The Best Hotels in Spain, From Malaga to Barcelona
A trip to Spain, be it a long weekend or a multi-week stay, is a chance to venture to one of the country's best hotels, from the latest smart stays in the big cities to the secret seaside retreats with spectacular Mediterranean views. Here we round up some of our favorites from Malaga to Madrid.
How we choose the best hotels in Spain
Every hotel on this list has been selected independently by our editors and written by a Condé Nast Traveler journalist who knows the destination and has stayed at that property. When choosing hotels, our editors consider both luxury properties and boutique and lesser-known boltholes that offer an authentic and insider experience of a destination. We're always looking for beautiful design, a great location and warm service—as well as serious sustainability credentials. We update this list regularly as new hotels open and existing ones evolve.
All products and listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you purchase something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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Ana LuihotelCésar Lanzarote
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Hot List 2024Naming a hotel after Lanzarote’s greatest art and design icon, then building it in his father’s former home, is a bold move. But the latest outpost by the fledgling Numa Signature group (Amagatay and Morvedra Nou in Menorca) is an unapologetic love letter to
César Manrique, the architect and activist who art-directed Lanzarote with his style of whitewashed volcanic modernism. This isn’t the first Manrique- and nature-inspired design on the island, but it’s the most polished, and a step up for this underrated destination. There are 20 rooms amid an estate of vineyards, newly furrowed olive groves, banana trees, and pineapple plantations. Rooms have views of the ocean, volcanoes, or both, and most have terraces and interior courtyards filled with plants. Interior designer Virginia Nieto leverages the landscape to weave a natural tapestry of lava stone and wood finishes with a white, brown, and green palette. The pool, shaped to resemble a lake, is surrounded by sunloungers ensconced in semi-circular stone dividers, a nod to the walls that protect the vineyards from Atlantic winds. Guests roam among vines that are already yielding wine; soon to follow will be the production of olive oil to accompany chef Zebenzui Ferrera’s seafood specialties, including John Dory with calamari and Canarian red mojo sauce. This is art and nature in an immaculate union: Manrique would surely approve. —David Moralejo- Courtesy Hacienda San Rafaelhotel
Hacienda de San Rafael
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Gold List 2020, 2024Black-and-white photographs of Hacienda de San Rafael show a handsome, solitary farmhouse slipping quietly into oblivion amid rolling fields of cotton and wheat in Andalusia's agricultural heartland. That was before Kuky Mora-Figueroa inherited it and, with her English husband, Tim Reid, decided to breathe new life and purpose into its 18th-century bones. It was 1992 when the Hacienda first opened its doors as a hotel. Now, three decades on, it has mellowed and matured, blending into gardens of riotous color and scent, and quietly expanding from 11 to 20 rooms to include three thatched casitas and a pool villa. Although Mora-Figueroa and Reid have handed the reins to their two sons, Anthony and Patrick, their imprint still defines the look and feel of the place, with an eclectic assortment of heirlooms and antiques mixed with travel treasures. Old-world, aristocratic, and grand is the first impression on approaching the Hacienda’s distinctive white and yellow façade, but guests are greeted like long-lost friends. The temptation is to stay put, curled up with a book by one of the four pools or snoozing in a shady corner of the garden, but Seville and Jerez are within reach and there’s a multitude of curated experiences on offer, from horseback riding, hiking, and bird-watching—even sherry tasting in the region’s finest bodegas. Few pleasures can match the simplicity of an ice-cold glass of manzanilla sipped beneath the jacaranda tree at the front of the Hacienda, while the sun drops to the horizon. —Pamela Goodman
- Courtesy Marbella Club Hotel, Golf Resort & Spahotel
Marbella Club
$$ | Gold List 2023 
Readers' Choice Awards 2022This heritage property on the Andalusian coast has been synonymous with unassuming luxury since it began life as a hangout for Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe’s friends in the 1950s. Over time it has evolved from a string of Californian-motel-inspired lodges into a rarefied village anchored by the beach. Yet despite its growth, it has maintained the intimacy of a members’ club. Post-pandemic additions such as El Patio restaurant draw upmarket locals to sip pressed juices after yoga classes or crisp rosés later on. The recent reincarnation of the iconic Beach Club, once erring on the side of silver service, has an artisanal, eclectic feel, with vibrant corals, Art Deco-style umbrellas, and hand-painted tiles. It’s this rare combination of bohemian charm and specificity of service that is MC’s interstellar dust. It’s what brings smart young couples to lounge together under the citrus trees. It’s why families gather poolside for languorous lunches. But the kids’ club is the greatest triumph. There are exhaustive activities, gorgeous free-flow creative spaces, and engaging, energetic staff who work subtle magic. I’ve “encouraged” my own children into countless kids’ clubs over the years, but this is the only one that I have had to bribe them back out of. And happy children mean harmonious holidays: time to slink into the sea-gazing Thalasso spa, try some Kundalini yoga or a little paddle surfing; perhaps even a zingy Zoco cocktail by the pool. Life is all about balance, after all. —Lydia Gard
