September 5, 2026 • 53 mins
Discover Spain’s stunning Costa del Sol in this episode of A Life Less Ordinary, hosted by Terrie Dean and Harry Reif of The Wishing Well.
While many travelers know Costa del Sol for its beautiful Mediterranean beaches, Harry takes you beyond the shoreline to uncover the region’s hidden treasures. Explore the historic streets of Málaga, the dramatic cliffside town of Ronda, charming whitewashed Andalusian villages, renowned wineries, olive oil estates, and unforgettable culinary experiences ranging from beachside seafood to Michelin-starred dining.
Learn how private guides, local connections, and immersive cultural experiences can transform a vacation into a truly extraordinary journey. Whether you're interested in Spanish history, art, food, wine, luxury travel, or off-the-beaten-path adventures, this episode reveals why Costa del Sol is one of Europe’s most rewarding destinations. We've got expert travel insights, practical planning tips, and inspiration to experience southern Spain like a local.
While many travelers know Costa del Sol for its beautiful Mediterranean beaches, Harry takes you beyond the shoreline to uncover the region’s hidden treasures. Explore the historic streets of Málaga, the dramatic cliffside town of Ronda, charming whitewashed Andalusian villages, renowned wineries, olive oil estates, and unforgettable culinary experiences ranging from beachside seafood to Michelin-starred dining.
Learn how private guides, local connections, and immersive cultural experiences can transform a vacation into a truly extraordinary journey. Whether you're interested in Spanish history, art, food, wine, luxury travel, or off-the-beaten-path adventures, this episode reveals why Costa del Sol is one of Europe’s most rewarding destinations. We've got expert travel insights, practical planning tips, and inspiration to experience southern Spain like a local.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is A Life Less Ordinary, the travel show and
podcast from your friends at The Wishing Well. 243 Neff
Avenue in Harrisonburg and online at thewishingwell.biz. The Wishing Well
is your ultimate luxury concierge travel agency. And A Life
Less Ordinary is a travel show and podcast hosted by
Terri Dean, bringing her over 40 years of experience in
the travel industry to help guide you to great experiences
(00:22):
in your travel, whether it be around the block, around
the country, or around the world. Now let's bring in
Terry Dean and say hello. Yeah, but this week, let's
bring in Harry Reif and say hello. Harry, how are
you doing, my friend?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, you're dealing with the second string today, but hopefully
not a second string, in fact. Just a second string
in terms of title, Chris.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, it's always good to sit down, whether it be
with Terry, you, or both of you, on a Saturday
morning and talk travel. And this week, we've got a
great show planned out.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We sure do. We're talking about a place called Costa
del Sol.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Do you know what that translates to?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Coast of the sun.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Exactly right. Exactly right. And what we've titled this show
is Costa del Sol Beyond the Beach. Because when most
people think of Costa del Sol, they think of the
beach and the beach regions. And it's certainly an important
part of that. And it's what comes to mind. We
think about beautiful beaches. Think about Mediterranean water. We think
(01:23):
about palm trees. We think about Marbella. We think about
beautiful resorts, glass of cold, something, maybe whatever, you know,
sitting beside you and you wouldn't be wrong. But if
that's all that people know about Costa del Sol, then
they really only kind of approach this region from the
(01:44):
front door. And what I'm hoping to do today is
by the end of the show, my goal is to
have listeners asking why we haven't talked about this region
before because of all the interesting things I'm going to
explain and share with you and the listeners today that
are behind that front door of this very, very glamorous
(02:07):
region of Spain.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Ah, Spain. I was waiting to find out where we
were in the world.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's a very historic region, no doubt. It's got a
lot of glamour associated with it, lots of culture. But
we're in that rural, mountainous part of Spain made up
of a lot of tiny villages, family-owned restaurants. And that's
the exciting part, I think, that I want to take
(02:35):
people to and I want to open the door and
get inside. So let's start by getting our bearings. Just
the question that you asked, where is this place anyway?
Costa del Sol sits along the southern Mediterranean coastline of Spain.
So we're talking about regions like Andalucía. The providence that
(02:56):
we're talking about is Malaga. And it's really important because
Malaga is not only the airport you're going to fly into,
but it's also an easy airport to get to. This
is an airport that's very easily reachable, starting at Dulles
in Washington. You could fly and get to Malaga by
(03:20):
traveling through either Madrid or Barcelona on direct flights. Or
if you don't want to do that, you might start
in either Paris or London and you can reach this
region with one stop. That's convenient. Something that, you know,
Terry always talks about getting there and making that flight easy.
(03:41):
So I think we've accomplished that. It's A very interesting city,
as I said. It's got history. It's got architecture. It
has what everybody knows, the beaches. And it's got a wonderful,
sophisticated culinary scene that's different that you're going to find
in other parts of Spain. And I know when I
(04:02):
talk about culinary, Chris, I'm in our turf, right?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, we're going to talk a while about that. All right.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So we're going to talk about all of that. We're
also going to talk about the thriving arts community. And
we're going to talk about, well, let me share a
piece of trivia with you. We talk about arts. Do
you know who was born in this region? It's a
very famous person. Spanish artist that everybody knows this artist
for his very, very famous painting.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
My first thought was Picasso. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
And you would be correct.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Oh, good.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So you're batting a thousand. This is Picasso's birthplace. So
if you want to think of it from the perspective
of this is the place that had a lot to
do with inspiring Picasso. This is what he grew up with.
This is what he saw. But we're going to move
outside of that region in itself, and we're going to
(04:56):
see how this region has many personalities, many facets, many
things we want to see. For example, if you head west,
you're going to reach a town called Marbella. Beautiful resorts,
beach clubs, restaurants, shopping in that unmistakable region. Mediterranean glamour.
This is a town that a lot of people probably
(05:18):
who've been to this region are very familiar with. But
if you go inland, that's when the beaches start to disappear.
You start to get up into this mountainous region. The
mountains rise. The roads start to wind a little bit more.
They're not straight and narrow because they got to go
around and through the mountains. And you begin finding these
(05:40):
small little Andalusian villages and It's like driving into Vegas
from the desert. All of a sudden you see this
different kind of scenery that's very much a contrast to
what you saw when you landed in Malaga. One of
the towns you might get to that's less than a
(06:03):
day trip from Malaga is a town called Ronda. It's
a different facet of Spain and if I were planning
someone's first luxury experience to Costa del Sol, this is
one of the places that I'd put on your itinerary, Chris.
If you told me you wanted to travel there, I'd
(06:23):
put this on your itinerary because I'd send you there
with a private guided tour that would not rush things,
but would let you see this little village of a town.
Ronda itself is purchased, dramatically perched, on a range. It's
called the El Tajo Gorge. And so when you get
(06:44):
to this town, there is actually a bridge that connects
the two sides of Ronda. It's a new bridge. It's
called Puente Nuevo. And it's been around since the 18th century,
but they still call it the new bridge. Okay. It
spans the gorge and it's a real, oh, kind of
(07:05):
a marker as you move into this town, That's what
you see. It's the linchpin of this town that puts
the two sides together. Am I starting to paint a
good picture?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, I'm liking it.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Okay. And this is why when we get to a
town like this that's not well-known, not as well written
up in all the books, we're going to want to
think about having a private guide and recommend having a
private guide because they're going to make an enormous difference.
They're not just going to drive down the street like
a tour bus that's passing through, but they're not going
(07:40):
to just say, hey, there's that bridge that we were
talking about. But they're going to immerse you in some
of the history. They're going to tell you who lived there,
the history of the town, how the people lived. Actually,
this town has a tremendous history back to the Moors.
They influenced this town. Christianity came through and changed this town.
(08:01):
This is the town that hosts... the oldest bullring in Spain.
That tells you a little bit about how far back
this town goes. It's got small streets. It's got people
with a lot of stories, history, people that have lived
there for generations and generations and generations. And I said
(08:24):
we were going to be talking about food a little bit.
We're going to have some great opportunities there where we're
going to go into some roadside, street side restaurants where
we're going to have maybe some locally made stews, some tapas.
We're going to taste some of their locally produced cheeses.
So we're talking about an off the path kind of
(08:46):
town that's got an incredible history that dates back, you know,
thousands of years. And those sites are still there and
people just look at those every day. And that's just
common for them.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Harry, why haven't we heard of these places before? Why
am I just hearing for the first time?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
What did I say at the beginning of the show?
I'm going to make you ask that question again and again, Chris.
I don't know is the answer why we haven't highlighted
this part of the world before. Because as Terry and
I talked about today's show, we talked about what's an
off the beaten path kind of place. It's really not
(09:23):
off the beaten path because we want it to be
a place that's easy to get to. But we wanted
to exemplify everything we say when we're on A Life
Less Ordinary, speaking with you, you know, every Saturday morning.
We want to include all of those things that are
just out of the box. So I'm peeling back. And
as I said, we went to the front door and
(09:45):
we went inside and we're stopping at our very first town.
And that is, you know, the town of Ronda, just
as an example. But let's go out of town for
a second. Let's go back to Marbelle. and take another journey.
Let's head out to wine country. I said we're going
(10:06):
to get to food and drink, right? Here we are.
Spain is known as wine country, and when Americans think
about Spain and they think about wine, they think about
a couple different types. They think about Rioja, they think
of Ribera, Del Duro, they think about Priot, Orat, but
(10:28):
the Malaga province has its own wine traditions, and that's
where the Malaga and the Sierras, the Malaga denominations come in.
And they're historically famous for some particularly sweet wines. They're
produced with grapes like Muscatel, Pedro Jimenez grapes. So imagine this.
