| Product: |
Marbella |
| Date: |
22/04/01 (1315 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: only a few hours flight away
Disadvantages: more than I'd thought
As a prize for being part of a winning sales team, my husband and I embarked a few days in the exclusive Club Marbella Complex.
Oh yes.
The playground of the rich and famous saw Mr & Mrs Salgirl descend to sample the delights that we're told by glossy magazines, usually escape the likes of me and you.
After a pleasant flight and a bumpy coach journey down the scarily named "Death Highway", we arrived at the gates of the cool and sumptious Marbella Club.
Looking every inch like paradise, the carefully manicured and pruned plants framed themselves professionally against the quietly expensive looking buildings. A quick look round told us that the majority of this estate was given over to large residential villas, set behind high walls, and infinitely private.
The reception gave us our keys, complete with ornate room numbers on the ornate tab, and we set off giggling like schoolkids at the thought of living in the lap of luxury for a few days.
And the apartment didn't let us down. Okay, we didn't have a house of our own, but it would have been churlish to find fault with what we did have. A large and airy bedroom, complete with canopy over the bed, decorated in white, pale yellow and deep green. The bathroom was also large and fully equipped with everything you could possibly need. Including a wall mounted telephone right next to the toilet. "Kuh!" I thought to myself, "no amount of money that a bloke had would ever stop me from being put off him, if he rang me whilst going to the toilet."
But still... on to Marbella.
PLACES TO VISIT
The major highlight of the area has to be Puerto Banus. Here you can sit in the waterside cafes and restaurants to watch the stinking rich parade themselves. Not forgetting their boats, and in some cases, small ships.
The shops are set in charming little alleyways, and I heard one woman comparing it to "Th
e Lanes" in Brighton. I kinda got what she meant, but I still think she was missing the bigger picture somewhat. This is serious money territory, and a serious lack of IQ is sometimes required in order to spend it. I found it to be inordinately expensive, and yearned for the English idea of price rip offs for tourists as opposed to the ones here. The setting is charming. The buildings are beautiful. That laid back mediterranean atmosphere was certainly portrayed magically here, but I was damned if I was going to pay through the nose for a momento of it all!
Then there's Cesares, about 5 miles inland of Marbella, and infinitely more genuine and beautiful than I'd seen elsewhere. A traditional hill-side Southern Spanish village, with fantastic views down to the sea, it was quiet and quaint, and although there wasn't actually anything there of note, we came away with some excellent photographs of the local buildings and scenery. The local were much more pleasant and friendly here too.
Mijas is an old Spanish town, again inland and up into the hills. Here we went on a donkey ride through the streets, although I wasn't very keen at first. I was even less so after having seen the guy who was holding my husband's donkey, punch the animal square on the jaw because it wouldn't stand still. We got off and after a few sharp words with the young guy, strode off for a look around. The usual selection of ceramics were available, and as nice as the place was, the incident over the donkey made me just want to get the hell out.
EATING OUT.
There are many eateries dotted in and around the place, but again Puerto Banus is the place to go for the good stuff. We made do with a meal in Sean Connery's favourite restaurant, complete with juggling street performers giving an impromptu performance, but didn't see the great man. Shhadly.
Then there's Tony Dali's place for a meal. A famous crooner in the
1950's, he had retired to this magnificently large restaurant to sing and serve food to the customers. A big man, with a big voice, he made us feel truly welcome. (Oh and we sat near to Linda Lusardi too!) The food was okay, but it could've been better, especially considering the amound of money involved.
The Club Marbella Complex itself had a rather nifty restaurant, but we had since detected a slightly ambivalent attitude towards us because we obviously weren't part of THE rich set. The fact that we had a number on our tag and not a villa name pointed that out, and there was a distinct change of attitude because of it.
THE BEACHES.
Dreadful ones locally. The beaches looked clean enough, but a quick run into the water and you soon found out where all the building rubble is dumped. Hubbie sliced his big toe open on what looked like an old door lintel. And this was the beach that served the Marbella Club too! No wonder that the idle rich never left the waterfalled pool area and sun-loungers. The water was grey and dirty, and a real let down.
NEARBY RESORTS
Torremolinas and Benalmedina (spelling?) were the nearest big resorts, and are actually a lot nicer than I thought they would be. Whilst Torremolinas was still bright and busy, it was no where near as tacky as the name has always conjured up with me. The golf courses also abound in and around the local area, and I have it on good authority that they're wonderful. I, personally can't stand the sport so I've never visited one, but I should imagine that as Sean Connery's a local, then they'd have to be decent.
SUMMARY
Marbella was a lovely and tiny little fishing village before the tourists came. It's lost it's soul in amongst the money, but a short visit to anywhere inland from there, and you'll find the real Andalucia is still alive and well and holding on to it's Spanish Roots.
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Last comment:
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Trevor15 - 23/04/01 Sounds like heaven ;-) |
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