Ice-skating in Marbella? Yes, that's right, San Pedro's boulevard offers families a great time out on the ice-rink of Happy Days, a fun and entertainment complex that also includes a mini-golf course and gleaming American airstream diner serving a large number of Spanish snacks and American classics like fried onions and hot dogs. For families currently looking around for a holiday home purchase at the Costa del Sol this is yet another reason to relocate completely!
The ice-rink, mini-golf course and American diner are the brainchild of Pascal Van Den Broek and Sean Henry of the Pasean Group, both family men living at the Costa del Sol. After much searching they found a supplier of 100% eco-friendly ice-rink equipment to create Andalucía's only year-round ice-skating rink. Using no energy, the ice-rink proved its mettle when Marbella's August temperatures soared this summer - the artificial ice coped with the Costa del Sol temperatures quite well since Happy Days opened last August to the astonishment of San Pedro's tourists and semi-permanent residents.
Marbella Winters have just become a little brighter
Being able to skate without donning scarf, woolly hat and mittens is great fun, if the delighted squeals and happy smiles of youngsters whizzing past are anything to go by. Designed in Seville, the high-tech ice-rink provides great family fun, especially at weekends. It's possible to hold entire kids' birthday parties there - which is where the American diner comes in very handy. Kids can have a round of mini-golf, go skating and they fill their hungry bellies with burgers afterwards. No fuss, no mess, sigh delighted mums and dads.
Happy Days American Diner naturally serves a great food selection, including Onion and Cajun Chicken strips, Louisiana Salad, Mexican Street Salad, Buffalo Wings, NY hot dogs, Spanish seasonal salads and German curry wurst as well as burgers and pan fried gyros in pita bread with tzatziki. Prices range between 4.50 and 6.50 euros. Sporting genuine 1960's retro style, the glitzy silver airstream truck kitchen is a tourist attraction in its own right.
A 45-minute session on the ice-rink costs 6.00 euros for an adult and 5.00 euros for a child. A family package for 2 adults and 2 children costs 20.00 euros. Socks cost 1.00 euro and helmet, elbow and knee protectors cost 1.00 euros in hire, skating assistance costs 2.00 euros.
A round of 9 holes on the mini-golf course costs 5.00 euros per adult and 4.00 euros per child. The family package costs 15.00 euros for 2 adults and 2 kids.
Happy Days: Tel: 0034 693 745 454
• info@happydayscostadelsol.com
• www.happydayscostadelsol.com
Marbella's latest attraction, San Pedro Boulevard, should prove particularly this winter, when many semi-permanent residents return to the Cost del Sol to stay over the winter months, which are milder than in Northern Europe, even if the occasional bad weather front forces people to stay indoors. Living costs without having to pay for heating are just so much cheaper, so spending part of the year in a holiday home in Marbella does work out very economically per month spent at the Costa del Sol.
If you are thinking of looking for a home in Marbella or elsewhere at the Costa del Sol, winter is a good time to come and assess if this is a place you could spend the rest of your life at - no hordes of tourists, just locals going about their business, and no temptations either that might blind you to the realities of moving to Spain and living abroad. Now is also a good time to make a buying decision, while prices are still low enough to make it possible to be mortgage-free in Spain.