A golfers’ paradise

Sounds like the usual cliché, but in the case of the Costa del Sol – the Costa del Golf, as some call it – the cliché is reality. Golf is the sport on the Costa del Sol. It has more than 40 clubs, most of them beside residential developments and most in the western Costa del Sol area, making this the area with the highest concentration of golf courses in all of continental Europe. This has a lot to do with the climate, where the sun shines for about 300 days of the year, and it has a lot to do also with the natural evolution of quality tourism in the region. 

These are, in the main, quality golf courses, as we can see by the number of international championships that take place on them: the Ryder Cup, the World Championship, the Spanish Open, the Volvo masters and others. A new feature of golf in the region is the large number of new courses built in the interior of the province over recent years as well, and many more in the process of being built.

Active tourism

Not to everybody’s liking, of course, but social habits change, and one of these changes is the increasingly large number of tourists that like to do something more than laze about all day in the sun. The fact is, older people are staying younger longer these days, and that is due in large part to physical exercise. And if it can be fun as well, so much the better. For this reason, active tourism has really taken off on the Costa del Sol, with something for everyone, whatever their ages. 

There are few places in the world with such a wide range of fun activities. Leaving aside golf, which at basic amateur level makes no harsh demands on the body, we have tennis, paddle tennis, badminton and squash as the most common ball games played in the area. All four and five-star hotels on the Costa del Sol have their own facilities for practicing some of these sports, and many three-star hotel have the same facilities.

For those that do not know this, the Costa del Sol could be described as the home of paddle tennis, in that it was first introduced to Europe by Prince Alfonso de Hohenlohe - a claim that may be disputed by the French – and the first paddle tennis courts on the continent were built on the Costa del Sol. It is like mini-tennis, using a wooden bat instead of a racquet, and bouncing a rubber ball off the end wall of a smallish court that looks something like a miniature handball alley. Its great advantage is that it occupies less space than a traditional tennis court. 

Many mid-category hotels have gymnasiums, complete with physiotherapy personnel and services on hand, and facilities for the practice of group exercise, whether on the nearby beaches or in the hotel gardens.

Horse riding is another very popular sport on the Costa del Sol, where many hotels have special arrangements with local riding stables and wonderful riding routes through mountain and forest regions. There are also two exceptional complexes on the Costa del Sol for lovers of all things equine: the Equestrian School of the Costa del Sol, in Estepona, and the Costa del Sol Hippodrome in Mijas. The result is that Malaga is now as important an equestrian province as Cádiz, with its famous Jeréz de la Frontera equestrian centre.

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