Playa Andaluza opens new pools

[jerseyfinn]

Just got back from two wonderful weeks at our resort at Playa Andaluza.

Four building open, with the fifth under construction. They're beginning to sheetrock the interior while they begin exterior stucco work. Things are progressing very quickly here and one can finally see how the resort will feel and function at build-out.

The new restaurant is not yet open, but the chiringuito functions as a restaurant of sorts, staying open late on Wednesdays, and hosting a flamenco show on Thursdays. The food here is pretty good.

The big news is that they push forward the construction of the swimming pools which opened on 15 July. These pools are fantastic. One is a dedicated childrens pool complete with a water slide and a wading section with water nozzles and spouts. The kids took to these pools as soon as it opened.

The other pool, ( closer to the front of the resort ) is a beautiful curvy pool with vanishing edges. It has a volley ball net as well as an archway of water spouts which beckon you into the water.

For pictures of the new pools and other Playa progress, follow this link. The latest photos are towards the end of the picture queue. Hope you enjoy them.

Barry

 

[Chemee]

What a wonderful resort! We've never been so thanks for posting the pictures. Just curious to know, what was your flight path & how long was the travel? TIA.

 

[cwtkm3]

Barry,

Thank you so much for the photos. So much progress since we last visited. Can't wait until we go at the end of Oct. Do you know if any of the outdoor pools are heated? Will be interesting to see if we can use them.

We haven't stayed at Playa yet despite buying as founder membership. (Gold GV). But so far it's pulled us fabulous exchanges so I won't ever regret our purchase decision. The pools are superior to Marbella Beach, more to do in them.

Carole.

 

[steve1000]

Thanks so much for posting your pictures. We will be staying at Marbella Beach next March and renting an extra couple of nights at Playa. The pictures are fabulous. The resort is gorgeous and the nearby towns seem charming. We can't wait for our first trip to Spain!

 

[jerseyfinn]

Chemee,

We live in the Philadelphia metro area and as a result, we really luck out with our transit routing.

US Air has direct service to Madrid and from there, we catch a connecting flight to Malaga. The resort is 42 miles from the airport, a 40 miniute drive if one takes the toll road down to the San Pedro exit ( speed limit on the smooth toll road is 120kmh = 70mph ).

The real key to any summer travel to Europe is to cross your fingers and hope that afternoon thunderstorms don't create too much airport mayhem and flight delays. For people flying to either Marriott Playa Andaluza or to Marriott Marbella, I strongly reccomend a direct flight from the US to Madrid. Even if your TA flight is delayed and late arriving at MAD, there are many more daily connecting flights availible to Malaga from Madrid. You can put a broken itinerary back together more easily from MAD.

On this trip, we transition beautifully because the PHL weather was perfect. Our itinerary was PHL-MAD-AGP.

• We depart PHL at 6:05PM and arrive in MAD at 7:30AM local time ( 7h 10min total flight time )
• We catch a 9:00AM Air Europa flight to Malaga, arriving AGP at 10:10AM ( flight time 1 hour )
• Baggage arrives promptly, & we have prearranged car rental which takes only 5 minutes to transact ( my wife and son get the bags while I get the car). We are in the car and on the road to the resort at 10:30 AM
• We arrive at Playa at 11:10AM The villa is not ready until late afternoon. By 11:35 AM, we have changed into swimming trunks and the vacation starts on the beach. Lunch was at 12:30 in the chiringuito (beach bar) .

Understand, we were quite lucky with our itinerary and transitions because of good weather in PHL. We also check our bags from PHL to AGP to make moving from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 at MAD Barajas airport an easier task. Barajas can be an imposing airport to the first-time traveler, but there are busses to connect you to the terminals. In our case, we remained on the "inside" of the airport ( security cleared ) because we had been issued paper tickets for the entire itinerary. We get to our new terminal and simply find the Air Europa courtesy counter to get our boarding passes. We've done this journey a few times and our familiarity with the airport helped make this a stress free transition.

