Blue flags awarded to 25 beaches on the Costa del Sol, one more than in 2017

Within Malaga province the most successful municipalities are Fuengirola, Estepona and Marbella, each of which boast four flags along its beaches. Marbella has also recovered its blue flag this year for its marina.

Fuengirola gained one flag more than last year. Mayor Ana Mula said that the recognition confirms the towns achievements in terms of the quality of the environment, services and facilities. The awarding body of the blue flags has chosen to allocate them to all four beaches in Fuengirola: El Castillo, Fuengirola, Los Boliches-Las Gaviotas and Carvajal.

Regarding the rest of the 25 blue flags, the province has lost some and gained others. Rincón de la Victoria no longer has the flag it gained last year. Vélez-Málaga has a new flag on La Caleta Paseo beach, to add to the two the municipality already had. Casares joins the list with Ancha beach and Estepona will now have four with the addition of Arroyo Vaquero. Torrox maintains its blue flag with Ferrara and Benalmádena keeps its two, Fuente de la Salud and Torrebermeja-Santa Ana.

Furthermore, Torremolinos has joined the list with Los Álamos, which has received a blue flag for the first time in its history. Calahonda II (Mijas) has been dropped from the list.

In Andalucía as a whole there are now 113 coastal areas with blue flags, of which 97 are beaches seven more than last year and 16 marinas.

Almost all of its provinces have increased their number of blue flags; the Cadiz coast has the most with 30 (+1), including Torreguadiaro, Cala Sardina and Alcaidesa-El Faro in San Roque. Almeria has 29 (+2), Huelva received 11, an increase of 2 on 2017, and the Granada coastline retains the two that it had last year.