Old Town

Behind the seafront sprawl, Marbella's Casco Antiguo is a knot of whitewashed lanes climbing from Plaza de los Naranjos, where orange trees shade café terraces and the old town hall still anchors the square. The dining runs the full Andalusian range: pintxos counters where you stack toothpicks and pay by the tally, family-run tabernas serving fried fish and stews that predate the resort era, and a quiet pocket of ambition crowned by Skina, the two-Michelin-star room tucked into an alley barely wide enough for two. Evenings here are unhurried — locals on their paseo, geraniums spilling from balconies, the smell of garlic and frying oil drifting from doorways. It is the one part of Marbella that feels like a town rather than a brand.