(10:49):
We spent a little time in Ronda, looked around, enjoyed
that beautiful, beautiful city. But instead of joining a bus
full of people, we're going to move with our private
guide into the countryside, and we're going to stop and
visit a small winery. And this guide, because they're hand-picked,
(11:10):
through our virtuoso connections at the Wishing Well. This guide
has arranged not for just a visit to the winery,
but he's arranged for the winemaker to meet us. Again,
we're in a smaller part of the country, not so well-traveled,
so we have these kind of connections. We're going to
meet with the winemaker and the vineyard owner, maybe both,
(11:32):
and we're going to walk through the vines. We're going
to understand a little bit how the elevation, how the
soil is, how the climate affect the different wines that,
by the way, we're tasting wines, Chris. I hope that's okay, right?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I'm not a wine drinker, but every time we talk
about it on the show, I'm thinking, man, I need
to start sampling some good wine.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
You need to hang with me. We'll get you to
be a wine drinker. Because even if you don't do
much more than just sip and smell the wine, we're
going to sit down at the table in this vineyard,
and we're going to enjoy some local cheese. We're going
to enjoy some jamon, some ham. We're going to enjoy
some locally grown olives. We're going to enjoy some freshly
(12:15):
baked bread that's topped with that olive oil. And between
the wines, the jamon, the olives, the bread, we're going
to not just drink and eat, but we're going to
start to really understand what makes this region so special.
(12:36):
We'll understand where it came from. We've learned a little
bit about how it's produced. And we're going to learn
the difference between sitting down and just eating and drinking
and sitting down and experiencing the local wine, the local foods,
the local cheeses, breads, all the things that are made
(12:56):
up there. And these are the kind of memories that
I want to paint when you go beyond that front door.
Starting to paint the picture a little better?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Harry, if I'm going to go to Costa del Sol,
this coastal region, is there a local dish that I
need to try?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Well, you'll find that the whole food is different down there.
It's going to be different than the Spanish food that
you enjoy in Barcelona or even Madrid. But the tapas
there is going to be differently styled. It's going to
be a different kind of charcuterie on there with the
locally produced cheeses that you don't find in those other
(13:40):
parts of Spain.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I don't know that I've given a lot of thought
in the past to what Spanish food is. I think
because I think of the Spanish language, I think of
Central American food, South American food. Is Spain more Mediterranean?
Is that what we're– the type of cuisine?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Very much.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Very much so. And one of the things that you'll
find in this region, I hope you like olive oil.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Because we're going to be enjoying olive oil. We're going
to be tasting olive oil. We're going to be tasting
olive oil on this locally produced bread. And there's a
lot of differences there. between the olive oil that you
pick up at the grocery store. You can even go
to our local grocery stores and you'll find several different varieties.
(14:25):
But here you'll find dozens of different locally produced varieties.
And the people will be very passionate about the differences
between them. And they're going to work real hard to
have you understand the differences in how they taste and
how they pair together. with the different foods because you
(14:46):
are in Andalusia, you are in olive country. And we
visited the vineyard. We wouldn't be right. We wouldn't be,
we wouldn't be doing ourselves right if we didn't also
visit an olive estate. And that's where we're going to
get our guided tour, privately arranged experience to walk through
(15:07):
the groves, check out some of the olives on the
vine and and then move inside, just as we might
have done in the vineyard, and watch how that whole
process of production matures into that bottle of olive oil
that you then sit down at the table and taste.
(15:27):
If you've never actually tasted high-quality extra virgin olive oil,
this is your opportunity to do that. It's fascinating. It
can be addictive. all the different varieties based upon the
different soils, based upon the different regions inside there, their
(15:49):
different aromas, different levels of fruitiness, bitterness, finishes. It sounds
like you're talking about wine when you're talking about olive
oil because they use many of the same words to
describe that experience.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Well, I think if you're talking about really good olive oil,
it is on the same level as a really good wine.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
It is. It definitely is. And these people are equally
passionate about it. So I love experiences like this, and
I love them when they're curated by a local guide
that takes you into these areas, these estates, the olive
oil estates, where you're meeting with the owners, you're meeting
(16:29):
with the production managers, and they're sitting and they're watching
your face as you're tasting the the different products that
they're producing in there and watching to look for the
fascination in your eyes and to see the reactions. That's
as much a joy as anything else. And that's how
you're now connecting to that Mediterranean life of this region.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Have you seen the production of olive oil, how they
do it with the presses?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It is not a fast process.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
It is not a fast process. It is. It's painstaking.
It's a pain. So what I was looking for is
a painstaking process. And it's a process of love. These people,
you know, they've been doing this for thousands of years.
So you got to, got to, got to, got to
think that they know what they're doing. You know, they
(17:22):
have to know what they're doing. But it's time to
move on.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
We've done the vineyard. We've done the olive estate vineyard.
Now it's time to eat something different. So one of
the great mistakes I think people make about luxury travel
is assuming that every memorable meal you're going to have
on a luxury trip has to involve white tablecloths, waiters
(17:49):
with the towels hanging over their arms, and Michelin stars
plastered on the wall. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
You can also find some really quality meals in somebody's house.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
You can. And you can also find some really quality
meals when you get into a small region like this
and you have somebody to direct you where you're going
to go, what you're going to try and choose from
the menu. They're going to curate your dining experience. And
(18:22):
my history tells me that I've had some experiences at small,
intimate restaurants. that are just as good as, you know,
the three and four star Michelin restaurants that I've had
the privilege to eat at. And I love eating. I
love eating at great restaurants. I love eating at these small,
(18:44):
intimate restaurants. And Costa del Sol will prove that you
don't have to be in a Michelin starred restaurant. So
one afternoon, I'm going to arrange on this trip for
anybody who decides they want to head to this region.
We're going to work to have you sitting at an
extraordinary restaurant, enjoying an elaborate tasting menu. One of the
(19:09):
places I may take you to is a place that
they call down there a chiringito. A chiringito.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Which means?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
It's a beach restaurant. Okay. Nothing overly complicated. You're sitting
near the ocean, you're smelling the wood fire, and somebody
is cooking. They're cooking something called espetos. It's the defining
food of Malaga, and it's something that you would never guess,
so I'm going to tell you what's in it, okay?
(19:38):
But you've got to promise to give it a chance
before I tell you.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I mean, I've had some crazy food in my days,
so try me. All right.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So these are sardines skewered on a cane, roasted. over
an open fire um sometimes in an old boat that's
filled with sand on the beach okay and that's what
this is it's a culinary culture of this coastline and
it may turn out to be one of your favorite
meals on the trip fresh sardines a little salt over
(20:09):
the fire, sitting next to the Mediterranean Sea. I'll give
you a cold Spanish beer or a glass of local wine,
whatever your beverage is. Sometimes luxury isn't about adding things.
It's about finding a place where nothing needs to be added.
Just picture yourself on that beach eating those sardines prepared
(20:34):
just for you.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
You have not scared me off. That sounds actually wonderful.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
That's why I want to be your eating partner. I'm
your culinary travel partner, Chris.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Harry, if you and I go on a culinary trip,
I guarantee they will tell us not to come back
because we'll clean them out.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
No, no, no, no, no. We're going to save a
little bit of our stomachs to move to the next place, Chris.
This is like the children's book that I used to
read to my kids. The never-ending journey is going to
go on and on and on. and we want to
try every place and we want to try everything. So we've,
we've had, had a little meal. Now we're going to
(21:12):
move beyond sardines. We're going to look at something else
that's called a pescato frito, which is little fried fish.
It's a mixture of small, fresh fish. They're lightly fried,
often shared, um, in very, very tasty, uh, Another soup,
(21:33):
and I have not tasted this yet. It's called Ejo Blanco.
It's a chilled soup. It's made with almonds, garlic, bread,
and olive oil.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I'm ready to try it. Yeah. But I have not yet.
I'm ready. Think of it as a distant cousin of
maybe a gazpacho, except there aren't any tomatoes, okay? Another soup.
that they have there. It's called porra antiquarana. It's a traditional,
(22:06):
it's a rich version and thicker version than a traditional gazpacho.
And I'm ready to try that too. And then, of course,
there's a gazpachuelo, a particularly interesting soup because it began
as a fisherman's food, something that humble fishermen would eat. It,
of course, is going to involve fish, potatoes, and a
(22:28):
mayonnaise-based broth. Again, something I haven't tried, but I'd look
forward to trying it here. So we're making our way
around the different culinary dishes that we can try. And
none of them began because somebody sat in Pillsbury's test
kitchen trying to invent something that would sell great at
(22:50):
the grocery store. But these are foods, these are recipes
that have evolved, again, over thousands of years. And they
were evolved... using all of the local foods. They used
what they had. They used the local foods, fish, because
they're right against the sea, almonds, they're growing there, olives.
(23:10):
I mean, that's the olive capital there. And you'll also
find grapes in there for the wine. So the geography
created the menu, not the test kitchen. The geography created
the menu. And centuries later, We're going to go there,
visit this region, and we're going to enjoy what they've
(23:31):
taken thousands of years to perfect.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Harry, when we go to visit anywhere in the world,
we want to be good neighbors to the people who
are welcoming us into their homes and their neighborhoods. When
it comes to restaurants in this part of the world,
what's the tipping etiquette?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Tipping etiquette varies in different parts of the world, and
that's a great question. One of the things that Americans
are very surprised at is that gratuities are often included
in the cost of the meal. So you don't have
to lay out another, you know, 15, 20. I don't know.
I've been watching the little suggestions at the bottom of
(24:14):
my tickets now. They keep getting bigger and bigger. 25%,
you know, for a tip. But the gratuities are included.
And the other thing that's incredible about this part of
the world is you're not talking about restaurants with the
big overhead, the big advertising budgets, the big fixed costs
that restaurants, the great restaurants may have here at home.
(24:36):
You're talking about eating very economically because you're eating foods
that are all produced locally, prepared locally, and served locally.
There's just not the overhead that You and I are
used to it, some of the restaurants.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
I know you said that you were taking us to
this dinner on the beach with the sardines. Do I
need reservations?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
No, you just need to know how to get there.
And that's why we use those local guides. We need
to know how to find them. and where these restaurants
are so that we find the best of the best.
I'm sure you'll get a good meal at many, many places.
But if you're going there, you're taking time to travel
to this region of the world, we want you to
(25:21):
have a life less ordinary experience when you visit there.
But I'm going to switch gears. This was casual, okay?
We were in our casual clothes for all of these meals.
