Torremolinos – La Playa

For the first two nights in Spain we stayed in Torremolinos, a beach town just west of Malaga. Trip Advisor did not steer us wrong and we had a really spacious hotel room that was right across the street from the beach with views of the sea.

We quickly embraced the Spanish lifestyle with a leisurely late lunch at Chirinquito los Bandoleros across the street. Lunch consisted of olives, bread dipped in olive oil, paella and of course, a glass of Sangria. Yum!

After lunch we strolled along Paseo Maritimo, the main avenue that hugs the beach.

In the center of town is a statue inspired by Picasso’s "Mujeres Corriendo Por La Playa”. Picasso was born in Malaga so there are quite a few homages to him throughout the area – statues, plazas, streets, museums.

We stopped for a bit so that the kids could play in the sand. When K started pouring the sand into his hair we realized that might not have been the wisest of decisions.

Just as the last bit of daylight was drifting away we found a playground nestled under a grove of palm trees at the end of the paseo.

Every restaurant that we passed had a BBQ outside where they were grilling fresh fish. Really neat. Unfortunately we were still full from lunch to entertain a stop for dinner.

After breakfast the following day,

we headed straight to the beach. C is ready to go with her mat and toys.

There were rows and rows of chairs that you could rent for the day. Initially we thought we'd just sit on the beach but lounging on the chairs was a much better way to go.

C played in the sand while K played with his new Barcelona futbol.

When our neighbors left, they gave us their paddle board game. Both kids had fun with it and picked it up pretty quickly although I'm not sure any volley lasted more than 2 hits.

To our initial shock & surprise, about half the woman on the beach were topless. In fact, previously mentioned neighbor was playing paddle board topless. Makes me hurt just thinking about it.

We drove through a few other beach towns over the course of the week and we were really happy where we ended up. Torremolinos is off the beaten path a bit so there is not a ton of traffic and it’s a bit quainter than some others. The beaches were wide and well kept. And the Paseo along the beach was lined with a variety of fish restaurants and welcomed lots of people strolling well into the night. In retrospect, we wish we had stayed another night or two at the beach.