This is my last post from our time at Cabopino and I’m aiming to mop up all the places that didn’t merit individual posts. So this post is just a bit of a mash up 🙂
I have dealt with the following days out already (click to go directly to the relevant post):-
Camino del Rey (also our 1st visit was covered back in 2017)
Gibraltar (from our visit in 2017)
Many people also visit Antequera and El Torcal from here, but we actually stayed near there instead so this will be recorded in a later post.
But this wasn’t all we did (of course not – we were at Cabopino for over 6 weeks this time!) There follows a short summary of all other days out during our time there.
I visited Benalmadena years ago with my boys (staying in the Flatotel which was perfect for us at the time). Whilst we were there that time we visited the theme park, Tivoli World (I was never going to get away with not going was I with 2 young boys in tow!)
This time though we were determined to go up the mountain in the cable car. We tried twice…. The 1st time we got to Benalmadena before realising that the weather wasn’t as warm there as back at Cabopino, and would, of course, be cooler still at the top of the mountain – plus neither of us had bought any sort of warm top with us. So we had to abort. The trip wasn’t a complete wash-out though – we sat and had a drink in a cafe and found a cheap perfume shop where Calv managed to buy me a birthday present 🙂
A month later we finally found the time to return to head up the cable car. This time it was much warmer but we went fully ready for all eventualities – except for the fact that the day before we arrived it had closed for a month (as, apparently, it does every year…) We are completely useless and really must be better prepared. So we STILL haven’t managed to go up the cable car at Benalmadena – massive fail!
We popped down to the beach though and sat for a while (Calv in his walking boots; I at least was ready for this eventuality and had brought my flip-flops 🙂 ), before having a spot of lunch in a restaurant overlooking the beach.
Next time we visit Cabopino our first day trip out will be to go up the cable car at Benalmadena (although we will check that it’s open before we set out!)
If you saw ‘Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun’ this week then you would have seen the limo driver having to get from Cabopino Marina to Fuengirola in about 5 minutes. I can tell you that this is an impossible task! Fuengirola is a good 20 minutes down the coast from Cabopino, but this is where you will find a decent sized British Supermarket (an amalgamation of Waitrose and Iceland) – we never shop at Iceland at home but took many trips down the road to do a spot of shopping!
There is also the flea market – which one Saturday found Calv buying 4 regulators for his new Spanish gas bottle, because he kept finding one that was better. In the end he sold the best one, but didn’t realise that until he needed it!
We were surprised at how nice the seafront and the beach were – some areas better than others. We sat for a while near the breakwater one day (the 1st day we tried to go up the cable car, so we were both sat there in our walking boots…). The next time we went was when Sam came to visit and we ended up with fish and chips on the seafront in the Crispy Cod (very nice too).
On our 1st visit (away from the shops) we also discovered the castle, free to visit sitting atop a small hill overlooking the sea and the river below.
This is very close to Cabopino, maybe 10 minutes and also easily accessible by bus. This is a nice little resort and this is where we went for Calv to have his hair cut (and me eventually when we re-visited), and also a good night out in Biddy Mulligan’s with Steve and Denise (and Peter & Diane) when we came back to the coast.
When we visited in 2017 Elaine and Chris brought us to La Cala (they made us walk – it’s about 4 1/2 miles from Cabopino, mostly along a boardwalk), so we were justified in visiting the rather wonderful cake shop (sorry I don’t know which 1 – just that it’s opposite a park).
This time when we came back down to the coast we didn’t stay at Cabopino but parked for free in the market car park at Cala de Mijas. We didn’t think we’d like this but were absolutely fine, staying 3 nights in the end. (You simply need to pop into the police station – 5 mins from the car park – to register and you won’t be bothered at all).
A very short, but surprising, visit when Sam’s flight home was cancelled due to the drone fiasco at Gatwick. He was put up in a 5* hotel right at the end of the seafront – although we’d been all the way along before we found him, my phone having died and refusing to come back to life in time to use google maps… We were pleasantly surprised by the beach and the seafront and the ambience. It was quite distressing to discover that there are fairly frequent shootings here…
We did of course top the day off by getting lost trying to find our way back to the A7 to go ‘home’…
Finally we felt that we should make a return visit to Marbella, having not been impressed the 1st time (when we only really found Puerto Banus – which we didn’t like)
This time we headed for the old town (Casco Antiguo) and had a much better experience. The beach is lovely and a drink at a bar overlooking the beach found us sitting out of the wind – we could have stayed there all day!
The old alcazar walls are still prominent but inside there are ‘newer’ dwellings. It was a lovely walk taking everything in, including Plaza de Naranjar and various other spots.
Definitely recommended 🙂
My next post will be from our time up in the mountains at Casares; then look for posts on Tarifa, Cadiz, Algondonales, El Torcal and Cabo de Gata 🙂
turnrightoutofportsmouth 
Leaving just before we arrive.
Chris Elaine
Chris Arkell
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Haha – we left on 21st January. I’m just really behind!
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