Santa Ana Beach, Benalmadena

Santa Ana is the neat little town beach that sits right against Puerto Marina, the postcard yacht harbour that anchors Benalmadena Costa. It is short, busy and supremely convenient, the kind of beach you walk to in flip flops from a marina lunch rather than make a pilgrimage to. The sand is the dark, fine grain that runs along this whole stretch of the Malaga coast, groomed daily and backed by a paseo lined with bars and ice cream.

The water is the calm, sheltered Mediterranean you expect beside a marina, easy for a swim and watched in summer. Santa Ana has flown the Blue Flag for several seasons, which tells you it is clean and well run rather than wild or remote. Nobody comes here for solitude. They come for the ease of a swim and a sunbed within steps of one of the liveliest dining and nightlife clusters on the coast.

It suits couples and families based in Benalmadena who want a reliable, central beach day with everything close to hand. The honest caveat is that the beach is small and the sand is dark, so anyone dreaming of a long pale shore should look further along the coast toward Cabopino or the wider beaches of Marbella. For a convenient, good value day beside the marina, though, Santa Ana does exactly what it sets out to do. May, June and September are the calmest months, and mornings beat the marina lunch rush for space.