Since it opened in early 2025 I’ve had my eye on Fairmont La Hacienda Costa del Sol for an elegant family getaway.
This 200-room coastal resort, that somehow still feels boutique, offers a blend of contemporary Andalusian design, spellbinding sea views and one of the most aesthetic kids clubs we’ve road-tested to date.
With 3 onsite restaurants, a heated infinity pool and minimalist chic spa you could come here for a mini break and never need to leave. Or stay for longer, like we did, and you can use it as a luxury base for exploring some of the hidden gems of Spain’s southern tip.
However long you stay, the Fairmont La Hacienda Costa del Sol offers a stylish escape with a sense of place, that caters well to young families.
If you’re planning a family holiday here, read on to learn how best to book it and make the most of your stay.
Getting There
Situated in the urbanization of Alcaidesa, 10 minute’s drive from Sotogrande, the nearest airports are Gibraltar (approx. 30 minutes drive away) and Malaga (1 hour 15 mins).
We booked the Fairmont La Hacienda through Jet2 Holidays and took flights to Malaga with Jet2 from London Stansted.
The flight time took less than 3 hours and as this hotel is part of Jet2’s Indulgent Escapes we were treated to a few lovely perks on the journey, including extra luggage allowance, fast track security, free drinks on board the plane and £10 pp to spend on duty free.
I’ve taken flights from London Stansted with Jet2 a few times now and I am always impressed with how friendly and upbeat the staff are. I love how the team engage with children and get them excited for their holiday. On this trip we felt like VIP’s when the cabin crew came straight up to us after boarding and took our drinks order, which arrived shortly after take off.
Our package holiday also included private transfers. So after landing we headed to the Jet2 private transfer desk and were introduced to our driver, who whisked us down the coast to the Fairmont without any hold ups.
If as a family you are put off by the longer transfer time taking a private transfer makes it so much easier. We’ve often experienced lengthy queues at the airport to pick up a hire car so we were glad that for this trip we had a transfer to get us straight to the hotel and we picked up a hire car locally later on in the week. (More on that later.)
Hotel Overview
The hotel makes an excellent first impression with a beautifully designed lobby that smells fantastic.
The reception area has a breath-taking combination of picture-frame windows, an intriguing sculpture, cosy neutral sofas, fresh flowers and modern artwork. It’s like walking into a very grand, contemporary Spanish home and I wanted to study all the design details in order to copy them!
It wasn’t busy on our arrival day and the immaculately dressed staff were relaxed and courteous. After checking in on a tablet we were guided to the Umbra pool bar to enjoy some lunch while our room was prepared. Our 7-year-old then wasted no time in checking out the kids club as soon as he’d eaten his chicken nuggets!
We quickly settled in here and begun enjoying a mix of long, lazy pool days and laid-back days out, exploring the gorgeous Tarifa coastline and whitewashed Andalusian villages.
The highlight of our son’s stay was definitely the heated infinity pool. Even in late March it was warm enough on sunny days for him to spend hours playing games with other children and, whilst it wasn’t hot tub warm, even I felt it was a pleasant enough temperature to go for a couple of dips.
My husband enjoyed the 24-hour gym and I had a wonderful morning enjoying a massage with Patricia at the minimalist chic spa and thermal suite. (Entry to the spa is complimentary for hotel guests.)
The food at the hotel was delicious but typical hotel prices so we ate about half our meals at the hotel and half at restaurants in the local area.
For this reason I do recommend you hire a car. We booked one online through Discover Cars and collected it from Sotogrande Rent A Car, a 10 min taxi ride away.
Rooms
The rooms are a huge selling point for this resort. We stayed in 2 room types – a Signature Sea View 1 bedroom Suite and Fairmont Pool View Room – and both were generously proportioned, luxuriously appointed and easily fit our family of 3.
If you can splurge on a Sea View Suite these work really well for families because you have a separate living area where the little ones can sleep as well as a huge bedroom with lots of storage. Our bed in this suite was one of the comfiest beds I’ve ever slept in. The additional bed that was supplied for Miles was very comfortable too and he surprised us all by staying in it all night!
