Day 4 – Spain: Marbella Old Town & Puerto Banús

We finally had a morning to sleep in without any alarms going off. I woke up at 9:45am which was lovely and much needed. This morning we were splitting up since Jen and mom wanted to lay and go to the beach, but Stelios and I wanted to explore the town of Marbella since it was our last full day here. 

The drive into town took us 20 minutes with traffic and we arrived by 11:30am. We grabbed a table at an outdoor breakfast spot called Manuka. We hadn’t eaten at all yet and I needed a full breakfast with protein this morning as we had a full day ahead of us. Stelios loved the breakfast but I thought the potatoes were too oily for my liking. Walking around Marbella it feels busier and more commercialized than Malaga. However the Old Town of Marbella feels quaint and the white washed walls reminds me of walking around Paros Greece.

We strolled and window shopped and there was a bag hanging in the window that caught my eye. We popped into the boutique to try it on and the women told us it was 100% Italian leather and raffa straw. After trying on several handbags I purchased the original one that caught my eye in the window. I don’t remember the name of the boutique but it was women owned and they opened a month ago, there wasn’t even a permanent sign with the name of the place on it yet. I love supporting small businesses whenever I can.

We continued walking through Old town towards the water and passed the row of Salvador Dalí sculptures. I remember learning about him in Spanish class and I thought it was so cool that several of his sculptures and permanently on display in the middle of the placita in Marbella. Further down the promenade towards the beach, there were lines of trees hovering over half of the walkway to provide natural shade. Stelios’s head almost touched the bottom of the leaves. Anyone 6’5 or taller would probably have to duck to walk under them. 

One of the items on my bucket list for this trip was bike riding the Golden Mile from Marbella Old Town to Puerto Banus so we walked towards the bike shop and rented 2 bikes for 3 hours for only 20€. We were lucky in two ways for this adventure: 

1. That we had our passports on us or would we not have been able to rent the bikes 
2. From July 1 – September they don’t allow bikes on the promenade due to the crowds of people walking along it. Lucky we came in June! 

The bike ride to Puerto Banus was 3.5 miles long and took us about 25 minutes. The breeze from biking felt wonderful and was better than walking down the promenade in the hot sun. We passed by a bunch of chiringuitos, hotels, and houses. Once we got to Puerto Banus we locked up our bikes and popped into some designer stores to browse but didn’t see anything that I loved enough to purchase. By 3pm we were ready for some lunch. We walked down a random alley and it brought us up the stairs to this beautiful strip of restaurants along the seafront. The restaurant had good reviews so we grabbed a front row table in the shade along the water. For lunch I had a glass of Chardonnay and Stelios got a local beer. We also ordered the ensaladilla Rusa (Russian potato salad) that was out of this world delicious, a salad with tomato and cucumber, and Malaga prawns in a Thai curry sauce. It was very relaxing and peaceful to eat and watch the boats go in and out of the harbor. 

After lunch we biked back to Marbella Old Town and returned the bikes. A nice 7 mile bike ride in total to break up the day. We walked back to the car to head back to the hotel and as I plugged in the GPS and it said it would take us ONE HOUR to get back (it only took us 18 minutes to get there). There was a crazy accident on the highway and we were at an absolute standstill and the ETA time kept increasing. We ended up taking an exit off the highway and going an alternate route which took us around the mountain. It still took us an hour but the scenic drive was better than sitting in highway traffic. 

While we were stuck in traffic, mom and Jen were ready to shop at the port (where we just came from) so we told them not to wait for us and we’d pick them up on the way to dinner later. (We didn’t get back to the hotel until 6:30). We threw our bathing suits on and laid by the pool to relax for a bit before dinner and ordered a jamon and cheese apertivo to snack on. At 8:30 we got ready to head back out, pick up mom and Jen along the way and drive 10 minutes further to our dinner at Cocina Cascada. 

Mom and Jen were walking out of a cocktail bar smiling from ear to ear — apparently they found a sale at Sunglass Hut selling Chanel sunglasses for 70% off so they each bought a pair. Jen originally wanted the pair that mom ended up buying but they were too wide for her face and kept sliding off. She said her and mom would’ve ended up fighting over them had they fit her which I thought was hilarious. 

We arrived at Cascada Cocina at 9:30pm and the terrace was open so we decided to sit outside. It was a beautiful evening in the mountains of Marbella and we rehashed the days events together. Mom and Jen mostly spent their day at the beach, they also got a massage on the beach (1 hour for only 50€), and had lunch at Amu beach club). Around 10pm Mom and Jen started to get chilly and asked the server for blankets which they happily gave them. Just one of the little things I love about Europe. For dinner we ordered a bottle red wine and several appetizers including the eggplant, beetroot & hazelnut, and sea bream. The sea bream was my favorite. Then we continued our family dinner tapas style and ordered the Salchica (sausage), mushrooms, whipped potatoes, corvina fish, Iberico steak, and a salad. Everything was delicious and I really enjoyed the Corvina fish. For dessert our server recommended the local dessert wine made in the mountains of Malaga which was a sweet ending to a delicious meal. We drove 10 minutes back to our hotel headed to bed as the clock struck midnight. We had an early 7am wake up call tomorrow morning for our journey to Ronda.