Marbella – Beyond the Billionaires and Beaches

Cami Gregory is a former vagabond who has now set her roots down in London to write about her adventures and experiences. She loves rambling around undiscovered territories hoping to find something exciting….or at least a nice view!

Cami contacted us about writing guest posts about some of her time spent during her travels and is becoming a regular contributor to Beers and Beans. This week she’s featuring Marbella and this funny post makes it sound amazing! Someday….

Marbella, the playground of the rich and famous, with a Lamborghini on every corner and champagne for breakfast; what on earth was I, a young and penniless traveller, doing in Marbella?  The name alone forms a paradox with the word ‘budget’.  But take away the infrastructure of Marbella spas, gourmet restaurants, boutique shops, luxury yachts, rolling golf courses and five star hotels, and you’re left with a piece of land like any other, with its own individual features and quirks.  Except Marbella was specifically chosen by those who could afford to invade any destination on the planet, and it must therefore have been chosen for a reason.  I was keen to transcend the tourist destination and uncover the land which first attracted visitors and their wallets in their droves.

The first thing I learned was that if you want to get off the beaten trail in Marbella, you must first rent a car.  The second thing I learned was to make sure that car has air conditioning.  Indeed, it’s very difficult to find a photograph of Marbella without a cloud-free, deep blue sky, the kind that fades gently from sapphire to white as it closes upon the horizon, framing a scene that is drenched by a scorching hot sun.  Marbella’s weather is spectacular.

I decided to head for La Concha, a striking peak which rises dramatically behind the flat plateau on which Marbella sprawls, placing a full stop at the end of the Sierra Blanca mountain range.  The mountains themselves, which rise gently to a shallow height, are bare and angular, like pinches in the fabric of Spain’s landscape.  Exactly how La Concha (“The Shell”) got its name I do not know, but I certainly couldn’t see any resemblance to a conch in the rocky contours.

I parked my mobile sauna in the tiny picturesque town of Ojen, which I realized only too late would have been a lovely place to stay for the week given the eye-watering prices of Marbella accommodation, before setting off for the summit of La Concha, a walk that would take a little over three hours (the return trek was downhill, and therefore much quicker!).  The day was, somewhat inevitably, hot, and less experienced walkers without a plentiful supply of water and snacks would suffer.  I was one such inexperienced walker.  I genuinely love nothing more than a hike, but that doesn’t mean I am fit or well prepared!

The ascent to La Concha’s summit was… surreal, for great stretches winding through forests of towering pine trees.  Stopping to catch your breath in the cool shade between the slim breadstick tree trunks, one could easily be in the alpine regions of the French Alps, or a Norwegian wood.  With Beatles melodies fresh on my lips I made my merry way the top, a climb which became progressively more demanding as the novelty of my dehydration dwindled.  The reward upon reaching La Concha’s summit at 1215 meters, however, was worth the effort ten times over.

With a gasp-inducing vista looking down upon Marbella and its surroundings, set against the silky Mediterranean Sea and glowing heavens, I could begin to understand why the area has boomed.  The land that runs from the foot of the mountain to the shore is an expansive flat plateau, a handcrafted patch for a settlement to blossom upon, and on a clearer day it may have been possible to see as far as the African coast, or at least Gibraltar, highlighting Marbella’s position at the forefront of Europe.  The city itself is a picturesque place from atop La Concha, where the few scars of modern development melt into a sea of white washed walls connected by a maze of narrow streets.  Small wonder, I realized, that it has grown into the billionaire haven it is today.

Overall, I had an amazing, if expensive, week in Marbella.  If you’re on a budget or prefer to evade flocks of tourists, it’s unlikely that any destination along Spain’s Costa Del Sol features prominently on your list of places to visit before you’re a millionaire, not least the sun kissed city that Simon Cowell calls (one of his very expensive) home(s), but Marbella has numerous merits nonetheless, and is well worth a visit.

*Photos from this post are courtesy of Cami.

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*Please remember all photos on this website are copyrighted and property of BeersandBeans.com, NarikosNest.com & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use one of them please contact me to ask first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!