Just back from Bahia de Casares near Estepona. Thought I'd report back.

Weather - good but rain on three days - and on one of those it didnt even clear up later in the day.

Bahia de Casares is 9km west of Estepona - thank goodness for a car. I havent driven much on the right before, but found it surprisingly easy. The town of Puerto de la Duquesa was the nearest biggest town to us which is lovely. There are many bars and restaurants around the port which are great and reasonably priced.

Estepona - lovely beach (heavy surf!) and good shops and restaurants. A nice town, not too commercialised and not many Brits there.

Gibraltar - an excellent trip out and only took us less than half an hour to get there. We did the sensible thing and parked in La Linea de la Concepion and walked across the border. Its a strange feeling running across the airport's runway to get into the colony. Trip up the cable car to the top of the rock well worth it. Shopping for booze and fags amazing value but remember its non-EU.

Waterparks - we were going to go to the one in Torremolinos - but because we went to Gibralter quite a few times, we decided to do half a day in Gibralter and then half a day at the waterpark in Algeciras. With hindsight this wasn't the best waterpark around. There are a couple of big slides but not many. The Torremolinos and the Mijas Costa ones are bigger and better. Again not many Brits around at this park - annoying Spanish kids pushing in nearly got so bad that I was ready to impale one of them with my inflatable!

Also on the way to Algeciras is a massive shopping outlet near Carrefour. Lots of shops all with massive discounts. I got a cool leather jacket for 39euros which would have cost me a fortune back here. Carrying it through the airport (as I had excess luggage anyway) was a pain though! There are so many out of town shopping centres too - and from 1 July - 31 August most of them are having rebajas - sales! so many a bargain to be had! La Canada just outside Marbella is another good one, as are all the shops in Puerto Banus, which is a great town and somewhere I'd go and stay.

Malaga airport chaotic as ever - though we checked in for our BMI Baby flight three hours before it went - they were really helpful in that.

All in all a good holiday. I prefer big resort based holidays generally so it was a little quiet for me at times, but for those looking for a little peace and quiet the western end of the Costa is definitely the one for you.

If anyone wants to know any more about this end of the coast let me know.