La Fonda Heritage Hotel
Marbella, Spain
★ Verified by our editors · September 2026
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The verdict
Three 16th-century houses on the Plaza del Santo Cristo, in the heart of Marbella's old town, first made into a hotel in the 1960s by the designers Jaime Parladé and Duarte Pinto Coelho and reopened in 2023 as the first Relais & Châteaux in Andalusia. About twenty rooms, tiled courtyards and a sky bar over the rooftops. It holds a MICHELIN Key and is the most characterful way to sleep in Marbella.
Couples who want Marbella's old town, its squares and restaurants on foot, and a house rather than a resort.
You want a pool, a gym or the beach outside the door: there is no pool or gym, and the sea is about ten minutes' walk away.
Ask for a room on the plaza or a terrace room under the roof, and go up to the sky bar at sunset, when the old town turns gold.
The rooms
About twenty rooms and suites across the three houses, from patio rooms to plaza-view suites, attic rooms under timber roofs and a separate house, Casa Olivo. Interiors are white and Andalusian, with local craft, beams and patterned tiles; some rooms are compact, as old-town houses are.
The setting
On the Plaza del Santo Cristo, a small square at the top of Marbella's old town, a few minutes' walk from the Plaza de los Naranjos. The houses were a private residence, a church and a school before they became a hotel; the courtyards, stone columns and frescoed ceilings survive.
The food
The restaurant blends Andalusian and Mediterranean produce with international touches, the sky bar looks over the old town, and La Bodega is a wine cellar. Between 1978 and 1995 La Fonda's restaurant held a MICHELIN star, the first in a Marbella hotel.
Getting there
About 45 minutes by car from Málaga airport. The old town is pedestrian, so the car goes into a paid garage; you will not need it in Marbella.
Good to know
No pool and no gym: this is a townhouse hotel. Children are welcome and there are family suites. Treatments can be arranged.
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La Fonda Heritage Hotel
From €380 · Booking.com affiliate