Thanks for this first feedback!
Looking forward to more details and photos ;-)
Enjoy your stay!

 

very cool, eager to hear more.

 

Also interested to hear more. Had a four night stay booked here at the beginning of the year and then I changed my plans. Still very curious.

 

Our signature suite:what the heck, I cannot upload videos here on Flyertalk? 🤦‍♂️

some first impressions from the night:






It is not actually a fence but it is from fabric and movable. They can install it in like 15 ​​​​minutes, which they seem to do after "closing" of the water in the evening for security reasons. Gonna further Investigate this 🤗

Btw., the property has at least 4 pools. One big which is very shallow for kids especially. Two big main regular outdoor pools. Sadly, all outdoor pools are not heated.
It also has a heated indoor pool at the dedicated Spa building, which I will have a look at tomorrow.

Sadly, the Spa only opens at 10am (until 8pm). So out of summer and any ice-swimmers, it is not possible to swim in the morning (like "before breakfast"). Also, there is a strange rule, that you have 2 hours per day free of Spa building usage. They have a maximum of 20 person's inside the spa. I still didn't fully understand if the 2 hours are just for keeping availability for all guests or whether this means a payment if you want to use it for longer than 2h. Gonna clarify this tomorrow.

Tennis court usage is 25�/h, private Tennis Trainer is 50�/h, both of which I deem reasonable prices.

The hotel has takedown-service.

 

On the location of the hotel:

From the time when they announced the hotel to our arrival, I always had a mixed feeling about the location of the hotel.
I deemed it to be rather remote, no sea views, and so on. I was worried whether we would end up staying at the wrong location for a decent amount of money.

However, turns out, that the location is rather perfect. Yes, you miss out on the sea views. But this is the only negative. Other than that, the hotel lives in a valley of a very big gated community, which is named Mijas Golf, with countless high quality private villas all around. It is like an own village.
It is very clean and the whole gated community looks rather new here. You can maybe compare Mijas Golf a little bit to Son Vida on Mallorca (with the Castello hotel in the middle), for the ones that know it, with less exaggerated villas but nonetheless very nice. To me it looks like some real estate developer bought the whole Mijas Golf area 10 years ago and redeveloped it as a whole with the redevelopment of the Byblos as La Zambra being the peak goal to reach. As a sidenote, at the entry of the hotel, you can see on a badge, that the redevelopment of the old Byblos hotel was partly funded by the European Union. ​​​​​​Also, as the name suggest, the hotel is in the middle of a pretty big golf course which spreads over the whole village. The course is meticulously curated. There are hordes of workers and motorized vehicles preparing the golf course every morning at sunrise.



180� sunrise view from our balcony with hill of the gated community on the upper right side. Children's pool on the left side,2 main pools (staggered terraces) on the right side.

 

Spa Building:

There is a separate Spa Building, I would call it a refugium. It has 12 different treatment rooms for various different treatments (from cosmetics to ayurveda).
There is an indoor 15m sports swimmers pool, I would say 2 lanes broad, around 27 degrees Celsius (even a little bit to warm for my taste). There is one big indoor jacuzzi and one big second one with fontains etc., both at around 36 degrees.
It has one finnish sauna, one bio sauna and one steam room as well as a decently heated quiet room.
Also there is a big yoga/sports hall (I would say around 80sqm), as well as an outdoor Atrium with waterbasin in the middle for outdoor yoga in summer.

Usage of the spa building is free for hotel guests for 2h per day in low season. It is 30eur/2h per person in high season.

So you can use the main outdoor pools for free in high season when it's warm. And in low season when it's cold outside, they provide free access to the spa building with the heated inside pools and saunas.

This sounds like a fair compromise for me.

With this really comprehensive Spa building, the hotel counts as a fully fledged Wellness Resort to my taste.

 

Thanks for the feedback!
Anything on the food?
Menus look nice but on the expensive side (especially compared to the reasonable room rates, golf and drinks)?

 

Food:
We don't have enough time to stay for dinner at the hotel. There are so many interesting options between Malaga and Marbella, that we're going out for dinner (especially recommending The Breathe as well as Sea Grill). Sorry for that.

Breakfast quality is flawless. The offer could be more wide-ranging in this class of hotel but it's by no means lacking any essentials. They basically offer all the essentials on really high quality and perfectly shown on the buffet as well as some things served to the table (like coffee, juices, eggs, bacon, etc.).

Generally, I think some things are still in low-season mode on the F&B side.

​​​​They have live music on several days of the week in the different f&b outlets in the hotel, btw., which is really nice. We just didn't get to hear it as we were out.

Food service is sometimes a little bit lacking. They tend to forget things, even while the hotel is probably only 20% booked right now, so they have plenty of time. Howevery the kitchen is fast, they also refill the breakfast buffet before something is out.

 

Spa Building:

 

Breakfast buffet (rather small and very low quantities but there's everything you need and they refill before it's out), warm food is served to the table:

 

Thank you for the first feedback and photos!
Confirmed my idea to go for a week of golf in Summer (hopefully not too hot…?).

 

Sadly had to leave today. What a pity!

Also important to know: from our opinion, Malaga is a city you better only visit for the airport or maybe the castle/historical sites. Everything else, leisure, dining, sightseeing, shopping, go to Marbella. Don't even waste a day for Malaga. It is like a not so nice Nizza. And Nizza is already not cool compared to Cannes or Saint Tropez.

The hotel is nearly fully completed, like 95%. There is only absolutely minor works ongoing (looking more like maintenance) and the last thing to open will be the boutique, which is already receiving clothes and decorating the room, ad well as the kids outdoor pool as well as a fourth f&b outlet right beneath the kids pool.
The area surrounding is at 98%, only some tree islands inside the golf course we're still worked on and one small lake at the beginning of the golf course was still without water. The grass on the side of the street to the hotel has not yet been laid.
Other than that, everything is in full operation at the hotel as well as in the area around.

If you can, come here now! It is at ultra low capacity right now. We had been there with like 15-20 other rooms. No more than 5-6 tables at the breakfast occupied at once.

This resort will absolutely sure become a category 8 rather sooner than later. What a lucky thing that it didn't move this year. Category 5 is a totally unrealistic undervaluation. Should have started as a 6 at the minimum.
I'll go to 7Pines Sardinia this summer and I'm eager to compare how they line up to each other.

Clear and unequivocal recommendation to come here. Best Hyatt I've been to. And I've been to some.

 

Thanks!
7Pines Saridina is 3x the price in Summer (and only basic room with no view and no access to the adult only pool is available with points)?
But interested in your feedback…

 

7pines Sardinia is absolutely crazy expensive. Our one-week stay costs 29.000 EUR in the laguna view suite. That's why we plunder our points account plus a suite upgrade award for that so we get it for free 🤗

There is no question, that La Zambra is the better value for money right now. We'll see how we feel it with the direct comparison.

 

A bit out of topic for this thread but website doesn’t mention which suites are standard at 7Pines?