We visited the Spanish equivalent of St Tropez Puerto Banus which is well renowned for being one of the most luxurious resort towns in Spain.
Puerto Banus is a very upmarket resort with a great buzz and a fantastic choice of restaurants, cafes and shops. It is unlike many other Spanish resorts for this reason.
If you like shopping you will love it in Puerto Banus and I love shopping! It was so nice going to a Spanish resort and not seeing the usual mix of just perfume shops, tacky gift shops and small supermarkets.
It was amazing to see the so many high end designer shops and boutiques dotted around the marina including Dior, Versace, Louis Vuitton and Bvlgari.
In Puerto Banus there was the largest El Corte Ingles department store in Spain right on our doorstep, with a fantastic mix of designer and high street bands in a department store that would put most in the UK to shame. Also within the store were Haagan Daaz and Starbucks stores along with the giant Hypercor supermarket.
The girls had heard about Nancy Famosa dolls whilst in Spain in we headed off to the massive toy department in El Corte Ingles so the girls could spend some of their holiday money on their new favourite toys!
There was also a great Haagan Daaz ice cream café in Puerto Banus and the ice creams on offer were just delicious and a favourite of the girls.
There are some great cafes and restaurants which looked really nice and the prices were surprisingly good, you would have thought they would have been really expensive but they were not. There are so many restaurants, cafes and bars around the marina you could stay there for two weeks and never eat dinner at the same place twice so there is a fantastic choice available.
As well as the fancy restaurants in the marina there are some family favourites as well such as Hard Rock Café, McDonalds etc.
The marina is full of millionaires yachts and super cars. I have never seen so many Ferraris, Mazzerattis, Lamborginis, Bentleys etc in one place before.
It was nice to visit and the girls liked choosing their favourite yacht, however I do think that the small road in front of the marina should be closed off just for pedestrians as with so many super cars riding up and down it’s not very family friendly.
You can catch the hourly Catamaran trip from Puerto Banus to Marbella which I thought was good value at €8.50 per adult for a half hour trip across the bay.
There is a great beach in Puerto Banus which we had a great time on jumping the waves in the sea and making sandcastles and looking for seashells.
There are several bars along the beach that rent chairs and umbrellas and you can hire a pedalo but the girls weren’t brave enough to venture out into the sea, as my youngest was convinced she had seen a shark in the water!
The promenade from our hotel the Melia Marbella Banus (you can read our review here) into Puerto Banus was also very pleasant and was a 5-10 minute walk.
Or if you are feeling fit you can either walk or hire bicycles to go in the other direction along the promenade to Marbella.
Puerto Banus is not just about partying it is a really nice upmarket family resort and well worth a visit.