According to some guidebooks, the Costa del Sol stretches from Almunecar to Tarifa and comprises the entire coastline of Malaga province together with part of Cadiz province.

Officially the Costa del Sol is the coastline of Malaga province – Nerja to Manilva. This is the boom coast of southern Spain and today it is often referred to as the California of Europe. This is a very fair description. Just as California was virtually undeveloped until the 1930s and then development took off, the Costa del Sol was a very sleepy backwater of Europe until the 1950s. Until then the entire area was extremely poor, but how beautiful it must have been – small fishing villages connected to each other simply by dirt tracks, sandy beaches with the fishing boats drawn up on the beach, remote hill villages (the pueblos blancos) – all backed by the majestic mountains of the Sierras. It is these very mountains that are partly to blame for the development which has already taken place and which is continuing. The entire coast is virtually frost free in the winter months. This makes the Costa del Sol a very pleasant place to live.

The sunny Costa del Sol

With 320 days of sunshine every year, and a climate that allows outdoor living virtually every day of the year, the residents of this coast enjoy a very good lifestyle. While the inhabitants of northern Europe are shivering and coping with everything winter can throw at them, the residents of the Costa del Sol are usually basking in sunshine under clear blue skies.