the area | granada | las alpujarras | lecrin valley | salobreña & motril

The next 'major' town after Malaga along the coast, Motril is a working town and is still as Spanish as can be. With 50,000 inhabitants, Motril is the largest town on the Costa tropical. Better known for its commercial port and yacht club, Motril is also home to the only golf course in the area. By contrast, Salobreña is a whitewashed town clinging to a huge lump of rock just back from the shore line, topped by a Moorish castle and surrounded by lush sugar cane plantations. Just over an hour to the Sierra Nevada, Salobreña is ideally situated for accessing Spain's highest mountain range. From October to April, it's quite possible to be able to ski during the day and return to sunbathe on Salobreña's beautiful beaches in the afternoon.

Salobreña's Moorish castle was built in the 10th century, and its Mudejar 16th century church, Iglesia de Nuestra Senora del Rosario is built on top of the old mosque. From the top of the old town you can enjoy the view of orchards of sub-tropical fruit trees and expanses of sugar cane spreading to the shore line The village of La Caleta directly to the west was home, until recently, of the last sugar factory in Europe.

Beneath the old town spreads Salobreña's modern development of low-rise, attractive apartments for its increasing population of approximately 12,000. On the beach itself is the Peñon, a massive rock jutting out to sea, a prison in the first and second centuries and eventually a Christian burial site.

For the actively minded there is golf, tennis, football, mountain biking and fishing, along with air and water sports all within easy reach. A treat for snorkellers and divers is the artificial reef built two years ago off the Peñon rock to shelter and encourage sea life, now showing promising results.