Stay at the Resort with a 70% discount

If you want to stay at the resort, then I highly recommend you book a ‘preview’ package. It’s a great deal. You can stay for 3 nights for €349, which is 70% off the retail price. You also get 20,000 free Marriott Points and a free car rental. The catch is that you need to attend a 1 hour timeshare presentation. Please note that there is no obligation to buy. If you have attended a Marriott ‘preview’ package in the last 12 months, then you’re not eligible for this offer.

If you want to book, then email me and provide the following information:

• Name
• Telephone (include country code)
• Email Address
• City you live in

Marriott Timeshare also have another beach resort in Marbella, and one in Mallorca. This deal is applicable to those resorts too.

Earn 20,000 easy Bonvoy Points

In the last section, I provided an offer to stay at Playa Andaluza and earn 20,000 Marriott Points. If you can’t make it to the resort, you can still get the 20,000 points. You’ll need to attend a virtual presentation and learn about Marriott Timeshare. It lasts for 1 hour and there’s no obligation to buy anything.

If you want to book, then email me and provide the following information:

• Name
• Telephone (include country code)
• Email Address
• City you live in

What I Liked

• Beach front property
  
• Four swimming pools
  
• Water slide!
  
• So many activities. Giant chess board, basketball, volleyball, football, tennis and more
  
• Apartment with full kitchen, two bathrooms and balcony
  
• 24 hour supermarket on site
  

What could be improved

• Décor wasn’t luxury
  

The Resort

This resort was so much fun! Along with the Conrad Maldives, it has more activities than anywhere I’ve been to. The resort has the following facilities

• Beach front property
  
• 4 swimming pools. Kids pool, adult pool, activities pool and indoor pool
  
• Tennis court
  
• Football pitch
  
• Basketball
  
• Volleyball
  
• Miniature Golf
  
• Giant checkers board
  
• Giant chess board
  
• Table Tennis
  
• Shuffle Board
  
• Kids club
  
• Organised activities for adults
  
• 24 hour supermarket
  
• 2 bed and 3 bed apartments
  
• Daily housekeeping
  

The resort is in Marbella. There aren’t many 5 star hotels in Marbella, and Playa is a great option. It’s located about 1 hour from Malaga Airport. The area is very popular with British families. Nearly half of the arriving flights to Malaga were from the UK.

The resort itself isn’t large. You could walk around it in 10 minutes. However they pack a lot into the space! The décor is nice, but it’s more functional than luxury. This is fine with me. I would rather the resort spent money on activities rather than marble bathrooms.

The resort attracts an interesting array of visitors. A mixture of families and retired couples. Given the amount of facilities, it’s not surprising that it’s popular with families. It does mean that many facilities are being used by kids, at any time. This didn’t really bother me, but it’s something to be aware of. However, most of the kids were well behaved during my stay.

Other excellent Marbella Resorts

Marbella is home to many terrific resorts. There are some other ones that you might want to consider. I stayed at the Higueron Hotel three years ago with my family. It’s the best Hilton resort in the region. The resort is nestled on a hill, and has great views of the sea.

The Boho Club Marbella is a wonderful and unique hotel. It has Bali style bungalows, in contrast to the glitzy Marbella surroundings. The hotel is a Mr and Mrs Smith Hotel, and part of the IHG Rewards Program. The bungalows mean that it’s a great hotel for families and you get a bottle of (good) wine upon arrival.

The below video provides a nice guide for what you need to know when you visit Marbella.

The Resort Activities

The facilities at the resort were outstanding. There’s so much to do. There’s four swimming pools, which I’ll cover in more detail in the following sections.

There’s a sports court that can be used for football and basketball. There’s also a volleyball court and a small size tennis court. There are giant chess and checkers boards. You can also play shuffle board.

In addition, there’s a nine hole miniature golf course. I’m a bit of a miniature golf addict! I take my family to play miniature golf every month. The course at the resort is very good!

There’s also ping pong tables dotted around the resort. I played a few times with my wife. There are two pool tables too. I love pool, however my wife can’t play – so I had nobody to play with! She told me to “play with myself”…

I took loads of photos of the resort activities. I recommend looking through the slideshow.

The Apartment

We stayed in a 2 bed apartment. It had all the facilities that you have at home:

• 2 bedrooms
  
• 2 bathrooms
  
• Washing Machine
  
• Daily housekeeping
  
• Full kitchen with cutlery and utensils provided
  

I was staying with my family, and to have an apartment was an absolute godsend. We were in the middle of a 10 day trip. It was great to wash our clothes and have some space. Seasoned travellers know that it’s best to travel light. This is impossible with a young family. Nappies, baby buggy and steriliser take up a lot of space!

The kitchen was something else that we appreciated. We cooked breakfast and dinner at home, and ate lunch outside. This saved us money and also helped us to be healthier. The supermarket on site is open 24 hours. There was daily housekeeping, where they also cleaned all of our dishes.

The Kids Club

The kids club was really terrific will a full daily schedule. I’ve uploaded the leaflet with details of activities. We sent our daughter there each day – she didn’t want us to pick her up! The activities included football, water sport, Zumba and movie night. The club was well attended, and it provided myself and my wife with some much needed rest!

There’s also a small area for younger kids and toddlers to play in.

This resort definitely caters for families. Many 5 star hotels in Marbella are geared towards adults and don’t have kids activities.

In addition to the kids club, there’s also a full schedule of activities for adults. The activities are varied and include football, French Boules, Volleyball and darts.

The Swimming Pools

The swimming facilities at the resort were excellent:

• Kids swimming pool with slide
  
• Adult swimming pool
  
• Activity pool with goals and net
  
• Indoor pool
  
• Indoor jacuzzi
  

I made sure to swim in each pool for the purpose of this review…

I spent most of the time in the kids pool, as my daughter wanted to use the slide. As is common in Spain, the outdoor pools aren’t heated. However, after a couple of minutes, you’ll feel fine. The slide itself was a nice touch and really popular with the kids.

The adult pool was nice and large, although it wasn’t an infinity pool. There’s also a pool bar next to the adult pool.

The activities pool was the least popular of all the pools. I took part in the water polo activity on one day. The pool was perfectly nice, and a good place to partake in water sports.

There’s loads of loungers at the resort. I never had a problem in finding one.

The Beach

The hotel is next to the beach. The beach isn’t private, however it’s out of the way and there’s nobody else in the area. In fact, all beaches in Spain are public. It’s the law.

There are security gates to exit the hotel and get to the beach, which are open until 11pm.

On the beach, there’s a large number of sun loungers. Far more loungers than people. There’s also a lady that does massages on the beach. Prices start at €30 for half an hour, which is pretty good in my view. The beach itself is lovely.

The food

There’s one restaurant on site. It specialises in comfort foods. Think pizzas, burgers and fries. In addition, you can get smoothies, fresh juices and café drinks. We ate there at lunchtimes and found the food to be perfectly acceptable. We tried pizza, fries and the smoothies.

The smoothies were excellent and fresh. It’s not gourmet, but it did the job. Most of the time, we ate in our apartment.

The Supermarket

There’s a 24 hour supermarket on site. I was really impressed. Not only is there a wide range of food, everything is well priced. They could probably get away with charging double, and people would pay. So kudos to the Playa Andalucía for pricing things fairly!

The range of items was really good:

• Fresh fruit
  
• Milk
  
• Cereals
  
• Read made pizzas
  
• Oven food
  
• Bread
  
• Potato chips
  
• Sun cream
  
• Swim stuff
  
• Machine coffee
  

There was basically everything you expect from your local grocery store. The fact that it was open 24 hours was super convenient.

Conclusion