Three landmark hotels due to open before the summer

The opening of Club Med Magna Marbella, the rebirth of the old Byblos under the name of La Zambra and as a five-star grand luxury establishment, and the inauguration of the first Hard Rock Hotel in Andalucía in what was the first hotel in Puerto Banús, will add more than 1,000 quality rooms with innovative concepts in which the criteria of susainability, accessibility and digitalisation will help to transform the destination.

The first to open will be the Club Med Magna Marbella in the historic Don Miguel hotel in Marbella. The new complex can sleep over 1,000 people in 490 rooms, and from May, the first tourists will be able to enjoy its five swimming pools, ten tennis courts, basketball court, beach volleyball, five padel tennis courts, 14 conference rooms, kids' clubs and wellbeing centre.

The countdown has also begun for La Zambra to open in June. Forbes has included this in its list of the 10 most exciting places which are opening in Europe this year. The hotel, which is close to two golf courses, has been completely reformed and will have 197 rooms, three swimming pools and a wellbeing centre.

The Hard Rock Hotel in Puerto Banús is also due to open in June, in the old Andalucía Plaza hotel. It will have 384 rooms, a terrace with swimming pool and six restaurants, with the brand's unmistakeable decor in the rooms and public areas.

These are not the only projects being planned by major international hotel groups. A few weeks ago the plans for the W hotel in Marbella finally received provisional approval after six years of bureaucratic procedures, and in Estepona the Greek firm Ikos is also planning to expand its first hotel in Spain, not long after its opening. Ikos Andalusia will invest 17 million euros on adding 19 villas and luxury three and four bedroomed suites, new swimming pools and restaurants to the 411-room hotel, which has seven buildings. It will be operative from 2023.