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COUNTRY Spain
POPULATION 40,280,000
CURRENCY Euro
+34 for Spain, 95 for Malaga
Tourist information
Main city tourist information office: Pasaje de Chinitas 4, tel: +34 95 221 3445.
Bus: Half-hourly bus service between the airport and Malaga leaves from the city bus stop outside arrivals. Costs €2.50.
Train: The Fuengirola-Malaga train leaves every half hour from 7.11am to 11.45pm. Stay on until the final Centro-Alameda stop if heading to Malaga. To get to the platform, turn right outside the airport building upper-level exit and follow the signs. Tickets, costing €1.50, should be purchased before boarding.
Taxi: A taxi to Malaga costs about €8 and takes around 20 minutes. A taxi to Marbella costs about €35 and the journey takes up to an hour, depending on traffic.
Virgin Express reservations: 902 888 459
Car hire: For special Virgin Express rates visit the Hertz desk on arrival or call: 902 402 405 www.hertz.com
Most summer visitors head straight for the beach resorts on the Costa del Sol without giving Malaga more than a backwards glance. It’s a pity because the city has plenty of sights, including a castle, the Museu Picasso, lush botanical gardens, superb tapas bars and sophisticated shops. On the coast, cruise by Marbella’s Golden Mile, a tiara of star-studded clubs, restaurants and hotels that stretches from Marbella to Puerto Banús, where gleaming Ferraris slide along a quayside of jaw-dropping luxury yachts. The laid-back flip side of this is Tarifa, Europe’s southernmost point and a speedy hour’s drive from Marbella. A mecca for wind- and kite-surfers, the white sandy beach is pristine and the town is historic and pretty with a hip young vibe. You can also hop on a hydrofoil here and enjoy a day of banter and barter in Tangier.
Enjoy the tremendous month-long Festival Internacional de Musica y Danza on 23 June – 9 July in Granada (tel: + 95 822 1844, www. granadafestival.org). It’s one of Spain’s most important cultural showcases for music and dance; check the website for more details. Watch big names from the international ballet and music worlds perform in the atmospheric caves from 18-22 July at the Festival Cueva de Nerja (tel: +34 95 252 1531), as part of the town’s annual festival. Malaga’s fabulous annual feria takes place between the 11-20 August (tel: +34 95 221 3445) in the centre of town by day and the fairground by night. Enjoy nightly concerts including flamenco and rock and end your night of revelry with the traditional chocolate and churros (fried spiral-shaped doughnuts) at dawn.
Refresh yourself by enjoying the rides at Aqualand (Calle Cuba 10, Torremolinos, tel: +34 95 238 8888), the largest Costa water park with its almost-perpendicular Kamikaze slide and gentle lap pool for recovery time out. For a pleasant Costa beach backed by low-rise shops and restaurants, check out La Carihuela, in between Torremolinos and Benalmádena Port. This former fishing village still has colourful boats on the beach and is a thong’s throw from some of the best seafood restaurants on the Coast.
In this weather you can’t beat a chiringuito (beach-side bar/restaurant), where you can sit on a bar stool and cool down with an ice-cold tinto de verano (red wine with lemonade and ice). In Puerto Bánus, you can ogle the gin palaces while sipping your own gin and tonic from the stylish terrace at Pangea (Club de Mar, next to the tower in Puerto Banús). Another port worth checking out is in Benalmádena, where the Monet Bar (Puerto Marina, Benalmádena, tel: +34 95 256 6759) is one of a slew of lively bars on the beach-front strip. It is straggled over several spaces and there is plenty of room for a little hip swaying while sipping that long cocktail and checking out the crowd.
Due west in Fuengirola, Moochers Jazz Café & Restaurant (Calle de la Cruz 17, Fuengirola, tel: +34 95 247 7154) has a cool terrace and specialises in giant pancakes with sweet and savoury fillings. The menu also has meat, fish and pasta choices, a couple of vegetarian options and several diet-defying desserts. La Carihuela (Torremolinos) is lined with seafood restaurants overlooking the sea; one of the most popular is Casa Juan (Plaza San Gines, La Carihuela, tel: +34 95 237 3512), an institution among Malagueño families who flock here on at weekends to sample the legendary fresh seafood. This is a good place to indulge in fritura malagueña (fried seafood). Malaga is famous for its tapas bars; one of the best is Bar Logueno (Marin Garcia 9, Malaga, no phone), which offers more than 75 choices of tantalising tapas.
Stunningly located on Nerja’s Balcón de Europe, Hotel Balcón de Europa (Paseo Balcon de Europa 1, Nerja, tel: +34 95 252 0800, doubles €125) is right on the water and the main square with all the modern comforts, including a pool and an elevator down to the beach. In Marbella, Hotel Artola (Cra. de Cádiz, tel: +34 95 283 1390, doubles €100) is a pleasant low-rise hotel painted with green shutters and direct access to the beach and a pool. There is also a nine-hole golf course so guests can perfect their game within putting distance of the Med. A couple of blocks back from the beach in Fuengirola is the family-run Hostal Italia (Calle de la Cruz 1, tel: +34 95 247 4193, doubles €50) with small comfortable rooms with balconies and a larger sun terrace for catching the rays.
Words Mary McLean
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