The suites and villas also offer a little more privacy as they are nestled in the hillside below the main hotel building. Don’t worry, there is golf buggy service if you need help getting to/from the room with little ones.
Our huge sea view terrace was gorgeous and I loved sitting out here with a cup of tea watching the sun rise over the ocean. It was a little short on furniture for the 3 of us though, having only 2 chairs and a wooden bench that was far from the table. An extra chair or a sun lounger or 2 out here would have made it perfect.
Interestingly, the smaller terrace of our pool view room had a sofa as well as table and chairs so we spent more time out here as a family even though the view was more restricted.
The bathrooms in both room types were a great size with powerful showers, double sinks and deep tubs. Overall, I loved the considered design and luxury amenities and the reason we stayed in 2 room types is because we extended our stay due to having such an amazing time at the hotel and not wanting to leave.
The only thing that let the room down towards the end of our stay was housekeeping, which on our last 2 nights, was either rushed (beds made but bathroom not cleaned and mini bar not replenished) or not done at all. Our last day was Easter Friday and it was clear the hotel was at full capacity over the Easter weekend and that the staff were struggling to keep up the standards we’d experienced at the beginning of the week. Hopefully it was just a blip due to a busy holiday weekend but I wanted to be honest about our experience.
Restaurants
Fairmont La Hacienda Costa del Sol has 3 beautiful restaurants:
El Faro
El Faro is their casual Italian restaurant that is open for lunch and dinner and serve’s great woodfired pizza, handcrafted pasta, seasonal dishes, a classic children’s menu and the most delicious tiramisu I’ve ever eaten.
We dined here twice and loved it but would recommend families book in advance to secure earlier sittings.
To give you an idea of prices, adult mains were approx 25 Euros and children’s meals were between 14 to 18 Euros for pasta, fish fillet, chicken escalope or hamburger.
Dalmar
Dalmar is a beautiful gourmet restaurant by two-Michelin-starred chef Benito Gomez. We didn’t feel like this would be suitable for our 7-year-old so didn’t dine here unfortunately but heard other guests speak highly of it.
Umbra
Umbra is the hotel’s chic poolside venue, which offers Mediterranean cuisine either seated at the restaurant or at your sunbed.
We had lunch here a couple of times and loved the salads, burgers, calamari and guacamole. It’s worth noting they stop serving food here at 6pm so we saw some families grabbing a casual early dinner before last orders.
I think for a short stay there’s just enough variety for you to eat at the hotel, perhaps hopping in a shuttle or walking to Alcaidesa for a change of scenery one evening.
But for a week-long stay I recommend you hire a car so that you can dine at local chiringuitos during the day or enjoy the atmosphere of Sotogrande or Estepona, for example, during the evening.
There’s no entertainment at the hotel of an evening – which isn’t a problem for us! – but the hotel’s Vista Bar closes at 10pm, so if you do want to enjoy a nightcap you’d need to do so in your room or outside of the hotel.
Some places we recommend to dine in the local area (and beyond) are:
| Area | Distance from hotel | Where to eat |
|---|---|---|
| Alcaidesa | 5 min drive | Nexo Fusion Bar & Kitchen, Sal Verde Restaurant, Pizza Express (hello picky eaters!) There’s also a mini market in Alcaidesa for snacks and picnics. |
| Sotegrande | 10 mins drive | Cafeteria KE Sotogrande, Chiringuito Il Sono, Foodisiac Sotogrande, Restaurant Midas, Restaurant Asador Cancha II |
| Casares Del Sol | 25 mins drive | Chiringuito La Sal |
| Estepona | 30 mins drive | Hotel El Pilar, Heladeria La Jijonenca |
| Casares | 35 mins drive | Sarmiento |
| Tarifa Valdevaqueros Beach | 55 mins drive | Tumbao x Bibo* great to stop at on route to Duna de Bolonia |
*Note we didn’t eat in all these places but are lucky to have a friend, Ana from Mrs O Around The World, who lives in the area and sent us all her top tips. We also stayed in Casares last year so I’ve included a couple of places we’ve been to previously too.
