The 1979 Andalusian garden-pueblo built around the 2nd-century Roman bridge that gives the property its name — 168 rooms in low whitewashed casitas, ten restaurants and bars including Nobu, Cipriani and Bibo, and the Plaza tennis stadium that started Marbella's tennis tradition.
"A village rather than a hotel — 168 rooms threaded across a beachfront pueblo with a 2nd-century Roman bridge running through the middle of it, the strongest restaurant line-up of any resort in Europe, and a Plaza that turns into the Costa del Sol's busiest summer-night room."
Puente Romano was opened in 1979 by the Spanish entrepreneur José Banús — the developer responsible, four years earlier, for Puerto Banús three kilometres west — as a privately-marketed apartment complex laid out in the form of an Andalusian pueblo. The architectural brief was to build the antithesis of the high-rise resort blocks then going up along the Costa del Sol: low-rise whitewashed casitas of one and two storeys, terracotta-roofed, arranged in irregular cluster pattern around shared garden courtyards, with the 2nd-century Roman bridge that crosses the Río Verde at the centre of the property preserved as the visual focal point. The bridge is genuine — part of the original Vía Augusta that ran from Cádiz to the Pyrenees — and the property takes its name from it. Within a decade Banús's apartment scheme had been consolidated into a hotel operation, and the property reopened formally as Puente Romano in 1989.
The Tariq and Hadi family (also the owners of the Nobu Hotel brand) acquired the resort in 2009 alongside Marbella Club next door, and have run the two properties in parallel since — sharing some back-of-house service, but with two distinct front-of-house registers. The 2010s rebuild reinstated the Andalusian pueblo discipline, replaced every bathroom, added the 2014 Nobu Hotel-within-the-hotel (the second Nobu Hotel in Europe), and reorganised the food and beverage offer around a new central Plaza. The result is 168 rooms and suites and a small number of garden villas across the property, with the Nobu rooms (the 70-key boutique-within-resort wing) priced and serviced separately from the main hotel.
The restaurant line-up is the strongest of any beach resort in continental Europe. The Plaza — the central courtyard that the resort programmes nightly through high season — hosts Bibo (chef Dani García's flagship), Sea Grill (the seafood line), Serafina (Italian), and Rachel's (the breakfast room and lobby café). Nobu Marbella is at the bridge end of the property; the Roberto Cavalli-styled Cipriani opened in 2022. Thai Gallery covers the Pan-Asian register. The hotel runs ten dining outlets and operates the dining as a multi-restaurant compound rather than a hotel F&B programme — guests routinely never repeat a restaurant across a week's stay, and the restaurants themselves are destinations for the Marbella resident community in their own right.
The Six Senses Spa Marbella (the Six Senses operates the spa within Puente Romano as a partnership) runs 2,500 square metres of treatment rooms, hydrotherapy circuit, and outdoor relaxation deck. The Tennis Club, with the Manolo Santana Racquets Club at its centre, has hosted the ATP Senior Tour and a string of exhibition matches since 1978; the Plaza stadium seats 2,000 and is the historic centre of Marbella tennis. The kids' club, the four pools, the equestrian access (via Marbella Club next door), and the direct beach access give the resort the breadth that the standalone five-stars cannot match. Puente Romano is the Costa del Sol's compound-resort proposition done at the highest possible execution level.
For honeymoons that want a busy resort rather than a quiet one — the dinner option set is the answer — Puente Romano is the Costa del Sol pick. The Nobu Hotel wing, with its 70-key boutique service register inside the larger property, is the honeymoon booking; Cipriani for the milestone-celebration dinner; the Plaza for late drinks; the Six Senses Spa for the morning after. The pueblo layout gives the property a genuinely private feeling at room level despite the volume.
Puente Romano is the family-holiday five-star where every age bracket is independently handled. The Kids' Club runs full days with multilingual staff; the four pools include a dedicated family pool; the Tennis Club coaches juniors morning and afternoon; the Plaza handles the family dinner without booking gymnastics; the beach is direct from the property. Two- and three-bedroom suites and the garden villas are the multi-generational bookings — and the Marbella Club next door is a single phone call away when the brief requires more room.
The Six Senses Spa Marbella is the largest and most credentialed spa on the Costa del Sol and the central asset for a Puente Romano wellness booking. The dedicated wellness programmes (three, five, and seven nights) bundle the spa, the gym, the tennis academy, and a clean-eating set menu across the in-house restaurants. The pueblo layout, the long beach, and the absence of any need to leave the property make it the best Mediterranean wellness retreat that is also a working five-star resort.
Bulevar Príncipe Alfonso von Hohenlohe s/n
29602 Marbella, Málaga
Spain
Golden Mile beachfront; Puerto Banús 5 minutes' drive; Marbella old town 12 minutes; Málaga airport 50 minutes; Gibraltar airport 60 minutes
168 rooms and suites incl. Nobu Hotel wing (70 keys) and garden villas
Deluxe Garden Room from €600/night
Junior Suite from €950/night
Nobu Deluxe Room from €850/night
Garden Villa from €2,800/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Opened 1979 (José Banús); consolidated as hotel 1989; Nobu Hotel wing added 2014; Cipriani opened 2022
10 restaurants and bars (Nobu, Cipriani, Bibo, Serafina, Sea Grill)
2,500m² Six Senses Spa Marbella
Manolo Santana Tennis Club (2,000-seat Plaza)
4 outdoor pools, direct beach access
Kids' Club and Junior Club
2nd-century Roman bridge on-property
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From €600/night. Nobu Hotel rooms and garden villas book three to four months ahead for July and August; the Plaza programming runs from May through September.
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