Please help. My fiance and I are planning a trip to the Costa del Sol area of spain in March. I'm a food lover and we want to enjoy as much of the local culture and flavors as we can. We want to stay away from tourist traps. We already have a place to stay just outside Malaga and plan to rent a car to travel the nearby cities. We only have 6 days and don't want to feel rushed. Any suggestions on favorite restaurants (expensive and cheap), good hiking, fav. beaches, fav. things to see, horseback riding, etc would be appreciated! I've read that Marbella has the best tapas places, but I've also been reading from you all that it is touristy and worth skipping. Any other places for tapas or paella?<BR>thank so much,<BR>alyssa<BR>

Alyssa, if you are interested in Nerja (about 45 minutes east of Malaga, on the coast) email me for recommendations. It is our favorite place in Spain!

Hello Alyssa,<BR>We loved Spain and Costa Del Sol the people are awesome! Marbella was great. Mijas, (I'm not sure that if that is the correct spelling) was fun for a half a day trip. It looks like Greece. I would not recommend the day trip to Morrocco. They do not like American's there. Have fun!!

Thanks so much for your information. I would still appreciate more that anyone has to give.<BR>thanks again!

I can also recommend a visit to Nerja which is both a holiday resort and a working Spanish town which has retained a lot of its character, unlike resorts east of Malaga such as Torremolinos, Fuerengirola and Marbella which are pretty much high rise hell. Restaurants we have enjoyed in Nerja (it has many!) include Casa del Luque and Il Barrio, both of which serve good Spanish food. The countryside around Nerja is also good for hiking and you can buy small books of walking routes from local bookshops and gift shops.<BR><BR>Other good places to vist are Ronda (town built on either side of a spectacular gorge spanned by an aqueduct type bridge, also the home of the oldest bullring in Spain), and Granada - but be prepared for long queues to enter the Alhambra Palace.<BR><BR>Have a good trip.<BR><BR>

I have to be honest with you, Alyssa, we didn't find Marbella to have any food to write home about. We stayed at Las Dunas in Costa del Sol -- it is a resort and one of the "Leading Hotels of the World" in Estepona (slightly East of Marbella). It had two restaurants (one really fancy Continental restaurant and one more casual, Pan-Asian of all things) and we ate there more than in Marbella.<BR><BR>Marbella reminds me of many American beach towns -- lots of high-rise condos and a "strip" near the water with lots of shops, restaurants and bars. Each night we went into Marbella, there were lots of people walking the "strip" looking at the restaurants' menus. Most of the places weren't terribly interesting and the food we had wasn't really special. JMHO.<BR><BR>The shopping was of two extremes -- designer shops like Dolce & Gabanna and t-shirt shops or other souvenir shops.<BR><BR>As you can see, I thought Marbella was touristy and nothing special. We loved, however, staying at the resort where we were treated like kings, the food was great, the service phenomenal, etc.<BR><BR>As for food, we had much better (and more traditional Spanish) food in the other towns in Andalucia, like Granada (where we LOVED the tapas bars), Seville, Ronda.<BR><BR>Hope this helps!

When you go to Nerja, don't miss the mountain village of Frigiliana. It is my favourite pueblo blanco, really beautiful!<BR>If you like to drive around, you could as well drive in the direction of the Sierra Nevada for a good hike.<BR>I think the best Spanish food (real Spanish food and tapas) can be found at the Paradores. There are two paradores in Malaga: Malaga Gibralfaro (old quarter of Malaga) and Malaga Golf (between Malaga and Torremolinos. There's one in Nerja as well. In fact, they are all over Spain and every parador serves its own regional specialties. <BR>For more info, look at www.parador.es

Dear Alyssa,<BR><BR>The area Lisa is describing in Marbella is Puerto Banus, which is actually like a suburb between Marbella proper and Estepona. I agree with her opinion, it´s ok for a stroll by the marina to see the luxurious yachts, but the restaurants are dissapointing and overpriced.<BR>However, the real Marbella is an authentic old spanish seaside town, it has a very typical old quarter and you can find great restaurants at the seafront, like Santiago, and also in the old quarter, like the wonderful <BR>La Pesquera, in the middle of plaza de los Naranjos with a beautiful terrace that´s covered and heated in the wintertime. Excellent food and not very expensive.<BR>Also lots of great little tapas bars.<BR><BR>Closer to Malaga, in Torremolinos, there is the typical fishing village area of La Carihuela, with a whole beachfront promenade full of great restaurants and little shops and stands.It makes for a wonderful stroll in the evenings! Lots of spaniards from other cities come fro the day just to eat here, it´s so good.

Alyssa, I would say amen to all you received about Nerja. We have spent a winter month in Nerja for fourteen years. Be sure to go to the far end of Burianna beach and have Paella at Ayo's. Ayo makes in a very large pan right on the beach. Ayo is sort of a celebrity in Nerja and he and another boy supposedly discovered the caves of Nerja when they were boys.<BR>My wife and I will be in Nerja Feb15 to approximately March 8 depending on whether we take off for somewhere else before we fly home on the 14th. We will be staying at Carebeo Villas U1 at Calle Carebeo 78. Stop in and see us, we can tell you more about Nerja than you will want to know.<BR>I gather you are from the University of Wisconsin, We live in Western Illinois.<BR>If you have any other questions let us know. We will get our e-mail in Nerja.<BR><BR>Willard & Janice Nelson