- El Palace Barcelonahotel
El Palace Barcelona
$$ | Gold List 2023 Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2021, 2022I’ve been coming to Barcelona since just before the 1992 Olympics, that watershed moment when the city picked up the baton and ran with it. Since then I have always been swayed by the new: staying in Hotel Arts Barcelona when it rose up on the beachfront or making for The Hoxton’s rooftop taqueria. However, El Palace, like the Eixample district it sits in, is never ruffled by arrivistes. Locals still call it “El Ritz”—it was César Ritz’s last grand project—and while it officially lost the name decades ago, it clung to the theatrical pomp. The lobby’s basalt-black columns are the definition of mausoleum chic, as if ready to stage a production of Salome. Like all grandes dames, it gives good gossip and drops a few names. Everyone knows that Dalí lived here and once asked the staff to bring a giant stuffed horse that he’d bought up the stairs to his room, but there’s also a wild rumor that Trotsky’s murderer, Ramón Mercader, was once maître d’ here. I returned to Barcelona earlier this year, the first time since lockdown, to find it almost completely awake once more, and El Palace full of renewed zip. A new name has set up home here: Rafa Zafra, the topknotted former head chef at El Bulli, in Amar, a midnight-blue restaurant with ponzu oysters, caviar, and spider-crab cannelloni on the menu. And the rooftop pool terrace has been reclaimed by summer DJ sets and cocktail-fueled art lessons. I even danced the merengue—seasoned boulevardiers can learn new moves too. —Rick Jordan
- Nikolas Koenig 2021/The Madrid EDITIONhotel
The Madrid EDITION
$$ | Hot List 2023 Readers' Choice Awards 2023Despite its many virtues, the Spanish capital has never been replete with top-notch hotels; but in the last five years, the Madrid's best hotels have improved beyond recognition. But even in the face of tough competition from big-name luxury brands, the new EDITION is plainly the cherry on the cake—or the prawn on the paella. The drama of the building—cunningly repurposed from a boxy modern former bank HQ on the old-town Plaza de Celenque—begins with the ornate 18th-century granite doorway by Pedro de Rivera (one of the few historic elements remaining from the original site) and continues into a vast spiral staircase in pearly-white stone, curving spectacularly upwards like a giant seashell. The public spaces have a low-lit calm but go all-out for contrast: An antique tapestry hangs behind an all-white pool table lined with electric-blue baize, and you might find a minimalist bench artfully draped with a traditional Spanish shawl. On the ground floor, chef Enrique Olvera disembarks from Mexico City with a restaurant (Jerónimo) that eschews fancy fine dining for a streamlined modern interpretation of traditional Mexican cuisine; if budgetary restrictions apply, an evening in the EDITION’s rooftop wonderland would be a great way of catching the hotel’s hedonistic vibe. —Paul Richardson
- Rosewood Villa Magnahotel
Rosewood Villa Magna
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023Joining the fast-growing throng of exciting openings in Spain’s capital of late, Villa Magna emerged and re-branded as the nation’s first Rosewood in 2021. This followed a thorough, well-timed makeover in 2020 by countryman Ramón de Aranaas, the architect behind such polished addresses as West Hollywood’s Pendry and Portofino’s Belmond Splendido Mare. Thanks to its location on the renowned Paseo de la Castellana, a tree-lined avenue of upscale boutiques in a neighborhood heavy with embassies, high-end art galleries, and banks, the 1972 modernist building has always been prestigious—it even replaced a palace, Anglada, no less. But now the building has a glow-up, with stylish brass and aluminium touches and two pools out front. There’s the signature Rosewood aesthetic throughout, all deliciously bold oversized Art Deco pendant lights; moody black-framed floor-to-ceiling windows and doors; a Gaudí-esque multi-colored stained-glass wall; marble, monochrome, muted neutrals.
There’s a cheekier side to its personality, too—glimpsed in its choice of statement artworks, from the giant and joy-inducing anthropomorphic black sculpture by Spanish artist Juan Díaz-Faes that greets you with a smile at reception to the mix of classic and doctored portraits: one marquess blowing bubble gum here, Queen Victoria using a selfie stick so subtly you have to look twice, there.
The overall plan is for it to have the personality and carefully constructed casualness of some Madrid sophisticate’s home, with no booking required and 24-hour dining available in the lounge, and local and jolly rather than stiff staff (‘Villa’ is another clue). Guests can take the fantasy to another level and stay in one of the hotel’s residential-in-style Houses—two of which are on the top floor and boast some of the largest terraces in Europe, complete with mesmerizing panoramic views. Book Anglada, the biggest, and you’ll have enough space to work, host, and relax: with your office, dining, living, and powder rooms, alongside the indoor and outdoor kitchens (with islands) and two bedrooms.