It's time to dress up a little bit. You don't
have to dress up a lot, but you're going to
dress up a little bit. And we're going to go
to one of the finer dining regions or restaurants in
(25:46):
the region. Maybe we'll visit a restaurant in Marbella. It's
called Schina or in Ronda. There's a restaurant that we
found called Bardal. These are two star Michelin restaurants. And
throughout the Providence, you're going to find a lot of
Michelin-recognized kitchens creating very modern interpretations of the traditional Andalusian
(26:09):
ingredients and traditions. And when we say two-star, some people say, well,
it's not a five-star. There's a lot of things that
go into the Michelin star rating, and that's a whole
separate episode. But a lot of them have to do
with the size and the volume and the ability of
the restaurant to produce the same thing day after day,
(26:30):
which means you've got to have a a pretty rich
staff in terms of, you know, depth of expertise and things.
So when you find a two-star restaurant, you may get
a five-star meal at a two-star restaurant because it's not
a chef that's doing it. It's the owner that's doing it,
and he's doing it on a smaller scale.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
A couple of observations. First is a question. With the
Michelin stars, do they camp out at three stars? Is
that the top?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I'm not sure where the top of the restaurant goes.
That's a good question, and I don't have the answer
to that question. I look at the stars, but I
look at them as a good housekeeping seal of approval,
not necessarily what's going to drive my choice exclusively.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Well, and that was my next observation was if you're
going to anywhere that has a Michelin star, you're going
to a really great meal.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It's going to be good. You got it. My point
today is it doesn't have to have that star in
order for it to be good, but we will find
those stars there. If you got the star snobs, we
got the restaurants. We get into one of these restaurants
that we're talking about and you're going to see a
(27:45):
little different menu because they've done some adaptation there. They've
adapted for the world taste. You've eaten local cuisine in
our earlier examples. Now you're eating some cuisine that's got
the traditional base, but it's been adapted a little bit.
And that's where the culinary itinerary becomes a little bit
(28:07):
more interesting. I think, you know, in my mind, I'd
mix it up if I went to this region. I'd
take one night and I'd find that Michelin restaurant, you know,
that you're talking about, make sure we're really satisfied. And
we can also have bragging rights to say we're eating
at Michelin restaurants. But the next night, I just might
go for some tapas. I might go for lunch at
(28:29):
a winery. I might go to the shore and, you know,
and try those sardines barefoot in the sand being roasted,
you know, or fixed and prepared in an abandoned fishing boat.
And every night I'm going to have a different kind
of meal. For me, that is the epitome of a
(28:53):
great culinary experience where I mix it up and I
can say I had this, I had that. This was
so different than that. And I can contrast everything that
I've had. And I would include that olive tasting experience
in there, too, because if you do that right, that's
almost a meal experience. in and of itself. And the
good part about this, Chris, I haven't had to spend
(29:16):
a week trying to weasel my way into reservations at
restaurants that may not have reservations available, but I've gotten
into one and the rest of them I'm going to
get into because I know somebody. It's the who you know,
not where do you look to go.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Harry, I think we could probably spend the rest of
the show talking about food, but there are more activities
in when we head to Costa del Sol. This is
the southern part of Spain along the Mediterranean. We're going
to talk about Some sites and activities that we can
get into next here on A Life Less Ordinary.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Protect your vacation investment with guidance from a travel professional.
The wishing well knows travel and helps you avoid pitfalls
that can spoil your hard earned vacation. We'll plan your
trip and have your back as you travel. All of
this without support or so-called convenience fees. We're on the
web at thewishingwell.biz or call us at 540-908-2333. That's 540-908-2333.
(30:17):
The Wishing Well really does make dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
And welcome back to A Life Less Ordinary, the travel
show and podcast from your friends at The Wishing Well.
You can find them on Neff Avenue in Harrisonburg. You
can also find them online at thewishingwell.biz or give them
a call at 540-908-2333. I mentioned on the website, that's
where you also go to find all the past episodes
of A Life Less Ordinary. You'll find a link in
(30:43):
the upper right-hand corner of the website. And there's a
little search bar there. You can enter a keyword and
you can go back and listen to any one of
the episodes that we've done over the past six seasons
of A Life Less Ordinary. Today, our show is called
Beyond the Beach. We are talking about Costa del Sol,
which I'm not sure if it means coast of the
sun or if it's the sun coast, which would be
(31:06):
my guess. It is on the coast of Spain along
the Mediterranean and We've talked about all this great Mediterranean-inspired food.
And we've talked about a couple of the towns that
we should go to. And now we're going to talk
about all of the great sites and activities. You know
there's going to be a lot of them when you're
(31:27):
in a beach resort area.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
And it's hard to believe, Chris, that people aren't out
there saying, is the only thing that Chris and Harry
talk about food?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Yes, that's it.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
The answer is... It's important. Very, very important. But, you know,
but there's more. And the great part about this destination
is that you can have both. So we started by
talking about some of the things that you see and
what makes this region so, so, so attractive. But then we,
(32:03):
you know, we wandered off and spent a good bit
of time talking about the food and the drink. But
I want to return to Malaga itself. And this is
a region where you could, and it's a very, very
safe place to walk around, spend time on your own.
And I think you'd enjoy yourself doing that. Lots of
(32:23):
things to see in these cities. You've got Roman theaters.
You've got the Picasso Museum. Lots of places to go.
Lots of things to see. But imagine exploring privately Malaga.
with somebody that knows the city intimately. You're going to
start in the historic center of the city, and it
can get a little busy in there, but you're going
(32:46):
to be guided to the interesting places like the Roman theater,
the area right around Elisaba. You'll hear about the Malaga
region when it was under Roman rule. So you'll be
looking at these sites and And you'll be hearing from
your local guide about the history and why things are
(33:10):
where they are. You'll hear what precipitated some of the
changes in there. You'll hear what happened when the Moorish
came in and ruled the area. And then when the
Christians came in and ruled this area. This area has
seen a lot of change over time. And the buildings
that you see, the architecture that you see, is going
(33:32):
to reflect the influences of each of these different people.
And it doesn't matter if you're a historian or not.
All of a sudden, the diversity that you see in
the styles of the buildings that you're looking at in
front of you, the columns, the shapes, even the construction
methodology that was used in those buildings, they're not just, hey,
(33:57):
this was a different builder, but it was chapters different.
in the history of this region. And if you're really creative,
if your mind is really alert, you can think about, hey,
what was Picasso thinking when he was sitting here looking
at things? And you'll know what was visible at that time.
(34:20):
But what was he thinking as he looked at some
of these buildings, as he looked at this scenery, the mountains,
the seaside? What influenced him and how did that influence
translate into some of the paintings that he did? And
if you're really good, actually better than I am, I
think there are people out there who can look at that, Chris,
(34:42):
and say, yeah, I see that in this painting or
I see that, you know, it's reminiscent of this and that.
And to me, those are the aha moments where you're
not just thinking about, you know, the food in your stomach.
and the beverage that you've been drinking, but you're thinking
about the place that you're in, and you're really absorbing it,
(35:03):
and more importantly, you're being able to relate history, to
relate the experience that you are having to what happened hundreds,
in some case, thousands of years ago. What a contrast.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
I don't know a lot about Picasso, Harry, so I
looked this up while you were talking about him.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
You're right.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
The area there along the Costa del Sol definitely influenced
his early artwork, especially the memory of the bullfighting. You
mentioned the oldest bullfighting ring. What I'm reading here says
that it definitely influenced his first oil painting called The
Little Yellow Picador. It depicted a bullfighter on horseback. Yeah. So, yeah,
(35:52):
it all ties together, Harry.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Well, I think that's a great moment for a lot
of people. And if you relate to that, great. I'm
not going to depend on everybody relating to that because
If that doesn't grab you in the way that I
was describing, maybe we move on and we look for
one of the private markets in town. Oh, excellent. Private
markets is a place where a local guide will help
(36:16):
you move through the marketplace, understand the different foods that
you're finding there, the different meats, the different cheeses. You're
going to find olives, olives, and olives, and olives. You're
going to find local breads and other products that are
produced there. And you'll watch people buying for the meals,
(36:38):
some of which you've sampled, you know, just earlier. But
you've got to have a break. So we're going to
stop and enjoy a little tapas. We might not stop
at the place that's saying authentic Spanish tapas. You know,
we're over 15 billion served. But we're going to find
that little local place where we can go inside and
(37:01):
get something especially delicious. Made for us. We want to
go where the locals go. We're going to be inside
the market so we know that the food couldn't be
much fresher and we'll enjoy a little bit of lunch
before we embark on our next adventure. Our next adventure,
I'm going to get back to the sea and we're
(37:21):
going to charter a yacht for the day.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
I'm on board. What a great way to explore the Mediterranean.
So we're going to not just talk about Costa del Sol.
But we're going to get into the water and we're
going to get this yacht or a small group experience
if a yacht isn't something that you want to charter
all by yourself. But we'll get together with a small
(37:47):
group and we're going to go out for a couple
hours and we're going to ask the captain to take
us around and give us that historic tour. We're going
to ask him to cruise along the coast. We might
ask him to stop and maybe we'll take a swim
in the Mediterranean. Something that is just a great experience.
(38:08):
I swam in the Mediterranean and I'm proud to say
it was one of my favorite experiences. It's just very,
very nice. I was off the coast of Greece when
I did mine. But swimming, stopping somewhere quiet, having the
boat just shut down. and sit in the water. Sit
(38:30):
in silence for just a little bit. Maybe have lunch
while you're out there. How do you know if you're
really doing things properly? Well, you've charted it so that
you've stayed out long enough to enjoy the sunset. And
you're sitting out there watching the sunset, looking ashore, watching
(38:53):
Marbella and watching her go to sleep, watching the sun
set over this beautiful, beautiful city, watching the mountains that
are behind you, watching the coastline light up a little
bit as the nightlife starts to happen. You're looking back
toward the shore instead of looking out from it. And
(39:15):
you're going to get a whole new picture of this
beautiful part of the world. And you're going to understand
why this coastline has attracted people from around the world
for generations. And you're also going to understand why there
are people families that have lived there for generations and
generations and generations and why they love the place they live.
(39:38):
They love the way that they make their living, whether
it's making cheese, growing olives, producing wine or fishing. You're
going to understand why people the passion that you've seen
throughout this visit, this short tour that we're doing this morning,
why that exists and why it's never going to die.
