Higueron Hotel Malaga by Hilton

This was a return visit to Higuerón Hotel. We have previously chosen the hotel to celebrate special occasions, including our 10th wedding anniversary, because we'd enjoyed such wonderful stays in the past. It quickly became one of our favourite hotels, which is why it is so disappointing to say that, for us, it has lost a little of the sparkle that made us want to return.

The first impression wasn't quite what we'd experienced before. There was no welcome drink on arrival, which had always been a lovely touch and immediately made the stay feel special.

The location remains both a positive and a negative. The hotel enjoys fantastic views, but it is quite remote. There is a shuttle service to the beach and back, which is useful, but walking is extremely steep. The nearby restaurants were exceptionally busy during our stay, so we often ended up walking into Fuengirola to find somewhere to eat. On a positive note, the local Häagen-Dazs café is excellent!

One of the biggest disappointments was the atmosphere in the evenings. Previous visits had a much more vibrant feel, whereas this time the hotel felt very quiet. There was no real bar atmosphere or evening entertainment, so most nights we felt we had to leave the hotel.

Breakfast remains one of the highlights. The selection is excellent, the quality is consistently high, and the staff were friendly and accommodating. No poached eggs, something we would normally expect from a five-star hotel.

The fitness facilities are still outstanding and undoubtedly some of the best you'll find in any hotel. The choice of swimming pools is excellent, and the food throughout our stay was consistently very good.

We also paid the additional fee to use the infinity pool, which had always been one of our favourite parts of staying at Higuerón. Unfortunately, it wasn't the relaxing experience we remembered. It was busy with loud groups, and there was no chilled background music as there had been on our previous visits. We also noticed that the cocktails were not prepared to the same standard as before.

Our room overlooked the padel courts, which meant there was a considerable amount of noise throughout the day, even with the doors closed. The shower also leaked, and while the rooms are stylishly designed, the open-plan bathroom layout offers very little privacy.

The majority of the staff were excellent, friendly, professional and genuinely helpful. However, there were a couple of members of staff whose attitude unfortunately stood out for the wrong reasons. One, coincidentally, was someone we had made a complaint about during an earlier visit because of their extremely rude manner. It's disappointing that this issue appears not to have been addressed.

Overall, Higuerón is still a beautiful hotel with fantastic facilities, and it remains better value than many luxury hotels in Marbella or Puerto Banús. However, it no longer delivers the same five-star experience or level of service that made us return. The atmosphere also felt noticeably different from our previous visits.

We genuinely want this hotel to succeed because we have such wonderful memories here. We know how exceptional it can be, which perhaps makes this visit all the more disappointing. We sincerely hope management can restore the standards and atmosphere that once made Higuerón feel so special, because we'd love nothing more than to return again in the future.

Finally, if you're staying at the hotel, don't miss Restaurante El Higuerón. The views alone are spectacular, and the food was absolutely superb.

While the hotel is pretty to look at, it’s has issues that are not mentioned in the pictures. This is NOT an adults only hotel, the only adult only space is the roof top pool where you have to prepay £50 on weekdays and £100 on weekends to stay. There are only two official hotel pools. The free general pool only has two sunshades, one round bed with shade and 6 “kabanas” . The large sun beds around the pool are non lifting so you struggle to sit up with out grabbing lots of the cushions. Whilst staying here we were woken up by the fire alarm at 5am, the hotel was evacuated but no one from the hotel checked off room numbers to ensure everyone was out, if this was a real fire then there would have been problems, this is NOT correct practice even in a false alarm. The hotel did not issue any statement or made any reference to this many of the hotel day staff were unaware of the fire alarm. On a positive note the rooms are nice, breakfast is good, the corridors could do with some attention to repair. The staff are lovely and helpful. Would I come back… the answer is no!