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Costa del sol

Staying at a beach house in Marbella, Spain and would love any advice and/or ideas for activities. Will be there 2 weeks in late September 2014. Day trips? Where? Hiking? Biking? Water activities? Better airport to fly in or out of? Best way to do day trips?

Posted by
1527 posts

Lucky you!
We prefer the Malaga airport for convenience. We also recommend spending a day in old town malaga, taking in the old fort, marina, cathedral, stroll the pedestian shopping areas, exploring the very narrow back streets and enjoying an evening meal.
Will you be renting a car? Andalusia is ez to get around w a car and we enjoy taking day trips w one.
Ez to get to Gibralter w/o a car, not one of our favorite destinations; but a convenient day trip.
W a car very ez to access ronda, a favorite, an interesting drive up over the mountain (do not attempt to drive like a local!).
Jerez is also on your doorstep and a worthy day trip.
Granada is three hours one way, but we have done as a daytrip when only visiting the Alhambra. Makes for a long day, but will worth the effort.
Do find the best market and shop daily for your food. Helps gain a perspective of how locals shop, eat and live and can open opportunities to trying food you might pass by. We stay near malaga and learned to shop daily for the offerings do change, often w what has been caught in the med or brought in from local farms. A great way to try and take the training wheels off our spanish.
Beaches along the coast line are more pebbles than sand and water temps will have been falling.
Lots of hiking opportunities as you will quickly see.
Have fun.

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you very much! We had not made plans either way on the car rental. Figured we would for the actual days we needed to drive somewhere. Was hoping we could get around by bike or walking.

Posted by
1527 posts

We have always made advanced car rental reservations w reputable companies and obtained excellent value and service. I have heard from folks who rented from local agencies w less than satisfying results, but this should not draw a conclusion that all local agencies are unsatisfactory. Use the internet to learn about local rental options. We use google earth street view to better unsterstand how the local area appears. Suggest using this program to take an advance stroll among the area around where you are staying.