El Fuerte

I love this hotel! The atmosphere is hard to describe and has to be experienced. The staff were so sweet and the location is perfect. I will definitely be back.

El Fuerte is set in the perfect location with a frontline beach view yet a few minutes walk from the old town. All the staff were fantastic, hotel is clean and modern throughout.

Husband & I stayed in hotel in May 2026 can’t fault hotel but can fault an experience! Making an effort to go on holiday I brought my pink Rae Feather pyjama set with me. Left them in bathroom, top must have got mixed up with towels & have seen again 🤷‍♀️😢. I understand this can easily happen but it’s the hotels lack of interest is SO annoying. When I realised that the item was missing I brought to the hotels attention since coming home to Ireland I’ve emailed them & now correspondence is via WhatsApp… the standard reply comes every week!!! Dear Mrs. XXXX, We are currently following up on your lost item, and as soon as we have any updates, we will get in touch with you. Kind regards, Guex Experience

Excellent experience exceeding my expectations

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.

I have a mixed opinion on this hotel. It really is like two hotels in one ... in fact, the room categories literally have separate elevators. If you get one of their 'select rooms', that's where you want to be. The regular rooms (even the Junior Suite Side Sea View) are basically an old style Holiday Inn layout with poor air conditioning and boring colors. The select rooms are about $200 - $300 more than the standard rooms but way better. I would highly recommend paying the extra for a select room, although these rooms are still pretty small for the price. (Although honestly for $1200/night ... you could do a lot better in a town other than Marbella) We stayed at 4 luxury hotels on our trip and all the other rooms were both nicer and less expensive than El Fuerte. Our check-in person was not very personable ... in fact, kind of snooty. Once we got to the room and settled in, we felt at home, although they loaded our bags onto a cart, but we had to push it up to the room ourselves, which was odd. The hotel itself is an older resort from the 1950's which was converted into a 'luxury' property (if you are in select rooms) so the rooms are not large, although they are a bit modernized. It kind of feels like an interesting clientele ... in the US, I would equate the crowd to be a Miami/Atlantic City/Jersey Shore type of crowd. Not as polished as your typical 5-star crowd ... but everyone has some money to spend. The lobby areas can get very crowded ... especially at breakfast. Dodging all the tourists in the buffet area and waiting in line for fruit was not fun each morning ... it kind of felt like staying at a Disney resort. However, I will say that the breakfast buffet might have been one of the top we've ever had. Bottomless Taittenger champagne ($70/bottle in the US) and Iberian ham and dozens of other options, both grab and go and made to order. Everything was of incredible quality and the staff were great. Fresh squeezed orange juice, etc. The restaurants were pretty good, as well. They have one restaurant which is right on the beach ... so close you can watch the waves while you eat. The food was fantastic ... even the pizza place was really good. It's a short walk to old town and lots of restaurants, nightlife, etc. Marbella is a city loaded with restaurants and bars of all kinds, so it's nice being able to walk into town. The beach left a lot to be desired. The water was rocky and it was hard to walk in because the rocks were so jagged. The beach is narrow and you can't really walk for a long way. There is a boardwalk which you can walk for miles on, next to the water and restaurants/bars line it. Lots and lots of tourists. We thought our room was nice but a little average for what we paid. The view from the balcony was nice in our select room but our friends' junior side view suite had very little view except to look across to other people sitting on their balconies. The junior suite shower was a tub/shower combo, so narrow that our friend could not fit in it sideways with the door closed. We let him use our shower ... what an embarrassment to the hotel. When you have a select room, you have access to a nice little lounge and private seating area. There was pretty average food there ... mostly snacks ... but bottomless wine, beer and alcohol which was awesome. Overall, if we were staying in a standard room, we wouldn't return to El Fuerte. For a select room with front ocean view, we would. The incredible breakfast buffet ... walkability to old town ... the beach lounges ... and how clean the hotel was ... all were great. You'll pay a hefty price but Marbella is one of the more expensive cities in Spain, so we knew this going in. We enjoyed our stay and will likely come back every few years.

