Espana - Lunch in Puerto Banus - Thursday Nov 16th

Today was supposed to be a trip to Gibralter but we were diverted to a sales pitch and a nice lunch in Puerto Banus after being contacted by the Marriott sales rep Wednesday night. The weather for Thursday was going to be rainy anyway and she convinced us to stay in Marbella and enjoy the sights. She stopped by with a free bottle of wine and gave us the overview of how the Marriott Marbella resort worked and what were some of the nicer restaurants and attractions in the area. We told "Suzanne" about our owning a Starwood time share unit and that we had traded for the Marriott location where we were at but that we would be willing to go through a sales pitch at the new Marriott "Playa Andalucia" resort just south of Marbella.

The sales pitch at the Playa Andalucia was low key and we learned a lot more about how the time share industry works and how to get the best value for our unit or any future unit we may buy. In return for our time we recieved two $100 euro gift certificates to be redeemed when staying at a Marriott for a two day period.

After our visit to Playa Andalucia we travelled north returning towards Marbella and stopped in Puerto Banus, a small city that is playground to some of the world's richest people. It was raining quite heavily and we walked through the narrow streets to the water front that was lined with multi-million dollar yachts and expensive restaurants and shops. On a nice day it would have been quite pleasant to wander the streets. As it was we just wanted to get off our feet and out of the rain so we quick stepped into a little Italian restaurant. The staff were very friendly and the food was quite excellent and that helped take the sting out of the 16 Euro salad, 15 Euro pizza, and 4 Euro bottles of water that Fran and I split.

Steep prices aside, Puerto Banus is a must stop on a future trip.