(40:01):
You're going to get done with that. You're going to
take a rest and you're going to get up. And
now I want to get you away from the resort
areas again. And I'm going to take you to some
of what they call the white villages. These are the
places that you would have never discovered on your own.
But in Spanish, they're the Pueblos Blancos of Andalusia. And
(40:21):
some of the places are Mijas Pueblo. It sits above
the coastline. Go farther afield, you'll find a bunch of
other little villages tucked into the mountainside landscape. And life
moves at a completely different pace. You're going to find
yourself not in a rush. You don't need to get
anywhere quickly. You just want to sit and take it in.
(40:45):
Kind of like the feeling that you get sometime when
you go up on Skyline Drive here, except way less crowded.
And instead of it being all, you know, federal land,
these are places where people make their homes. People live
there all year long, you know, season after season. They
exist there and still it looks beautiful. You don't have
(41:07):
to worry about navigating narrow roads. You don't have to
worry about parking. You don't have to figure out which
village deserves your limited time because you're with somebody who
knows where to take you. You've got your guide with you.
He's going to take or she's going to take you
to the most interesting places. You might stop along the
(41:29):
way and visit a local artisan. Spend an hour or
two in their studio, watching them craft something. Again, we'll
stop and enjoy a lunch at a small family restaurant.
And we might just be traveling along, Chris, and you say, hey,
this is so beautiful. And your guide says, great, let's
(41:51):
stop here and just spend a minute or two. You
want to step outside and take a photograph or have
me take a photograph of you in this area that
captured your attention. It's your own little paradise. And that's
what's so nice about having that private guide. It's the luxury,
the part of a life less ordinary that isn't that expensive,
(42:16):
but it's that invaluable. You have the time. Nobody's holding
up a sign saying, hey, everybody back on the bus.
You got 10 minutes. Go out there, take your pictures,
jump back on the bus. Don't forget which seat you're
in and where your stuff is. That's good too. But
this is not that trip at all. This is my
kind of luxury. It's what I think of when I
(42:38):
talk about as a life less ordinary. One more stop.
One more stop. All right.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Well, we're running close on time here. So we're going
to visit one more location. Then we need to take
a break.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Well, I'm just painting one more scene. And I want
to talk about after dark. I talked about watching the sunset.
Guess what? After dark, there's evenings. Marbella can certainly dress up.
You're going to have cocktails overlooking the Mediterranean. You're going
to dine. Maybe that's where you choose your two-star Michelin restaurant.
You're going to walk through the old town after dinner,
(43:11):
after having enjoyed this spectacular day. And even in Spain, nonetheless,
you're an American. You think, ah, everyone's going to bow
and bend our way. No, sir. The Spanish timetable is
not going to adjust for us. You want to have dinner?
At six, you're eating alone. It's going to happen a
(43:31):
lot later. They're not ready at six. So you're going
to work on their time. They don't care that you're
an American and you want to eat at six. Dinner
happens later. People linger. Nobody's in a rush. They don't
have to get somewhere. They don't have to go to
sleep to get up for the six o'clock bus to
go to school. You'll find families are still out. The
plazas are alive. The sidewalks do not roll up at
(43:55):
night in these small towns. And the nicest thing you
can do is stop trying to make another country operate
on your timetable, but to sit back and enjoy and say,
why don't we do it this way too? So if
you're enjoying this area at dinner time, it's going to
(44:20):
be a little later. Don't rush. You're not going to
finish in 30 minutes. You're not going to finish in
45 minutes, Chris. Order another glass of wine. Talk. Watch
the people. Take a walk. And traveling isn't always about
seeing more. It's about experiencing more, learning how to slow down,
and enjoying everything you see.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
I'm trying to do the math in my head, but
I'm thinking with the time difference between here and there,
it's kind of just a late lunch if you're having
a late dinner experience. Because what, they're eating around nine
o'clock at night?
Speaker 2 (44:53):
I'm going to take your watch away from you, Chris.
You're not going to have a watch, so you won't know.
It's the ambiance. You're going to feel when it's time
to eat.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
I love as you're painting this picture because it's like
everything about this trip is about just slowing down and enjoying, relaxing, appreciating.
So I really, I love the picture that you're painting.
Our show today is called Beyond the Beach, Costa del Sol. Well,
I'll talk more about it next here on A Life
Less Ordinary.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Protect your vacation investment with guidance from a travel professional.
The Wishing Well knows travel and helps you avoid pitfalls
that can spoil your hard-earned vacation. We'll plan your trip
and have you back as you travel. All of this
without support or so-called convenience fees. We're on the web
at thewishingwell.biz or call us at 540- That's 540-908-2333. The
(45:42):
wishing well really does make dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Welcome back to A Life Less Ordinary, your travel show
and podcast. Every Saturday morning, your friends at The Wishing
Well bring you great travel ideas, great travel experiences. If
you'd like to learn more, reach out to Harry. He's
in the office after the show today. He'll be happy
to take your call at 540-908-2333. You can also stop
by if you'd like. They're on Neff Avenue in Harrisonburg.
(46:14):
Or find out more information anytime, 24-7 on their website
at thewishingwell.biz, including past episodes of A Life Less Ordinary.
In the upper right-hand corner, you'll find a link. and
you can type in a keyword to any topic, any
travel ideas, questions, or locations that you want to learn
more about and listen to past episodes. Harry, our show
(46:36):
today is Beyond the Beach. We're talking about Costa del Sol,
that entire region of southern Spain along the Mediterranean. And
we've talked about all the great food. We've talked about
all of the, uh, activities that we can enjoy, uh,
along the beach. And, uh, now we need to sort
of put it all together. How do we make this
(46:57):
trip happen? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
I talked to, uh, to everyone at the beginning of
the show and said, you know, we got to open
the door. I hope, and I've done that hope I've
done that. And I hope people are motivated. And, uh,
expecting that we'll get some calls and say, this is
so cool. I want to do this. You know, how
do I do it? And the neat part is you
can do it. We can help you do that. We're
not going to leave you frustrated. There are a lot
(47:20):
of things that can be done and there are trips
that I've talked about, but there's even more, Chris, so
many more side trips. We were talking during the break
about some of the side trips that you found.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
So, yeah, you know, I mentioned earlier in the show,
I'm like, why haven't we heard of this? Well, we have,
maybe just not under the Costa del Sol umbrella. Gibraltar
is a day trip you can take.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Seville, Cordoba, Granada.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Very interesting.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
I mean, all these locations that we've heard of and have,
you know, just world famous, you know, sites and activities
of their own are just a drive away from the
Costa del Sol region.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
They are. And what's nice about this region is the
transportation is good, the roads aren't crowded, and it's easy
to make those kinds of arrangements. And that's part of
putting this all together. How do I put this together?
You put your pieces on there.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
What kind of transportation do they have? Is it trains, buses?
Do I call an Uber? How am I getting around
while I'm there?
Speaker 2 (48:23):
I'm not sure about the Uber, but you can get
a car, of course. There are trains, the high-speed trains.
You do reach out to this region, and they connect
many of these cities, so you can get somewhere in
an hour, an hour and a half on a high-speed train.
That's a perfect way to move around. You don't have
to worry about anything. If you let us know, we
(48:44):
can get you a guide. We arrange transportation, private transportation,
from place to place also, which lets you vary your schedule.
That's even better places you want when you want to
be there. But there's so many things to do. We've
talked about, you know, breakfast over the water. We've talked
about sleeping in late, staying up late at night and
(49:05):
enjoying the nightlife there. We've talked about walking on the beach.
We've talked about tasting different kinds of food, different kinds
of meals. There's so much to do. We didn't talk
about sitting on the beach for a day, but you
can surf. do that too. And that's what's so special
about living a life less ordinary is you help to
(49:28):
create that life with your dreams, with your visions. That's
why we call this place The Wishing Well. And we
call this show A Life Less Ordinary. Our goal is
to have people put those two together and let us
help make that happen. So what makes this particular trip
a life less ordinary, Chris? I think the destination. If
(49:49):
I haven't made a case for this destination, I've done
a terrible job. I hope I haven't done that. I
hope I've shown people there's a difference between going somewhere
and experiencing somewhere. In the last several shows that we've
done with Terry, we've talked about experiences and the keys
(50:10):
to a great vacation, a great trip. That's experiencing it.
We've talked about a place that's easy to get to.
We've talked about a place that's got plenty of places
to stay. We've talked about a place that's got lots
to do for an individual that wants to travel by themselves,
for a couple that's traveling for a special occasion. This
(50:31):
is a place that you could take your family to,
your immediate family. You could take your grandchildren to, and
there would be enough to do, enough to see, to
fascinate everybody. So it's not just visiting Costa del Sol
and visiting the beaches. It's visiting Costa del Sol and
visiting the region. You're going to come back remembering that
(50:54):
winemaker who poured something very special just for you. and
explain to you why it tastes the way it does
because of the soils that they've used. You're going to
stand above that gorge, stand on that bridge in Rana
and look around and saying, how can a city exist
like you know, with a gorge that cuts through the
(51:17):
middle of it. You're going to remember the smell of
those sardines cooking over that open fire. And it's going
to put a smile on your face as well as
you're going to remember that olive oil tasting and the
differences and the fact that there isn't just an olive oil,
but there's lots of different olive oils. And you'll remember
those tiny restaurants. You'll remember those guides. And you'll remember
(51:41):
that place that you chose to stop to take a
photograph along the way. So, I think I've made the
case that this is a region that people should definitely consider.
And this is but one of many regions like this
in the world that we're hoping to open people's eyes
(52:01):
up to on a life less ordinary, Chris.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
Harry, what experience do most travelers overlook but end up
loving when they visit this area?
Speaker 2 (52:09):
I think they... They end up overlooking the experience that
they didn't think about. That's the quick answer to that.
There's something that happens on a trip that they didn't expect.
The complete unexpected. Terry was talking about somebody comes to
meet them at the airport that they didn't expect and
(52:32):
escorts them to their hotel. Or somebody that you meet
at a hotel that says, Come to my family's place.
We're going to have dinner there. That's the kind of
experience that I think makes life less ordinary, that I
think makes any trip special, and that you can't necessarily anticipate.
