Estepona Centre, The garden of the Costa del Sol

There are three beaches in the town of Estepona: La Rada, La Cala and El Cristo.

La Rada Beach, is the most emblematic of the town, being with the C of quality for its hygienic, sanitary and environmental conditions. Together with La Cala beach is just a stone’s throw from the main streets, making it very convenient for visitors who wish to visit the Old town. Along their three kilometres, there is a promenade, where all kinds of activities take place during the summer months.

Playa de Cristo, next to the local marina, is a beautiful cove, ideal at any time of the year. This small beach, 680 metres long, has been awarded the C for quality and has two beach bars. It is a very busy beach at weekends during the summer months.

There are 11 beach bars in total. They are open from 10 in the morning in summer. Some stay open all year round, and others are only open in spring and summer. Almost all serve traditionally cooked sardines grilled over a charcoal fire, the famous “espetos”, fresh fish and seafood. Blue Dolphin, Palm Beach, Bikini Beach, Africa Beach, Bahía Beach, Chiringuito Tropical are located next to the Old town, being the most popular El Madero, La Peseta and Havana Beach and Lolailo Beach in El Cristo.

There are three public health centres, the one on Avenida Juan Carlos has a 24hr emergency wing as well as daytime medical appointment facilities, the Andalusian Health Service La Lobilla and the Hospital de Alta Resolución. The state hospital for Estepona is Hospital Costa del Sol in Marbella.

There are also privately operated health clinics in Estepona for patients to go without referral as an alternative to the state health service, such as Cenyt Hospital, Clínica del Rio, Centro Médico Estepona and Centro Médico Mar , all working with private health insurance.

Indeed, Estepona is a city suitable for families. This popular seaside town is renowned for its fantastic weather, schools and great choice of facilities within easy reach and also all sorts of family-friendly activities.

Estepona is one of the most family-friendly destinations in the Costa del Sol.

Kart & Fun is located next to the Estepona fairgrounds; it has up to 1160 metres of rope and a minimum width of 8 metres. The track is specially designed for group races and is illuminated so that you can continue to enjoy the speed when the sun goes down, and all sessions are timed.

Children from the age of 6 years old can drive on the children’s track or enjoy two-seater karts with their parents.

Signum Escape Room Estepona, which consists of solving an enigma in order to get out of a room. It is a very fashionable game, ideal for the whole family to enjoy. Beyond the fun part, it offers great benefits to children, such as the development of logical thinking or the promotion of creativity.

Maritime Tourism is an incredible experience for the whole family, as you sail on fishing boats with experienced fishermen, where you will see how the fish is caught and learn to identify the different species. Back on land, you will see how the day’s catch is unloaded and taken to the fish market where it will be sold.

Along Caridad and Malaga streets all the way down to Plaza Ortiz and around Flowers Square there is an abundance of restaurants with everything from Spanish tapas, to Argentinian steak and Italian pasta, to Mediterranean seafood and shellfish: Casa del Rey and Casa Doña Jerónima, next to Plaza de las Flores; Taberna Diez and El Rincon Toscano on Real Street; Taberna Miguel on Caridad street; El Pescador, on the Promenade; La Bulla Gastrobar, Las brasas de Alberto, Sur, Tolone on Ortiz Square; La Rada on España Ave. and La Escollera in the fishing port, to name a few.

The Marina also has a large choice of restaurants with terraces overlooking the Mediterranean, like in El Palangre or La Taberna De Lucia III.

Service-wise, Estepona offers pretty much all your basic services, from cafes, restaurants and supermarkets to banking and sporting and cultural facilities.

Obviously the great attraction of Estepona and by extension, the Costa del Sol, is golf. Estepona therefore also has excellent and well-maintained golf courses within a radius of 20 minutes at the most. It has eight golf courses in total.

In the western side of Estepona is the Estepona Golf, inaugurated in 1989, with the longest hole in Spain measuring 568 metres; the Azata Golf with 18 holes PAR 71, a technical course, at approximately 7 km. away from Estepona centre and Valle Romano Golf & Resort is a 60 hectare course par 72 for normal play and par 71 for competition.

There are five golf courses in the New Golden Mile, two with 18-hole courses: El Paraíso, an 18-hole course designed by the famed Gary Player in 1973 and Atalaya Golf & Country Club, with two tracks: the old one inaugurated in 1968 and the new one, inaugurated in 1992; the other three with 9 holes: La Resina Golf & country Club, par 3 and 4, El Coto de la Serena, inaugurated in 1989 known by its numerous streams and El Campanario Golf & Country Club, designed by Manuel Piñero, which opened in 2003.

If your interest in sport is different, Estepona offers sports centres with all the facilities and technology you would expect nowadays.

Three are the most popular. One is Supera, with a fully equipped gymnasium, indoor swimming pool, paddle-tennis courts, saunas and massage rooms together with changing rooms and showers. The Sports Center Las Mesas offers the largest space in Estepona to train with comfort and with numerous services, such as a 600 m² Fitness Room, four Directed Activity Rooms, 10 glazed paddle courts, Personal Training and Physiotherapy and Osteopathy area, and with the ease of 90-space parking. Los Reales Sports Club has 4,500 m2 of space for the practice of sports with high quality technology and facilities, located 500 metres on the road to Sierra Bermeja.

The Municipal Chess School has been holding the Estepona City Night Chess Tournament since 1985 and for girls, the Estepona Rhythmic Gymnastics club offers the opportunity to compete in different categories.

Estepona has much more to offer rather than a lovely town and gorgeous beaches.

The Archaeological Museum, sited in Estepona’s Old Town Hall, contains great treasures that played a crucial role in mapping Estepona’s history. The museum is home to over 400 pieces from different eras, with the oldest piece from the Palaeolithic period, also known as the Old Stone Age. Some of them are up to 100,000 years old.

