{"id":5625,"date":"2020-03-07T03:14:17","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T11:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/?p=5625"},"modified":"2020-03-18T08:43:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T15:43:54","slug":"marbella-the-golden-mile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/marbella-the-golden-mile\/","title":{"rendered":"Marbella – The Golden Mile"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This is low season, so the waterfront promenade is relatively quiet . . . the bubble guy appears to be a regular.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I was initially going to entitle this The Golden Rip-off,  but to be fair, that would be a bit harsh.  This strip of southern Spain\u2019s Andalusian coast is absolutely beautiful, and we are staying smack in the middle of it.  Extending about 5km from old town Marbella to Puerto Banus, this stretch of beachfront is home to some of the poshest villas in Spain  And the wealth continues up the hillside away from the water towards La Concha, an imposing shell-shaped mountain that overlooks and protects the entire area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image courtesy of booking.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Needless to\nsay, things are a bit on the pricey side here. \nWhen we see brunch at a sea-side restaurant being promoted for \u20ac95\u2026each, we think \u2018gouging\u2019.  That\nmay be the case but it\u2019s also the norm here. \nThe rich don\u2019t care about the cost. \nJudging from the palaces and villas, the yachts, and the super expensive\ncars we\u2019ve seen, if you want to be part of the in-crowd here, the entry fee is\nprobably $100MM minimum.   This IS where Prince Alfonso Hohenlohe built his luxury Marbella Club Hotel\nafter all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A typical suite at the Marbella Hotel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We\u2019re staying not far from the ocean-front and we enjoy the daily walks up and down the beach promenade. On a clear day we can even see Gibraltar from our deck. The weather has been gorgeous, and we share the seaside walkway with lots of active joggers and bikers, strolling ex-pats and vacationers, beach vendors hawking designer handbags from Dior and Louis Vuitton, and of course, the wealthy.  It\u2019s been interesting glimpsing how the 0.1%-ers live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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waterfront promenade on a Sunday afternoon. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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All along the promenade are vendors selling fake designer handbags and accessories.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Winter is off season apparently, but summer is way too hot and there are a million more people so quieter is good and as a place to soak up the sun in the winter it\u2019s perfect. Kinda like a spring-break Mexico vacation without the tequilla. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There seems to be a fair amount of construction going on too.  That would be luxury condo and villa construction, so money is pouring in.  We could think of worse places to hang out and we\u2019ll definitely be back. Obviously ordinary people live here as well and with the thousands of condo rentals available, living on a vacation budget like we are is very doable, but if you want to eat out every day and think a \u20ac95 brunch is no big deal, then you\u2019ll need to bring your fat wallet and a LOC.  And I have a nice yacht I want to sell you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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McLaren parked in front of designer stores (Burberry, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana . . . .)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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or maybe you’d prefer the Bentley Continential<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Huge yachts fill the harbour at Puerto Banus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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typical well manicured gardens are filled with cacti and palm trees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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and villas are surrounded by high security walls <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View from the deck of our studio apartment – at $2100 CAD per month (off season rates) these are the cheap seats!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I was initially going to entitle this The Golden Rip-off,  but to be fair, that would be a bit harsh.  This strip of southern Spain\u2019s Andalusian coast is absolutely beautiful, and we are staying smack in the middle of it.  Extending about 5km from old town Marbella to Puerto Banus, this stretch of beachfront is home to some of the poshest villas in Spain  And the wealth continues up the hillside away from the water towards La Concha, an imposing shell-shaped mountain that overlooks and protects the entire area. Needless to say, things are a bit on the pricey side here.  When we see brunch at a sea-side restaurant being…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5625"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5732,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625\/revisions\/5732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelblog.lewington.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}