Where to stay in Andalucia

[frenchfancy]

I'm looking to go to Andalucia in October to visit the Alhambra Palace amongst other things. I would ideally like to stay on the coast, but want to avoid any built up places like Malaga.

I don't know that part of Spain at all. Can anyone help?

We stayed in Nerja, its quite a big resort but nothing like the huge ones, eg, Torremolinos. It was good, lots of spanish people, restaurants etc not just english bars.

But if we were to go again I'd be looking slightly inland, Mijas or Frigiliana, because its much nicer there.

Malaga is actually worth visiting, its a city not a resort so very bustling.

Thanks sparky I'll take a look at Nerja as well as Mijas and Frigiliana.

Gaucin is lovely, and do visit Rhonda while you're there

Ronda is beautiful if you want a cultural break-not much for young kids. Further over to the west you'll find the 'real' Andalucia -visit Jerez, Cadiz, Sanlucar, Tarifa... the beaches on the Costa de la Luz are very unspoilt and wild with superb seafood. Nerja is Ok but IMHO Frigiliana and most of the places on that coastline are pretty uninspiring.

Is costa de la luz on the Atlantic rather than the Med? I definately want the Mediteranian coast. It will be late October and I am concerned about the wind on the Atlantic side.

Yes it is. It can get windy that side but water will still be warm in October.

We stayed a bit uphill from Frigiliana. We loved it. The only downside was the constant barking of dogs. The trouble wth them is that if one starts every Other dog within earshot joins in.
I assume you'll be hiring a car. We visited Nerja most days.

\link{http://www.andalucia.com/salobrena/home.htm\Salobreña} & \link{http://www.andalucia.com/province/granada/almunecar/home.htm\Almuñecar} are both nice smallish coastal towns to the E of Malaga (Costa Tropical).

We stayed there in October half-term one year. The weather was lovely, the sunbeds were still out (they took them in on 1st Nov), we had a fabulous day at the Alhambra, & a highlight of the holiday was catching the first snowfall in the Sierra Nevada - we saw it on the news & drove up there the next day, my kids were thrilled to have been on the beach in the morning & rolling in fresh snow in the afternoon!

Malaga itself is actually quite pleasant.i like pedregalejo a fishing village/suburb of Malaga. Also agree salobrena a good base.

This looks nice for a family: here

That does look nice hector, but a bit out of our price range. It is £1100 for the week we want. I've found a possible in Frigiliana for £375.

We are taking our car, driving down from France. It will take us a couple of days but we will stop en route.

\link{http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/spain/S12345.htm\Salobrena apartment for 4} £360 - massive terrace, great views (& underground parking, very useful)

only available second half of October though

I want to go

Me too , Salobrena looks good, we've been to nr Almeria & only problem was the intense dry heat (not sure if we went sept or oct).

We loved Frigiliana, its a really small town/village, very quaint & pretty, probably not very exciting but lovely for relaxing & strolling around.

We recently drove down from Santander to Gib over 2 days
Ferry from Portsmouth to Santander then drove to Burgos and stayed overnight at AC Burgos which was lovely and quite reasonable
We then drove down the next day with a lunchtime stop south of Madrid and a couple of afternoon stops - including stops it took us 11 1/2 hours (about 3 hours of stops)
Roads were great all the way, clear signposting and clear
There is an AC hotel in La linea which is a bit rough around the edges but located well for all of that south coast - an hour or so from Malaga, nice beaches but not touristy mainly locals

AC la linea