The Best Hotels Near Blossom, by the Record
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Two 18th-century palaces knocked together and redesigned into a boutique hotel on one of Málaga's handsomest streets. The rooms lean into antique detailing without being fussy about it, and the top-floor Tower suite comes with a private terrace and views that explain why people keep moving to Andalusia. The cocktail bar has become enough of a neighborhood fixture that locals drink there, which is usually a good sign.
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A 19th-century bourgeois mansion on one of Málaga's oldest streets, rebuilt around the fictional life of a character called Cristine Bedfor. Each guest room tells a chapter of that invented childhood, with colourful stripes, rattan, and patterned tile doing the storytelling. The library pairs more stripes with stained glass lamps; the restaurant goes equestrian, all earthy green walls and horse-riding photography. It sleeps like a well-traveled friend's home, not a hotel.
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The rooftop infinity pool floats above Málaga's rooftops with a 360-degree view of the Costa del Sol and the port, which is a strong argument for booking here before anywhere else. This design hotel sits steps from the Alcazaba and the Picasso Museum, with rooms done in geometric panels of orange, teal, and blue against walnut and neutral walls. The lobby bar's oxtail donuts make a good case for skipping dinner entirely.
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Glass panels in the lobby floor expose Roman stonework from the old city walls, which is an unusual opening statement for a chain hotel. This luxury stay in Málaga's old town has committed to the bit: flamenco-fan art installations at reception, tropical murals splashed across the guest rooms, and a rooftop plunge pool with skyline views. The rooms run contemporary and colorful, with parquet floors and bold prints throughout.
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The painted facade facing the sea has the scale of a government building and the ambition of a wedding cake, which more or less sets the tone for this grand seafront hotel in Málaga. Guest rooms run from overtly Moorish to starkly Modernist, as if the century it's been standing couldn't commit to one era. A Sisley spa, an outdoor pool, and three restaurants round things out, with the beach a short walk across the road.
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Three sixteenth-century buildings, one of them formerly a church, arranged around a series of open Andalusian patios on Marbella's prettiest old-town square. The hotel holds its Michelin Key, and the original stone archways and ceiling frescoes have been kept while the nineteen rooms go quietly modern, with wood-beamed ceilings, marble showers, and Marshall speakers as standard. The rooftop bar, summer evenings only, looks out over the old town to the sea.
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Six rooms and a suite, tucked into a 17th-century mansion in Marbella's old town, a quiet rebuke to everything the Costa del Sol is usually doing wrong. Original Moorish tilework and peaked timber ceilings share space with flat-screens and bathroom fixtures that arrived this century, and the rooftop terrace handles both breakfast and evening drinks with minimal fuss. Small, well-considered, and a long way from the tower-block norm down the coast.