day trips from Marbella
 

we will be in Marbella for 10 days in July, '07. What day trips are the "must see" that anyone can recommend. We are just in the process of planning our trip with 3 couples going - renting a car would be difficult unless its a van.... any help is appreciated.

It depends on your interests. And, unfortunately, many of the best things are really too far for a day trip.

Definitely see Puerto Banus (to see who's in town and whose yacht is in the harbor.)

You could do Ronda or one of the other white towns.

But really you should see Seville, Cordoba and Granada - but those should all be overnights at least.

You can get to Granada in about two hours ; Sevilla in about two and a half hours ; Cordoba in about two and a half hours. All are doable for daytrips although, of course, you will not be able to visit 'in depth'.
Ronda is a one hour drive.
For all these trips you will need a car though.

Yes, you are going to need a car if you want to go anyplace. To go to Granada or Cordoba you need to go back to Malaga. It'll be less than two hours from Malaga to these cities, but the part Marbella-Malaga usually is jammed and the 30plus minutes can be much more.
Taking the opposite direction, from Marbella towards Algeciras, you can reach beautiful small sierra towns as Casares, Castellar, Jimena, Gaucin, and many others towards Ronda; or you can follow the coast to Jerez de la Frontera, and Seville in the end.

Maybe you could rent two cars. Check with Auto Europe for rates.

There is also very good bus service from Marbella; however, you have to go to the bus depot to get accurate information (and, unfortunaately, one of the women ticket sellers is a sadist).

The best day trip from Marbella is Ronda. The drive is beautiful and the city is fascinating. Arcos, Seville, and Jerez are all farther on but doable if you had a car.

There are also organized bus tours to all these places, if you like bus tours.

Gibraltar is a day trip from Marbella. We are glad we saw it, but I don't recommend it unless you are bored out of your mind.

Morocco is another posibility; it is worthwhile, especially if you can get outside Tangiers.

You can get to Ronda (1 1/2 hours each way) and Gibraltar (La Linea 1:20 each way) via bus, you don't need to rent a car. Bus schedules can be found here

http://www.ctsa-portillo.com/

Although technically possible I don't think Granada (2:45 by bus each way) is really feasible by daytrip unless you sign up for a bus trip that includes admission to the Alhambra. Even then I thought it was rushed so when I went back I made sure I overnighted there. If you decide to do Granada on your own, be sure to order your Alhambra tickets well in advance, 3 weeks out and all we could get was 6:00 pm or later.

Nerja is also a very good day trip. There are lots of fabulous "white villages" to explore as well. Also, IMO Malaga with it's alcazar and castle and the fabulous Museo Picasso is certainly worth a trip.

I dont consider Nerja a good option given the distance and traffic jams. These are bad today, consider next year with no improvement on the way.
Gibraltar I would not include, many posters consider it an expensive tourist trap and lose of time. Besides, it looks like an english town, not spanish.
I do not think a bad idea renting a van with 6 or 7 seats, such as seat alhambra or others. My brother drives a chrisler voyager and he does fine.

I also like Nerja. If you go there, make sure to visit Frigiliana too. It's in the mountains just above Nerja and it's one of the prettiest white villages I've seen.

If you want to shop - go to Torromolinos. They have a great shopping plaza with jewerly stores, shoes galore, restaurants, and at the end of the plaza, they have groups that play music at night (very festive). There is one restaurant at the end of the plaza that over looks the sea - the view is magnificant.