Marbella · 36.49° N · 4.95° W
A 915-berth marina of 1970, late-night bars, and a town of flats behind the yachts
Puerto José Banús opened in May 1970 on the coast between San Pedro de Alcántara and Marbella. The launch party is still part of local lore: Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly, the Aga Khan, Roman Polanski and Hugh Hefner were among the guests, and a young Julio Iglesias was hired to sing. The harbour covers 15 hectares behind its breakwaters and has 915 berths for boats of 8 to 50 metres. It held a Blue Flag for marinas again in 2026, and Marbella town hall has put its visitors at close to five million a year (a 2007 figure).
Superyachts, boutiques and late bars on the quay, and two streets back, an ordinary town of flats and supermarkets.
There are really two Puerto Banús. The frontline, Muelle Ribera and Muelle de Honor, is designer boutiques (Ralph Lauren joined Versace, Fendi and Max Mara in 2025), terraces facing the superyachts and bars that run from breakfast until 3 or 4 a.m. Two streets back, Avenida Julio Iglesias and Calle Ramón Areces work like an ordinary town centre: El Corte Inglés with its Hipercor supermarket, the Marina Banús and Cristamar shopping centres, a Covirán, cheap pizza and tapas, a cinema and the urban bus stops. People live in apartment blocks such as Benabola and Playas del Duque, not villas.
Puerto Banús has no census figure of its own: addresses read '29660 Nueva Andalucía', and the whole municipality of Marbella had 156,295 residents in 2023. The rental market hints at how many homes are holiday lets: in November 2026, 47 of the 119 rental adverts for Puerto Banús on the property portals were temporary or seasonal lets. July and August are the peak, when beach-club beds and club tables sell out at weekends. Out of season the port is calmer, but the old restaurants keep going for the year-round crowd: Mumtaz has been here since 1980, Pizzería Picasso since 1982, and Los Bandidos and Red Pepper for over 40 years.
The downsides are real. Noise comes first: Sinatra Bar is open until 4 a.m. and Joys Live until 3, and Plaza Antonio Banderas and Muelle Ribera are loud most nights in summer. Prices come second: at €6,341/m² in October 2026, the portals' Puerto Banús index is 25% above the Marbella average (€5,060/m²) and above the Golden Mile (€5,626/m²). Bars such as Linekers sell packages to stag and hen parties. Parking near the port is mostly in paid underground car parks. Marbella has no railway, and the Puerto Banús–Levante beach lost its Blue Flag in 2026.
Three sandy beaches within a 15-minute walk (El Duque, Levante, Río Verde), with sunbeds, chiringuitos and watersports; Levante lost its Blue Flag in 2026
No course in the port strip itself; the Nueva Andalucía courses (Los Naranjos, Las Brisas, Aloha) are a few minutes' drive inland
Marbella's densest cluster of clubs and late bars: Pangea, TIBU, Mirage, Joys Live, News Café, until 3–4 a.m.
Beaches, a cinema and pizzerias work for families, but the port is built around nightlife and there are no schools in the strip
Bars licensed until 3–4 a.m., summer crowds and traffic on Avenida Julio Iglesias; only Río Verde Playa is calm
Flat and compact: port, three beaches, El Corte Inglés, supermarkets, cinema and bus stops are all within about 1.5 km
€6,341/m² (portal asking prices, Oct 2026), above every Marbella district in the same index; long-let 2-beds ask a median €2,950/month
Bars, menus and shops run in English and other languages; many homes are second homes or holiday lets
Homes we sell ourselves here — our exclusives and the new developments we represent.
Live listings in Puerto Banús at three very different budgets.
all homes; the stock is almost all flats
a month (Oct 2026 index). Long-let 2-bed asking rents ran €1,800–8,000, median about €2,950/month; 1-beds from about €850
| Home | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| studio / 1-bed apartment | €260,000 | €745,000 |
| 2-bed apartment | €320,000 | €2,000,000 |
| 3-bed apartment or penthouse | €399,000 | €5,500,000 |
| townhouse / semi-detached | €349,000 | €2,675,000 |
| detached villa | €980,000 | €5,750,000 |
Puerto Banús is the most expensive zone in the portals' Marbella index: €6,341/m² against €5,060 for Marbella as a whole and €5,626 for the Golden Mile. The cheapest way in is a studio or 1-bed in the older blocks behind the port (Avenida Julio Iglesias, Marina Banús, Cristamar) or at the west end towards El Rodeo, where 50–60 m² flats were listed from €260,000–290,000. Typical 2-beds sit around €650,000–690,000 (median). Front-line flats on Muelle Ribera and Muelle de Honor, beachfront Benabola penthouses and the Río Verde Playa villas are the top of the market, with 4-bed beachfront apartments between Benabola and Playas del Duque listed at €5.9–5.95 million. The portals' 'Puerto Banús' zone stretches west to Ventura del Mar and El Rodeo, where most of its houses are, so the house ranges describe the wider zone more than the port itself.
Puerto José Banús opened in May 1970, and the guest list of its launch is still part of local lore.
Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly, the Aga Khan, Roman Polanski and Hugh Hefner were among the guests, and a young Julio Iglesias was hired to sing. The harbour they celebrated covers 15 hectares behind its breakwaters, with 915 berths for boats from 8 to 50 metres, and in 2026 it held a Blue Flag for marinas again.
More than half a century on, the frontline of Muelle Ribera and Muelle de Honor is designer boutiques, terraces facing the superyachts and bars that run until 3 or 4 a.m. Dalí's bronze 'Rhinoceros dressed in lace' has stood at the entrance since 2004, and the port stages open-air sculpture shows on its quays several times a year.
