Estepona is a town and municipality in the comarca of the Costa del Sol, southern Spain. It is located in the province of Málaga, part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its district covers an area of 137 square kilometers. It covers a fertile valley crossed by small streams and a mountainous areas dominated by the Sierra Bermeja, which reaches 1,449 m at the peak of Los Reales.
Estepona is renowned for its beaches, which stretch along some 21 km of coastline. It is a popular resort and holiday destination.
Due to its natural environment, surrounded by the sea and Sierra Bermeja mountains, Estepona has a micro climate with over 325 days of sunshine per year.
Estepona now has many interesting facets which make it a popular and contemporary all year round holiday destination including two EC Blue Flag beaches, a modern sports marina with many tapas bars and restaurants and a white-walled town offering shopping and picturesque squares. Estepona was also earmarked in the early 1990s as the original site chosen by the Walt Disney organisation for their Eurodisney project ahead of Paris, France who were later awarded the installation
Places of interest
Puerto Banús Puerto Banus is an upscale community about 30 minutes drive away from Estepona Port with a large number of designer stores, including Versace and Armani.
Selwo Safari Park The park is based on the African safari park and houses 2000 animals in semi-wild conditions. Only 20 minutes drive away from Estepona Port (and on the public transport route).
Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos de Estepona The exhibition and congress centre of Estepona is located opposite Carrefoursupermarket on the eastern edge of Estepona – closest to Marbella. This centre is home to nearly all of Estepona’s organised events including product presentations, fairs, commercial exhibitions, concerts and more.
Beaches
“Playa del Cristo”, or Christ Beach, is five minutes West of Estepona Port. It is a small cove with lifeguards on station and also two “chiringuitos”, beach front bar/restaurants. La Rada Beach is 2 minutes East of Estepona Marina and at over 1.5 km in length runs from the Marina past Estepona old town. There is also the popular naturist/nudist beach of Costa Natura to the west of Estepona, which was the first official naturist site in Spain.
Restaurants & eating out
Estepona is not known for the “night club” culture found in some areas on the Costa del Sol, but does have a wide variety of restaurants & bars, ranging from local Spanish cuisine to most Mediterranean cuisines, also cooked fish of different forms, Italian and French. Many restaurants offer terraces allowing diners to eat outside during the late evening. Many restaurants offer multilingual menus with entries in English or German.
Most restaurants are located near the seafront, either along the main promenade adjoining the sea or along Calle Real. There are a number of small Plazas or squares next to Calle Real, on which numerous restaurants can be found.
Fast food restaurants are also present, but are not as numerous as most other European cities. There is a single McDonald’s restaurant at the edge of the town, close to Carrefour, and a small Burger King located along the main seafront promenade.
Shopping
Estepona’s small local shops offer locally made produce and goods. In the main town centre there are a number of boutiques offering contemporary international clothing brands and other goods. There is also a busy Wednesday market featuring clothing as well as food and vegetables. Estepona port holds a Sunday market for more of the “touristy” type of goods.
Estepona port has two supermarkets: a Supersol providing fresh produce, meat and seafood and an Opencor, a subsidiary of El Corte Inglés, providing a selection of convenience style foods. Fresh meat, fish and vegetables may also be purchased at the old, but recently renewed, indoor-market, in the centre of town.
There are no large shopping complexes in Estepona. The nearest large department stores are the La Cañada complex just off the north ringroad of Marbella or El Corte Inglés department store in Puerto Banús, just before Marbella. Both can be accessed by traveling east from Estepona towards Málaga on the A7.
In the old town there are a range of small-to-medium-sized shops, typical of a Spanish town of this size.