Hotel San Cristobal - Marbella, Spain     

We stayed at the Hotel San Cristobal for three nights while visiting Spain in March. First, the positives: -Location. If you want to be in the center of Marbella, it's tough to beat. The hotel is a very short walk to either the beach or the old town; it's right on the edge of the old town, in fact. Get a room on an upper floor facing the old town and you'll be rewarded with a charming rooftops view with the mountains off in the distance. (I doubt that rooms on the park side have much of an ocean view due to the tall condo buildings lining the beach, but I could be wrong) -Staff were generally quite friendly and responsive to our needs. -Breakfast was a hearty and diverse spread, served in a sunny and pleasant room overlooking the park. Not the best hotel breakfast we had in Spain, but still impressive for this class of hotel. -Amenities. It was nice to have a valuables safe in our room, and the internet station in the lobby came in handy. The negatives: -Decor is a little dated, but not out of sorts for a three-star hotel. -Some cleanliness issues. Our second day there, we quickly realized that the room was in the early stages of an ant infestation. Upon inspection it appeared the likely culprit was some half-eaten hard candy left in a cup by a previous guest. This may have been an isolated incident, but isolated or no, half-used candy and ants in your sleeping quarters is gross. Having said that, we brought it to the attention of the front desk, who promptly had the room cleaned, and the ants did not return. -Parking is kind of a hassle. The parking garage is not at the hotel but a couple of short blocks away up a hill; this alone is not an issue for us, but it could be a serious problem for people with limited movement. The real problem, though, is that the hotel issues guests an electronic key card for the garage, which for us turned out to be a nightmare. The card seldom worked in the automatic control gates; invariably resulting in our having to motion for the cars stacking up behind us to back up so we could pull out of the way, find an attendant, try to explain the issue in fractured Spanish, and so on. Lather, rinse, repeat. This could well have been an isolated incident, but it was real pain in the butt for us. Since we were using Marbella primarily as a base from which to explore the region, we were using our car pretty frequently.

I have to say the San Cristobal was one of the best 3* places I have stayed in. Our travel agents made the mistake of only booking us a twin room when there were three of us. The staff quickly corrected the mistake and we were allocated a triple room the next day. Even when we saw the twin room, we were impressed with it, as the sofa was easy to be turned into a bed for the third person. All rooms came with its own en suit. Only problem is that it was at the back of the hotel and the view is of others hotel rooms (kind of like a back alley view). When booking try request a room at the front of the hotel and on a high floor as the view would make it worth it, if you are high enough you may see the sea. The triple room was perfect. We were placed at the front of the hotel and the view was great. It is a noisy, busy main road, but you soon get use to it. Plus we had a balcony and air con which was useful in the heat Our stay was a bed and breakfast basis. The breakfast is a cold one but a hot breakfast is available for an extra cost, and there tends to be a queue for some on the items but overall we cannot complain for the price we paid. We were very happy with the cleanliness of the hotel, the bathroom and rooms were cleaned daily and new towel was given without having to request them. The maid comes at different times of the day so you don’t need to worry about having to rush in order to get your room cleaned. The hotel is a non smoke place, which is refreshing as none of the rooms smelt of stale smoke, and if you have a balcony I am sure you could smoke out there. I would have to say that the staff made the stay so much better. They are really helpful with everything and most speak English. They recommended us were we should go, what’s around (bars/ cafes) and that using public transport was a must and cheaper then getting a cab. I even got taught how to open a bottle which a folk! They also have certain excursions running where you book them from the hotel which is great e.g. Ronda. A trip to Gibraltar would be recommended. The location of the hotel is perfect, about a 5 min walk to the beach in front of you (though a small garden) and at the back of the hotel is the old town. All the cabs/taxis and buses know the hotel and it’s in the centre of Marbella. On Saturdays in the square is a tiny market but with some great things. The old town is full of shops and restaurants. As three young adults looking to have a laugh, I have to say that the nightlife was not the greatest. Marbella is more of a place to relax and eat then to find the clubs. They have some nice bars i.e. oceans 11 and the banana bar were you can have a laugh and its very casual atmosphere. If you want the clubs, you would need to travel to Puerto Banus, which has the bars (and the Brits). It doesn’t cost much to get there (10E). Ask about the prices of the bars before you enter as many states you have to spend at least 10E each on the first drink before you are able to get the drink offers. I would have to warn everyone that Marbella is not the cheapest place to go out it. It’s mainly full of restaurants and cafes and you have to pay the price if you want good food. We went to Garum (on the promenade) and it was fabulous. It has to have been the best place we went to. We saw a recommendation in the magazines and decided to try it out. The place was great, good prices, great food and the owner is a very nice man. We enjoyed it so much we went there twice within our week stay. Do not make the mistake of going to cheap restaurants as the food is not great and you would get better food back here in England. Overall I had a great time, the hotel and its location was a definite bonus and I would stay there again.