Last updated 15-August-2004
In June 2004 I made a "last minute" decision to go to southern Spain for a short holiday. The decision being sudden, I did not do my regular preparation. Fortunately I was helped out by some excellent suggestions and advice of a half-dozen Xtreme members, whose ideas and suggestions helped me quickly optimise my travel itinerary, and book some reasonable hotels.
We flew from Frankfurt to Málaga, and picked up a rental car in Málaga. We wanted a car that was small, easy to park, and functional. We weren't disappointed.
After considering many places, we finally decided to stay overnight not far from Málaga and the airport (after arrival). I had a business associate in Marbella I wanted to visit the day of arrival, so after my meeting, we also spent some time driving around there.
Marbella has seen a real estate boom in recent years, and now is an expensive place to live. The "hip"/"classy" night life is in the Puerto Banus area, but the place to go for reasonably priced restaurants and bars is in Marbella. We knew none of this when we booked our hotel, and actually picked Puerto Banus as a location to stay quite by accident, but as it turned out, since we had a car, all places were fairly close, and we were happy with our choice.
We spent one night in Ronda (as a spur of the moment decision), and it was a night well spent. It is definitely worth a short overnight visit, if one's purpose is to enjoy regular tourist sight seeing activities.
We spent three nights in Seville. It was the city with the most interesting night life, and some good regular tourist sites around the city, although I thought its "regular" tourist sites paled in comparison to those of Granada. Still, we did enjoy our selves in Seville.
We spent around 4 hours in Córdoba, and we probably could have stayed one night (to see more of the "regular" tourist spots), if we had more time. But given all the other things we wanted to do on our short trip, 4 hours was an ideal time, and it was time well spent.
We spent 4 nights in Granda, and we were sad to leave so soon. It was an enjoyable city for both regular tourist sites (especially the outstanding Alhambra) and for night life. While the nightlife was not quite up to Seville's standards, the Alhambra and other local attractions both in and out of the city, made it a more enjoyable city than Seville, for us.
We spent one night in Nerja, and we didn't know quite what to expect out of Nerja, having both read and been advised it was an interesting city to visit. It turns out it is a very popular "tourist" town, with a small beach, and some interesting hotels and night life.
Our limited time in Spain did not leave too much time for exploring the country side, although we did make an effort to get off of the "beaten path" a few times. Because of my interest in history, it was always a bit of an unfair balance trying to see if we should view how the locals live, or go visit some historical site ?
We spent our last night in Torremolinos. We wanted a city close to Málaga Airport, so we could catch an early morning flight, and thus Torremolinos fit our requirements very nicely. The city, although smaller than Nerja, left a similar impression, in that it was a very popular "tourist" town, with a somewhat larger beach, and some interesting hotels and night life. I would say Torremolinos had more night life than Nerja, possibly due to its location being between Marbella and Malaga.
