Torre del Mar on TripAdvisor Top Destinations for 2009 List

You may be familiar with the website TripAdvisor, and the fact that every year at about this time they – along with every other travel publication – puts out a list of the places they think will be hot destinations for the following year. This year, the #7 spot in their top 10 list is Torre del Mar in Spain, so I wanted to take a moment to tell you about the reasons Torre del Mar might have made this list.

One of Spain’s most popular tourist destinations (and one of the areas where lots of vacation packages to Spain are targeting) is, without doubt, the sunny Costa del Sol – and Torre del Mar is one of the resort towns of the Costa del Sol. So for TripAdvisor to say that it’s an up-and-coming destination rather than a full-blown already-hot spot may seem to some to be a little off the mark. But Torre del Mar, while it offers basically all the same things as the other resort towns along the Costa del Sol, remains a bit less bombarded by tourists. This is still a resort town, however, so don’t be expected a deserted beach.

The beaches of Torre del Mar are easily its most popular draw, as the beaches of the entire Costa del Sol are as well. Torre del Mar itself boasts a whopping 4km of sandy beaches, so there’s lots of waterfront to enjoy. Additionally, should you grow bored of lying on the beach all day (I know, impossible to consider and all that), there are other things you can do in the town. From the nearby hiking and mountain biking trails to the the eminently stroll-able promenade to the selection of water sports you can try to the historic Town Hall building to the great shopping and restaurants, you’ll have plenty to keep you entertained.

As with just about every other Costa del Sol resort town, the beaches of Torre del Mar (which some websites even refer to as a “village”) are lined with bars, discos, night clubs, and restaurants. The discos in particular really get going on Friday and Saturday nights, with the party sometimes lasting all night, in an area of town called El Copo. As you might imagine because of the proximity to the water, the restaurants in town serve a wide variety of seafood.

Now, I’m still not entirely certain why Torre del Mar made the TripAdvisor list for 2009 destinations, especially given the number of beach towns in Spain that are away from the busy Costa del Sol and have beaches that are just as nice, but I don’t make the rules. If you’d like to have a list of places to check off to visit next year, you can certainly add Torre del Mar to that list – or you can set out to find your own perfect Spanish beach town and get there before TripAdvisor finds out about it.

original photo on Costasur website