Mijas Pueblo

Mijas Pueblo sits at about four hundred metres on the flank of the Sierra de Mijas, close enough to the coast to see the whole Costa del Sol and Gibraltar on a clear day, and far enough up to have kept its village form while the resorts below expanded. The lanes are whitewashed and hung with flowers, and the centre holds the Ermita de la Virgen de la Pena, a chapel carved into the rock by a Carmelite brother between 1656 and 1682, along with a small bullring squeezed onto the hillside. The burro taxis, donkeys pulling carts and carrying riders, began in the late 1950s, when tourists asked quarry workers riding home for photographs and rides; there are now around sixty donkeys, and they are the village's best-known image.

The main sights

• The rock chapel - the Ermita carved into the hillside in the seventeenth century.
• The bullring - a small ring squeezed onto the hillside.
• The coastal panorama - the Costa del Sol and, on clear days, Africa.
• The donkey taxis - carts and rides running since the late 1950s.

When to go

Spring and autumn for comfortable walking; the village is busiest with coach groups between eleven and four. Summer is hot and crowded. Evening is quieter once the day trips leave.

Before you go

The centre is given over to souvenir shops and coach tourism, and it can feel packaged. Parking fills early and the lanes are steep.

Nearby

Fuengirola and its bioparc are below; Marbella and Estepona lie west along the coast.

Key facts