Hacienda del Mar, Hotel Member of Meliá Collection

We are currently staying at the Melia hacienda del mar. We have stayed here many times when it was the Kenpinski and always had a great time. We thought we would try it now it has been taken over. Unfortunately we have found that it was better as the kempinski. There hasn’t been much of a renovation. The rooms have been updated but the bathrooms are exactly the same and could possibly be renovated. I’ll start with the positives. The beds are huge and very comfy. The staff are very friendly and can’t do enough for you. The setting is lovely. Lots of areas to spread out around the pool. Breakfast is good (not Amazing but a decent quality) and plenty of choice. You can also order from a menu as well as the buffet. The negatives. For the 3 days that we’ve been here there has been constant noise around the pool area. They are trimming the palm trees and the noise is insane. Also the gardeners are constantly strimming and using leaf blowers which is very annoying for the guests trying to relax around the pools. Today we are sitting by the pool and in addition to the palm trees being trimmed there is a man jet washing around the edge of the pool. Why? Surely this is something that should be done at 8am where there are any guests around the pool area? The lunchtime food menu for snacks around the pool area is poor. It is a very limited menu. The beach restaurant has more choice but feels too formal for lunch. The pool bar closes at 6pm for drinks so if you are thirsty after that then not sure where you would go? It iis still warm enough to lay around the pool until 7/8pm. The beach area is terrible. There are 6 sunbeds dumped on the sand and it is not very inviting. Seems like they are not quite ready to be open. One last point about the rooms, if you have a sea view room but are on the back of the hotel near the road, you can hear the road noise. All in all not really the relaxing stay we had hoped for due to the noise around the pools. Totally understand that the palm trees need to be maintained but why was this not done before the hotel reopened? Annoyingly you can’t add videos to the Tripadvisor review to show the level of noise around the pool

We stayed at Hacienda Del Mar as a family with our 18-month-old son. Overall, we had a good stay and there is a lot to like about the hotel: it is newly renovated, attractive, well located just outside Estepona, and the staff were consistently friendly, helpful and very welcoming, especially with our little boy. That said, for a hotel positioning itself as five-star, we felt there were a number of areas where improvements are still needed. The hotel is probably better suited to couples or families with older children than to families travelling with toddlers or very young children. The biggest disappointment for us was the beach. It looks appealing from a distance, but in reality it is dark sand with lots of rocks and stones, and for us it was basically a no-go area with a toddler. We originally stayed in a Junior Suite, although in our view this was really more like a double room with a chaise lounge. Calling it a Junior Suite feels like a bit of a stretch, and both my wife and I were quietly disappointed when we first walked in. We also had several issues relating to the bath and air conditioning, which we reported. To the hotel’s credit, they dealt with this well and upgraded us to a Grande Suite. The Grande Suite was beautiful and made a huge difference to our stay. It was perfect with a toddler because we could put our son to sleep in the bedroom and still have an evening in the lounge. The air conditioning in the Grande Suite was also excellent — properly cold and very effective. However, we did hear from a number of other guests who had experienced issues with their air conditioning. The beds and pillows were absolutely excellent — genuinely 10/10. I slept extremely well throughout the stay. Housekeeping was also very good, including turn-down service and regular water deliveries, which we appreciated. The staff were one of the best parts of the hotel. Everyone we encountered was friendly and helpful, and they were particularly kind with our 18-month-old son. They made us feel very welcome. The pool areas are attractive, but there are a few things to be aware of for families with very young children. The indoor pool is heated, which was useful. The top outdoor pool is apparently heated in cooler months, but it was too cold for our toddler during our stay. The lower pool, which is split between an adult-only side and a child-friendly side, was a nicer temperature, although still too cold for our 18-month-old. There is a kids’ club, but it opens at 11am and seems much more aimed at children aged around five and above. The staff kindly found a few toys for me to play with my son, but there was not really much there for toddlers. Food was mixed overall. Breakfast was excellent, with lots of choice, fresh food, and the ability to order from the menu as well as use the buffet. This felt much more in line with the standard you would expect from a hotel of this level. The other restaurants were more mixed. There are children’s menus in the restaurants, but the portions are really larger plates rather than meals aimed at younger children. There did not seem to be much specifically suitable for children aged one to five. The hotel has three restaurants, although the beach club is apparently not technically part of the hotel. The menus are fine — burgers, pizzas, fish dishes and similar — but prices are what you would expect from this type of hotel: high. One odd recurring issue was that the chips were consistently cold and tasted like they had been reheated, which was disappointing. In summary, this is a nice hotel with a lot of potential. The renovation is attractive, the staff are excellent, the beds are incredibly comfortable, breakfast was very good, and the Grande Suite was a genuinely lovely room. However, based on our experience, it does not quite reach the five-star standard it is aiming for. The beach is very disappointing, the Junior Suite felt underwhelming, the toddler facilities are limited, and there are still some operational details that need tightening up. We would recommend it more for couples or families with older children than for families with toddlers. With a few improvements, it could become a really excellent hotel.

Our first visit since this hotel changed from Kempinski to Melia. We had been very satisfied, regular guests of Kempinski for many years. Check in was good. I was not happy with the first 2 rooms we were shown (junior suite - frontal sea view). They were nicely renovated but very dark with little natural light. I had asked specifically for a bright room. We were ‘upgraded’ to a brighter suite but unfortunately it was overlooked on all sides and we spent most of the time in our room with the curtains closed. There is nothing the management can do about the building layout but, only being half occupancy, I would have hoped they could have found us a ‘bright’ room that wasn’t so overlooked. Housekeeping was very good. Neguri (used to be Spiler) beach restaurant was good. We didn’t use Burladero. Good choices at breakfast but lack of cooked eggs. Service around the pool only became acceptable after the energetic Daniel arrived on shift. Thank you Daniel. Juan Jose’s cocktails were served with fun and charm. The ambience on the terrace was, however, dull. We felt uncomfortable being ‘sold’ Melia presentations while we were by the pool and being chased up by phone. Not appropriate in our view. It is early days for this Melia hotel and the setting and great pool areas will guarantee its future success I feel sure. There is, however, room for improvement in our opinion.

We have just come back from this hotel. It was absolutely beautiful and the staff were all lovely! The breakfast and lunch were good it was lovely to sit by the sea and the staff at breakfast were superb . Unfortunately the restaurant Burladero was very poor with not an appealing menu so definitely will not do half board if that’s still the same. Steak was extremely tough and my fish was undercooked! Apart from that a wonderful stay.

We know the area well and had often stayed at the Don Pepe, a sister hotel, which was closed for refurbishment. So we booked and were delighted with our choice. Many of the staff were with the Kempinski before Melia took over but their enthusiasm and expertise had not dissipated. The new managers were abslutely spot-on. Highly professional, always "visible" and clearly concerned to beat what was already a high standard. No hotel stay of any length is without the odd problem but anything we mentioned was dealt with immediately. We made a couple of suggestions for the future and were confident that they would be actioned. We were there for 2 and a half weeks and have booked again for even longer later in the year. We found a friend at the Benibeca Boutique. Stephen Jaundrill is a great personality and brightened every day with his warmth as well as stocking some great merchandise in which his pride and depth of knowledge were impressive. The Hotel isn't cheap but it's worth every euro.