Rachel’s Travels

I had never been to the Costa del Sol and had an unfortunate image in my head: drunken Brits eating egg and chips and getting sunburned.

However I was there for the first time last week for an important family wedding and I loved so many things!

1. The temperature can be hot at midday in July but it’s also perfect at breakfast and dinner. I love eating outside and generally chilling outside in the evenings and so it was perfect.

2. Driving is easy … once you have the right hand side of the road sorted. It was my first time and didn’t take long. Don’t be afraid! Hiring a car is much cheaper than the UK. I hired through Booking.com and paid EU190 for 8 days in an automatic medium size car (Citroen C4). Being an automatic helped a lot with getting used to the other side of the road.

3. There’s so much cultural and historical significance of this area – especially Moor history. I am fascinated to read up on this. I visited the Alhambra Palace in Grenada and was absolutely blown away. I enjoyed the Alcazaba in Malaga too.

4. Malaga people are generally friendly and English is well spoken.

5. There are some great hiking trails in the mountains and other places. We visited the Caminito del Rey which was a great gorge walk – option to be guided or not.

6. Some absolutely wonderful picturesque villages and towns. In my short stay I particularly enjoyed Mijas and Ronda.

Mijas is a small town at the top of a mountain boasting great views over Malaga. The buildings are almost all uniformly white.

Ronda was a great day out – about an hour and a half from Fuengirola. Set atop a gorge, there is an old bridge, a bull ring and plenty of picturesque streets too.

During my stay I used two hotels: Occidental Fuengirola and Ilunion Hacienda de Mijas.

Breakfast at the ‘Occi’ was great with eggs, bacon, meats, cheeses, churros, cereals etc. The Occi rooms were nice even though mine did not have a sea view. Great access to the beach and the town. EU122 per night at special wedding party rate including brekkie.

Hacienda was stunningly beautiful – set in the hills, a 5-10min drive to Mijas. Breakfast almost as good as the Occi but possibility to eat outside in a picturesque courtyard. Breakfast was EU13. Room was EU80 not including breakfast.

I was lucky enough to have company for the week but I would also have been happy traveling on my own. Coming together with family for the wedding was special.

In summary then, lots of wonderful sights to see in this Andalusia part of Spain and lots of great reasons to visit.