The best hotels in Spain
How we choose the best hotels in Spain
Every hotel on this list has been selected independently by our editors and written by a Condé Nast Traveller journalist who knows the destination and has stayed at that property. When choosing hotels, our editors consider both luxury properties and boutique and lesser-known boltholes that offer an authentic and insider experience of a destination. We're always looking for beautiful design, a great location and warm service – as well as serious sustainability credentials. We update this list regularly as new hotels open and existing ones evolve.
Courtesy Marbella ClubMarbella Club, Málaga
Featured on our 2023 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
This heritage property on the Andalusian coast has been synonymous with unassuming luxury since it began life as a hangout for Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe’s friends in the 1950s. Over time it has evolved from a string of Californian-motel-inspired lodges into a rarefied village anchored by the beach. Yet despite its growth, it has maintained the intimacy of a members’ club. Post-pandemic additions such as El Patio restaurant draw upmarket locals to sip pressed juices after yoga classes or crisp rosés later on. The recent reincarnation of the iconic Beach Club, once erring on the side of silver service, has an artisanal, eclectic feel, with vibrant corals, Art Deco-style umbrellas, and hand-painted tiles. It’s this rare combination of bohemian charm and specificity of service that is MC’s interstellar dust. It’s what brings smart young couples to lounge together under the citrus trees. It’s why families gather poolside for languorous lunches. But the kids’ club is the greatest triumph. There are exhaustive activities, gorgeous free-flow creative spaces, and engaging, energetic staff who work subtle magic. I’ve “encouraged” my own children into countless kids’ clubs over the years, but this is the only one that I have had to bribe them back out of. And happy children mean harmonious holidays: time to slink into the sea-gazing Thalasso spa, try some Kundalini yoga or a little paddle surfing; perhaps even a zingy Zoco cocktail by the pool. Life is all about balance, after all. Lydia Gard
Courtesy El Palace Barcelona/Carlos GarralagaEl Palace Barcelona, Barcelona
Featured on our 2023 Gold List of the best hotels in the world
I’ve been coming to Barcelona since just before the 1992 Olympics, that watershed moment when the city picked up the baton and ran with it. Since then I have always been swayed by the new: staying in Hotel Arts Barcelona when it rose up on the beachfront or making for The Hoxton’s rooftop taqueria. However, El Palace, like the Eixample district it sits in, is never ruffled by arrivistes. Locals still call it “El Ritz” – it was César Ritz’s last grand project – and while it officially lost the name decades ago, it clung to the theatrical pomp. The lobby’s basalt-black columns are the definition of mausoleum chic, as if ready to stage a production of Salome. Like all grandes dames, it gives good gossip and drops a few names. Everyone knows that Dalí lived here and once asked the staff to bring a giant stuffed horse that he’d bought up the stairs to his room, but there’s also a wild rumour that Trotsky’s murderer, Ramón Mercader, was once maître d’ here. I returned to Barcelona earlier this year, the first time since lockdown, to find it almost completely awake once more, and El Palace full of renewed zip. A new name has set up home here: Rafa Zafra, the topknotted former head chef at El Bulli, in Amar, a midnight-blue restaurant with ponzu oysters, caviar, and spider-crab cannelloni on the menu. And the rooftop pool terrace has been reclaimed by summer DJ sets and cocktail-fuelled art lessons. I even danced the merengue – seasoned boulevardiers can learn new moves too. Rick Jordan
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Nikolas Koenig 2021/The Madrid EDITIONThe Madrid EDITION, Madrid
Featured on our 2023 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
Despite its many virtues, the Spanish capital has never been replete with top-notch hotels; but in the last five years, the Madrid's best hotels have improved beyond recognition. But even in the face of tough competition from big-name luxury brands, the new EDITION is plainly the cherry on the cake – or the prawn on the paella. The drama of the building – cunningly repurposed from a boxy modern former bank HQ on the old-town Plaza de Celenque – begins with the ornate 18th-century granite doorway by Pedro de Rivera (one of the few historic elements remaining from the original site) and continues into a vast spiral staircase in pearly-white stone, curving spectacularly upwards like a giant seashell. The public spaces have a low-lit calm but go all-out for contrast: An antique tapestry hangs behind an all-white pool table lined with electric-blue baize, and you might find a minimalist bench artfully draped with a traditional Spanish shawl. On the ground floor, chef Enrique Olvera disembarks from Mexico City with a restaurant (Jerónimo) that eschews fancy fine dining for a streamlined modern interpretation of traditional Mexican cuisine; if budgetary restrictions apply, an evening in the EDITION’s rooftop wonderland would be a great way of catching the hotel’s hedonistic vibe. Rooms from around £390. Paul Richardson
