Hiking, climbing and walking

The Costa del Sol is a paradise for lovers of the great outdoors. There are a number of national parks within easy reach of the coast and if you live inland you might even live right on the edge of one.

Among these national parks is the Sierra de las Nieves national park, which is just inland from Marbella. Further afield you will find the Sierra Nevada, the highest mountain range in Europe after the Alps. Apart from wonderful areas for walking and hiking, you will also find rock climbing opportunities if you are more energetic (or younger!). If all you want to do is to put on a stout pair of walking shoes and ramble through the hills the ideal area is Las Alpujarras, the range of mountains and hills between the Sierra Nevada and Malaga. Here you will find some of the remotest villages in Europe, perched high in the hills and virtually unchanged for centuries. This area is becoming a bit more visited (and developed) thanks to books such as Driving over Lemons, which was a major literary success a few years ago.

Wherever you choose to go walking, the countryside behind the coast will astound you. Within a few miles of the coastal strip you really do enter a different and totally unspoilt world. It is blissfully quiet. There are no cranes to be seen anywhere. You can get away from your fellow man and all you will see is the occasional rabbit scampering ahead of you, startled by your presence, and the buzzards, kestrels and even eagles soaring overhead on the air currents.

This is an area which so many of the summer visitors to the Costa del Sol never see – they do not bother to go inland – but this area really should not be missed if you enjoy nature. It is one of the last unspoilt regions of Western Europe and it is by no stretch of the imagination inaccessible.