Keen golfers don’t only live for golf – well, not completely anyway. They also find the time to enjoy nature and delight their palates with the most exquisite cuisine. A tourist destination that combines these three ingredients, and knows how to combine them perfectly, is Benahavís, on the Costa del Sol. This picturesque Andalucian town has the third highest number of golf courses in Spain, second only to its neighbours Marbella and Mijas.
Bordering two of the Costa del Sol’s tourism heavyweights (Marbella and Estepona), Benahavís is a golf destination with its own character and many reasons for being included in a place of honour. In fact, Benahavís now has the third highest number of golf courses of any municipality in Spain, only topped by Marbella and Mijas. 
Relatively small in population (about 7,400 inhabitants, almost half of whom are foreign) but large in size (145 square kilometres), the municipality has 11 golf courses – 198 holes in total – distributed among eight clubs: Flamingos (54 holes), La Quinta (27), La Zagaleta (36), Atalaya (New Course, 18, even though only a small section of this club is located in the municipality), Marbella Club (18), Monte Mayor (18, temporarily closed), Los Arqueros (18) and El Higueral (9). In addition there is the Municipal Golf Academy, located near the town centre and connected to the four-star Gran Hotel Benahavís, with a superb practice ground including a large bunker, approach area and putting green. Benahavís’s golf potential is immense, taking into account both its golf courses and residential-tourism complexes associated with golf and the possibility of further development in this sporting sphere. 
RENOWNED DESIGNERS
The quality of its courses is indisputable, with several renowned designers leaving their imprint on the municipality’s golfing amenities, including Seve (Los Arqueros), Manuel Piñero (La Quinta) and Dave Thomas (Marbella Club Golf Resort).
On a sporting level, numerous major international events have been held in the municipality, amateur and professional. Since 2009, for example, La Quinta has been the venue for the Benahavís Senior Masters (part of the European Senior Tour), attracting many of the world’s leading over-50 golfers.
The same course hosted the Spanish Women’s Open (a Ladies European Tour event), while other editions have been held at Villa Padierna Golf Club (Flamingos and Alferini courses). This famous resort, which includes the luxury hotel where Michelle Obama and one of her daughters holidayed in summer 2010, also hosted The Daily Telegraph Seniors Matchplay Championship – another European Senior Tour event – from 2002 to 2004.
ATTRACTIVE TOWN CENTRE
A stunningly beautiful mountain municipality, just seven kilometres from the coast, with an attractive town centre full of classic white houses, Benahavís is also popularly known as the “Costa del Sol Dining Room”. Those who enjoy fine dining will discover a paradise of traditional gastronomic delights in Benahavís, with an extensive choice of restaurants and bars offering exquisite and varied cuisine found in very few other places. 
GASTRONOMIC TRADITION
Benahavís’s famous gastronomic tradition dates to the 1970s, and is based on classic cuisine predominantly using pork and game ingredients, with international dishes introduced at a later date. The most typical dish in Benahavís is seasoned pork sirloin (solomillo de cerdo), with lamb, venison, rabbit, partridge and suckling pig popular as well.
Benahavís is also home to the renowned catering school Escuela Hispanoárabe de Dieta Mediterránea.
The golf courses’ own clubhouses offer international cuisine, while the village restaurants have seafood specialities as well as traditional Benahavís dishes – thanks to the municipality’s close proximity to the sea. In addition, visitors can savour appetising tapas in the many bars.
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NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
With its privileged setting, surrounded by peaks on the slopes of the Sierra de la Nieves mountain range, in the midst of the Serranía de Ronda foothills and just a few kilometres from Marbella and Estepona (both bordering municipalities), Benahavís is a real natural and touristic treasure. Its mountain setting offers wide and stunning views of the coast; and three rivers flow through the municipal area – the Guadalmina, Guadalmansa and Guadaiza..
The Benahavís landscape is extremely picturesque. The main road into Benahavís is accessed from the coastal highway at the start of Estepona municipality. The road soon begins rising and the first images of mountain foothills become visible. The Guadalmina river winds into the slopes, forming a canyon, with high peaks on either side.
The road clings to the left-hand side, while appearing to the right and below is a section of the river known as Las Angosturas (for the narrowness, “angosto” of the gorge), one of the most beautiful landscape areas that form a part of Benahavís. Located here is the Charca de las Mozas, a basin in the riverbed that has been declared a “Natural Monument” by the Junta de Andalucía (regional government).