On arrival, the hotel looked beautiful, with long art-filled corridors creating a luxurious first impression. Although I was initially disappointed with our room at check-in, Sandra at the welcome desk quickly resolved the issues. She took the time to explain the different room types and hotel facilities, and her professionalism and helpfulness turned our stay around completely. Sandra is a true asset to the hotel. From that point onwards, our experience was five-star. The beachfront location, multiple pools, private beach, and excellent restaurants were outstanding. We loved the beach restaurant Soleo so much that we dined there four times. The Selected area was another highlight, offering drinks and refreshments throughout the day in a relaxing and luxurious setting. Breakfast was exceptional, with an incredible selection of fresh fruit, breads, yoghurts, smoked salmon, and made-to-order dishes prepared by talented chefs. The addition of Tattinger champagne made it feel extra special. Every member of staff provided exceptional service, making us feel as though we were staying at one of London’s finest hotels. We enjoyed our stay so much that we are returning in September for a longer visit and look forward to experiencing even more of what this wonderful hotel has to offer. A final thank you to Sandra for taking the time to help us—she made a real difference to our stay.

A beautiful hotel in a great location very close to the beach with shops and the beautiful old town which is walking distance . The staff couldn’t be more welcoming such lovely helpful people . The rooms are spacious with comfy beds and a walk in shower with plenty of space in the wardrobe for clothes . The breakfast is a good selection of delicious cooked food to continental . I was given a beautiful little chocolate cake at breakfast one morning for my birthday 🎂 It was a milestone birthday for me and we had informed the hotel in advance , I appreciate that we had booked a double room but when we arrived it was a disappointment to see it was facing the main rd , We asked for a nicer room with a view and was located to a side view of the sea room the bed was huge probably bigger than a super king size which we have at home However we was charged an extra €80 a night for a different room , I read another review on here where a couple celebrated their anniversary and were given a free upgrade which seems a bit unfair as we were there for 5 days and they were at the hotel in June the same as us . I unfortunately got bitten to bits by mosquitoes while we was there my own stupidity and ended up having to call a Dr from the hotel The staff couldn’t have been more helpful organising for a Dr to come to the hotel ( the bites were infected and I was prescribed antibiotics so word of advice use repellant the mozzies are there and vicious ) Overall we would return to this beautiful hotel in a heart beat Thankyou to all the staff that made our holiday and my birthday memorable

We stayed 5 nights in June to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Delighted to receive a free room upgrade on arrival which had a lovely side sea view. The hotel was sparkling clean throughout every area both internal and external. The staff across the board were welcoming and always smiling and eager to help with any request. Always had loungers available at the pool, grassed area and beach. Breakfast was served either inside or in a shaded terrace and there was plenty of choice to cater for all tastes from cereals and fresh fruit salad, eggs cooked to your liking and even oysters washed down with a glass of Taittenger! Restaurant choices we tried were Soleo on the beach and Levante - both were excellent! Around the pool area it was great to see that anyone reserving loungers had their towels removed if they did not return within 30 minutes …!! Our room was perfect either way the most comfortable bed and choice of pillows! Our only disappointment was that the rooftop bar and pool were not open during our stay.. so, we shall simply have to return again next year in peak season! We would not hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone planning a visit to Marbella!!

This is a lovely hotel in a great location - easy access to the beachfront as well as the town. Recently renovated- everything is clean and modern. Beautiful flowers all around the hotel. Staff were helpful and friendly - in fact the hotel is very well staffed so there was always someone to help. This was particularly evident at breakfast. Breakfast was amazing- a very big selection and all high quality. We have half board so we tried the three different restaurants and were not disappointed by any of them. Only disappointment is that we had vouchers to use the spa facilities but there was never any availability so we missed out on this. I would recommend booking the spa well in advance. That is the only reason for the 4* v 5*.