Torremolinos Truth

It is safe to say that Torremolinos has undergone many transformations in its history. Around half a century ago, it was a small provincial fishing village, with no aspirations of becoming a fully-fledged tourist town. Then, in the 90s, it garnered a bad reputation as the Spanish ‘trash town’, so to speak: the epitome of all you wouldn’t want to encounter in Spain – it was ugly, it was dirty, and it was trashy, and sadly void of any charming Spanish culture. Torremolinos began to resemble the Spanish version of Blackpool, in many ways, mostly due to the vast and sudden (and badly managed) growth in tourist attention.

However, local authorities soon took action (something that can be quite rare in Spain – “mañana, mañana”, “tomorrow, tomorrow”, is probably any Spaniard’s most well-worn phrase in his vocabulary), realizing the potential of Torremolinos as an attractive holiday resort. After all, it has the perfect location: the Costa del Sol is arguably one of the most beautiful Spanish regions, with great weather, and frankly, those two things always make a coastal town a veritable tourist magnet.

And so Torremolinos underwent its final transformation from ‘el Blackpool’ to ‘el Torremolinos guapo’, a clean, beautiful, well-managed, tourist-friendly yet dignified coastal town, with the help of council-instated daily street cleaners, landscaping, and new tourist attractions.

Now, Torremolinos, though not the kind of place you’ll want to visit if you desire an exclusive, peaceful resort, is at least clean, accommodating, and really quite beautiful, and will certainly make for an enjoyable holiday. However, it does still retain faint echoes of its Blackpool association, despite the comparison being now mostly defunct (only applicable in the mindset of snobs) and undeserved.

Speaking of non-exclusive, the kind of tourists that you can expect to share the area with will be predominantly British, as it is cheap and simple to both fly to, and stay in, Torremolinos, and you will encounter them in their hundreds, especially in summer (so be prepared to wake up early if you want to explore the town undisturbed). There are usually also a large amount of locals milling around at any one time (mostly young Spanish males), again, especially in summer, attracted, no doubt, by the excellent nightlife.

This is the Costa del Sol, after all, so you can expect sunshine and decent temperatures, even in the later summer months. The Costa del Sol as a whole does not get especially cold until November through February, and you can still expect some sunny days and temperate nights as late as mid-September, maybe even later. Be warned however, if you do go in the heat of summer, do not make the mistake of skipping sunscreen, even for a few hours: you’ll end up red as a lobster and practically screaming, “TOURIST!” But don’t worry. Even if you do get burned, you will have plenty of company. Also, the numerous little beach-front shops will sort you out in a jiffy with some aloe vera gel and aftersun.