Had an excellent stay. We had booked a family room as we have three kids and had a two room one bathroom place. Two terraces, one facing back to garden courtyard and one to the pool and they were in need of modernising otherwise rooms were good.
The fact that the layout is small 2 storey blocks rather than a large building adds to the attraction.
Pool was brilliant. Water at good temp with sloped access points, built in jacuzzis, fountain and bar accessible from pool with wet stools inside the water.
Food was high standard as the main clientèle are Spanish and they have resisted catering for the English/International brigade and remained true. Having chefs prepare your meat or fish as you like it in front of you is a bonus compared with precook and keep warm attempts made in other places.
The beach bar chiringuito also has excellent food at lunch time specialising in tuna and catch of the day cooked to perfection the Spanish way.
The beach itself is awesome especially to towards the cliffs and beach head with interesting rock formations. Care that the sea is quite dangerous here and many have drowned according to locals.
Staff are more simpatico and seemed happier though they really worked hard 12 hours a shift.
There are two night entertainments spots. One is aimed at kids yet had one of the best magicians I have seen for a long time at this kind of place. The other is at the beach bar which is live music of various styles.
Zahara is a quaint village with loads of good fish restaurants worthy of exploring.

lovely beach hotel of typical melia quality,rooms are well equipped and comfortable,large bathrooms,stay on half board if you can the buffet food is excellant so many choices of fresh food,the best breakfast ever.the front of the hotel is not very inviting needs to be updated,but inside is great as are pool areas and beach outside.

Great hotel, in an excellent location, backing right onto a white sandy beach. The room was spacious with a small balcony. The pool was great with a nice bar. Buffet meals were great with good variety. October was a great time to visit as there were not many other people around.

We chose the Hotel Melia Atlanterra because I’m a keen historian and fan of Lord Nelson. This was about the nearest point to Cape Trafalgar we could place ourselves and about the furthest distance my husband felt he could comfortably drive from Malaga airport. The journey takes approx two and a quarter hours and we used the toll roads where appropriate to speed up the journey.
I would agree with most of the other Trip Advisor reviews. Having stayed in Sol Melia hotels before we thought the standards ought to be fairly reasonable and they were. One review stated that parking can be a problem and this is certainly a case at the weekend. Both Saturdays during our stay wedding receptions took place, add to this a large number of Spanish weekender guests and parking became a bit chaotic to say the least.
The hotel rooms are typical 4* standard. We only had two gripes and I’ve mentioned these to the hotel. The balconies are in desperate need of pullout clotheslines that many hotels provide nowadays. The potted plants (mostly dead) make it difficult for drying swimwear and towels. Also there is no dressing table mirror and so I had to use the mirror wardrobes for making up etc.
The main pool was OK in size etc but oh so cold – it definitely needs heating.
The food in the restaurant was generally of a reasonable standard and we found most of the staff to be very friendly and helpful. English was spoken and although there were few other British guests, this didn’t particularly bother us.
This is not a place for shopaholics! The two small supermarkets near the hotel were already closed for the season. Even in Zahara we didn’t locate a supermarket of any size. The nearest place to shop is Barbate, which is about eight miles away where we stocked up on a few essentials at Lidls.
Beyond Barbate the area is breathtaking – lot’s of umbrella pine walks and stunning beaches. The beach the other side of Cape Trafalgar is massive and further on Conil de la Frontera is well worth visiting – again huge wide-open beaches. The best scenically had to be Bolonia (take the road for Tarifa and follow the signs) here you have a small river and lagoon teeming with terrapins, a fabulous beach, a massive sand dune surrounded by umbrella pines and if that’s not enough Roman ruins (closed Mondays).
Would we come back to this area? Definitely yes! We may even be back next year.