gibraltar, which is even easier to get to since the border crossing was removed as part of a new treaty in July. I headed to smart Sotogrande to tour the coastline by catamaran, watching dolphins swimming alongside the boat over a glass of cava then plunging off the back of the boat for a swim in the shadow of the Rock of Gibraltar.
The verdict
Many of the rooms come with private gardens and pools
(Image credit: Fairmont La Hacienda Costa del Sol)
This stylish hotel has all you need for a do-nothing getaway, from its soothing décor and sea-view pools to its cossetting spa and impressive restaurants. Better still, it’s just a short flight away whenever a weekend reset is long overdue.
