the places we visited in 7 days in spain..
The flight we took the cheaper option with ryan air and i have to say going out was a joke and i will be making a complaint as is was like being in a nightclub full of drunk english idiots. One girl was dancing round so pissed she could stand up and they kept serving her drinks and she was sick. She made the girl who served the drinks cry! i couldn’t wait to get of the plane. On the way back it was a lot better although i wasn’t happy when i spotted the silly cow was coming back on the flight but she looked tired out which doesn’t surprise as she was being a slapper on the plane on the way out so i wouldn’t like to think how many guys she went through on her visit in spain – dog.
we got a car from hertz on the airport on the flights deal this time – this was a very good procedure compared to some of the lousy car hire staff at some of the other places. They took a 200 deposit and wanted another 55 insurance otherwise i have to pay the first 700 of any damage which i didnt take which could have been dodgy because i had a blank moment and drove on the right hand side and nearly took a car out! which i swerved and missed and got shouted at by some crazy spanish guy! i dont blame him! it came full which they charge me 60 euro if they fill it which i had to because i was running late on return. The car was very clean as new and was a skoda which i haven’t drove before so decided to choose this over for ka which i don’t like anyway – i wouldn’t drive a skoda ever again as they handle pretty crap and they simply have no balls which you need in spain specially when your driving in and out of mountains!!
the first hotel we used for 4 days.
benalmadena we stayed in the dorramar, i got us a full apartment of booking.com at a great price its a great hotel with a bar and pool and great live music and karaoke every night. The hotel is located just of the main coastal road and with a ten minute walk to the marina and 5 minutes from bonanza square or 24 hour square. Great facilities in the room and kept very clean. The deposit for the tv remote and air con remote was like 40 euro which aint bad they also borrowed me a iron to fix up my shirts that got creased in my case and let me keep it till i checked out. No parking but you can get parked near for free the lady behind reception suggested some free places. There wasnt any food or breakfast but you can cook in the the room if required, they have a 24 hour shop which you can buy most groceries. I give the place a 7 out of 10 – as they didnt give us regular clean towels and they didnt stock up the loo roll we had to buy some!!
while in benalmadena we decided on a trip to gibraltar to get a watch for my birthday which we got at a good price and some cigarettes. Your looking at a hour to get in and a hour and half to get out if you drive in, which i wont do again because of some crazy stuff going on with the spanish fishermen being awkward, infact ill probably never go to gib again i thought it was a shit hole and personally dont like the place.
On the way back we stopped of at estapona which was another waste of time it was all shut down and nothing much is going down in the place, we stopped at one bar at the end of the strip and they had the cheek to charge us ten euro for two pints of lager!!! what a joke never again. That goes for the bar and estapona.
It was my 40th birthday while in spain and i chose to have my birthday meal in mijas pueblo one of the places i love to spend time and having a steak in the best scenic restaurant in mijas looking over the mountain seemed the perfect idea. The food and wine was amazing and we couldnt have picked a better night they had a fiesta music festival below the restaurant so we watched all the kids dancing to the music while we dined and then we went down to join in the celebrations before we left the mountain to meet friends for beers into the night…..
We spent lots of time in torromolinos this time and found some great places in the centro and costa, we will be spending lots more time here in the future. Some great bars and the place is great.
We left benalmadena and drove the opposite way towards velez malaga which takes about 1 and 15 minutes were we drive up in to the mountain to a place called competa. Again i got us a bungalow on a deal on booking.com at the hotel balcon competa. Now ive stopped here before in the hotel and have to say its probably the best hotel ive stopped in, in my life! aswell as the place itself being amazing and the people are lovely. Ok it takes 20/30 mins to drive into competa through a crazy windy mountain road which is a bit daunting! but what a place its got everything you need this is the place if you want to come unwind, walk, drink wine and dine in luxury places, when i say luxury as well as that cheaper than eating in some of the places on the coast for top quality food and beverages. The wooden bungalow had secure parking and access and straight views from the private balcony to the hills and mountains like you never have seen before, and a 30 second walk to the luxury pool and sun loungers! the room had a settee, TV, bedroom with two single beds and a lamp, air con in the front room and bedroom, a dining table, fridge and cooking facilities, a great bathroom with power shower. The towels were changed daily and we got toilet rolls supplied daily and the bins were emptied daily. The hotel has a bar and you get a great continental breakfast from 8-11 and free wifi!! The staff are lovely and the scenery and location is just the best ever. Even the residents were lovely, we chatted away to other residents and they even have free tennis courts! the hotel is situated at the top of competa and has great access to all the town. I had a small accident while pulling some orange peel out of a cactus i dropped and the cactus tip needle entered one of the veins on my wrist which ballooned with blood which i legged it to the hospital over the road in a panic were they looked at it cleaned it up and assured me i wasn’t going to loose my hand!! very helpful people though.
We visited the wine museum daily which had a great prices and great wine, we had a meal in the restaurant which we fully enjoyed and the price and service was amazing. We also ate ate oscars twice as this was the best service, best variation and best prices what a guy! Also if you visit try the tapas bar in the square the lady who runs it is very friendly and the tapas she cooks up is amazing and very good prices. Lovely to see our friends in the mountain and cant wait to return. They advised us on a walk to the next village on a special track made into the mountain, the walk takes just over a hour. You start by seeing some rather large emus! which were laying eggs. We carried on into the mountain with un explainable views and came across two horses which wanted petting! then we carried on a while longer and crossed a natural spring shooting water out from the mountain peak. Also spanish men harvesting there plots for there own fresh food. We entered the village and couldnt believe how lovely it was. We found a small bar and had a mixed tapas which contained quite a lot of fish and I had my usual gambas pil pil which was perfect. Probably the first place ive been to that just has a hole in the floor to have a wee! but hey ho this is real spain. We enjoyed the walk back and was surprised to over ten porches pass all in sequence they must have been enjoying the porsche run out through the mountains. Also if you visit competa make sure you visit the charity shop they have all sorts including some real good CD’s for a euro!!!
we also visited torrox pueblo which we didnt think much of but the costa was worth a look, lovely place and again very welled priced bars and nice people.
We visited nerja to visit the caves but we just missed them so we will re-visit for the caves, I headed down to the coast to find a bar that would do me a full english breakfast were i found one that probably served me up the best english i ever had!!! He pointed out were the market was which we though we had missed and we went on it and got us some bargains i bought some oranges to for 20 cent! i ate one walking round and could not believe how amazing they was so we went back and bought ten and at a few a day they certainly are worlds apart from the ones imported into the UK!!
The weather was amazing no rain and between 35 and 40 every day i did the usual stint of burning myself on the second day nursing a hangover, i fell asleep on the beach for two hours and woke up with a burnt back!! ouch ha 🙂
I have to say this is the birthday ive had in my life – spain is amazing 🙂