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A new study recently carried out by Oak Power Communication (OPC) has revealed that Marbella is consistently perceived on a global scale as having the best beaches in Spain. During the study, OPC asked over 600 journalists from the international media for their thoughts on Spanish tourism. Once the results were tallied up, it was clear that Marbella’s beaches won out, closely followed by Ibiza and Lanzarote respectively.

With places like Puerto Banus, where the streets are lined with designer shops; and the Old Town (Casco Antiguo), where the winding cobbled streets hide plenty of wonderful boutiques, perhaps it’s no surprise that Marbella was also voted the third trendiest and one of the most fashionable cities in the whole of Spain.

Research also shows that the region of Andalucia enjoys the best “brand image” in Spain. As a general tourist brand, Andalucia rated very high, with a score of 7.9 out of 10, followed by Madrid and Barcelona, with 7.3 and 7.1 each.  Read more »

This coming summer residents and tourists will be able to benefit from more frequent trains on the Cercanias 1 line between Malaga and Fuengirola, as they will soon run every 20 minutes instead of every half an hour. This is due to the completion of the second track, a project that has always been the long-term goal of Renfe due to the social and financial profitability of the Costa del Sol line.

This new change will allow the 30 departures every day to be increased by 30 percent, although the exact numbers of trains and the earliest and latest departure times are yet to be confirmed.

The recent alterations to the timetables are truly remarkable, considering there have not been any changes to the train frequency since the C1 opened in 1975. This single fact means the adjustment is, in the eyes of many, long overdue and will effectively accomplish the greatest improvement to the service in 36 years.

The current total journey time between Malaga and Fuengirola is 48 minutes. Source claim that this time could possibly be reduced due to the modifications, but only marginally.

In the 1970s dutch Xaviera Hollander rose to fame as the author of “The Happy Hooker“, after she worked as a call girl and madam. But now she’s an innkeeper of sorts. She owns a bed and breakfast in Amsterdam and is also the owner of Villa Caprice, a magnificent villa in the hills of sunny Marbella close to the Golden Mile, the beach and all amenities. Her house is located in a secluded area where guests can even “frolic around in the nude if they wish”. The villa offers 6 bedrooms to people who want some fun and sun. Villa Caprice has a garden with a lovely lawn, swimming pool with fountains and a sun terrace with 8 loungers. There is a large living room, well-equipped kitchen, a bar and terraces for outside dining. The villa’s bedrooms include several suites with king-sized beds as well as multiple rooms with twin beds for kids. Prices for the villa start at 1.800 Euro per week and go up to 2.400 Euro per week in summer

A group of entrepreneurs from Malaga are set to launch an alternative way to travel between Malaga and the rest of the Costa del Sol. They have set up a company in Fuengirola called “Aqua Taxi“, the first of it’s kind in Spain and hope to have the service up and running by Easter of this year.

They have brought one of the twelve-seater boats over from Southampton in the UK, and are in negotiations with national shipyards to manufacture the rest of the boats needed to provide the service. Their ultimate goal is to extend the services offered by their company all the way along the coast to Gibraltar. In the medium to long term, there are plans to run up to Nerja and Almuñecar linking the east and the west.

The Water Taxi service, which will be based in Malaga Port aims to revolutionize the taxi business and connect Malaga and Marbella within 45 minutes. The company has currently received authorization to operate from Marbella, Benalmadena and Fuengirola and hopes be accepted also by Puerto Banus in the near future. Read more »

According to the Malaga Councillor for Tourism and Sport, Elias Bendodo, Malaga City is the favourite destination for cultural tourism and city breaks in the whole of Andalucia. Nationally, the city is streets ahead of Madrid, Cordoba, Sevilla and San Sebastian, coming second only to Barcelona.

Malaga should be very pleased with last year’s results which showed that 853,481 tourists booked into hotels in the city in 2010, which was 14.35 per cent more than in 2009, and 8.9 per cent more than 2008, which was historically, the best year for tourism until these figures were released.

12.75 per cent more people stayed in the city, equalling a total of 1,591,552 visitors, with an average stay of 1.85 days.

Just over 54 per cent of the tourists who stayed in Malaga city hotels in 2010 were Spanish, some five per cent more than the previous year, and most of them came from the rest of Andalucia, followed closely by Madrid and Cataluña. Read more »