Guide to Puerto Banus and Marbella
Puerto Banus and Marbella
Puerto Banus and Marbella have few peers in Europe when it comes to glamour and unbridled pleasure seeking.
Their streets are paved with exclusive boutiques and jewellers - and traversed by the highest number of Porsches in the world (per square kilometre). Their summer soirées are packed with the "beautiful people."Their beaches and yacht decks are adorned with lissom figures that seem to have been sculpted by a surgeon's scalpel. Their nightclubs are full of fervent revellers who probably learnt how to party before taking their first steps. Their restaurant kitchens are the source of every imaginable gastronomic delicacy. Their golf courses are world-famous.
The Quieter Side
Not everyone, however, is looking for this sort of lifestyle, and even many of those who are, would prefer to live away from their fields of leisure - though not too far.
Related in one of the coast's most sedately elegant residential areas, Elviria offers the cachet of a Marbella address, while being well away from the main hustle and bustle. Just as important, it is on the more accessible side of Marbella for travelling to Málaga's international airport and other major centres along the coast.
Not that it is necessary to leave Elviria to enjoy an ample Mediterranean lifestyle. Strategically situated between the "Golfing Mile" on the eastern outskirts of Marbella and the hugely popular Santa María golf course, Elviria is also just across the main road from the ultra-exclusive Don Carlos hotel and some of the finest beaches on the coast, and only a short drive from the Cabopino leisure marine port.
To the north, rising into the mountains, is a backdrop of exceptional natural beauty: one of only 363 World Biosphere Reserves designated by UNESCO.
Biosphere reserves are areas of special international interest that combine environmental and ethnological values with biodiversity, and where programmes are established to ensure harmonious expansion, high conservation standards and rational management of natural resources.
This might seem somewhat out of place in such an intensively developed area as Marbella but in many respects Elviria is the perfect neighbour for such a rare and delicate natural environment.
Remains from the Palaeolithic and Neolithic eras have been found in the area, and great care has been taken to preserve their legacy, not only in a purely archaeological sense but also aesthetically. Any threat of encroaching urban sprawl has been held at bay by implementing protection programmes for the cork trees of Elviria, the pine trees of nearby Las Chapas and the sand dunes of Cabopino.
And developers in the area have also maintained high quality standards, both in the design of their constructions and in the abundant "ornamental" vegetation. The result is an immensely appealing residential area - with an appropriately understated touch of Marbella glamour.
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Mijas costa
Marbella
