No rain in Spain (warmly recommended)

Just back from a week in Spain.

We stayed at Ikos, a resort near Malaga in Andalusia, although the nearest town was Estepona, which we visited on Wednesday.

The old town (above) was interesting. Over the last two decades there has been a huge project to revitalise what was apparently quite a run down area.

From what we saw the local authorities have done a great job, demonstrating that conservation and modernisation are not mutually exclusive.

Other than visiting Estepona, however, we stayed within the resort because the one place we really wanted to visit - Granada - was too far unless we stayed overnight.

This was our third holiday at an Ikos resort, the two previous ones having been at Dassia in Corfu (which I wrote about here and here).

Ikos is a Greek company but most of the guests in Corfu and Spain have been British. There were a few Germans and one or two Americans, and on Thursday we spoke to an elderly, Flemish-speaking couple from Belgium.

Apparently, apart from a day trip to Hastings, they had never been anywhere outside Belgium until their first Ikos holiday a few years ago.

This was their third trip to Ikos Andalusia (it only opened in 2021) and they have two more booked for later this year.

But Andalusia isn’t their favourite destination. That’s Ikos Aria on the Greek island of Kos, but it’s also the smallest which may explain why it’s harder to book.

Anyway, a clue to their many recent visits may be the fact that the husband revealed that his wife isn’t well, although she played this down.

He added that she shouldn’t be drinking but his wife just laughed and we all clinked glasses. (We were on adjacent tables having lunch.)

Finally, since our last visit to Ikos Dassia in Corfu in 2021, the company has ditched its fleet of Minis in favour of Model 3 Teslas.

Guests are offered the complimentary use of a car for one day so I can see the appeal of the deal to Tesla - thousands of potential customers being given what is, in effect, an extended test drive.

Unfortunately, on the day we had pre-booked our courtesy car, I had to do some unforeseen work (it always happens!), so I still haven’t driven a Tesla, or any other electric vehicle.

The good news is that fuel prices are coming down so I will stick with my diesel SUV for the foreseeable.

PS. The week before we arrived it rained heavily, apparently. Fortunately, apart from the occasional overcast sky, we enjoyed bright sunshine and an average daytime temperature of 24 or 25 degrees.

Warmly recommended.