It’s still worth dragging yourself away from your new home if you can, however, if only to experience both Sense, A Rosewood Spa, one of Madrid’s most sought-after, specializing in ancient Spanish treatments hailing as far back as the ninth century, and the hotel’s flagship Amós Restaurant. Led by star chef Jesús Sánchez, who already has three Michelin stars, the artful tasting menu brings the magic of his first tiny yet celebrated venue back in his quiet northern Spanish village right to your table in the country’s capital. —Becky Lucas
- La Zambrahotel
La Zambra Hotel - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt
$$ | Hot List 2023This is a clean contemporary take on Andalusia, named after a style of Flamenco that is danced in bare feet (the idea is that guests should feel free to do their thing). You’ll know when you’ve arrived: The gate is immaculately edged in lavender; it opens onto a white courtyard in which three soaring palms and high Moorish walls draw the eye up to the porcelain-blue sky. This leads to an airy lobby and a series of patios and fountains, with glimpses of leafy gardens through latticework and arches. An iron-frame door slides open onto a patio planted with succulents; basket chairs and loungers look over a silvery pool and golf course to the Andalucian hills. The late-afternoon sun casts shadows on whitewashed walls, natural stone floors, and handcrafted ceramics, and the staff are coolly dressed in neutral cotton and linen. Even if you aren’t a big golfer (the hotel offers direct access to two courses designed by Robert Trent Jones and 12 more within a 15-minute drive), La Zambra is well worth your time—the sunlight really is out of this world. —Lisa Johnson
- MATTIA AQUILA/Belmondhotel
La Residencia, A Belmond Hotel
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2021, 2022Here is a Mallorca hotel every bit as beautiful as it first looks. One that it would be utterly remiss of you not to visit at some point in your life. The dramatic route around thrilling hairpin bends, past sheer drops and narrow gorges, is worth enduring to get to turbo-chic Deià on Mallorca’s west coast. The English poet Robert Graves first drew everyone’s attention to the village when he moved here in 1929. Then, in 1987 Richard Branson bought La Residencia and transformed it into one of the most romantic hotels in the Mediterranean.
The vastness of the property, now owned by Belmond, is stealth-like, a warren of centuries-old buildings hidden among the foothills of the Serra de Tramuntana. Despite the 71 bedrooms (including, this year, six bright new suites), an art gallery, two artists’ studios, four restaurants, two outdoor pools, tennis courts, a kids’ club, and mountain trails, there is a pervading sense of space and wonderful privacy. All rooms have terraces looking out to the green-shuttered, ochre town and glittering sea, some have their own plunge pool—ideal in this sun-trap of a valley. Inside, they are big and cool with splashes of citrus shades, marshmallow-soft beds, and safes concealed behind works of art (the hotel has more than 800, of which 33 are original Mirós).
- Courtesy Finca Cortesinhotel
Finca Cortesin
$$$ | Gold List 2020, 2022, 2024 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023Javier López, the boss of the company that owns this magnificent hotel, made his money in construction and loved contemporary art so much he opened a gallery in New York (now closed) and Madrid (very much open). He also dreamed of having his own hotel to house his collection. When he finally bought Finca Cortesin 10 years ago, Marbella was having something of a The Only Way is Essex identity crisis and the Spanish recession was in full swing. It didn't look good. But now this 67-suite, three-villa property is the best on the Costa del Sol, thanks in part to the late Portuguese interior designer Duarte Pinto Coelho. There are Moroccan salons created by some of the craftspeople who restored the Alhambra, jasmine-scented courtyards, beautiful floors made with worn stone hauled from convents in Portugal and gardens linked by elegant pathways shaded in rose-covered arches. The hotel has four pools, including one at the beach club and another, adults-only, for swimming laps, a championship golf course and several restaurants. These include Japan-meets-the-Med REI, which serves Asian-fusion and Mediterranean-inspired dishes, working primarily with seafood and raw ingredients, with all produce sourced locally in line with the hotel’s ‘0km’ ethos. This is certainly one of Europe's smartest places to escape to. —Charlotte Sinclair
- Courtesy Soho House Barcelonahotel
Soho House Barcelona
$$ | Gold List 2019Soho House was established by Nick Jones as a member’s only club in London in 1995. It was conceived as a meeting point for young, upwardly mobile media types—something it has veered away from in recent years as city traders, lawyers, and accountants began to aspire to it as well, but after a bit of a shake-up is getting back on track and attracting creatives once more. The interiors have always been done by Soho House’s own team of designers under sister brand Soho Home, in the case of Soho House Barcelona, aided by local architect Hector Restrepo Calvo. Relatively new to the Barcelona scene, the hotel is pocket-sized and seductive, already buzzing and as fun as a packet of sparklers. See our edit of the best hotels in Barcelona for more. —Isabelle Kliger
