Villa rental on the Golden Mile

What staying here is actually like

The Golden Mile is the safest choice when you want to be in the middle of everything without being inside the noise. The estates sit back from the road behind gates and planting that has had decades to grow, so the houses feel private even though Puente Romano and the beach clubs are minutes away. You can send half the group to lunch on foot while the other half stays at the pool.

It is also the easiest area to run a week from. Dinner in the old town, a table at a beach club in the afternoon, a boat from Puerto Banús in the morning: all of it is a short drive, and nobody is committed to a forty-minute journey at the end of the night.

The houses we have here

Two, and they are opposites. Villa Shoreline is beachfront, five bedrooms, sleeping ten, which is the rarer of the two things to find on this stretch. Villa Sanctuary is seven bedrooms for fourteen, with both an outdoor pool and an indoor heated one, which is what makes it work outside high summer when a single outdoor pool stops being the centre of the house.

Both are the kind of property that goes early for August and for the Easter and Christmas weeks. If your dates are fixed and they fall in season, ask sooner rather than later and we will tell you honestly what is still open.

Who it suits

Groups who want to walk to dinner. Families who want the beach without a drive. Anyone staying four or five nights, where time lost in the car is a real part of the holiday.

If the group is larger than fourteen, or the house itself is meant to be the holiday, Benahavís is the better answer. If you want the same convenience with more garden for the money, look at Nueva Andalucía.

Other areas worth comparing

• Nueva AndalucíaThe valley behind Puerto Banús, wrapped around the golf courses.
• BenahavísInland and up, where the houses get bigger and the views get longer.
• Río RealFive minutes east of Marbella old town, wrapped around the golf course.