SOTOGRANDE is about understated elegance and quiet, unshowy glamour.
The polar opposite of Puerto Banus, it is the perfect destination for captains of industry, royals and refined celebrities in the know, of all nationalities.
Inside its exclusive gates and hedges, everyone from golf pros to royal princes and A-list models to footballers can come and go without being pursued by cameras and autograph hunters.
This is a family-friendly resort for the sporty set, with sailing, fishing and horse riding trumping bar crawling and clubbing.
If Porches and handbag pooches are status symbols in Marbella, Landrovers and labradors are more to the taste of the unshowy Sotogrande set.
If it rained a bit more it would be green wellie country. But while the community oozes influence and affluence, it is anything but snobby.
People come here to leave their high powered life behind and live like ordinary folk, even though many of them are quite the opposite.
You don’t hear too much about the resort’s celebrity scene and that’s the way they like it so you may be surprised at some of the names on our list of well-known public figures who either holiday or have a des res in Sotogrande.
The Botin family, who own Santander bank, are said to own property in Sotogrande, as well as the wealthy Ayala family, who own their own private polo field.
On the subject of royals, keep your eyes peeled for French aristocrat Louis Alphonse de Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, who brings his wife María Margarita Vargas Santaella and three children to Sotogrande to enjoy the opulent paradise.
They are big fans of polo and spend a lot of time at Santa Maria Polo Club, especially in August when you could find them clapping from the VIP sidelines during the International Tournament.
Spanish TV celebrities, such as Ana Rosa Quintana, are regularly seen at the polo events in the resort as well as the many restaurants.
A long time visitor, he fittingly described the place as the ‘nicest urbanisation in Europe’ with some of the ‘best weather’.
Golfer Tony Jacklin owned the land on the river estuary where Jordan now lives, having bought here in 1983.