Sandra’s Spanish Holiday tips

balcon de Europa Nerja

Nerja

We had a quick trip through Ronda on the way to Nerja, and Ronda is a place I would like to go back to. It is full of wonderful buildings and history and most probably good food. We got to Nerja and stayed in one of my agent’s villas for five nights. The first day we looked around and found an Indian, which is where we had our first meal in Nerja. The Haveli (since 1987). Run by and Indian man and English wife team, this is a very good Indian for Spain. OK, the UK has the best Indian restaurants as far as we are concerned, but this one is very good. We ate there twice so we liked it. The poppadoms and chutneys were good, and our huge prawn on puri starter was lovely – we ate it all, but were really glad that we only ordered one starter as it was so big. For our main, we shared the chicken dansak, cucumber raitha, pilau rice, chicken chilli masala and vegetable curry. It was lovely.

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Grazalema goats

Grazalema

We took the challenging drive to Grazalema, to stay in our third Fuerte Hotel. Out of Town, on its own nestled in the hillside, it has a beautiful aspect and views across the countryside and Mountains to Grazalema, with a lovely poolside and terrace. We arrived in the evening, so the roads were dark. I would recommend doing the drive to here in the daytime, so that you can enjoy the views along the way, and see where you are going!

We had a walk around to appreciate the views and went into Town for some dinner as the buffet in the Hotel didn’t look very good. We ate at one of the better restaurants, but it was not all that nice. We had the Grazalema soup (soup with oil, bread, egg, chorizo and vegetables soaked in it)

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Sanlucar de barrameda town

Sanlucar de BarramedaI market some villas in Sanlucar de Barrameda, so thought it best to go and take a look around. It is on an estuary, rather than the Ocean itself, and you can go for boat trips into the National Park, to see wildlife, flora and fauna, but we didn’t have time on this trip. Instead, we had a look around the Town and had lunch. Although a little on the expensive side, there are lots of horse and carts in the square, that will take you around the Town sightseeing, so that would be a lovely thing to do, as it is a pretty area. The beaches are nice too and it benefits from the fact that it isn’t a huge tourist area, so it remains very ‘Spanish’.

We ate at one of the many fish restaurants on the promenade of the Estuary – the ‘Restaurante Poma’. Sanluca de Barrameda is renowned here for seafood, so we had the fish stew. The house white Read the rest of this entry »

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conil de la frontera fuerte

Conil de la Frontera – Costa de la Luz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took the coastal road from Tarifa, heading North, and decided that we would stay wherever we found along the way that looked good. A short stop at Zahara was very nice, with its huge empty sandy beaches and small town appeal, and there is a Hotel (Hotel Gran Sol) right on the front overlooking the beach, but we decided it was a little quiet for us, so we set off in the car, to check out some more places. The drive is really very good, with some of the quiet roads lined with large healthy cacti, over six foot tall. In the end, the decision was made to travel up to Conil de la Frontera, as we knew there were a couple of Fuerte Hotels there. The Marbella Fuerte was so good, these should be good too. One of them was closed, as they regard late October as ‘out of season’ so we stayed in their other Hotel next door, which only had two weeks before closing for the Winter too. In fact, it was really nice. A lovely room with views over the Atlantic Ocean and golden beach and a spacious balcony to relax on. The pools were lovely, and the lounger/sunbathing areas were spread across the pool Read the rest of this entry »

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Hurricaine hotel tarifa beach

Tarifa & Tangier (Morocco)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed at the Hotel Hurricane in Tarifa as it is the port for the ferry to Tangier in Morroco, but we were impressed. It is by the sea and a rocky and sandy beach, which you can get to down the steps and surrounded by gardens and flora/fauna – which seemed to attract quite an array of birds and geckos and suchlike. The restaurant was lovely, with good service and very cosy. We had our first bottle of Protos (a fabulous red wine) as recommended by our waiter, and it turned out to the be the first of many on this trip and others to follow. The steaks and chips were good, vegetables mediocre and the alioli super. We followed with a bomb of amaretto, coffee ice cream and cream with a dessert wine – Manzilla. Very good.

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el fuerte beach club restaurant

El fuerte balcony marbella

puerto banus from boat

Marbella & Puerto Banus (Costa del Sol)The Fuerte Hotel in Marbella is a fantastic Hotel chain, with great rooms, entertainment, bar and swimming pool, set right on the seafront, with its own private beach – complete with a beach restaurant grill.

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estartit costa brava beach

L’Estartit

 

We decided to stay in L’Estartit for many reasons – it is a popular, but small resort, that gets booked out every Summer, and it was also a fantastic base for our planned journey around the Costa Brava. We had originally planned it to surprise my Mum and Dad who were staying in Lloret de Mar for two weeks, but it turned out the nicest place in Spain we have been to (bar Lanzarote which we love!).

L’Estartit has everything you need and it is within a short distance of the Medieval Towns and Villages, excellent restaurants and the airport.  It has a lovely wide golden Read the rest of this entry »

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SimplySpainAndBeyond.com – new resort blog and new advertising package for owners and agents
Sandra Dean of www.SimplySpainAndBeyond.com  is pleased to announce a great many new additions to her services – ready to take Holiday Villa and Apartment bookings for Spain for 2009/2010!
2008 was a great year for the website business, with lot’s of great feedback from the holidaymakers who booked with them, thus proving the ‘Simply’ in www.simplyspainandbeyond.com  as being how easy it is to find available holiday Read the rest of this entry »

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barcelona restuarants elx

These are the restaurants we visited in Barcelona – March 2008

I would say that, overall, you need to choose wisely when eating in Barcelona. There is a lot of choice, but some of the restaurants nearer the tourist streets and attractions, such as the Las Ramblas. They can be overpriced and not the greatest quality, yet others are good. Read the rest of this entry »

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tossa de mar copyright S M Dean

Lloret de Mar and Tossa de MarAnd so, finally, the big day arrived – the day to find and surprise Mum and Dad in their resort of Lloret de Mar – an hours drive down the coast! I certainly would not be visiting Lloret for any other reason, as I am not fond of big touristy, tacky resorts, but I was kind of excited, as they didn’t know I was there.

The first thing you notice about Lloret is the high rise buildings, and number of huge hotels and grubby back streets. The seafront, however, is a pleasant surprise, with its huge promenade and long golden beach. Of course, everything Read the rest of this entry »

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