Breakfast
Our stay included breakfast, which is served at El Faro, and we loved coming down just after the sun rose at 8am to sit outside on the terrace and admire the pink skies over Gibraltar.
Breakfast is buffet style and offered a delicious variety of continental meats, cheeses, bread, fruit and pastries. There is an egg station for fresh omelettes and eggs to order but during our stay we noticed a fairly limited amount of hot food. (The crepes and pancakes that my son loved, for example, were served cold and we had to heat them for him in a toaster.)
I’m not sure if there are a la carte options available during less busy times as we did notice a lady ordering Eggs Benedict and French Toast from a menu one morning but we weren’t offered a menu during our 7-night stay and didn’t see other guests with one either. I’m more of an a la carte kind of girl and would have loved the option to order hot dishes to the table if it was available.
The coffee was great though, as were the chia puddings and freshly baked muffins, and that’s what I was drawn to every morning.
Kids Club
With its earthy tones, Little Dutch toys and tiny craft tables the Kids Room at Fairmont La Hacienda is like a designer Montessori nursery. But not only does this kids club (which is open daily from 10am to 5pm) look great, it’s also well run and Miles was warmly welcomed from day 1.
For children over 4 they offer complimentary supervision, for under 4s you either need to stay with them or pay for a nanny to babysit. There’s no need to prebook. You can drop in whenever you like and the team will send you a WhatsApp message if/when your child wants to get picked up.
It’s quite an intimate space compared to the kids club at dedicated family resorts like AKI but the team are very friendly (shout out to Maya) and the space is immaculately kept, so we had no concerns about leaving Miles in their care.
Although this room is for ages 0-9 I’d say the sweet spot is really ages 4-6 because the activities are more appropriate for this age group and you don’t have to pay for them to stay without a parent.
On cooler days Miles enjoyed joining in with the Easter crafts and games but by the end of the week (when the weather was warmer and he’d made a few friends) he preferred to stay in the pool all day.
At age 7 Miles was slightly more interested in the Teens Room next door. This is an unsupervised space with a pinball machine, foosball table, books and Playstation that’s recommended for children aged 9 and over, but younger children can use it with adult supervision.
As far as I saw there aren’t any organized activities for older children and teens and, overall, I feel like this resort is a better fit for young families who were the bulk of the demographic during our stay.
Things to do in the local area
Situated on a secluded section of the Costa del Sol, closer to Tarifa than Malaga, there are lots of scenic trails and award-winning golf courses on the hotel’s doorstep. (We’re not golfers but you can tee off at 36 stunning holes across two courses at La Hacienda.)
Having been to some of the most popular spots in the Costa del Sol before, we took advantage of the hotel’s more southerly location to discover parts of Andalusia that most tourists miss. Spending a morning at Castillo de Castellar de la Frontera and doing a day trip to Duna de Bolonia were definite highlights of our week.
Some places we recommend doing a day trip to are:
| Area | Highlights |
|---|---|
| Estepona 30 mins drive from hotel | Charming old town with traditional Andalusian architecture plus family-friendly beaches with restaurants and playgrounds |
| Gibraltar 30 mins drive (although allow extra time to pass through passport control) | Novel day out for plane spotters as you walk across the runway to entry the country. Cable car up Gibraltar Rock currently out of service so consider a private taxi or mini bus tour if you want to see it. |
| Castillo de Castellar de la Frontera 35 mins drive | Peaceful whitewashed village hidden within the walls of an ancient Nasrid palace |
| Duna de Bolonia 1 hour 10 mins drive | Stunning shifting 30 metre high sand dune near well preserved Roman ruins and unspoilt beaches |
The Fairmont’s Beach Club was not yet open for the season so there were no facilities on the beach during our visit. However, if you’re hoping for a beach day at the start of the season a few places had already opened in Sotogrande including Chiringuito Il Sono and Gigi’s Beach Sotogrande.
How to book
Click here to search availability and prices for holidays to the Costa del Sol with Jet2Holidays.
Book our exact luxury holiday to Fairmont La Hacienda Costa del Sol here.
Disclosure: We travelled as guests of Jet2Holidays with meals, car hire and extra nights paid for by ourselves. All opinions are my own.
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