Puerto Banús

Construction began in 1965 on empty coastline between Marbella and San Pedro de Alcántara; the marina opened in May 1970. Puerto Banús was Galician property man José Banús's personal project — and he very nearly built it the wrong way. The original blueprint by Antonio Lamela called for six sixteen-storey towers. Alfonso von Hohenlohe of the Marbella Club intervened, and the brief passed to Noldi Schreck (the Mexico-based architect who had drawn parts of Beverly Hills) with Spanish architect Marcos Sainz. They rewrote it as an Andalusian-village marina inspired by Pierre-Canto in Cannes and Porto Cervo in Sardinia — three to four storeys, white walls, terracotta tile, wrought-iron balconies. There is no high-rise to this day.

The 1970 inauguration drew roughly 1,700 guests — Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace of Monaco, the Aga Khan, Roman Polanski, the future King Juan Carlos I, Liza Minnelli, and Hugh Hefner (who flew in on the Playboy jet). A young Julio Iglesias performed live for 125,000 pesetas; three hundred imported Sevillian waiters served twenty-two kilos of beluga caviar. Hotel Andalucía Plaza opened the same day; it runs today as the Hard Rock Hotel Marbella. Picasso restaurant has been open quayside since 1982; Los Bandidos and Olivia Valere both clear thirty years on the strip.

The basin holds 915 berths across 15 hectares, depths of three to seven metres, with a 2.5-kilometre pedestrian quay running the loop. Yachts dock from open speedboats up to vessels north of one hundred metres. Berths trade like property — a 50 m × 8 m slip clears around €1.875 million, a 30 m × 6.5 m around €925,000, a fifteen-metre from €400,000. The frontline gated complexes are Playas del Duque (500+ apartments across five buildings, mature gardens, direct beach access) and the early-2000s Malibu and Laguna de Banús. Villas effectively don't exist inside the port itself; the closest villa enclave is Lomas de Marbella Club, immediately east.

Behind the marina sit El Corte Inglés on Avenida Julio Iglesias, designer boutiques anchored by Dior, Gucci, Versace and Hermès, the Saturday market beside the old Plaza de Toros at Centro Plaza, and Plaza Antonio Banderas (inaugurated 2003) with its multicultural craft stalls. Roughly five million annual visitors walk through; the resident book runs to about five thousand properties with a combined value close to €5 billion, average pricing in the high €7,000s per square metre and frontline penthouses well into five figures per metre. Marbella centre is six kilometres east, the Golden Mile five, San Pedro three and a half, Málaga airport sixty. The pitch hasn't changed since 1970 — tie up the boat, walk to dinner.