Sometimes it's because we arrange it. Sometimes because circumstances just
(52:56):
make it happen. Because you've set yourself up in a place,
in a way, in a style that people find you
are approachable as a traveler. So it all fits together.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
Harry, how do we get more information if we're sold
on traveling to the Costa del Sol region?
Speaker 2 (53:15):
We'd be delighted to talk to you, Chris. You can
give us a call. We're at 540-908-2333.
Speaker 1 (53:23):
This has been A Life Less Ordinary, the travel show
and podcast from your friends at The Wishing Well. They're
at 243 Neff Avenue in Harrisonburg. If you have any
questions on topics discussed today, please reach out to The
Wishing Well. online at thewishingwell.biz or call 540-908-2333. Past episodes
are available on the iHeartRadio app. And we'll see you
(53:45):
again next Saturday morning at 10 for a life less
ordinary from The Wishing Well.
This is A Life Less Ordinary, the travel show and
podcast from your friends at The Wishing Well. 243 Neff
Avenue in Harrisonburg and online at thewishingwell.biz. The Wishing Well
is your ultimate luxury concierge travel agency. And A Life
Less Ordinary is a travel show and podcast hosted by
Terri Dean, bringing her over 40 years of experience in
the travel industry to help guide you to great experiences
(00:22):
in your travel, whether it be around the block, around
the country, or around the world. Now let's bring in
Terry Dean and say hello. Yeah, but this week, let's
bring in Harry Reif and say hello. Harry, how are
you doing, my friend?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, you're dealing with the second string today, but hopefully
not a second string, in fact. Just a second string
in terms of title, Chris.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, it's always good to sit down, whether it be
with Terry, you, or both of you, on a Saturday
morning and talk travel. And this week, we've got a
great show planned out.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We sure do. We're talking about a place called Costa
del Sol.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Do you know what that translates to?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Coast of the sun.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Exactly right. Exactly right. And what we've titled this show
is Costa del Sol Beyond the Beach. Because when most
people think of Costa del Sol, they think of the
beach and the beach regions. And it's certainly an important
part of that. And it's what comes to mind. We
think about beautiful beaches. Think about Mediterranean water. We think
(01:23):
about palm trees. We think about Marbella. We think about
beautiful resorts, glass of cold, something, maybe whatever, you know,
sitting beside you and you wouldn't be wrong. But if
that's all that people know about Costa del Sol, then
they really only kind of approach this region from the
(01:44):
front door. And what I'm hoping to do today is
by the end of the show, my goal is to
have listeners asking why we haven't talked about this region
before because of all the interesting things I'm going to
explain and share with you and the listeners today that
are behind that front door of this very, very glamorous
(02:07):
region of Spain.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Ah, Spain. I was waiting to find out where we
were in the world.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's a very historic region, no doubt. It's got a
lot of glamour associated with it, lots of culture. But
we're in that rural, mountainous part of Spain made up
of a lot of tiny villages, family-owned restaurants. And that's
the exciting part, I think, that I want to take
(02:35):
people to and I want to open the door and
get inside. So let's start by getting our bearings. Just
the question that you asked, where is this place anyway?
Costa del Sol sits along the southern Mediterranean coastline of Spain.
So we're talking about regions like Andalucía. The providence that
(02:56):
we're talking about is Malaga. And it's really important because
Malaga is not only the airport you're going to fly into,
but it's also an easy airport to get to. This
is an airport that's very easily reachable, starting at Dulles
in Washington. You could fly and get to Malaga by
(03:20):
traveling through either Madrid or Barcelona on direct flights. Or
if you don't want to do that, you might start
in either Paris or London and you can reach this
region with one stop. That's convenient. Something that, you know,
Terry always talks about getting there and making that flight easy.
(03:41):
So I think we've accomplished that. It's A very interesting city,
as I said. It's got history. It's got architecture. It
has what everybody knows, the beaches. And it's got a wonderful,
sophisticated culinary scene that's different that you're going to find
in other parts of Spain. And I know when I
(04:02):
talk about culinary, Chris, I'm in our turf, right?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah, we're going to talk a while about that. All right.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So we're going to talk about all of that. We're
also going to talk about the thriving arts community. And
we're going to talk about, well, let me share a
piece of trivia with you. We talk about arts. Do
you know who was born in this region? It's a
very famous person. Spanish artist that everybody knows this artist
for his very, very famous painting.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
My first thought was Picasso. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
And you would be correct.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Oh, good.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
So you're batting a thousand. This is Picasso's birthplace. So
if you want to think of it from the perspective
of this is the place that had a lot to
do with inspiring Picasso. This is what he grew up with.
This is what he saw. But we're going to move
outside of that region in itself, and we're going to
(04:56):
see how this region has many personalities, many facets, many
things we want to see. For example, if you head west,
you're going to reach a town called Marbella. Beautiful resorts,
beach clubs, restaurants, shopping in that unmistakable region. Mediterranean glamour.
This is a town that a lot of people probably
(05:18):
who've been to this region are very familiar with. But
if you go inland, that's when the beaches start to disappear.
You start to get up into this mountainous region. The
mountains rise. The roads start to wind a little bit more.
They're not straight and narrow because they got to go
around and through the mountains. And you begin finding these
(05:40):
small little Andalusian villages and It's like driving into Vegas
from the desert. All of a sudden you see this
different kind of scenery that's very much a contrast to
what you saw when you landed in Malaga. One of
the towns you might get to that's less than a
(06:03):
day trip from Malaga is a town called Ronda. It's
a different facet of Spain and if I were planning
someone's first luxury experience to Costa del Sol, this is
one of the places that I'd put on your itinerary, Chris.
If you told me you wanted to travel there, I'd
(06:23):
put this on your itinerary because I'd send you there
with a private guided tour that would not rush things,
but would let you see this little village of a town.
Ronda itself is purchased, dramatically perched, on a range. It's
called the El Tajo Gorge. And so when you get
(06:44):
to this town, there is actually a bridge that connects
the two sides of Ronda. It's a new bridge. It's
called Puente Nuevo. And it's been around since the 18th century,
but they still call it the new bridge. Okay. It
spans the gorge and it's a real, oh, kind of
(07:05):
a marker as you move into this town, That's what
you see. It's the linchpin of this town that puts
the two sides together. Am I starting to paint a
good picture?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, I'm liking it.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Okay. And this is why when we get to a
town like this that's not well-known, not as well written
up in all the books, we're going to want to
think about having a private guide and recommend having a
private guide because they're going to make an enormous difference.
They're not just going to drive down the street like
a tour bus that's passing through, but they're not going
(07:40):
to just say, hey, there's that bridge that we were
talking about. But they're going to immerse you in some
of the history. They're going to tell you who lived there,
the history of the town, how the people lived. Actually,
this town has a tremendous history back to the Moors.
They influenced this town. Christianity came through and changed this town.
(08:01):
This is the town that hosts... the oldest bullring in Spain.
That tells you a little bit about how far back
this town goes. It's got small streets. It's got people
with a lot of stories, history, people that have lived
there for generations and generations and generations. And I said
(08:24):
we were going to be talking about food a little bit.
We're going to have some great opportunities there where we're
going to go into some roadside, street side restaurants where
we're going to have maybe some locally made stews, some tapas.
We're going to taste some of their locally produced cheeses.
So we're talking about an off the path kind of
(08:46):
town that's got an incredible history that dates back, you know,
thousands of years. And those sites are still there and
people just look at those every day. And that's just
common for them.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Harry, why haven't we heard of these places before? Why
am I just hearing for the first time?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
What did I say at the beginning of the show?
I'm going to make you ask that question again and again, Chris.
I don't know is the answer why we haven't highlighted
this part of the world before. Because as Terry and
I talked about today's show, we talked about what's an
off the beaten path kind of place. It's really not
(09:23):
off the beaten path because we want it to be
a place that's easy to get to. But we wanted
to exemplify everything we say when we're on A Life
Less Ordinary, speaking with you, you know, every Saturday morning.
We want to include all of those things that are
just out of the box. So I'm peeling back. And
as I said, we went to the front door and
(09:45):
we went inside and we're stopping at our very first town.
And that is, you know, the town of Ronda, just
as an example. But let's go out of town for
a second. Let's go back to Marbelle. and take another journey.
Let's head out to wine country. I said we're going
(10:06):
to get to food and drink, right? Here we are.
Spain is known as wine country, and when Americans think
about Spain and they think about wine, they think about
a couple different types. They think about Rioja, they think
of Ribera, Del Duro, they think about Priot, Orat, but
(10:28):
the Malaga province has its own wine traditions, and that's
where the Malaga and the Sierras, the Malaga denominations come in.
And they're historically famous for some particularly sweet wines. They're
produced with grapes like Muscatel, Pedro Jimenez grapes. So imagine this.
(10:49):
We spent a little time in Ronda, looked around, enjoyed
that beautiful, beautiful city. But instead of joining a bus
full of people, we're going to move with our private
guide into the countryside, and we're going to stop and
visit a small winery. And this guide, because they're hand-picked,
(11:10):
through our virtuoso connections at the Wishing Well. This guide
has arranged not for just a visit to the winery,
but he's arranged for the winemaker to meet us. Again,
we're in a smaller part of the country, not so well-traveled,
so we have these kind of connections. We're going to
meet with the winemaker and the vineyard owner, maybe both,
(11:32):
and we're going to walk through the vines. We're going
to understand a little bit how the elevation, how the
soil is, how the climate affect the different wines that,
by the way, we're tasting wines, Chris. I hope that's okay, right?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I'm not a wine drinker, but every time we talk
about it on the show, I'm thinking, man, I need
to start sampling some good wine.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
You need to hang with me. We'll get you to
be a wine drinker. Because even if you don't do
much more than just sip and smell the wine, we're
going to sit down at the table in this vineyard,
and we're going to enjoy some local cheese. We're going
to enjoy some jamon, some ham. We're going to enjoy
some locally grown olives. We're going to enjoy some freshly
(12:15):
baked bread that's topped with that olive oil. And between
the wines, the jamon, the olives, the bread, we're going
to not just drink and eat, but we're going to
start to really understand what makes this region so special.