Glamorous, crowded and noisy until 3–4 a.m. in summer; for buyers who want to be in the middle of it or to let short-term.
Apartments above the boutiques and bars that ring the harbour, looking straight onto the yachts and the control tower. Pangea's terrace is on the Club de Mar building at Muelle de Honor.
On the beach and on the port at once; busy terraces below, sea views above.
The terraced blocks on the western quay at the port entrance, with the Benabola Hotel & Apartments and beach-level restaurants (Gold, La Habana Lounge) and Kova Beach Club below.
Residential and gated, a five-minute walk from the bars; beach clubs on the doorstep.
A large complex just west of the port, four blocks with about 500 apartments plus some villas, opening onto the seafront promenade and the El Duque beach, next to Ocean Club.
None inside Puerto Banús itself — the nearest are below.
A private hospital with 75 specialities and general and paediatric emergency departments; about 11 minutes by car.
A general-medicine practice on Avenida Julio Iglesias for minor problems. For emergencies use the hospitals above or the public Hospital Costa del Sol (A-7 km 187).
In Puerto Banús since 1980 and reworked in 2025 by chef Nikhil Mahale, who keeps the classic North Indian dishes but presents them in a modern way. Tables look onto the superyachts.
A front-line bistro on Muelle Ribera for over 40 years, its walls covered in guest photos, with a covered terrace under hanging plants. Order the marinated salmon with mustard sauce, the 'Kurt' three-pepper sirloin or the apple tart, and book: it is busy all year.
On Muelle Ribera since 1982 and open daily 12:00–midnight: pizzas, pasta, risotto, burgers and a children's menu. No reservations, but the queue moves fast, so it is the easy family meal on the port.
Next to Sinatra on the corner of the front line, with the most outdoor seating on the strip; open 9 a.m.–2 a.m. Takes the overflow from the busier bars.
A cocktail bar built as a wooden galleon at the entrance to the port on the Levante pier, open since 2002. Quieter than the main strip.
A harbour-front lounge bar with an open front terrace and a shisha terrace at the back. Cocktails and champagne by day, a resident DJ at night, and busy from about 10 p.m.
An open-air rooftop club on the terrace of the Club de Mar building at Muelle de Honor, overlooking the marina. It gets going around 12:30 a.m., and in July and August a VIP table is close to the only way in.
A long-running club on Plaza Antonio Banderas, open nightly until late with guest DJs, live acts and themed parties. Get on the guest list or buy a pre-paid VIP package.
A large club on Calle Gray d'Albion with more than 40 VIP tables, one of them a jacuzzi 'rock pool' table. Each night has its own theme, from ladies' nights to Kisstory on Saturdays. Seasonal, ending with a closing party.
The beach on both sides of the Río Verde mouth, the quietest of the three, with Camurí Las Cuchis on the sand and the Roman villa a short walk inland. It holds the Q quality mark but not a Blue Flag.
The beach west of the port in front of Playas del Duque and Ocean Club, reached from Avenida de Lola Flores. It has the Q quality mark and an accessible set-up: walkways to the water, shaded areas and an assisted-bathing service with amphibious chairs (June–September, book ahead).
The beach east of the port, from the Muelle de Levante to the Río Verde, backed by the Paseo Alberto Vidiella Tudores promenade and lined with chiringuitos (Aurora Beach, Banús Beach, Astral) and watersports kiosks. Same assisted-bathing service as El Duque in summer.
A day club with a huge saltwater pool and sunbeds on the El Duque promenade, reopened in May 2025 with the Amaï seafood restaurant. Weekday standard beds start at about €200, and summer Sundays sell out.
The former Levante Beach Club, renovated, on the Muelle de Levante at the east side of the port. Sunbeds, daytime dining, a DJ area and the Agave Market cocktail bar.
A homely chiringuito on Playa de Levante, open 10:00–23:00. Home cooking such as pork cheeks, bonito with onions, salt cod in tomato and rice dishes.
A club next to the Muelle de Honor run by the port, with a natural saltwater pool and a pontoon where boats and jet skis can tie up for food and cocktails. Open daily 15:00–23:00.
Runs from Playa de Levante: jet-ski hire (20 min to 2 h), parasailing (about 15 min, from age 6 in tandem), 2-hour dolphin-watching trips and half- or full-day fishing charters.
915 berths for yachts of up to 50 m around a 15-hectare harbour, with the control tower at its mouth. Walk the loop from Muelle Ribera round to the end of Muelle de Honor at dusk.
The tip of the Muelle de Honor, beside a small shrine to the Virgen del Carmen, looks back over the moored superyachts to the Sierra Blanca.
Dalí's 1956 bronze 'Rhinoceros dressed in lace', about three tonnes, placed at the entrance to Puerto Banús in 2004.
Sea-Doo jet skis and speedboat rides along the Marbella coast, from the Muelle de Levante.
The marina puts monumental sculpture shows on its quays several times a year. Recent ones were Leiko Ikemura's 'Aquí estamos' (March–July), Arne Quinze's 'My Secret Garden' and the chrome JoGis Bear (18 August–15 January).
One of Spain's largest El Corte Inglés stores, with a Hipercor hypermarket for the weekly shop and underground parking.
A mid-market centre on Calle Ramón Areces between El Corte Inglés and the port, with fashion, cafés and the cinema next door.
Designer stores on the quays, including Versace, Fendi, Max Mara, Zegna, Celine, Moschino and Hugo Boss, with Ralph Lauren opening in 2025.
Answered from this guide: its sources and its maps.
We can tell you which streets suit the way you live, what is on the market there that has not reached the portals, and what it should really cost.
Researched on the web in November 2026; every place was checked as open. Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Flickr, used under the licences shown, and from the places' own websites and official tourism pages, credited on each card.
