Our week in Costa Del Sol

After our intense week in Madrid, we decided to relax a bit in the South of Spain to unwind and experience the Andalucian culture.

It wasn’t easy to decide on a destination in Costa Del Sol, but after weighing out the pros and cons we opted to land in Malaga for 9 days. While there are gorgeous beach towns all over this part of the country, we wanted to also be able to learn, experience authentic Spanish culture and food WHILE enjoying the sun and sand.

Malaga was the perfect place for us.  Not only are there beautiful beaches and many neighboring beach-towns to visit, but Malaga city is full of amazing history/restaurants and TRADITIONAL Spanish culture.  We didn’t travel all the way to Spain to be surrounded with British tourists and pub-food (although I love that too, but we already did our month in England last month.)

On the days that we were not catching up on work/school we experienced the local flavors that Malaga has to offer.

We soaked up the Spanish sun, and enjoyed sangria (the kids enjoyed Fanta as a treat) and tapas at the quaint beachside bars and restaurants.

While I’m partial to the seafood in Galicia, the food in Andalucia was unbelievable.  Malaga is known for espetos, grilled FRESH sardines cooked on an open flame in old boats on the beach.

For only €2 you better believe I made this my go-to meal most nights.  On our last night in Malaga, Tod and I ordered a Sea Bass cooked the same way, and it was one of the best fish meals I have EVER had.  The swollen fingers I had the next day from all the salt was totally worth it.

We took a day to escape the sun in the middle of our visit, and rented a car to drive to the neighboring town of Ronda.

Only a quick 1.5 hour drive from Malaga, Ronda is an old-Moorish town famous for it’s giant gorge separating the old city from the new.

The bridges connecting the two are the highlight, but we spent the entire day visiting other Ronda must-sees such as the Arab baths, ancient fort and walls that once protected the city, and the oldest bull-fighting ring in Spain where we learned about this unique Spanish tradition that we might not agree with, but were still open to learning about.

Before leaving Malaga we visited other nearby beach-towns (Marbella, Nerja, Tromenterios etc,) and although they all have beautiful beaches, they lacked the Spanish feel and culture that we were here to experience. I don’t recommend these unless you are truly just interested in pretty beaches.

We decided to stay in Malaga on our last day and enjoy downtown and my espetos one last time.

We visited the ancient ruins of an old Roman theater, climbed to the top of the Girbalfaro Castle and Fort for a beautiful view of the harbor (and the cruise ships that Tod and I once had to hurry back to when we were crew,) and I even got some alone time at a BEAUTIFUL 17^thcentury Arab bath house that now serves as a lovely bath and spa (1.5 hours of total relaxation for only €33? Yes, PLEASE.) No cameras were allowed in the baths, but you can check-out their site here.

All in all, Malaga was an amazing destination for us to unwind and catch-up after an intense few weeks and a stolen phone.

Our luck definitely turned around here too. Not only did my replacement phone make it to us, but so did THREE boxes of our Isagenix products that had been lost in the mail. Not only are we fully connected to the world again, but our energy is back and we are feeling lean again too! 🙂

Before we head out of Spain we have one last place to visit, Barcelona to see La Segrada Familia and knock that bad boy off the bucket list.  More on that next week…