I am writing this article on a beautiful morning. Summer is around the corner and I am looking forward to five months of outdoor living. However as sure as night follows day, winter follows summer and my thoughts turn to a winter getaway to a foreign destination.
In introducing you to the Costa del Sol, in Spain, I would like to suggest that Estepona makes an excellent choice for a winter getaway. My advice and recommendations are based on my experiences as someone who enjoys art and an outdoor lifestyle but this article should be of interest to anyone especially if you are retired, or can work remotely or take a holiday of least three weeks or longer.
Costa del Sol is a tourist region along the Mediterranean shores of southern Spain. Three of its most popular cities are, from east to west, Malaga, Marbella and Estepona. The latter is less than an hour’s drive from Gibraltar.
Malaga
Most Costa del Sol tourists fly into Malaga’s modern, efficient airport which is also the terminus of the high speed train, allowing an art lover to easily visit Madrid, in just two hours, and stay for a week to enjoy the Prado, Reina Soffia and Thyssen art museums.
Malaga has a population of about 600,000 and with three universities, the population skews young. In the past twenty years this port city has been transformed into a cultural centre with vibrant streets and lively bars and restaurants. On our last visit we stayed at El Museo Living and Experience Club, a hotel just off the Plaza de la Merced, which has dozens of restaurants and is less than a half-hour walk to more than thirty attractions.
Two of the most popular of those are the art museums dedicated to native son, Pablo Picasso. The Museo Picasso Malaga is a must-see. Long lineups can be avoided by online reservation or by visiting the museum to buy timed tickets for entry the next day. Less exhausting and more interesting for me is the Museo Casa Natal, housed in the building in which Picasso was born. This museum helps you understand how Picasso became the man who could say: “When I was a child my mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter and became Picasso.”
Malaga hosts three other major art museums: Carmen Thyssen, Centre Pompidou, and the CAC Malaga which shows contemporary art in a cavernous former warehouse. Not as well known are the funky Museo del Patrimonio Municipale, the amazing Museo de Malaga and the many art galleries dedicated to a single artist. The Patrimonio has some excellent art and a display of several miniature dioramas with plasticine characters enacting some of the most important events in Malaga’s history. We were delighted by the plasticine people and motivated to visit the actual historical sites portrayed in the dioramas. The vast and more serious Museo de Malaga houses huge collections of Spanish art and archaeological treasures and uses technology to enhance stories of the Phoenicians, Romans, and Moors in Malaga. For a vibe completely different from the main attractions we visited a gallery dedicated solely to the works of Jorge Rando. Rando’s style is neo-expressionism and his bigger-than-life figurative paintings and sculptures have an abstract quality that convey strong emotions. The gallery is a wow!
The highlight of each of our visits to Malaga is the evening hike up the hundred and thirty metre high Mount Gibralfaro in the centre of the city. The setting sun glows in the mists of the mountains behind the city and turns the Mediterranean a deeper blue. From the top of Gibralfaro you can see the bull ring, the port, the many classical buildings, the perfect gardens and the bustling streets of Malaga. In the twilight, after the sun sets and the lights come on, walking back down to the city becomes a mystical experience.
Marbella
Travelling west from Malaga, the next major city is Marbella, the glittering hangout of the rich and famous. Saudi royalty can be found here. Tennis great, Novak Djokovic, recently bought a house for nine million Canadian dollars. Antonio Banderas has a street and a square named after him. Marbella is known for its extravagant stores, high-end restaurants and as you might expect, plastic surgery and hair restoration clinics.
Marbella has a population of about 150,000 in the winter and 700,000 in the summer: prices for accommodations rise accordingly. But walk along the beachfront any winter evening and you will see only one apartment out of ten with lights on. Marbella has affordable winter accommodations because many of the dark units are owned by people who stay in Marbella only in the summer months and rent out their units in the winter.
When in Marbella we rent an apartment overlooking the water and close to one of our favourite haunts: Alameda Park and Avenue del Mar. Alameda Park is a quiet shady arboretum in the centre of the city and a perfect place for reading and reflection. Just below the park is Avenue del Mar which has marble steps leading to the beach and features ten surrealistic bronze sculptures by Salvador Dali.
One of our favourite walks is through Marbella’s old city which is peppered with interesting shops and has, at its heart, the Plaza de los Naranjos. Orange Square is a preternaturally pretty plaza with orange umbrellas of al fresco restaurants, and a border of fruit-heavy orange trees.
