COSTA DEL SOL, Spain -- For anyone who can handle even a hint of Spanish, the name of this seaside region says it all. Roughly translated, it means The Coast of Sun.

I have twice visited this 300-km stretch of Spain, which runs west from Malaga, once in 1983 to visit friends living in the rugged hills southwest of the provincial capital, then in 2002.

Much has changed since I first travelled through this area, which offers a little bit of everything for visitors.

The 24 beaches offer relaxation, strolling, dining, crafts and souvenir shops, while the more active can enjoy numerous golf courses, tennis courts, parks and mountain hiking trails.

Shopping ranges from designer fashions and jewelry to pottery, porcelain and leather and 300 hotels or 250 longer-stay apartment complexes offer a range of accommodations from modest to five-star. Nightlife includes cafes, modest bars, casinos and entertainment palaces.

If you like the sounds from a good guitar, share this with me.

In Torremolinos, a seacoast town where English is a second language thanks to its discovery in the 1950s by bargain-hunting British tourists, a minstrel dropped by a cafe patio while I enjoyed an espresso, entertaining me and several companions with several beautiful classical Spanish pieces. Two nights later, I recognized him as a lead musician in an underground grotto tavern, where his sometimes lightning-fast or lingering fingers set a different, often hypnotic pace for the intense, playful and colourful flamenco dancers.

As you would imagine with a Mediterranean coast, the seafood is fabulous, regardless of whether you\'re in a swank hotel dining room or a modest beach cafe, where I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and warm evening sea breezes.

A string of modern highways cuts hours off travel time to places such as the historic city of Seville, a two hour drive to the north, or to Gibraltar, the British bastion a two hour drive to the south, where hydrofoils and other boats take travellers across to Tangiers, Morocco, for under $50.

The busy coastal road connects several cities and towns, including Marbella, home to jet-setters, where Rolls Royces, Mercedes and BMWs line the yacht basin, guarded by a Moorish watchtower dating to the Arab occupation that ended 500 years ago. For leisurely sightseeing, rural roads are worth taking to aptly named \"white villages\" such as Mijas.

With too many places to mention here, if you find yourself on this sunshine coast, I particularly enjoyed these three:

MIJAS

Among the villages of whitewashed stucco homes in the hilly regions west of the coast, Mijas is among Spain\'s richest.

The former Roman watchtower site has several good hotels, numerous rental apartments, an expanded city hall, a famous health spa, and streets filled with shops that offer artwork, pottery, crafts and jewelry. It also has the 350-year-old Virgen de la Pena shrine, where women leave locks of hair and notes pinned to a wall with prayers for a nice husband.

Most visitors walk, but many enjoy riding a Burro taxi from the market square and along the narrow streets and paths.

RONDA

For breathtaking beauty, I highly recommend taking a day to visit this hilltop city, which soars above a farming plateau in an inland mountain range.

Trains and buses run from Malaga, but this former bandit refuge, where Ernest Hemingway was inspired to write his bullfight novel Death In The Afternoon, is easier to reach now by car than when I lunched 20 years ago at a restaurant that clung to the 100-metre El Tajo Gorge. It stands beside a bridge whose base is said to have been built by Romans.

Town history moves forward over the centuries to include churches, palaces and convents dating from the Baroque, Gothic and Renaissance eras, preserved Arab baths and Espana Square, a pedestrian shopping district. A nearby arena and museum are reminders of Pedro Romero, the father of bullfighting on foot, who created a school whose students hold a 250-year-old style bullfight each September.

MALAGA

Once called \"The City of Paradise\" by 1977 Nobel Laureate Prize winning poet Vicente Aleixandre, Malaga is a lively, bustling commercial centre and port.

Divided by the four-lane, tree-lined Avenida de Andalucia -- which is worth a morning or late afternoon stroll -- this cosmopolitan city of 700,000 boasts of preserving the 1880s boyhood home of artist Pablo Picasso, who died in Paris in 1973.

But it is much older. Founded 3,000 years ago by seafaring Phoenicians from present-day Lebanon, the capital of Malaga Province was later occupied by Greeks, Carthaginians, Visigoths, Moorish Arabs and, finally, in 1487, by Christians.

The 11th century Alcazaba fortress stands on a hill above the old quarter. After walking past a preserved Roman amphitheatre, I stopped to read inscriptions on several gravestones along a path leading to the entrance, thrilling in the antiquity but wishing for my late dad, who could read Latin.

Modern Malaga is a bustling city of narrow streets dotted with jacaranda, palm and orange tree-lined gardens, red tile-roof apartments and magnificent plazas.

The city centre is great for shopping, but traffic can be a nightmare and car parks are best. Plan on dining late, around 10 or 11, before the nightlife picks up at midnight.

Finally, for a change of pace, 14 km north of the city, Los Montes de Malaga Natural Park has camp and barbecue sites, lots of wildlife, flowering bushes and forests of carob, cork oak, olive and Monterrey pine. Photography is a must.

For the fit and adventurous, you can even explore a mountain railway line and tunnels there, where Frank Sinatra filmed the 1965 World War II hit film Von Ryan\'s Express.

If you go:

PACKAGE HOLIDAYS: Red Seal Vacations offers packages for Costa del Sol under its Sunwing brand. Packages can include hotel accommodations, some meals, bus tours, car-rental arrangements, golf and specialty items. For details, visit www.sunwing.ca or see your travel agent.

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Accommodations include: The four-star Hotel Melia Costa Del Sol across from Bajondillo Beach in downtown Torremolinos. Packages for the May 2-June 20 period start at $1,299 for one week and $1,799 for two weeks. Rates are per person, double occupancy; the four-star Sunset Beach and Golf Resort near Benalmadena-Costa, where one-week packages start at $1,399, two weeks from $1,949; and the Pyr Apartment-Hotel in Fuengirola, which has one-week packages starting from $1,199, two weeks from $1,499. Fly-drive packages and long-stay packages are also available.

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MORE INFO: Costa del Sol Tourist Board at www.visitcostadelsol.com.