The setting of Mijas is spectacular. A whitewashed hill village above the Costa del Sol at 430 metres, it has become one of the most popular day trips along this stretch of coast. Mijas Pueblo — the old town — knows how to be picturesque and has invested in staying that way. When the burros were no longer needed to bring marble and lime from the Sierra de Mijas quarries down to the coast, they were not retired but converted into donkey taxis for visitors. When a bullring was built here, it broke with tradition by being square rather than circular.
The village has grown into one of Spain's most prosperous municipalities, with nearly 75,000 residents spread between Mijas Pueblo in the hills, the coastal resort of La Cala, and the suburban sprawl of Las Lagunas. The old town is the heart of it: narrow cobbled lanes between whitewashed houses, with the Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Peña cut into the cliff face at one end. The Miniatures Museum and the adjacent Folk Museum offer an hour's entertainment of a very different kind. The views from the terraces down to the coast and across the Mediterranean towards Morocco on a clear day are reason enough to make the climb.