One month in Frigiliana
This year me and my family decided to do vacation a bit different. We figured that a longer stay somewhere in the south of Spain would be a good fit for us before the twins starts pre school.
Staying at one place for a month allowed us to get a feel for the area and really get into "vacation mode" with our three kids. It also allowed for less logistics and a more calm stay in general.
This vacation was one of our goals for the year and now, one week after arriving in Stockholm, I'm proud of us having done it.
We had excellent support for three out of four weeks by our parents-in-law which really made the stay even better. Me and Paulina managed to sneak away for one day to get some "rest" and time for our selves.
Considering the current state of the world, with an ongoing war in Ukraine, the (hopefully ending) pandemic and the world economy down turn around the corner I'm even more proud of the decision to travel for a month with three small kids.
Preparations
Going away for a month required some additional preparations and having one year old twins and a three year old didn't make it easier. Packing, cleaning the house and sorting out the logistics was a bit of a challange. But as long as you are aware that no matter what you do, due to "disruptions" it will take about three times longer you should be fine. I think we set reasonable expectations on how fast we could prepare to travel. It took about three days to pack and clean the house.
We were concerned about the queues for the security check at Arlanda as it was under-staffed causing travelers to not reach their gate in time. We were in the security check queue for about 20 minutes and made the way to the gate with some margin. But keeping bags and children in check is a bit of a hassle. Perhaps this will be different the next time as the twins will be able to walk by then...
Frigiliana
We chose to rent a house well up in the mountains near Frigiliana just north of Nerja one hour by car from Malagá. The first place we considered was located down by the beach in Torox, however we went with a bigger place with pool and great views in the mountains. Going up and down the mountain each time we wanted to get to the ocean became almost a habit early on and as we had the pool we spent some entire days at the house going for a walk to watch the great views.
Staying central in a city right next to the beach might have been the logic thing to do for us, but looking back I'm really glad we chose the distant but well equiped (with a pool, shadows and garden) place.
Frigiliana is a small white mountain town with a church, great views and some decent restaurants. They also have a couple of playgrounds which served us well throughout the stay. Unfortunately it wasn't located within walking distance from our house, but again I think it's worth getting the views and the space living a bit off.
Nerja
We'd go by car down the steep switchback roads to get down to the beach in Nerja. It took about 20 minutes "door to door". We spent perhaps 2/3 of the days at the beach and stayed there until sunset a couple of times. Evenings by the beach are the best!
Nerja is situated about 45 minutes by car from Malagá and we spent some time in the city as well, mostly to eat or watch the views. You could tell, both in Frigiliana and Nerja, that there were a lot of stores and restaurants that were closed permanently perhaps due to Covid and the decrease in tourism during the last two years.
Things we might do different next time
- Visit Castillo de Locubin, Paulina's dads home village. Maybe even get a round tour :)
- Consider September/October instead of May
- Travel lighter as long as there's a washing machine