Medplaya Hotel Pez Espada

Great 1950's original luxury hotel, you can sense the glamour from when the stars used to visit (who's photos now adorn the main public spaces). Quiet and comfortable with a fantastic location, right next to the beach, and within in easy walking distance of many restaurants and bars. All in we had a fantastic stay here, very relaxing.

Wonderful art deco hotel with real character and a sense of history. Staff generally friendly and attentive, if not quite the entire team at all times as advertised. The buffet food was reasonable, especially the breakfast. Cocktails were quite poor quality, air con in the bedroom didn't seem to work although we didn't report this as it wasn't hot enough to cause us an issue. The pool was cold and only open for a short time, and a couple of the advertised facilities didn't seem to be open potentially because we stayed at the end of April. Will definitely consider staying again

This is the third time we visited the hotel as a family over the last 2 years. There are good and bad points. The good outweigh the bad ones for some people, however there is one thing which makes me seriously consider if I want to return - it's the bad state of the gym. Dear hotel management, please invest into your gym upkeep. It's just too bad. I will add more details below. So, the good: - location. Very very convenient. Only 20 mins taxi ride from the airport. Right on the beach, very close to Benalmadena Puerto Marina. Close to Parque de la Bateria which is a fantastic park with magnficient views. La Carihuela beach is large, spacious, beautiful. The area is quiet and if you need restaurants, supermarkets, pharmacy etc etc - everything is within 5-10 mins walk - the hotel's reception and lobby area are impressive, truly cosy and welcoming. They are kept in good order and always smell nice with their signature Pez Espada hotel scent the pool area and other outdoor spaces are quite good - it was pleasant to be there - the food on the half board basis is excellent. I have seen some people complaining about the food variety, options and quality in the reviews. I cannot support that. The food is excellent! We enjoyed every breakfast and dinner on all three visits. The desserts are nothing to write home about, but this is a common theme across all spanish hotels we visited. However, I repeat - everything else is very good - Dino, the ice cream shop, serves excellent ice creams. Briliiant! The bad: - gym. This is the one area which is completely forgotten by the hotel managament. The cross trainer stopped working altogether. It was barely functional on our two previous visits, but this time in May 2025 we found it was totally broken. The cords on the weighs machine got partially snapped. The sanitiser to clean the equipment after use was removed. One miserable yoga mat provided for the entire gym. It's all quite sad. The gym is located in a premium spot of the hotel overlooking the swimming pool and the sea. It has genuinely nice views and feel. Just so sad to see it not being looked after. This puts me off tbh - the swimming pool is nice, but the hotel should invest into heating - the walls are quite thin. The wall mounted TVs make the neighbors experience uncomfortable even when sound is not that loud - the smokers should be prohibited from smoking on the balconies and in the common areas. They should receive a designated area somewhere around car park Overall, this is a solid option if you are not interested in the gym. So solid, it's hard to beat for the area.