If ever a city has been transformed (for good and bad) by money, it’s Marbella. A sweet, little ancient fishing village of just 900 until the middle of the last century, Marbella’s fortunes changed forever in 1946 when, as the story goes, Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and his father experienced Rolls Royce failure here and fell in love with the place, then started buying up land. By 1954, Alfonso had opened the ultra-exclusive Marbella Club, which immediately began drawing Europe’s rich and powerful to the Costa del Sol.
Quick cut to 2011, and Marbella still pulls in some of the world’s wealthiest. They dock their super yachts at Puerto Banús, where their Ferraris roll offboard for shopping sprees at some of Spain’s poshest boutiques. They golf their diamond-encrusted hearts out at one of Marbella’s many world-class courses. They dine at Calima, the greater Málaga province’s only two-Michelin-starred restaurant. They stay along the Golden Mile, where other exclusive resorts like the extraordinary Puente Romano have joined the Marbella Club in putting on the accommodational ultra-ritz.
It’s true that a series of corruption scandals have rocked Marbella’s political foundations in recent years, culminating in several jailings and, for the first time anywhere, the Spanish government’s suspension of a city council in 2006. As a certain adorable local tour guide recently explained it all away, “Marbella is still Marbella, and always will be Marbella.” Mrs. Obama must’ve agreed, for she made Marbella’s swank Villa Padierna resort her home base while she toured the Costa del Sol.
Enjoying Marbella isn’t only for the über-moneyed. More affordable but still lovely hotels, like La Quinta Golf & Spa Resort, dot the area. For a free glimpse of how life might’ve been had you been born into an oil-rich dynasty, take a drive past King Fahd of Saudi Arabia’s dazzling palace along the Golden Mile. To ward off the ensuing depression, treat yourself to the phenomenal buffet brunch at the Beach Club at the Marbella Club. It may deplete your day’s meal budget, but you can stuff yourself silly, then walk it all off with a tour of Marbella’s exceedingly charming historic center, on public view at no charge.
