By Julie Rayner
21st March until 22nd April
I think we all fell in Love with Estepona on our 1st day out in the rain, exploring the little Alleyways, the wet patterned ground glistening, all I could think was this is so pretty I can only imagine what it must look like on a sunny day.
The Roads are lined with heavily filled Orange tree’s and every little cobble stoned Alleyway are filled with brightly coloured pot plants and flowers.
Estepona is an old town with a maze of white washed buildings, it’s so much fun to explore, it feels like every tiny Alley is a photo opportunity and at the end of the Alleys you find stunning squares filled with people sitting at the Cafe’s and Tapa’s Bars.
There are beautiful Murals spread across Estepona, we found some of them..
Orchid House Opening
Our beautiful Apartment was directly opposite the `largest Orchid House in the World’, open day was on the 28th March and we had front row seats.
The opening night was a huge celebration, during the day people lined the streets to get a look in, the evening was one massive party, with beer stalls, food stalls, Bands and an incredible firework display that we watched from our balcony to finish the evening off in style.
For the first week or two the Orchid House was free, so we sent the boys over themselves a couple of times to take photos, or just get some alone time, they like that. Grant and I loved it in there, it was peaceful, it was stunning, with the two waterfalls, mind you we only ever seemed to see the one waterfall going, apparently the second one only went on when it got really humid, the range of Orchids from your normal looking Orchid to Orchids that looked like dancing ladies, to mini triffids…
We couldn’t have asked for more during our stay, we were not very lucky with the weather for the first few days but after that we had a beautiful patch of sunshine, making the most of the beach as much as we could.
Whilst sitting in a Cafe a few weeks into our time there I remembered having a conversation with my dad back in Romford about my dream place, little cute cobbled streets, white washed buildings, square’s filled with cafe’s and restaurants and being down the road to a beach, Estepona is all of that and more..
Estepona Beach
The Beach was pretty, especially having a distant silhouette of the Rock of Gibraltar in the background, the promenade had lots going on, outside one cafe they had airhockey, and along the way giant chess, a childrens playground, exercise park, giant climbling frame on the beach. The only thing that we didn’t love about the beach really were the streams through the sand where the water ran from the storm drains, but the beach was huge so you could avoid these, plus we saw plenty of children building their dames with no issues at all…
All in all the beach was nice, we had a great time.
Estepona Marina
The Marina was about a 20 min walk, I wanted to go on a Sunday which is Market day, when we arrived it was heaving with tourists, tons of market stalls as expected, it was probably the hottest day, the sky was dark dark blue and all the boats/luxury yachts were sparkling from the sun, it was very pretty. We had a wander around and stopped to have lunch, this was a very expensive lunch, and to be honest wasn’t the nicest food, but had a lovely atmosphere and a beautiful view…
We did go back to the Marina a few times but went after lunch as we are on such a tight budget.
Estepona Mountain Road race
It said in the news that ESTEPONA will roar like thunder this weekend as the town hosts a Spanish mountain road racing championship event.
It didn’t disappoint, the noise was deafening and exhilarating, when we heard it on the Friday morning we ran to the Balcony to watch hundreds of race cars beep and rev up outside our apartment.
On the Saturday all the cars after the race were lined up, the winning 3 cars inside the grounds of the Orchid House and people everywhere taking photos and waiting for the racers to receive their cups, we went down and watched the cup giving, even though we couldn’t understand the speeches given, when the 3 winners stood on their step positions and sprayed the Champaign we could feel the excited atmosphere and revel in all their adrenaline.
I loved being in the thick of it all, having entertainment on our door step.
Estepona Summary
Search for the many huge Mural’s painted on the sides of buildings, admire the effort that has gone into keeping each little street beautiful with the hundreds of colourful flower filled plants pots, cafe’s and restaurants in abundance, this little place has atmosphere and is totally hypnotising, we will be back.
Gibraltar
From Estepona we did a one day trip to Gibraltar (you can read all about that by clicking the link). Gibraltar is about 35 min drive away and by bus takes about 1 hour 30 mins.
Accommodation
Our Airbnb Apartment was large and very clean, had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a big Kitchen and living dining room, all bedrooms had large windows letting in lots of light and black out shutters for the night.
It cost us 600.00 pounds (NZ$1,200.00) for the month, i’m sure it goes up in price over the summer months.
If you want to take advantage of $37NZ off your first Airbnb Accommodation Click this link;-
Estepona Tourist Information centre Online
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