18 Hole, Par 72, and 6,415 Yards, Malaga Costa del Sol
Calanova Golf Club is situated in the Mijas golf valley, between the sea and the Mijas mountains.
It has some extraordinary landscape views, including the sea and La Cala de Mijas mountains, at nearly every hole.
Players will find each hole exciting due to the extraordinary shape work. The golf course has a variety of fairway layouts. All are wide and clear, allowing you to see the obstacles in your way.
On the city’s highest ramparts are the dual fortresses, the Alcazaba and the Gibralfaro castle, both originating in their present form from the Moorish period, though parts of the Alzacaba are known to have been built on ruined Roman structures.
Malaga has recently started to shine as a tourist destination, latest statistics suggesting over 750,000 passengers of cruise ships tour the city every year, so it isn’t surprising that repairs to many of the city’s best monuments have been carried out. The Alcazaba area is one in particular that has benefited and is now an essential site to visit.
18 Holes, Par 72, and 6,001 metres
Situated on the Costa del Sol, this course was inaugurated in 1989 and makes the most of the beautiful natural surroundings, at the foot of the Sierra Bermeja mountains, to offer a round of wide fairways and very long greens.
It is a very beautiful course with an abundance of vegetation and water, with large lakes skirting the greens. The design of the course follows the natural layout of the terrain, including the hazards, and the wide fairways are the pride of Estepona.
Ronda and the Serrania surround it have been lawless lands for millennia, not even the iron grip of the Almohads could stamp out rebellions and banditry, so it is hardly surprising that capital punishment has been so widely used.
In Ronda (close to the junction between Calle Santa Cecilia and Calle Virgen de los Dolores) nowhere is this more obvious and chilling than the Temple of Our Lady of Sorrows, also known as the Shrine of the Hanged, with its frightening depictions of condemned men’s eyes bulging as they desperately try to get a last breath while the hangman’s noose crushes their windpipe.
Bullfighting and banditry almost go hand in hand in Ronda, or at least they did in the early days when the Romero dynasty first came to prominence. A major part of the culture and history of modern Andalucia, bullfighting shows no signs of diminishing in Southern Spain, in fact both main political parties in the parliament of Andalucia seem determined to protect the art for the enjoyment of future generations.
Banditry on the other hand has had a much longer history, and these days is nothing more than a romantic memory, the last bandits having been shot or arrested by Franco’s Guardia Civil in the middle of the 20th century. Starting in the 9th century during the rise of the Islamic era, banditry was often more about politics and tax avoidance than outright thievery, though of course the objective was always to relieve wealthier people of their precious possessions.