The Spanish holiday hotspot with TOWIE-favourite beach clubs and €3 wine

CHAMPAGNE glass in hand and dancing manically to a ramped up version of Britney Spears’ Toxic, I yell to my friend the same thing I’d been saying for the past hour: “I’ll just have one more drink.”

It is 9pm on Friday and I am at the opening of Marbella’s Ocean Club – the bar loved by Towie cast members.

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British voices ring around me along with friendly hen parties, dressed head to toe in white, dancing happily.

“It’s fab here,” we shout cheerfully as we share lipstick in the loos. I always thought Marbella (and especially the Ocean Club) was way out of my price range.

But it turns out that’s not true.

While the top-notch day beds at the club are spenny, you can get a larger one that sits eight people for around €37 per person a day in low season, plus a bottle of Veuve Clicquot.

Many hotspots also offer punters free tickets if they arrive before a certain time and others (including the famous Linekers bar) allow people to come in for free all night.

You can also save cash by ditching the pricey taxi from Malaga Airport to Marbella and catching the 45-minute bus which runs regularly and costs around €9.

If you aren’t the party type there’s way more to see in Marbella than just clubs.

If art is your thing, on the Avenida del Mar along the coastal avenue, there’s a selection of giant Salvador Dali sculptures.

Meanwhile, the Ralli Museum, just outside of Puerto Banus, is free and is also home to one of the biggest collections of Latin American art in Europe.

A highlight of Marbella’s beautiful Old Town includes the 16th-century church Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de la Encarnacion.

You’ll also find great spots for grub and a tipple in the area.

We sipped on €3 cava before tucking into a budget meal from a traditional Spanish restaurant (steer away from the main streets to find the less pricey places).

A Towie star famously uttered the now immortal diet mantra, “No carbs before Marbs” in 2011 ahead of a cast trip to the Spanish city.

But I very much adopted the saying, “Go to Marbs and indulge in all the carbs you can get your hands on”, which, while not as catchy, is much more fun.

My friend loved visiting seafood restaurants, trying fresh catches, while I scoffed on sizzling portions of paella.

Another 20 minutes west along the southern coast, Estepona Old Town is even better, at least in my opinion.

With its picture-perfect cobbled streets, hanging baskets and white-washed walls, you can easily spend several hours strolling Playa La Rada beach which stretched two-and-a-half miles to our hotel, the Kempinski Hotel Bahia.

The resort has three pools and is set right on the beach where the sea is a dreamy 17C and the pool an even more impressive 20C.

In the mornings we are treated to a breakfast buffet – that is if you could face drinking that early complimentary cava.

I stuffed myself until full and – just three days after arriving – felt like I had put on a stone as I boarded the flight home.

Still, I was glad I’d stuck to my own mantra and indulged in all the mouth-watering carbs I could get my hands on.

Sorry to the Towie lot, but you are doing Marbella all wrong.

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