(12:36):
We'll understand where it came from. We've learned a little
bit about how it's produced. And we're going to learn
the difference between sitting down and just eating and drinking
and sitting down and experiencing the local wine, the local foods,
the local cheeses, breads, all the things that are made
(12:56):
up there. And these are the kind of memories that
I want to paint when you go beyond that front door.
Starting to paint the picture a little better?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Harry, if I'm going to go to Costa del Sol,
this coastal region, is there a local dish that I
need to try?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Well, you'll find that the whole food is different down there.
It's going to be different than the Spanish food that
you enjoy in Barcelona or even Madrid. But the tapas
there is going to be differently styled. It's going to
be a different kind of charcuterie on there with the
locally produced cheeses that you don't find in those other
(13:40):
parts of Spain.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
I don't know that I've given a lot of thought
in the past to what Spanish food is. I think
because I think of the Spanish language, I think of
Central American food, South American food. Is Spain more Mediterranean?
Is that what we're– the type of cuisine?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Very much.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Very much so. And one of the things that you'll
find in this region, I hope you like olive oil.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Because we're going to be enjoying olive oil. We're going
to be tasting olive oil. We're going to be tasting
olive oil on this locally produced bread. And there's a
lot of differences there. between the olive oil that you
pick up at the grocery store. You can even go
to our local grocery stores and you'll find several different varieties.
(14:25):
But here you'll find dozens of different locally produced varieties.
And the people will be very passionate about the differences
between them. And they're going to work real hard to
have you understand the differences in how they taste and
how they pair together. with the different foods because you
(14:46):
are in Andalusia, you are in olive country. And we
visited the vineyard. We wouldn't be right. We wouldn't be,
we wouldn't be doing ourselves right if we didn't also
visit an olive estate. And that's where we're going to
get our guided tour, privately arranged experience to walk through
(15:07):
the groves, check out some of the olives on the
vine and and then move inside, just as we might
have done in the vineyard, and watch how that whole
process of production matures into that bottle of olive oil
that you then sit down at the table and taste.
(15:27):
If you've never actually tasted high-quality extra virgin olive oil,
this is your opportunity to do that. It's fascinating. It
can be addictive. all the different varieties based upon the
different soils, based upon the different regions inside there, their
(15:49):
different aromas, different levels of fruitiness, bitterness, finishes. It sounds
like you're talking about wine when you're talking about olive
oil because they use many of the same words to
describe that experience.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Well, I think if you're talking about really good olive oil,
it is on the same level as a really good wine.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
It is. It definitely is. And these people are equally
passionate about it. So I love experiences like this, and
I love them when they're curated by a local guide
that takes you into these areas, these estates, the olive
oil estates, where you're meeting with the owners, you're meeting
(16:29):
with the production managers, and they're sitting and they're watching
your face as you're tasting the the different products that
they're producing in there and watching to look for the
fascination in your eyes and to see the reactions. That's
as much a joy as anything else. And that's how
you're now connecting to that Mediterranean life of this region.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Have you seen the production of olive oil, how they
do it with the presses?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It is not a fast process.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
It is not a fast process. It is. It's painstaking.
It's a pain. So what I was looking for is
a painstaking process. And it's a process of love. These people,
you know, they've been doing this for thousands of years.
So you got to, got to, got to, got to
think that they know what they're doing. You know, they
(17:22):
have to know what they're doing. But it's time to
move on.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
We've done the vineyard. We've done the olive estate vineyard.
Now it's time to eat something different. So one of
the great mistakes I think people make about luxury travel
is assuming that every memorable meal you're going to have
on a luxury trip has to involve white tablecloths, waiters
(17:49):
with the towels hanging over their arms, and Michelin stars
plastered on the wall. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
You can also find some really quality meals in somebody's house.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
You can. And you can also find some really quality
meals when you get into a small region like this
and you have somebody to direct you where you're going
to go, what you're going to try and choose from
the menu. They're going to curate your dining experience. And
(18:22):
my history tells me that I've had some experiences at small,
intimate restaurants. that are just as good as, you know,
the three and four star Michelin restaurants that I've had
the privilege to eat at. And I love eating. I
love eating at great restaurants. I love eating at these small,
(18:44):
intimate restaurants. And Costa del Sol will prove that you
don't have to be in a Michelin starred restaurant. So
one afternoon, I'm going to arrange on this trip for
anybody who decides they want to head to this region.
We're going to work to have you sitting at an
extraordinary restaurant, enjoying an elaborate tasting menu. One of the
(19:09):
places I may take you to is a place that
they call down there a chiringito. A chiringito.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Which means?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
It's a beach restaurant. Okay. Nothing overly complicated. You're sitting
near the ocean, you're smelling the wood fire, and somebody
is cooking. They're cooking something called espetos. It's the defining
food of Malaga, and it's something that you would never guess,
so I'm going to tell you what's in it, okay?
(19:38):
But you've got to promise to give it a chance
before I tell you.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
I mean, I've had some crazy food in my days,
so try me. All right.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So these are sardines skewered on a cane, roasted. over
an open fire um sometimes in an old boat that's
filled with sand on the beach okay and that's what
this is it's a culinary culture of this coastline and
it may turn out to be one of your favorite
meals on the trip fresh sardines a little salt over
(20:09):
the fire, sitting next to the Mediterranean Sea. I'll give
you a cold Spanish beer or a glass of local wine,
whatever your beverage is. Sometimes luxury isn't about adding things.
It's about finding a place where nothing needs to be added.
Just picture yourself on that beach eating those sardines prepared
(20:34):
just for you.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
You have not scared me off. That sounds actually wonderful.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
That's why I want to be your eating partner. I'm
your culinary travel partner, Chris.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Harry, if you and I go on a culinary trip,
I guarantee they will tell us not to come back
because we'll clean them out.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
No, no, no, no, no. We're going to save a
little bit of our stomachs to move to the next place, Chris.
This is like the children's book that I used to
read to my kids. The never-ending journey is going to
go on and on and on. and we want to
try every place and we want to try everything. So we've,
we've had, had a little meal. Now we're going to
(21:12):
move beyond sardines. We're going to look at something else
that's called a pescato frito, which is little fried fish.
It's a mixture of small, fresh fish. They're lightly fried,
often shared, um, in very, very tasty, uh, Another soup,
(21:33):
and I have not tasted this yet. It's called Ejo Blanco.
It's a chilled soup. It's made with almonds, garlic, bread,
and olive oil.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
I'm ready to try it. Yeah. But I have not yet.
I'm ready. Think of it as a distant cousin of
maybe a gazpacho, except there aren't any tomatoes, okay? Another soup.
that they have there. It's called porra antiquarana. It's a traditional,
(22:06):
it's a rich version and thicker version than a traditional gazpacho.
And I'm ready to try that too. And then, of course,
there's a gazpachuelo, a particularly interesting soup because it began
as a fisherman's food, something that humble fishermen would eat. It,
of course, is going to involve fish, potatoes, and a
(22:28):
mayonnaise-based broth. Again, something I haven't tried, but I'd look
forward to trying it here. So we're making our way
around the different culinary dishes that we can try. And
none of them began because somebody sat in Pillsbury's test
kitchen trying to invent something that would sell great at
(22:50):
the grocery store. But these are foods, these are recipes
that have evolved, again, over thousands of years. And they
were evolved... using all of the local foods. They used
what they had. They used the local foods, fish, because
they're right against the sea, almonds, they're growing there, olives.
(23:10):
I mean, that's the olive capital there. And you'll also
find grapes in there for the wine. So the geography
created the menu, not the test kitchen. The geography created
the menu. And centuries later, We're going to go there,
visit this region, and we're going to enjoy what they've
(23:31):
taken thousands of years to perfect.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Harry, when we go to visit anywhere in the world,
we want to be good neighbors to the people who
are welcoming us into their homes and their neighborhoods. When
it comes to restaurants in this part of the world,
what's the tipping etiquette?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Tipping etiquette varies in different parts of the world, and
that's a great question. One of the things that Americans
are very surprised at is that gratuities are often included
in the cost of the meal. So you don't have
to lay out another, you know, 15, 20. I don't know.
I've been watching the little suggestions at the bottom of
(24:14):
my tickets now. They keep getting bigger and bigger. 25%,
you know, for a tip. But the gratuities are included.
And the other thing that's incredible about this part of
the world is you're not talking about restaurants with the
big overhead, the big advertising budgets, the big fixed costs
that restaurants, the great restaurants may have here at home.
(24:36):
You're talking about eating very economically because you're eating foods
that are all produced locally, prepared locally, and served locally.
There's just not the overhead that You and I are
used to it, some of the restaurants.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
I know you said that you were taking us to
this dinner on the beach with the sardines. Do I
need reservations?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
No, you just need to know how to get there.
And that's why we use those local guides. We need
to know how to find them. and where these restaurants
are so that we find the best of the best.
I'm sure you'll get a good meal at many, many places.
But if you're going there, you're taking time to travel
to this region of the world, we want you to
(25:21):
have a life less ordinary experience when you visit there.
But I'm going to switch gears. This was casual, okay?
We were in our casual clothes for all of these meals.
It's time to dress up a little bit. You don't
have to dress up a lot, but you're going to
dress up a little bit. And we're going to go
to one of the finer dining regions or restaurants in
(25:46):
the region. Maybe we'll visit a restaurant in Marbella. It's
called Schina or in Ronda. There's a restaurant that we
found called Bardal. These are two star Michelin restaurants. And
throughout the Providence, you're going to find a lot of
Michelin-recognized kitchens creating very modern interpretations of the traditional Andalusian
(26:09):
ingredients and traditions. And when we say two-star, some people say, well,
it's not a five-star. There's a lot of things that
go into the Michelin star rating, and that's a whole
separate episode. But a lot of them have to do
with the size and the volume and the ability of
the restaurant to produce the same thing day after day,
(26:30):
which means you've got to have a a pretty rich
staff in terms of, you know, depth of expertise and things.
So when you find a two-star restaurant, you may get
a five-star meal at a two-star restaurant because it's not
a chef that's doing it. It's the owner that's doing it,
and he's doing it on a smaller scale.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
A couple of observations. First is a question. With the
Michelin stars, do they camp out at three stars? Is
that the top?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I'm not sure where the top of the restaurant goes.
