Sotogrande, a unique destination

Considered the best private resort in Europe.  This “Soto” (wooded land on the banks of a river), “Grande” is an earthly paradise that was born, as is often the case with legends, by chance.
In 1962, the SwissAir company gave away several tickets by raffle, and one of the winners was Fredy Melian, who decided to use them to visit Spain, the birthplace of his ancestors. The night before his departure, his boss, Joseph McMicking, gave him a mission to find a coastal area with at least one kilometre of coastline, water resources and access to build an exceptional housing development. After travelling the entire Mediterranean coastline by motorbike, he chose the Paniagua estate in San Roque, Cádiz.
The secret of Sotogrande’s success lay in the absence of commercial interests. Those who came here did so out of friendship, in search of a quality of life that has always been the most outstanding value of the urbanisation.