The Costa del Sol has always had expensive beach clubs.

But after visiting Salduna Beach in Estepona this weekend following a flood of glowing reviews online, I left wondering whether parts of the coast have finally crossed the line between luxury and outright absurdity.

Salduna is undeniably beautiful in places. The design is polished, the atmosphere is lovely and the facilities – including the toilets – are of a high quality.

The staff also work hard and try their best to please, but some of the prices are becoming difficult to justify.

Sunbeds cost €35 each, or €40 if you want the so-called ‘front line’.

Front-line typically means uninterrupted sea views and direct access to pristine water. But at Salduna, there are only around five rows of beds in total, so the ‘upgrade’ feels fairly meaningless.

Especially when directly in front of those premium beds sits a large drainage channel.

Then there is the beach itself, which forms part of the rockiest stretch of the Costa del Sol, to the point where actually entering the sea feels like an extreme sport.

Unless you enjoy balancing on slippery rocks while risking a broken toe, you are probably staying on your lounger.

It’s this €40 ticket to the Rocky Horror Show that’s perhaps the hardest pill to swallow.

Particularly when you compare it to somewhere like The Beach House Marbella in Elviria, where you pay similar prices but get one of the best sandy beaches anywhere on the coast.

Some of the cocktails also pushed things into eye-watering territory.

Relatively small drinks like Amaretto Sours and Whiskey Sours were priced at €17, while the rest were €16 and a few €15.

A couple were excellent, to be fair. Others felt average at best, and the glass of Sauvignon Blanc was sorely lacking.

For food, we ordered four oysters, which were tasty and reasonably priced at around €5 each (although they were probably the smallest I’ve seen in these parts).

We also tried the lobster salad for €35 – and there were few complaints to be had there.

But the strangest moment came when my dad was served a tiny piece of bread that was so rock hard it was genuinely inedible.

When he politely complained, the waiter turned to a colleague in Spanish and said: ‘That’s the end of the loaf, what does he expect?’

Well, at these prices, probably not to break a tooth – and certainly to have the issue resolved without attitude.

Obviously it was a one-off moment, but it was another reminder that while you are paying luxury prices, you’re not always receiving a luxury experience.

There is a growing trend on the Costa del Sol where venues seem to believe simply being fashionable or Instagram-friendly justifies charging almost anything.

Sometimes it works because the setting truly delivers. Sometimes you leave feeling slightly shortchanged.

And perhaps that is the bigger question facing the Costa del Sol right now: is this simply the new normal that we have to accept?

Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.