Sightseeing in Marbella

Sightseeing in Marbella comes in two sizes. The old town is small enough for one morning, and the rest of the looking is done on the roads out. West along the coast, Estepona has an old town of flower-pot streets and a mural trail. Inland, Mijas is a whitewashed village about 430 m up, with the sea below. Ronda and Setenil de las Bodegas, whose houses are built under rock overhangs, are the white-village side of the mountains. The other direction is Gibraltar: the nature reserve on the Rock, home to the only wild monkeys in Europe, the Barbary macaques; St Michael's Cave; and Europa Point, where Morocco shows on a clear day.

Marbella sightseeing tours begin with ninety-minute walks through the old town, in a group or privately. Longer walks add a vermut and tapas stop at two hours or a wine and olive oil tasting at three, and a tapas tour and a market tour sit alongside. A photographer can lead a three-hour walk through the old town's best-lit corners. Private day trips go by car or minibus: Gibraltar with Estepona or with Mijas takes eight hours, Ronda with Gibraltar nine, Ronda with Setenil eight. A five-day private circuit crosses to Morocco for Chefchaouen, Fès, Volubilis and Rabat. A three-hour descent of the Guadalmina canyon near Benahavís is the one entry here that gets you wet.

Practical. The coast is mild and sunny, with more than 2,900 hours of sun a year; afternoons reach 16C in January and 22C in May, and September still reaches 25.5C. Gibraltar is about an hour away by motorway, and the border post adds its own wait. Ronda takes a little longer by a road of bends, and Setenil lies roughly 30 minutes beyond it. A Levante wind drops a cloud on the Rock, and the summit can vanish. Prices in Gibraltar are quoted in pounds, and most shops take euros. Cobbles in the old towns reward flat shoes, and Ronda runs about four degrees cooler than the coast in winter.