The Quiet Side of Andalusia
There is a version of the Costa del Sol that was never really about the sea — the one built between a golf estate and the Sierra de Mijas, behind courtyard walls built for guests who preferred privacy to an audience. La Zambra Resort - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt still holds that address in Mijas, between Málaga and Marbella, asking nothing of the day beyond what you decide it should be — a spa morning, a round on Los Olivos, a lunch that runs long enough to become the afternoon. La Zambra Resort occupies the former Hotel Byblos in Mijas, the discreet retreat European royalty and their circle chose through the 1980s and 90s, largely because so little of what happened there ever got explained. That same privacy still runs through La Zambra: 196 rooms and suites, each behind its own terrace, four restaurants that rarely close early, and whitewashed courtyards built to keep a stay entirely the guest's own. Ronda, Granada, Córdoba and Seville each make a day trip from this golf resort between Málaga and Marbella — near enough to reach, close enough to come back to.
