Far from what one might think, the leisure offer of the Costa del Sol is not exclusively directed at the tourist who chooses this area purely for a vacation. Its diverse and varied character has made it an essential complement to every kind of trip, and traveller, that has Málaga as the final destination. From this perspective, it is logical, if not obvious, to think that this province’s many resources and attractions designed for relaxation and enjoyment have become one of its solidest assets, especially for the ability to diversify this place’s tourism product, which is characterised precisely by the broad range of options that it offers the visitor who is ready to invest his free time in activities whose primary purpose is to entertain and divert. 

The leisure businesses and facilities of the Costa del Sol, which are distributed throughout the province of Málaga, play an important part in this respect. The dean of all these facilities is a well-known amusement park in the locality of Benalmádena. For more than twenty years, it has been helping to enlarge this offer, which has become especially highly developed in the locality where the park is located. This coastal municipality now has other nationally and internationally famous “fun industry” facilities, such as a cable car that allows visitors to go to the top of the Calamorro peak in the Sierra de Mijas mountain range, from which they have a stunning view of the whole coast. Furthermore, there is an interactive underwater park -the first of its type in Andalusia- with almost three thousand species from different regions of the world, and a park devoted to marine life that has, among other attractions, a dolphinarium.

Recreating natural habitats and including exotic animals in these settings is also the theme of other leisure facilities on the Costa del Sol. Such is the case of the zoo in Fuengirola, considered one of the best in world, and the crocodile park in Torremolinos, which exhibits reptiles from Africa, Asia and the Americas. For its part, Estepona has some unusual installations that recreate different scenes in an area of more than one hundred hectares that allow the visitor to enter into ecosystems of the five continents while Benalmádena and the city of Málaga have specific centres to encourage the protection of the marine environment and the conservation of submarine nature, and which were conceived to promote environmental education and recreation.

The Costa del Sol’s climatic blessings have also contributed to the fact that this destination’s water parks have enjoyed excellent growth and a better acceptance. They typically include all the ingredients necessary to guarantee that whoever goes there seeking a day of refreshing relaxation will enjoy himself. One of these parks is in Torremolinos. Among its attractions is a toboggan slide more than twenty-two metres high. Mijas, on the western coast, and Vélez Málaga, on the opposite side, are the sites of the other two parks of this type in the province. The three have some services in common, such as a picnic area, showers, dressing rooms and restaurant service, and some have specific facilities such as mini-golf installations and sports fields.