La Fonda Heritage Hotel, Relais & Châteaux

Occupying a privileged spot on one of the prettiest plazas in Marbella’s Casco Antiguo, La Fonda Heritage Hotel is a stunner inside and out. The hotel is housed in a trio of 16th-century buildings that have served various functions over the years — church, school, private mansion — and their original features, from stately columns and stone archways to ceiling frescoes and tiled courtyards, remain rich with character, even while the interiors have been updated in a crisp modern-classic style.

Rooms are organized around a series of Andalusian patios, some of which are open to the sky and furnished with plush sofas and large potted plants. None of the hotel’s 19 rooms and suites are alike, but they all have a similar look: luminous, elegant, and contemporary, with wood-beamed ceilings, minimalist decor, and a near-monochrome color scheme. Bathrooms are particularly sleek with subway tiling, sophisticated lighting, and marble walk-in showers. Details like Dyson hairdryers and Marshall speakers are standard; some rooms feature free-standing soaking tubs, large private terraces with sunbeds, or smaller balconies with views over the city’s quaint rooftops and palm trees.

One of the covered patios, with vaulted, greenhouse-like glass ceilings, is home to the hotel’s atmospheric Mediterranean restaurant, and a breakfast buffet is set up amid cheerful greenery on an adjacent patio. Up on the rooftop — and open only on summer evenings — is a cocktail bar serving Spanish wines by the glass, with panoramic views over the old town and the sea beyond.