Protur Roquetas Hotel & Spa

The Protur Roquetas Hotel and Spa is the best pick along the Almeria coast for guests wanting a stylish, upscale retreat with modern amenities to keep children and adults entertained. The lobby is a chic atrium with high ceilings decorated with wood beams and glass elevators. A sleek bridge leads to the slate stone front desk. The Meeting Point Lobby Bar, also in the atrium, has burgundy and black bar stools by a grand piano and optional poolside seating. Corridors, decorated in dangling greenery, are above a meandering fountain with trees and nearby seating. The atmosphere is certainly more upscale than at neighboring value resorts, but noise can still be an issue.

The Protur Roquetas Hotel is in a residential area on the Almeria coast and in walking distance to bars, restaurants, horse carts, and bike rentals. Catamaran and windsurfing lessons are on the beach at Sail and Surf Roquetas. Pepe Tours, eight minutes by foot, offers day tours. The airport is 39 minutes by car. A car is needed to reach family-friendly activities like the Mario Water Park -- a 21-minute drive away. Go kart racing at Circuito de Karts Copo Roqueta is 17 minutes by car. The Oasys Mini Hollywood, which looks like a wild West movie set, is an hour drive.

There are over 300 rooms here; each is modern, with sleek marble flooring, warm wood tones, and pops of burgundy and blue (though the dark colors seem slightly out of place for the beach setting). Room types include doubles with sitting areas, twin rooms, suites, junior suites, and junior suites with rooftop hot tubs and a sprawling terrace with sleek black lounge chairs. Most rooms come with free safes, Wi-Fi, marble tiled bathrooms with bidets and modern stainless steel fixtures, mini-fridges, writing desks, and balconies or terraces that have beach views. Some rooms come with mini-fridges that are restocked daily with beverages.

The hotel has a relaxing pebble beach, where lounge chairs and umbrellas are available for rent. A stylish outdoor pool -- surrounded by a lazy river -- features a hot tub with submerged lounge beds and two bridges. Indoors, there's a chic pool with a wood plank deck, skylight, and colorful tiled walls. Kids can choose from two pools. One kids' pool has a built in colorful playground with slides and water fountains. The other is traditional and shallow.

The hotel offers a variety of choices for on-site dining and cocktails including: the Mare Nostrum Restaurant with a buffet, the La Sal Restaurant with colorful tile floors and stylish pink chairs, a pool snack bar, and a lobby bar. All-inclusive packages are available. The hotel also has five meeting rooms that can fit between 40-350 people, including the Flamingo room with a stage, skylight, and a buffet. There’s a modern spa with wood accents, pops of blue tiles, and a lovely indoor pool. For children there’s a kids' club with a playground and built-in sandbox and game room with a pool table, foosball, and air hockey.