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La Zambra HotelLa Zambra Hotel - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Málaga
Featured on our 2023 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world
This is a clean contemporary take on Andalucia, named after a style of Flamenco that is danced in bare feet (the idea is that guests should feel free to do their thing). You’ll know when you’ve arrived: The gate is immaculately edged in lavender; it opens onto a white courtyard in which three soaring palms and high Moorish walls draw the eye up to the porcelain-blue sky. This leads to an airy lobby and a series of patios and fountains, with glimpses of leafy gardens through latticework and arches. An iron-frame door slides open onto a patio planted with succulents; basket chairs and loungers look over a silvery pool and golf course to the Andalucian hills. The late-afternoon sun casts shadows on whitewashed walls, natural stone floors, and handcrafted ceramics, and the staff are coolly dressed in neutral cotton and linen. Even if you aren’t a big golfer (the hotel offers direct access to two courses designed by Robert Trent Jones and 12 more within a 15-minute drive), La Zambra is well worth your time – the sunlight really is out of this world. Lisa Johnson
See our full La Zambra Hotel review for more
Belmond La Residencia, Deia, Mallorca
Here is a Mallorca hotel every bit as beautiful as it first looks. One that it would be utterly remiss of you not to visit at some point in your life. The dramatic route around thrilling hairpin bends, past sheer drops and narrow gorges, is worth enduring to get to turbo-chic Deià on Mallorca’s west coast. The English poet Robert Graves first drew everyone’s attention to the village when he moved here in 1929. Then, in 1987 Richard Branson bought La Residencia and transformed it into one of the most romantic hotels in the Mediterranean.
The vastness of the property, now owned by Belmond, is stealth-like, a warren of centuries-old buildings hidden among the foothills of the Serra de Tramuntana. Despite the 71 bedrooms (including, this year, six bright new suites), an art gallery, two artists’ studios, four restaurants, two outdoor pools, tennis courts, a kids’ club, and mountain trails, there is a pervading sense of space and wonderful privacy. All rooms have terraces looking out to the green-shuttered, ochre town and glittering sea, some have their own plunge pool – ideal in this sun-trap of a valley. Inside, they are big and cool with splashes of citrus shades, marshmallow-soft beds, and safes concealed behind works of art (the hotel has more than 800, of which 33 are original Mirós).
Ana LuiCan Tres, Formentera
Just the sort of place you always wish you could stumble across, down a dusty track on the way to the bluest sea. Here are three hidden-away, architect-designed angular houses, Can Aire, Can Mar and Can Terra, each with a handful of rooms. They feel like small apartments in the smartest imagining, with shaded private terraces for hand-delivered breakfasts of freshly baked bread and sticky jams.
The three Madrid-based owners hunted and hunted for a property in Formentera, having fallen for it on holiday, but it took them two years to find anything remotely workable. And then, fortuitously, the German owner of this plot decided to retire. Orange, lemon and olive trees were planted to soften the surrounding fragrant scrubland, a swimming pool was put in, and they called on designer Paty Pombo for her modern-vintage take on island style. Rattan peacock chairs now sit alongside rough-hewn wooden swings, railway sleepers take shape as bed platforms, and woven-straw and rope-strung lamps decorate the corners. It’s a textural riot. Ferns pop out of mini planters and baskets of dried garden lavender make the air sweet. As in Puglia, prickly pear leaves hang like decorations against the outside walls. The white-white sand of Migjorn beach is a 10-minute walk away, and the path leads straight to Kiosko 62, a ramshackle beach shack with sensational sunsets and strong Mojitos. There’s no need to venture any further.
