How the Costa del Sol Became a Place to Stay
By Dmitry Mateshin, Founder
A twentieth-century story: from a society promoting Málaga's climate in 1897 to a farmhouse hotel in 1954, a port in 1970 and a motorway in 1999.
Stand on the seafront at Marbella on a January morning and the first thing you notice is the light: low, clear, warm on the wall at your back. The idea of selling that light to visitors is surprisingly young. This is the story of how, over about a hundred years, a stretch of Andalusian coast was built up as somewhere people come to stay.
A climate with an advocate
The idea that this coast could attract visitors goes back further than the hotels. In 1897 a group of Málaga residents formed a society to promote the city's sunny climate to the emerging tourism industry. In 1918 the first public bathing beach on this coast, Baños del Carmen, opened east of Málaga. Both dates come from a local timeline, and the details of who did what are thinner than the dates, but the direction is clear: the pitch began with the weather, long before there was anything to build.
Planes, a golf ball and the first resorts
In 1919 the first plane landed on the land that would later become Málaga airport, although the airport took decades to develop. In 1925 a golf ball is reported to have landed in the rough of a course near Torremolinos, on ground that is now part of a parador golf course. In 1943 El Rodeo, one of the coast's first resorts, was built. In 1946 the airport opened to civil aviation, with domestic and overseas routes. Together these dates sketch a coast that was learning, one piece at a time, how to receive guests.
The 1950s: a farmhouse and a film-star crowd
In the 1950s film stars such as Grace Kelly and Marlon Brando began to visit. The story of the Marbella Club is the most familiar part of this moment. According to the club's own account, in 1946 Prince Max Hohenlohe stopped for a picnic in a pine forest on the Mediterranean coast. His son, Prince Alfonso, returned in 1947 and bought the rural estate, a place of figs, pines and donkeys. In 1954 the club opened in the old farmhouse with twenty bedrooms, a dining room and a bar. This is the club describing itself, so read it as a founding story and not an audited history.
The 1960s and 1970: terminals and a port
The 1960s brought European aristocrats and international businessmen, and then package tourism, which expanded the airport. In 1968 it inaugurated its first purpose-built passenger terminal. In 1970 José Banús, a local developer, opened Puerto Banús, with a harbour, apartments and services; the opening took place in May. A local history of the port says Banús dropped an early plan for tall buildings in favour of a traditional Mediterranean style, after meeting the architects who had designed the Marbella Club hotel. The port grew from two roads and a marina into a harbour that now holds around 900 boats. Marbella's boom as a destination dates to the same period.
What the dates do and do not tell us
These dates come from a local timeline and the accounts of the places themselves, and they are best read as markers, not as a full history. The record of who did what is thinner than the dates. Founding stories, such as the picnic in the pine forest, are the way a place tells its own past, and historians may date or interpret events differently. What is firm enough to say is the pattern: a climate promoted in 1897, a first beach in 1918, flights from 1946, a hotel in 1954, a terminal in 1968, a port in 1970. Each step made the next one possible.
Glamour fades, infrastructure arrives
By the early 1990s Marbella's glamour had begun to fade. The coast did not stop. In 1991 a new terminal named for Pablo Ruiz Picasso opened at the airport, and in 1999 the AP-7 toll motorway opened, linking Fuengirola with Guadiaro.
Why the history matters when you choose a home
Much of this coast was shaped in the last hundred years, around estates, resorts, a port, an airport and a motorway. When you look at a home here, it helps to ask which part of that story it belongs to, and how far it sits from the airport, the motorway and the services you will use all year.
The present-day picture is still being written. In the first half of 2026, according to land registry figures reported in the press, foreign buyers accounted for 35.7% of home sales in the province of Málaga, a share that sits behind the stories above. We look at those figures, and at a second count that disagrees with them, in our article on foreign buyers in 2026. In October 2026 a retirement index published by an immigration-services firm placed Spain first in Europe and third in the world, and described the Costa del Sol as attractive for its established international communities, healthcare providers and frequent flights to the UK. It is a commercial ranking, not a verdict, but it shows how far the pitch that began with a society in Málaga in 1897 has travelled. For the practical side of living here, see our buying guide, and for the longer history behind the coast, our article on Andalusia from al-Andalus to the Costa del Sol.
Here is a selection of homes from our catalogue in Marbella and San Pedro Alcántara:
If you would like a shortlist matched to your budget and plans, see How We Work or browse the Collection.
The dates in this article come from a local timeline, the Marbella Club's own account and press reports. Historians may date some events differently, and details of who founded what are thinner than the dates. Property details and prices are confirmed on request.
