Torremolinos and Granada: 102.98 km
The original plan for our Spain journeys was to stay in Torremolinos and do day trips to various cities/sites around Southern Spain. Our hotel (Sol Principe) came highly recommended and it sounded like a good plan.
However, when we arrived in Spain, we discovered that the hotel was terrible. And not ‘small, cheap, located far away from sites’ terrible. Been there, done that. It was a ‘noisy, discovered dirty diapers and food on the floor, squish three fold-up beds into a closet’ kind of terrible.
Hotel staff walked into our room whenever they felt like it and you had to pay €5 per day to use the in room safe. Every electrical outlet/device was broken. In terms of noise, I felt like we’d been transported back to Acadia University and had been given a room in Tower during Frosh Week.
And, this was NOT a cheap hotel. Besides the cost of the room, each breakfast was €24 per person, which is gaspingly expensive for a country in the midst of an economic recession.
This became the base model for the price of food the rest of the trip. If we could eat for less than €25 per person — then we were saving money. In most cases, we ate for less than €25 for three people.
Needless-to-say, the day trip plan quickly became a road trip plan and I spent an hour mapping, planning and booking two weeks worth of hotels so we could leave Torremolinos as quickly as possible. Ironically, this was on internet that cost €6 per hour to use. (Best €6 I’ve ever spent!)
We couldn’t get out of Torremolinos fast enough. The only thing that slowed us down was the discussions with the staff on why we shouldn’t pay for the nights we’d booked at the hotel. The dirty diapers helped our cause and soon we were on our way. As we exited the town there was a collective sigh of relief.
The drive from Torremolinos to Granada was beautiful, quick and uneventful. We figured that the roads would be packed because it was Semana Santa. However, they were very quiet and easy to navigate.
In hindsight, I’m happy that the trip started this way. It gave us the opportunity to explore visiting towns we’d not considered in the original planning… and because of this we had some really wonderful experiences.
