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SPAIN | Costa del Sol, Spain Travel Guide
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
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Torremolinos
Torremolinos, Spain (cc)
Photo: Tango22
Torremolinos
A cheap tourist brochure calls Torremolinos “the most appaling resort on the Costa del Sol.” The author likely meant to include an e; more appropriate would have been to add another l to properly characterize the town. Appealling. Back in the ’60s Torremolinos was the place to be on the Costa del Sol. Things were happening. The Swedish invasion was well under way and Spaniards were learning to adjust to the scantily clad blond bombshells from the north. A young, hip crowd that openly indulged in marijuana staged late-night beach parties around 10-foot-high bonfires on a nightly basis. It was just beginning to attract the attention of developers; 30 years later, once they had stopped smoking dope and had come to prefer afternoon tea to late-night beach bashes, the ’60s crowd returned. In the 1920s Torremolinos had only 3,000 inhabitants. During the same period, the town’s English castle, as it has come to be known, began taking in veterans of WWI, what would be the first foreign wave. Today, Torremolinos, once a strategic coastal town named for the Molinos de la Torre or water mills powered by the abundant natural springs in the area, entertains as many as 250,000 people in high-season.
Sightseeing in Torremolinos
The recently renovated Paseo Maritimo walkway runs wide and long for seven km (4.4 miles), separating the concrete from the gray sand and sea. Six beaches merge into one endless sandy stretch with little to distinguish them. Those to the west are nearest the more interesting areas of the waterfront, where bars and restaurants are plentiful with plastic windbreaks blowing in the wind. Sunbathing takes precedence over cultural activities in Torre.
Before the tourist boom, the old town was centered around Calle San Miguel. It is still the main artery of town, running from the Plaza Costa del Sol in the center, past the old neighborhoods of El Calvario to the beach of Bajondillo and west of it, La Carihuela, the fisherman’s district. Nightly entertainment is plentiful along this stretch and in the areas known as the Pueblo Blanco and La Nogalera.
Torremolinos would not be the prototypical ruined resort town without its share of amusement parks. The nearby Aquapark Internacional, S.A. is reputed to be the “largest aquatic park on the Costa del Sol.” Fans of waterslides, wavepools and cotton candy will find it north of town on Cuba street
The Club el Ranchito puts on spectacular horse shows that include skits by magicians. Crocodiles Park has the largest collection of living crocodiles in Europe. Not to be outdone, Sea-Life west of Torremolinos has the largest collection of live sharks.
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