Hen Party to Marbella
We travelled from London Luton airport and were really excited about our hen trip to Marbella! When we landed at Malaga airport we decided to use our budget wisely and get the bus to Marbella. The taxi fare is about 65e to Marbella so we chose the cheaper option for 4.27e. The bus is regular, but be prepared for a fight to get on as everyone pushes and shoves and once you are on you buy a ticket from the driver (which takes forever as nobody has the right money). The bus is more like a coach where everyone gets a seat and it goes direct to Marbella.
We were expecting quite warm weather so were a little disappointed when we arrived to find it cold and windy although by Saturday it was baking hot. We all layered up to make sure we were prepared for all weathers!
As we were on a hen weekend, we were looking forward to doing a spot of shopping, some sunbathing and some partying.
There are excellent shops in Puerto Banus – but these are really expensive (Gucci, Chloe, Agent Provocateur etc.) We headed to the Corte Ingles – a Spanish department store which is a bit like a John Lewis and Zara where we all managed to spend a few Euro!
There are also loads of little shops in Old Town Marbella which we quite fancied having a look around but they seemed to be closed for most of the day and some didn’t open on a Saturday and Sunday. One of the girls did manage to buy some cute napkin rings in a gift shop which were relatively cheap and typically Spanish.
Before we headed out for a night on the town, we fancied treating ourselves to a Spa treatment – a great way to unwind! We knew that it would have been very expensive though so we asked one of the girls working in a bar and she recommended a place called Harmony. It is just on the main road in Puerto Banus and while it looks very dodgy from the outside, some of the girls had a massage and said they were the best ever for just 60e for the full hour. They had a hot oil/hot stones massage, reflexology & back massage and finally a facial and back massage, apparently they had a rather nice male masseuse as well!
During the days, the sun came out so we found the best hangover cure was to head for breakfast at the café by the cinema which is on the beach in Marbella. We then walked along the beach to Puerto Banus – it took a couple of hours but it cleared everyones heads and was a good exercise for the day. Top tip make sure everyone has packed shoes that they can walk in and bring some plasters – we had to improvise for a plaster by using a ‘wing’!
At the cafe, all the Orange Juice is freshly squeezed and is so delicious so we made sure we stocked up! After our walk, we all fancied a big lunch and we found a nice pizza place in Puerto Banus called Picasso. The waiters were really friendly and we had a greek salad and a greek pizza which is highly recommended at around 10e. On Saturday we were joined by two more friends (hen’s sister Liz & her friend Bridie). As the sun was still out we spent most of thedayin Orange Square chilling out and people watching. There are loads of little restaurants in the square and we would highly recommend the calamari.
As you can imagine, it was a hen weekend and we managed to enjoy ourselves in the evening as well! The first night we didn’t fancy going too far as we had been up so early and the girls were drinking wine in the afternoon and were a bit tired!! Da Brunos was just around the corner from the hotel and so we had a lovely Italian meal there eating pizzas, fish and risotto which were all lovely and reasonable in price. The manager was lovely and he even gave us free shots!
We made sure that while in Spain we sampled the local tapas and we really liked the food, especially the calamari, potato salad and the tomatoes. I would recommend getting a couple of different dishes and sharing them, we were lucky as our waiter told us we had ordered too much food as the salads are quite big. You can always order more if it isn’t enough!
On our last night we went into Puerto Banus by taxi and went to Sinatras Bar for cocktails. We were welcomed and found a seat immediately by the bar staff (he kicked two men off the seats so we could sit down). This could have been because the drinks are more expensive when you are seated as on average the cocktails were around 10e and 10.50e if seated. The girls had champagne cocktails but I stuck to the water at around 3e a bottle as i’m pregnant. Sinatras is a very busy place even in the low season and has a great spot overlooking the yachts and the posh cars.
We then moved on to the greek restaurant next door to Sinatras called Red Pepper, this place was really busy and we were made to feel welcome. There was fresh fish on display and two of the girls shared a sea bass as they were so big – this is a good tip if you don’t think you can manage a whole fish as they rather large. They also had musicians playing at the table and the service was great.To round off our trip, we decided to head to the Casino. The casino is small compared to Vegas and the minimum bet is 10e on black jack and 2.50e on roulette but we had great fun and while we didn’t win much we all really enjoyed it!
On the way home, we arrived at Malaga airport in plenty of time but as there is major construction work going on, it’s a building site from the outside. We arrived 2 hours before our flight and had to queue for 1 hour 15 mins to get through security – not sure if this is normal (if it is it will be a nightmare in peak season). This meant that we had very little time to even look in the shops as we had to practically go straight to the plane.