Michel FiguetAlcaufar Vell, Menorca
Of all the south-eastern retreats, the one that hits the balance between style, comfort and country charm most successfully is Alcaufar Vell. Centred on a handsome and impressive big house, this 21-room hotel has a rambling, aristocratic feel to it. The palm- and almond-shaded gardens are lovely, the bedrooms mostly large and light-filled. The three rooms and five suites added in 2007, in the former stables, are especially attractive, with more contemporary country-style decor and small patio gardens. And the hotel's Ses Cotxeries restaurant is gearing up to become one of the island's top gourmet destinations. By Lee Marshall
Finca Cortesin, Málaga
Javier López, the boss of the company that owns this magnificent hotel, made his money in construction and loved contemporary art so much he opened a gallery in New York (now closed) and Madrid (very much open). He also dreamed of having his own hotel to house his collection. When he finally bought Finca Cortesin 10 years ago, Marbella was having something of a The Only Way is Essex identity crisis and the Spanish recession was in full swing. It didn't look good. But now this 67-suite, three-villa property is the best on the Costa del Sol, thanks in part to the late Portuguese interior designer Duarte Pinto Coelho. There are Moroccan salons created by some of the craftspeople who restored the Alhambra, jasmine-scented courtyards, beautiful floors made with worn stone hauled from convents in Portugal and gardens linked by elegant pathways shaded in rose-covered arches. The hotel has four pools, including one at the beach club and another, adults-only, for swimming laps, a championship golf course and several restaurants. These include Japan-meets-the-Med Kabuki Raw, which serves dishes such as king prawns topped with yuzu foam, a mind-blowingly delicate pickled tuna belly and organic lime-and-basil sorbet. This is certainly one of Europe's smartest places to escape to.
Soho House Barcelona
Soho House was established by Nick Jones as a member’s only club in London in 1995. It was conceived as a meeting point for young, upwardly mobile media types – something it has veered away from in recent years as City traders, lawyers and accountants began to aspire to it as well, but after a bit of a shake-up is getting back on track and attracting creatives once more. The interiors have always been done by Soho House’s own team of designers under sister brand Soho Home, in the case of Soho House Barcelona, aided by local architect Hector Restrepo Calvo. Relatively new to the Barcelona scene, the hotel is pocket-sized and seductive, already buzzing and as fun as a packet of sparklers. See our edit of the best hotels in Barcelona for more.
Hostal Empuries, Costa Brava
As the only hotel in Europe with Gold LEED (leaders in energy and environmental design) status, this recently relaunched seaside retreat has a lot to live up to, but fortunately it's a natural. Set on one of the Costa Brava's most beautiful and unspoilt coves - an arc of golden sand with views across the Bay of Roses to Spain's most easterly point where there are breathtaking sunrises - it fuses wonderfully with its surroundings. Originally established in 1914 as a simple beach restaurant for architects working on the museum of the ancient Roman town next door, it opened as a hotel in 1919 and over the decades has spread discreetly across the dunes and through the umbrella-pine forest.
The revamp by designer Pilar Libano, finished earlier this year, has seen the addition of lovely new suites, set slightly apart from the rest of the property as soothing, holistic spaces with garden terraces and bamboo floors. In their new guise, the grounds are thick with wild flowers, heavily scented herbs and noisy birdlife.
Regulars who've been coming to the hotel over the years may still prefer to crash in the old house, which has smaller bedrooms but the finest Mediterranean views. And while the place may now have a spa with Ayurvedic treatments and heated indoor pools, which use recycled water from its own spring, the food is the main reason many people come here. In an inspired collaboration, two of the Costa Brava's most innovative chefs, Rafa Peña and Biel Gavaldà, work wonders with local and organic produce, fish and seafood from the market in Palamós, all pared with some of Spain's finest natural wines.
The Principal, Madrid
This significant new arrival might be right on a corner of the Spanish capital's arterial Gran Vía, but with its discreet entrance down a side street, it still feels a bit secret. It's a topsy-turvy place with check-in on the sixth floor in the brilliantly curvaceous, open-plan reception-restaurant-bar Atico. This is a space made for lingering: decorated in rich charcoal, coral and forest green, with velvet curtains, wingback chairs, a marble fireplace and bookcases loaded with leather-bound tomes. Off to one side, there's a small balcony dotted with olive trees beneath which to eat churros for breakfast. On the other, there's a pergola-covered terrace for lunch and dinner, where the menu swings from the creative (upside-down red-tuna pizza) to the classic (perfect ham croquettes). It's overseen by innovative chef Ramón Freixa, whose restaurant at The Principal's sister Hotel Unico has two Michelin stars. The 76 bedrooms below this sociable scene have Jackson Pollock-esque artworks clustered above the beds and a palette of moody greys. Gin's the thing at the bar (as it is across the whole city right now): goldfish bowls of the stuff, tinkling with ice and splashed with tonic, preferably drunk at the rooftop Terrazza, with views stretching north over boutique-packed Chueca and south towards the Prado. This is the first really smart hotel to open slap-bang in Madrid's tourist hub in ages, and without a tour group in sight.