A total of four museums are located at the bullring; the arena itself also can be visited. The Image and Sound Museum, founded in 2004, is an homage to Spanish film director Luis Garcia Berlanga, where one can see a collection of cameras and other historical items from the Spanish film and music industry. The Ethnographic Museum -which used to be called Museum of Agriculture and Fishery tools- contains around 2.000 pieces that depict life of Estepona in the past. The Palaeontology Museum of Estepona houses one of the greatest fossil collections, with more than 2.000 fossils of 600 species of flora and fauna.The fourth is Antonio Ordonez Bullfighting Museum, named after the Ronda born bullfighter, which contains posters, images, costumes, props, and bulls heads.

Estepona Art Museum with the exhibition of the fascinating “Garó Collection”. The collection has nearly 300 unique pieces dating from the 15th century to the present day, ranging from paintings by Cubells to artists such as Picasso, Alberti and Maella. Among the many pieces on display are original works by Federico García Lorca. The exhibition is completed with a collection of 19th and 20th century mother-of-pearl fans and bird feathers.

Corominas Prehistoric Necropolis is located above the town and can be visited by appointment only. At the museum, arranged underground, can be seen 5000-year-old megalithic tombs, which were discovered in 2001.

The Felipe VI Theater-Auditorium, opened in March 2015, with a total built area of ​​5,500 m2. has become the largest stage space on the Costa del Sol, and hosts first class theatrical performances, concerts, forums, conventions and exhibitions. Its main room has capacity for 600 people and a 225m2. stage, with a system of simultaneous translation that allows the holding of international conferences.

The Estepona Orchidarium with three glass domes, is divided into three floors, at different levels, with a total surface area of 1,000 square metres, and a space of 15,000 cubic metres to show an attractive botanical collection, made up of more than 3,000 species including some 1,500 species of orchids, represented by nearly 4,000 specimens. The miniature orchid garden is unique in Europe.

The sun and the sea invite you to live in the open air. Estepona in this sense is ideal for this kind of activity, whether you are a resident or a tourist.

Sierra Bermeja, a paradise of a Natural Park, is a very important place from an ecological point of view for being the largest massif of peridotite rocks in the world, and for the diversity of the flora with its pine forest, cork oaks and Spanish firs as well as for the fauna with 220 species. Within is the Municipal Park of Los Pedregales, where there are rural houses, camping areas, barbecue grills (only out of fire risk season), and the possibility to do outdoor activities such as cycling, hiking or horse riding.

The Poetic Road was created as part of the urban development initiated by the city in 2013. There are about 17 poems on the walls of various homes in the city centre. Well-known Spanish poets are represented alongside famed international writers such as Victor Hugo and Shakespeare.
Paintball Estepona, located above Kempinski Hotel, is a team sport where you test your control, agility, strategy and teamwork. The game consists of marking the opposing team by shooting paintballs with the marker, which works with compressed air.

Maritime Tourism is an incredible experience for the whole family, as you sail on fishing boats with experienced fishermen, where you will see how the fish is caught and learn to identify the different species. Back on land, you will see how the day’s catch is unloaded and taken to the fish market where it will be sold.

Between Estepona and Marbella City Centre there is a distance of approximately 27 km. taking the A-7 and N-340 roads.

It is a 55 minute drive to Malaga Costa del Sol airport and 45 minute drive to Gibraltar airport.

The municipality of Estepona has schools to meet your child’s educational needs, whether in public or private schools. There are twenty-two Spanish public schools from primary to high school, five private bilingual and two bilingual nurseries: Maria Montes Nursery and Seghers Garden Nursery School.

In Estepona city there are two, one is the Queens British Grammar school which caters for pupils from an early year setting and primary , right through to Secondary (IGCSE) and A-Levels and that teaches the children the British curriculum. The other is Colegio San José, a reputed Spanish bilingual education centre which provides education for pupils from ages 3 to 18. It provides bus service from Elviria to Sotogrande.

Estepona city centre offers three excellent hotels: The Old Town Boutique Hotel – is a family-run, eco-friendly adults-only Boutique Hotel ; Estepona Plaza Hotel , a barrier free hotel located in the centre of town – opposite Ortiz Square- and Hotel Silken El Pilar Andalucia, a 4-star hotel in the central Plaza de las Flores and 250 metres away from the beach.

Certain streets, squares and avenues in Estepona have sculptures and murals – up to a total of 31, one of which is the largest in Spain on an inhabited building – which together with the flower pots on the road or hanging from the facades and fruit trees in the area, delight not only residents but also visitors. Much of the town centre is either semi-pedestrianised or streets with restricted traffic, only allowed for residents.

The old cemetery of Estepona is one of the very few historical spaces of the 19th century in the municipality, housing an undoubted architectural and urban value, where its population is clearly recognisable.

The Fair, Sports and Leisure Park, free and outdoors, has a unique municipal stand of 1,370 m2 for events and more than 70,000 m2 that can be enjoyed all year round, with 23 sports courts and 22 stands for social and cultural entities of the municipality. The space is made up of a skating rink, two children’s tennis courts, a petanque court, a giant chess area, two ping-pong courts, a bio-healthy circuit, another for bicycles, two mini-football courts, a 7-a-side football court, two indoor football and handball courts, three volleyball courts, two basketball courts, two mini-basketball courts, an indoor athletics circuit and a speed zone that includes seven 100-metre-long lanes, all without architectural barriers.

The 21-metre-tall Punta Doncella lighthouse, built in 1861, at the end of the waterfront promenade and the ancient ruins of the Moorish San Luis Castle, constructed to protect the town from Berber pirates from North Africa.