That's a good question, and I don't have the answer
to that question. I look at the stars, but I
look at them as a good housekeeping seal of approval,
not necessarily what's going to drive my choice exclusively.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Well, and that was my next observation was if you're
going to anywhere that has a Michelin star, you're going
to a really great meal.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It's going to be good. You got it. My point
today is it doesn't have to have that star in
order for it to be good, but we will find
those stars there. If you got the star snobs, we
got the restaurants. We get into one of these restaurants
that we're talking about and you're going to see a
(27:45):
little different menu because they've done some adaptation there. They've
adapted for the world taste. You've eaten local cuisine in
our earlier examples. Now you're eating some cuisine that's got
the traditional base, but it's been adapted a little bit.
And that's where the culinary itinerary becomes a little bit
(28:07):
more interesting. I think, you know, in my mind, I'd
mix it up if I went to this region. I'd
take one night and I'd find that Michelin restaurant, you know,
that you're talking about, make sure we're really satisfied. And
we can also have bragging rights to say we're eating
at Michelin restaurants. But the next night, I just might
go for some tapas. I might go for lunch at
(28:29):
a winery. I might go to the shore and, you know,
and try those sardines barefoot in the sand being roasted,
you know, or fixed and prepared in an abandoned fishing boat.
And every night I'm going to have a different kind
of meal. For me, that is the epitome of a
(28:53):
great culinary experience where I mix it up and I
can say I had this, I had that. This was
so different than that. And I can contrast everything that
I've had. And I would include that olive tasting experience
in there, too, because if you do that right, that's
almost a meal experience. in and of itself. And the
good part about this, Chris, I haven't had to spend
(29:16):
a week trying to weasel my way into reservations at
restaurants that may not have reservations available, but I've gotten
into one and the rest of them I'm going to
get into because I know somebody. It's the who you know,
not where do you look to go.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Harry, I think we could probably spend the rest of
the show talking about food, but there are more activities
in when we head to Costa del Sol. This is
the southern part of Spain along the Mediterranean. We're going
to talk about Some sites and activities that we can
get into next here on A Life Less Ordinary.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Protect your vacation investment with guidance from a travel professional.
The wishing well knows travel and helps you avoid pitfalls
that can spoil your hard earned vacation. We'll plan your
trip and have your back as you travel. All of
this without support or so-called convenience fees. We're on the
web at thewishingwell.biz or call us at 540-908-2333. That's 540-908-2333.
(30:17):
The Wishing Well really does make dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
And welcome back to A Life Less Ordinary, the travel
show and podcast from your friends at The Wishing Well.
You can find them on Neff Avenue in Harrisonburg. You
can also find them online at thewishingwell.biz or give them
a call at 540-908-2333. I mentioned on the website, that's
where you also go to find all the past episodes
of A Life Less Ordinary. You'll find a link in
(30:43):
the upper right-hand corner of the website. And there's a
little search bar there. You can enter a keyword and
you can go back and listen to any one of
the episodes that we've done over the past six seasons
of A Life Less Ordinary. Today, our show is called
Beyond the Beach. We are talking about Costa del Sol,
which I'm not sure if it means coast of the
sun or if it's the sun coast, which would be
(31:06):
my guess. It is on the coast of Spain along
the Mediterranean and We've talked about all this great Mediterranean-inspired food.
And we've talked about a couple of the towns that
we should go to. And now we're going to talk
about all of the great sites and activities. You know
there's going to be a lot of them when you're
(31:27):
in a beach resort area.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
And it's hard to believe, Chris, that people aren't out
there saying, is the only thing that Chris and Harry
talk about food?
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Yes, that's it.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
The answer is... It's important. Very, very important. But, you know,
but there's more. And the great part about this destination
is that you can have both. So we started by
talking about some of the things that you see and
what makes this region so, so, so attractive. But then we,
(32:03):
you know, we wandered off and spent a good bit
of time talking about the food and the drink. But
I want to return to Malaga itself. And this is
a region where you could, and it's a very, very
safe place to walk around, spend time on your own.
And I think you'd enjoy yourself doing that. Lots of
(32:23):
things to see in these cities. You've got Roman theaters.
You've got the Picasso Museum. Lots of places to go.
Lots of things to see. But imagine exploring privately Malaga.
with somebody that knows the city intimately. You're going to
start in the historic center of the city, and it
can get a little busy in there, but you're going
(32:46):
to be guided to the interesting places like the Roman theater,
the area right around Elisaba. You'll hear about the Malaga
region when it was under Roman rule. So you'll be
looking at these sites and And you'll be hearing from
your local guide about the history and why things are
(33:10):
where they are. You'll hear what precipitated some of the
changes in there. You'll hear what happened when the Moorish
came in and ruled the area. And then when the
Christians came in and ruled this area. This area has
seen a lot of change over time. And the buildings
that you see, the architecture that you see, is going
(33:32):
to reflect the influences of each of these different people.
And it doesn't matter if you're a historian or not.
All of a sudden, the diversity that you see in
the styles of the buildings that you're looking at in
front of you, the columns, the shapes, even the construction
methodology that was used in those buildings, they're not just, hey,
(33:57):
this was a different builder, but it was chapters different.
in the history of this region. And if you're really creative,
if your mind is really alert, you can think about, hey,
what was Picasso thinking when he was sitting here looking
at things? And you'll know what was visible at that time.
(34:20):
But what was he thinking as he looked at some
of these buildings, as he looked at this scenery, the mountains,
the seaside? What influenced him and how did that influence
translate into some of the paintings that he did? And
if you're really good, actually better than I am, I
think there are people out there who can look at that, Chris,
(34:42):
and say, yeah, I see that in this painting or
I see that, you know, it's reminiscent of this and that.
And to me, those are the aha moments where you're
not just thinking about, you know, the food in your stomach.
and the beverage that you've been drinking, but you're thinking
about the place that you're in, and you're really absorbing it,
(35:03):
and more importantly, you're being able to relate history, to
relate the experience that you are having to what happened hundreds,
in some case, thousands of years ago. What a contrast.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
I don't know a lot about Picasso, Harry, so I
looked this up while you were talking about him.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
You're right.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
The area there along the Costa del Sol definitely influenced
his early artwork, especially the memory of the bullfighting. You
mentioned the oldest bullfighting ring. What I'm reading here says
that it definitely influenced his first oil painting called The
Little Yellow Picador. It depicted a bullfighter on horseback. Yeah. So, yeah,
(35:52):
it all ties together, Harry.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Well, I think that's a great moment for a lot
of people. And if you relate to that, great. I'm
not going to depend on everybody relating to that because
If that doesn't grab you in the way that I
was describing, maybe we move on and we look for
one of the private markets in town. Oh, excellent. Private
markets is a place where a local guide will help
(36:16):
you move through the marketplace, understand the different foods that
you're finding there, the different meats, the different cheeses. You're
going to find olives, olives, and olives, and olives. You're
going to find local breads and other products that are
produced there. And you'll watch people buying for the meals,
(36:38):
some of which you've sampled, you know, just earlier. But
you've got to have a break. So we're going to
stop and enjoy a little tapas. We might not stop
at the place that's saying authentic Spanish tapas. You know,
we're over 15 billion served. But we're going to find
that little local place where we can go inside and
(37:01):
get something especially delicious. Made for us. We want to
go where the locals go. We're going to be inside
the market so we know that the food couldn't be
much fresher and we'll enjoy a little bit of lunch
before we embark on our next adventure. Our next adventure,
I'm going to get back to the sea and we're
(37:21):
going to charter a yacht for the day.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
I'm on board. What a great way to explore the Mediterranean.
So we're going to not just talk about Costa del Sol.
But we're going to get into the water and we're
going to get this yacht or a small group experience
if a yacht isn't something that you want to charter
all by yourself. But we'll get together with a small
(37:47):
group and we're going to go out for a couple
hours and we're going to ask the captain to take
us around and give us that historic tour. We're going
to ask him to cruise along the coast. We might
ask him to stop and maybe we'll take a swim
in the Mediterranean. Something that is just a great experience.
(38:08):
I swam in the Mediterranean and I'm proud to say
it was one of my favorite experiences. It's just very,
very nice. I was off the coast of Greece when
I did mine. But swimming, stopping somewhere quiet, having the
boat just shut down. and sit in the water. Sit
(38:30):
in silence for just a little bit. Maybe have lunch
while you're out there. How do you know if you're
really doing things properly? Well, you've charted it so that
you've stayed out long enough to enjoy the sunset. And
you're sitting out there watching the sunset, looking ashore, watching
(38:53):
Marbella and watching her go to sleep, watching the sun
set over this beautiful, beautiful city, watching the mountains that
are behind you, watching the coastline light up a little
bit as the nightlife starts to happen. You're looking back
toward the shore instead of looking out from it. And
(39:15):
you're going to get a whole new picture of this
beautiful part of the world. And you're going to understand
why this coastline has attracted people from around the world
for generations. And you're also going to understand why there
are people families that have lived there for generations and
generations and generations and why they love the place they live.
(39:38):
They love the way that they make their living, whether
it's making cheese, growing olives, producing wine or fishing. You're
going to understand why people the passion that you've seen
throughout this visit, this short tour that we're doing this morning,
why that exists and why it's never going to die.
(40:01):
You're going to get done with that. You're going to
take a rest and you're going to get up. And
now I want to get you away from the resort
areas again. And I'm going to take you to some
of what they call the white villages. These are the
places that you would have never discovered on your own.
But in Spanish, they're the Pueblos Blancos of Andalusia. And
(40:21):
some of the places are Mijas Pueblo. It sits above
the coastline. Go farther afield, you'll find a bunch of
other little villages tucked into the mountainside landscape. And life
moves at a completely different pace. You're going to find
yourself not in a rush. You don't need to get
anywhere quickly. You just want to sit and take it in.
(40:45):
Kind of like the feeling that you get sometime when
you go up on Skyline Drive here, except way less crowded.
And instead of it being all, you know, federal land,
these are places where people make their homes. People live
there all year long, you know, season after season. They
exist there and still it looks beautiful. You don't have
(41:07):
to worry about navigating narrow roads. You don't have to
worry about parking. You don't have to figure out which
village deserves your limited time because you're with somebody who
knows where to take you. You've got your guide with you.
