cover story | family travel


EYEWITNESS: HEART & SOL


With plenty of sun, sea and watersports, it’s easy to see why Spain’s Costa del Sol has long been one of Europe’s most family-friendly destinations, says Ben Lerwill


SPANISH TRADITIONS CAN catch on, even when you’re young. My six-year-old son, having spent the last half-hour maneuvering an inflatable shark around a swimming pool, has just announced he’s going to “do a siesta”. He climbs onto an empty sunbed, cocoons his head and body inside his towel and proceeds to lie there, damp and immobile. Beyond him, the cactus- dotted slopes of the Malaga Mountains stretch down to a wide blue sea. Te subsequent ‘siesta’ lasts for no more than a minute — after which time he gets up and whoops back into the water — but still, full marks for cultural assimilation. Spain’s Costa del Sol is one of Europe’s longest


established family vacation destinations. Tere are plenty of good reasons why Delta ran non- stop flights between New York and Malaga for the eighth consecutive summer this year. And it’s clear to see why the US is the region’s largest growth market. Its hundred-mile coastline is loaded with beaches, villas and resorts of various


74 | ASTAnetwork | fall 2015


shapes and styles, some of which cater for a party- hard crowd but many of which are squarely aimed at the family market. It’s the sunniest part of the country, and offers all the seafood, watersports and visitor attractions this entails. As a destination, it’s also readily affordable. Tis year, three generations of us have traveled


here together for a two-week break, staying up in the hills, around 20 minutes inland from the coast. It’s a location with a number of great selling points, a tumbling view of the Mediterranean Sea being just one of them. Te rental villa is close enough to the beaches to make them easily visited and, at the same time, far enough away to feel removed from the throng. We particularly enjoy a couple of trips to Nerja, where time on the child-friendly Playa Burriana is improved even further by the discovery of a coal-fired grill cooking fresh sardines. My wife and I even manage to secure a day to our own devices — muchas gracias, grandparents


— and drive further inland to the laid-back city of Cordoba, where more than 2,000 years of cultural heritage have gifted it some astonishing sights. Te most remarkable of all is the Mezquita, where a 500-year-old Renaissance cathedral sits right in the middle of a 1,300-year-old mosque. Te Andalusia region of which the Costa del Sol forms a part is one of the most individual parts of Spain, and other local cities such as Granada, Seville and Malaga itself are all fantastic destinations in their own right. Andalusia is famous for its flamenco, its tapas


and its sherry, while its coastal area has made a reputation on the back of its water parks, beach clubs, visitor caves and boat trips. It’s precisely this pairing of Spanish culture with the classic trappings of a beach vacation — sun, sea and the occasional siesta — that makes the region so well suited to a multi-generational holiday. Be warned, however: we’re still having to deal with post-trip demands to move out here permanently. n


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