Another favourite walk is along the seven kilometre promenade from Marbella to the Ralli Marbella art museum and the Puerto Banus marina.
We have visited dozens of art museums in Costa del Sol and for our taste, the Ralli is best. The relatively small, architecturally beautiful building houses a wonderful permanent collection of South American paintings and sculptures, a fine selection of twentieth century artists such as Henry Moore and Marc Chagall and an always interesting temporary exhibit.
The Puerto Banus marina has almost a thousand berths accommodating some of the most expensive yachts in the world. The prices at luxury brand boutiques lining the marina and those at the high end El Corte Ingles department store a short walk from the marina, are out of our league but looking is free. You can find more affordable prices at the huge Saturday morning market at the Puerto Banus bull ring.
If you want to see how the Spanish do malls, you can visit Marbella’s La Cañada shopping centre. When I first saw a sign for Cañada, I thought it must be Canadian owned. Later, I found out that Cañada is pronounced Canjada and means canyon or ravine.
Marbella is centrally located for easy day trips to Malaga, Estepona, Gibraltar, and even Granada. I highly recommend taking a bus for a day trip to Ronda which has a fascinating history and some of the most picturesque vistas in Spain. I will warn you though that the road to Ronda has heart stopping switchbacks and steep drops: not for the faint hearted.
Estepona
Leaving Marbella, and continuing westward along the coast, you come to Estepona which has a population of about 80,000. After several month-long stays in Estepona we have decided to make it our winter getaway for the foreseeable future. I will introduce Estepona by discussing the factors that we considered in our decision.
We first “discovered” Costa del Sol about a dozen years ago. Like many eastern Canadians, we had considered Florida to be the best choice for a winter getaway but after two trips there we decided it was not for us. The weather was too hot, the prices were too high, and we felt alienated from the culture. Having always enjoyed European culture, we began to search for a suitable destination asking Google, “What is the warmest city in Europe in the winter?” The answer, “Estepona.” Never having even heard of Estepona, I did some research on the internet and in person.
The January/February temperatures in Estepona range from nighttime lows of about 10C to daytime temperatures in the high teens. By early March you can see the first signs of Spring: Germans swimming in the Mediterranean. Estepona is almost always sunny. Even on cooler days, the warmth of the sun allows at least one al fresco meal. An occasional storm brings some welcome variety to the weather.
Preferring not to rent a car on holiday, we depend on walking and buses to get around. Estepona’s weather is perfect for walking and Estepona’s public transportation system is comprehensive, inexpensive and reliable.
Winter is low season in the Costa del Sol. A one month rental of a well maintained beachfront unit within walking distance of the city centre can cost forty percent less than a similar property in Florida. Estepona is one of the least expensive cities in the Costa del Sol. If lunch is your main meal, you can find restaurants that offer bread, a glass of beer or wine, and a three course “menu del dia” for under $20 Canadian.
We don’t need a destination with bucket-list art but we want to live in a city with art. There isn’t a day that we don’t stop to admire one of Estepona’s many street sculptures and we are constantly surprised when we turn a corner and see a three storey mural on the side of a building.
Estepona’s main tourist information centre is located in an art museum which has an eclectic permanent collection and some excellent temporary exhibitions. The thirteen story Mirador del Carmen has just opened and features an art museum (which was showing Goya’s etchings of the horror of war during our last visit), a performance space, and a library. On the top floor there’s an observation platform offering views of the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar to the north and Africa to the south). And while it’s not exactly an art museum, Estepona also has a museum of live art, an orchidarium with thousands of different orchids and a three storey indoor waterfall.
I could continue singing the praises of Estepona but it’s time to wrap things up with some suggestions for your next winter getaway.
Some Suggestions
- If you don’t have a car, make sure you rent a place close to a grocery store and close to the city centre.
- If you don’t want to rent your current unit again, check with local real estate agents for alternatives. Spanish real estate agents often have clients looking for short term renters.
- It’s fun to use your smart phone to identify and learn about the plants and birds you see on your walks.
- You’re on a holiday so don’t make appointments if you don’t have to. For example, Estepona has a tennis club in the city centre where we used to book a time slot. However, we found that no matter how early we started, we always ended up rushing to get to the club in time. Now we just go to the club, book a court and enjoy the wait in a nearby cafe.
Enjoy a safe and happy winter getaway.