We were pinching ourselves in disbelief as we sit on the beach around 11:30AM with our vacation officially in motion. Total transit time from PHL airport to the beach was about 11.5 hours. And in our case, we purchased upgradable seats, so the flight to MAD was flown up front in Envoy class. I should have tried to go out and buy a lottery ticket that day as we were extremely lucky.

Barry

 

[jerseyfinn]

Costa del Sol is indeed a fabulous destination. Some folks will knock the extreme summer congestion and build-out which is currently going on there, but those two Marriott resorts ( Playa & MMB) are perfectly positioned to give you the sort of holiday that you want. You can remain on property and do the resort thing, or you can do the shopping restaurant routine in Marbella, Puerto Banus and elsewhere, or go sightseeing. It's all there to be done and the individual can select the kind of itinerary which suits them. And those white villages in the mountains are tranquil and surreal for those who take the time to stop and enjoy them.

In addition to the 2 Playa weeks we own, my wife and I trade one of our Ocean Pointe weeks for an October visit to MMB or Playa and one year we even do a January visit via Marriott.com on an owners discount rate. It's simply a fantastic destination any time of the year.

This latest July visit to Playa is a real eye-opener to us as we can finally see how Playa is going to look, feel, and function as a mature, built-out resort. We ourselves love both resorts, but the amazing thing to us is that Playa has actually found ways to tweak the resort so that Playa actually nudges past Marbella in an aesthetic sense ( mind you, I'm not trying to say one is better than the other).

Playa has used MMB as a template and unbelievably, has found ways to improve on things. MMB's pool remains an absolute a thing of beauty, especially with the bridge. But the two new pools at Playa are a pleasant surprise to me as they too are aesthetically beautiful ( I love the vanishing edges ) and they give Playa a different function as the 3rd pool towards the back of the resort is wholly aimed at kids with the slide and water nozzles and the pool in front of it is more of a leisure/recreational pool. Both supplement the main pool facing the beach and the restaurant. But I suspect that these pools will take on different functions and create kids/ family/ and couples areas which enhance the guest experience. Likewise the indoor pool at Playa has tried to take MMBs idea and tweak it into something more seamless and functional as it intersects with the exercise and sauna/steam rooms.

A little noticed, though much appreciated improvement is Playa's underground parking which is wider and more expansive and connects both to the villas as well as game and massage rooms. Both resorts have great-looking reception areas and market places.

It's often mentioned that Playa's beach is not as good. But in truth, Playa's beach and sand is softer, wider and smoother than MMBs which is narrower and actually slopes downward to the water, making laying on the hamacas feel a bit awkwards. And Playa's chiringuito is located on the beach and is a nice place to feel and experience the water while sipping a drink or tasting a snack. Playa's problem lies in the water where rocks make navigating the first 10 meters a faltering task. Both have walkable beaches, but MMB has more beaches to walk to ( and IMO prettier sunsets because of where the sun hits the horizon ).

The bottom line remains that both resorts offer superlative experiences and how much one notices the differences is a matter of your own aesthetic tastes and interests. I just can't believe how MVCI keeps working to tweak and improve the resort experience. Those who own or trade will certainly appreciate the effort.

Barry

 

[englishowner]

Hi Jerseyfinn

thanks for posting photos, it was really interesting to see them. We were there back at beginning of June, the extra pools were really needed, it was very busy, the pools didn't look anywhere near ready, and my sales rep was telling me cos they knew there was a problem they were working as much as poss to get pools ready for Summer. I didn't think they could do it but they obviously did. They look great and now can't wait to go back. Playa Andaluza is a great resort, its got the lot, and by the looks of it these new pools just are icing on cake Anyone who gets the chance to go to Playa, can't speak for Marbella Beach haven't been, should go ,its lovely and I don't think anyone could be disappointed in it.

Lynne

 

[jancurious]

Barry,
Great pictures! Thanks for posting.

Jan