Old money or nouveau riche, it's all one, because if you can afford to live on the Costa del Sol's Golden Mile, the couple of kilometres between Marbella and Puerto Banús (the Golden One Point Eight Kilometers doesn't have the same ring to it), you are sitting in one of the best addresses in Europe.

Surprisingly, for somewhere that has more towers, turrets, twisty bits, spirals and domes than a Disney fairytale castle, Marbella actually has quite a history. (Seriously!) The Phoenicians, who installed their trading posts and settlements all along the southern Spanish coast, founded Marbella town over 3600 years ago. In the third century BC the Romans came and settled, giving Marbella its first name. They called it Salduba.

The old town is well kept and quite charming, mainly because it is largely ignored by the tourists trying to catch a glimpse of the legions of film stars who are reported to have houses in the ‘posh' part. The Plaza de los Naranjos is a shady and peaceful square with cafes, lush vegetation and benches. The old City Hall dates from the 15th-century and the Iglesia de nostra Señora de la Encarnación, the parish church, was built in 1505, while behind it the Museo del Grabado has paintings by such Spanish greats as Picasso, Miró and Dalí. Although, sadly, the town that can boast such artistic delights is also rather proud of its Bonsai Museum. Makes one shudder to think!

Marbella has its pretty enough little harbour, but it's carthorse to stallion alongside the nautical glamour of Puerto Banús. When José Banús gave his name to the now famous port it was unlikely he envisaged it becoming one of the most famous marinas in Europe. Puerto Banús is synonymous with wealth, fashion, glamorous parties and the 'highlife & nightlife'. Its reputation is high-class and high-price-tag. The place to be and to be seen, this is where the elite classes and would-be famous are to be found.

Despite the fame of the Golden Mile, it's only a fragment of the 150 kilometres of Málaga Province coastline that is the Costa del Sol. The name is supposed to have been dreamed up by an Austrian consul in Cádiz, who made frequent trips to Almería, for the simple reason that the sun shines a lot here.

Marbella may lead the way in heady tourism, but it didn't begin there. That proud boast belongs to Torremolinos and an Englishman, one George Langworthy, not surprisingly known as El Ingles locally, who bought Santa Clara Castle at the end of the 19th century and converted it into a residence for foreigners, charging them the princely sum of one peseta per night.

Tourist growth wasn't exactly rapid, but by the mid-1950's Torremolinos was in the middle of a tourist boom, which spread to the neighbouring towns of Benalmádena, Mijas and Fuengirola, all now as equally popular with foreign residents as the are with holidaymakers.

As one journalist succinctly put it, "Torremolinos has thankfully long outgrown its Monty Python spam and chips image and, over recent years, has evolved as an attractive and appealing resort noted for its clean sandy beaches, wide choice of hotels and restaurants and unparalleled variety of entertainment, activities and nightlife available." While it might be a hectic holiday resort in the summer, during winter months it is peaceful, with a very Spanish feel.

Benelmádena and Fuengeriola, with their large international resident community and visitor numbers, have an enormous variety of restaurants, pubs and entertainment, everything from English, Scottish and Irish pubs, to Italian, Dutch and Lebanese.

East of Torremolinos, through Málaga city, Rincon de Victoria, Velez-Malaga and Nerja, tourism came later and grew less rapidly, which created a more modest form of development than further west. Tourism in the area was led by the discovery of the Nerja Cave in 1959. For over forty years this magnificent attraction has hosted the International Nerja Cave Festival, which takes place in July each year, attracting top performers from all over the world. Musical and dance styles range from classic to flamenco, and the festival is now one of the key dates on the Spanish cultural calendar. 

And it's not just a coastline of sparkling Mediterranean and soft sandy beaches. The Costa del Sol drifts inland, through the Axarquía, whose beautiful, gleamingly white mountain villages bear the stamp of their Moorish past, as far as Ronda. Only an hour's drive inland from the glitz and glitter of the coast Ronda sits perilously on the top of a plateau. La Ciudad, the old Moorish section of the city, with its tiny winding streets and Moorish horseshoe arches, is separated from the more modern part by a deep cleft in the rock known as the Tajo. Although famous for having the oldest bullring in Spain, the undoubted focal point of Ronda is the 98-metre high New Bridge that spans the precipitous drop linking the two parts of the city.

Whatever you wish for your well-earned holiday – a stretch-out on the beach, mixing with the glitterati, tramping mountain footpaths or dozing in the shade after languid lunch - the Costa del Sol has it all. You just have to get there and let it happen!