About 20 of us flew to Malaga, where we were met by our guide, John, from Involved Holidays, and then were taken by coach to the Hotel Bahia Tropical near the town of Almuñecar, about an hour east of Malaga. The next day was warm and sunny and John and our other guide, Manuel, took us on a coastal walk from the hotel, along the cliffs with lovely views and lots of flowers in bloom. That was more or less the last we saw of the sun! The next day we were taken to Granada, where we did our own exploring in the morning. In the afternoon we were taken to the stunning Alhambra, where we had a three-hour guided walk through all the palaces, fountains and courtyards, ending up at the Generalife Gardens. The next day was free and it rained most of the day. Many of us braved the rain and walked into Almuñecar, about 3 miles away, and explored the old town, Roman fish salting factory and the castle. On Thursday, another overcast day, we were bussed into Malaga, where many of us visited the Picasso Museum with about 200 of the artist’s paintings, sculptures and ceramics. We were left to our own devices for the rest of the day – central Malaga turned out to be an interesting and attractive city. On Friday, in brighter weather, we had a lovely walk in the hills behind Almuñecar. On our final day we started off in the pretty hillside village of Frigiliana. After walking around the very attractive old village, soon after we started our descent to the seaside town of Nerja, the heavens opened and the rain continued for the rest of the walk. Rather bedraggled, we were pleased to arrive in Nerja and dried ourselves out in various restaurants where we had lunch, before making our way, now in torrential rain, back to the bus.

Despite the weather, the holiday was most enjoyable, the hotel was very good with a huge array of different types of food at breakfast and dinner (bottles of wine for just 12 euros!) and our guides were excellent.