He's going to take or she's going to take you
to the most interesting places. You might stop along the
(41:29):
way and visit a local artisan. Spend an hour or
two in their studio, watching them craft something. Again, we'll
stop and enjoy a lunch at a small family restaurant.
And we might just be traveling along, Chris, and you say, hey,
this is so beautiful. And your guide says, great, let's
(41:51):
stop here and just spend a minute or two. You
want to step outside and take a photograph or have
me take a photograph of you in this area that
captured your attention. It's your own little paradise. And that's
what's so nice about having that private guide. It's the luxury,
the part of a life less ordinary that isn't that expensive,
(42:16):
but it's that invaluable. You have the time. Nobody's holding
up a sign saying, hey, everybody back on the bus.
You got 10 minutes. Go out there, take your pictures,
jump back on the bus. Don't forget which seat you're
in and where your stuff is. That's good too. But
this is not that trip at all. This is my
kind of luxury. It's what I think of when I
(42:38):
talk about as a life less ordinary. One more stop.
One more stop. All right.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Well, we're running close on time here. So we're going
to visit one more location. Then we need to take
a break.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Well, I'm just painting one more scene. And I want
to talk about after dark. I talked about watching the sunset.
Guess what? After dark, there's evenings. Marbella can certainly dress up.
You're going to have cocktails overlooking the Mediterranean. You're going
to dine. Maybe that's where you choose your two-star Michelin restaurant.
You're going to walk through the old town after dinner,
(43:11):
after having enjoyed this spectacular day. And even in Spain, nonetheless,
you're an American. You think, ah, everyone's going to bow
and bend our way. No, sir. The Spanish timetable is
not going to adjust for us. You want to have dinner?
At six, you're eating alone. It's going to happen a
(43:31):
lot later. They're not ready at six. So you're going
to work on their time. They don't care that you're
an American and you want to eat at six. Dinner
happens later. People linger. Nobody's in a rush. They don't
have to get somewhere. They don't have to go to
sleep to get up for the six o'clock bus to
go to school. You'll find families are still out. The
plazas are alive. The sidewalks do not roll up at
(43:55):
night in these small towns. And the nicest thing you
can do is stop trying to make another country operate
on your timetable, but to sit back and enjoy and say,
why don't we do it this way too? So if
you're enjoying this area at dinner time, it's going to
(44:20):
be a little later. Don't rush. You're not going to
finish in 30 minutes. You're not going to finish in
45 minutes, Chris. Order another glass of wine. Talk. Watch
the people. Take a walk. And traveling isn't always about
seeing more. It's about experiencing more, learning how to slow down,
and enjoying everything you see.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
I'm trying to do the math in my head, but
I'm thinking with the time difference between here and there,
it's kind of just a late lunch if you're having
a late dinner experience. Because what, they're eating around nine
o'clock at night?
Speaker 2 (44:53):
I'm going to take your watch away from you, Chris.
You're not going to have a watch, so you won't know.
It's the ambiance. You're going to feel when it's time
to eat.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
I love as you're painting this picture because it's like
everything about this trip is about just slowing down and enjoying, relaxing, appreciating.
So I really, I love the picture that you're painting.
Our show today is called Beyond the Beach, Costa del Sol. Well,
I'll talk more about it next here on A Life
Less Ordinary.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Protect your vacation investment with guidance from a travel professional.
The Wishing Well knows travel and helps you avoid pitfalls
that can spoil your hard-earned vacation. We'll plan your trip
and have you back as you travel. All of this
without support or so-called convenience fees. We're on the web
at thewishingwell.biz or call us at 540- That's 540-908-2333. The
(45:42):
wishing well really does make dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Welcome back to A Life Less Ordinary, your travel show
and podcast. Every Saturday morning, your friends at The Wishing
Well bring you great travel ideas, great travel experiences. If
you'd like to learn more, reach out to Harry. He's
in the office after the show today. He'll be happy
to take your call at 540-908-2333. You can also stop
by if you'd like. They're on Neff Avenue in Harrisonburg.
(46:14):
Or find out more information anytime, 24-7 on their website
at thewishingwell.biz, including past episodes of A Life Less Ordinary.
In the upper right-hand corner, you'll find a link. and
you can type in a keyword to any topic, any
travel ideas, questions, or locations that you want to learn
more about and listen to past episodes. Harry, our show
(46:36):
today is Beyond the Beach. We're talking about Costa del Sol,
that entire region of southern Spain along the Mediterranean. And
we've talked about all the great food. We've talked about
all of the, uh, activities that we can enjoy, uh,
along the beach. And, uh, now we need to sort
of put it all together. How do we make this
(46:57):
trip happen? Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
I talked to, uh, to everyone at the beginning of
the show and said, you know, we got to open
the door. I hope, and I've done that hope I've
done that. And I hope people are motivated. And, uh,
expecting that we'll get some calls and say, this is
so cool. I want to do this. You know, how
do I do it? And the neat part is you
can do it. We can help you do that. We're
not going to leave you frustrated. There are a lot
(47:20):
of things that can be done and there are trips
that I've talked about, but there's even more, Chris, so
many more side trips. We were talking during the break
about some of the side trips that you found.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
So, yeah, you know, I mentioned earlier in the show,
I'm like, why haven't we heard of this? Well, we have,
maybe just not under the Costa del Sol umbrella. Gibraltar
is a day trip you can take.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Seville, Cordoba, Granada.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Very interesting.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
I mean, all these locations that we've heard of and have,
you know, just world famous, you know, sites and activities
of their own are just a drive away from the
Costa del Sol region.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
They are. And what's nice about this region is the
transportation is good, the roads aren't crowded, and it's easy
to make those kinds of arrangements. And that's part of
putting this all together. How do I put this together?
You put your pieces on there.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
What kind of transportation do they have? Is it trains, buses?
Do I call an Uber? How am I getting around
while I'm there?
Speaker 2 (48:23):
I'm not sure about the Uber, but you can get
a car, of course. There are trains, the high-speed trains.
You do reach out to this region, and they connect
many of these cities, so you can get somewhere in
an hour, an hour and a half on a high-speed train.
That's a perfect way to move around. You don't have
to worry about anything. If you let us know, we
(48:44):
can get you a guide. We arrange transportation, private transportation,
from place to place also, which lets you vary your schedule.
That's even better places you want when you want to
be there. But there's so many things to do. We've
talked about, you know, breakfast over the water. We've talked
about sleeping in late, staying up late at night and
(49:05):
enjoying the nightlife there. We've talked about walking on the beach.
We've talked about tasting different kinds of food, different kinds
of meals. There's so much to do. We didn't talk
about sitting on the beach for a day, but you
can surf. do that too. And that's what's so special
about living a life less ordinary is you help to
(49:28):
create that life with your dreams, with your visions. That's
why we call this place The Wishing Well. And we
call this show A Life Less Ordinary. Our goal is
to have people put those two together and let us
help make that happen. So what makes this particular trip
a life less ordinary, Chris? I think the destination. If
(49:49):
I haven't made a case for this destination, I've done
a terrible job. I hope I haven't done that. I
hope I've shown people there's a difference between going somewhere
and experiencing somewhere. In the last several shows that we've
done with Terry, we've talked about experiences and the keys
(50:10):
to a great vacation, a great trip. That's experiencing it.
We've talked about a place that's easy to get to.
We've talked about a place that's got plenty of places
to stay. We've talked about a place that's got lots
to do for an individual that wants to travel by themselves,
for a couple that's traveling for a special occasion. This
(50:31):
is a place that you could take your family to,
your immediate family. You could take your grandchildren to, and
there would be enough to do, enough to see, to
fascinate everybody. So it's not just visiting Costa del Sol
and visiting the beaches. It's visiting Costa del Sol and
visiting the region. You're going to come back remembering that
(50:54):
winemaker who poured something very special just for you. and
explain to you why it tastes the way it does
because of the soils that they've used. You're going to
stand above that gorge, stand on that bridge in Rana
and look around and saying, how can a city exist
like you know, with a gorge that cuts through the
(51:17):
middle of it. You're going to remember the smell of
those sardines cooking over that open fire. And it's going
to put a smile on your face as well as
you're going to remember that olive oil tasting and the
differences and the fact that there isn't just an olive oil,
but there's lots of different olive oils. And you'll remember
those tiny restaurants. You'll remember those guides. And you'll remember
(51:41):
that place that you chose to stop to take a
photograph along the way. So, I think I've made the
case that this is a region that people should definitely consider.
And this is but one of many regions like this
in the world that we're hoping to open people's eyes
(52:01):
up to on a life less ordinary, Chris.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
Harry, what experience do most travelers overlook but end up
loving when they visit this area?
Speaker 2 (52:09):
I think they... They end up overlooking the experience that
they didn't think about. That's the quick answer to that.
There's something that happens on a trip that they didn't expect.
The complete unexpected. Terry was talking about somebody comes to
meet them at the airport that they didn't expect and
(52:32):
escorts them to their hotel. Or somebody that you meet
at a hotel that says, Come to my family's place.
We're going to have dinner there. That's the kind of
experience that I think makes life less ordinary, that I
think makes any trip special, and that you can't necessarily anticipate.
Sometimes it's because we arrange it. Sometimes because circumstances just
(52:56):
make it happen. Because you've set yourself up in a place,
in a way, in a style that people find you
are approachable as a traveler. So it all fits together.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
Harry, how do we get more information if we're sold
on traveling to the Costa del Sol region?
Speaker 2 (53:15):
We'd be delighted to talk to you, Chris. You can
give us a call. We're at 540-908-2333.
Speaker 1 (53:23):
This has been A Life Less Ordinary, the travel show
and podcast from your friends at The Wishing Well. They're
at 243 Neff Avenue in Harrisonburg. If you have any
questions on topics discussed today, please reach out to The
Wishing Well. online at thewishingwell.biz or call 540-908-2333. Past episodes
are available on the iHeartRadio app. And we'll see you
(53:45):
again next Saturday morning at 10 for a life less
ordinary from The Wishing Well.
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