Map of Costa del Sol

The Costa del Sol, the "sunny coast," is the coast of the province of Málaga, elbowing its way down into the province of Cádiz and over into Granada, when the respective tourist boards of those provinces allow. It is not, in fact, the sunniest part of Spain (that corresponds to the neighbouring Costa de la Luz), but it's a near-run thing, and three-hundred odd sunny days a year are pretty well guaranteed. In addition, it is often warmed by winds blowing across from Africa, so cold weather occurs only occasionally even in winter and practically never at other times of year.

The most attractive, least developed part of the Costa del Sol is the coast of the hilly Axarquia region in the east of Málaga province: Nerja, Torrox and Vélez-Málaga, but even here, especially the closer you get to Málaga, the more built-up the coast becomes, and either side of Málaga is more or less wall-to-wall concrete. West and south of Málaga lie its best known, most popular resorts - Torremolinos, Benalmádena, Mijas Costa and Fuengirola, the most built-up municipality in Spain, something like 99% of its area being occupied by some kind of construction. They are all highly enjoyable places, and I am using the word "popular" in at least two of its senses - they are working-class resorts, and filled to the brim with tourists during the season, and sometimes off-season.

Marbella, in contrast, though far less exclusive than it used to be, horribly scarred by years of wildcat development under the corrupt regime of the late Jesús Gil, and largely abandoned by film stars and oil sheiks and their harems and retinues, is still an exotic, somewhat alien country, full of luxury cars, immense yachts and people wearing far too many jangling gold things to be comfortable around. But Estepona next to it, though inevitably overdeveloped, is one of the nicest resorts in this part of Spain, a thoroughly likeable place and still a working fishing port.

San Roque, although in the province of Cádiz, is usually considered to be on the Costa del Sol, though different tourist boards squabble over it and I have left it off the map - scroll a bit left and down and you'll find it easily enough. It's a pleasant place, historic in a quiet sort of way, with predominantly golf-oriented tourism.

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