Marbella is the glossy end of the Costa del Sol, and most riders will pass it with a polite nod. Fair enough, but the old town deserves better than that. The Casco Antiguo is a compact knot of whitewashed lanes, flower pots and small squares, with the Plaza de los Naranjos at its heart, planted with orange trees and ringed by Renaissance buildings. Parts of the old Moorish walls and castle survive, a reminder that this coast was Muslim Andalusia for centuries before the Catholic conquest of 1485.
Above the town the Sierra Blanca rises steeply, and the contrast between sea level glitz and quiet mountain village is the whole point of riding here. From Marbella you can turn inland and climb to Ojén, a white village sitting under the pine slopes, and further to Istán beside its reservoir. These are twisting, shaded roads with plenty of hairpins, and you gain height surprisingly fast, with views back over the coast to the African shore on a clear day. The surface is generally decent, though trucks and slow cars can hold you up.
The coast road itself is another story. The old N-340 and the toll motorway run parallel to the sea through a ribbon of villas, golf courses, marinas and traffic lights, and the famous Golden Mile toward Puerto Banús is more of a stately crawl than a ride. If you want to get to the hills, go early, ideally before ten, and in high summer the heat can be fierce on the coast while the sierra stays a few degrees cooler. Spring and autumn are the nicest seasons here, with clear air and warm days.
Being a city of over a hundred thousand people, Marbella has every kind of practical help you could want: fuel stations on the outskirts, big supermarkets, places to eat at every price, and a lot of paid parking. The old town is best explored on foot, and a bike is a good choice since you can often find a space where cars cannot. Sit in the shade on one of the squares, order a coffee or a cold drink, and enjoy the odd experience of a very rich resort that still has a medieval centre. From here, the road to Ronda and the white villages is the way to go.