Nerja - powdery beaches and clear waters await
Just as Mijas village is serenity, tradition and culture, Nerja is famous for the beach with its powdery sand and crystal clear sparkling water and fantastic sea views. Nerja is on the seashore some fifty kilometres from Malaga on the main A7 coastal highway and boasts 16 kilometres of beaches.
Nerja is on the seashore some fifty kilometres from Malaga on the A7 coastal highway, and marks the eastern tip of Malagas Costa del Sol. Nerja boasts some sixteen kilometres of beaches with powdery sand and sparkling clear water. All major water sports are available here, including water sking, scuba diving and sailing.
Flanked by a dramatic mountain range, Sierra Almijara, to the east, the town has, avoided being blighted by the concrete high-rise scenario that some towns have witnessed. The old quarter of the town is still virtually unchanged with narrow, winding streets, whitewashed houses with wrought iron terraces overflowing with geraniums, on which a canary can sometimes be heard singing.
However, the heart of Nerja is its spectacular Balcón de Europa, the "Balcony of Europe", a magnificent promenade along the edge of a towering cliff, once the site of the great Moorish castle, with sweeping panoramic views of the Mediterranean and the small coves and beaches below, against an awesome backdrop of hazy blue mountains.
There are plenty of restaurants and cafes here to choose from, and the visitor can hire a horse-drawn carriage to explore the most romantic corners of the town.
The towns monuments include the 17th century Church of El Salvador, in a style which is a charming mixture of baroque and Moorish, or mudéjar, and the beautiful Gardens of Capistrano Playa, which descend to Burriana Beach.
Nerja is probably most famous for its caves which lie some 6km inland. The caves are protected and have been well preserved with many parts still closed to the public including areas with prehistoric paintings of animals and humans figures. Visitors are treated to a series of well lit chambers and displays of archeological finds. Of interest are the Hall of Bethlehem which is full of stalactites and stalagmites. The Hall of the Waterfall, which is the scene for the Festival of the Caves held in July, and the Hall of the Cataclysm, whose fallen rocks indicate an earthquake long ago, the centre piece in the Hall of Cataclysm is the central column, formed when a stalactite and stalagmite met and joined after thousands of years of growth. It is the tallest of its kind in the world at some 32 metre.
If Nerja is the area you would like to holiday in, use the search box on the home page click here and then select 'Nerja' from the 'Select Area drop down' to see the available holiday homes in the area.
