I want to spend some time focusing now on some of the more day-to-day aspects of spending the winter in Nerja. Mundane things like grocery shopping, getting your haircut, getting from point A to point B, etc.
First up is the one thing that will use up a reasonable amount of your free time, namely, grocery and beverage shopping, and eating in restaurants.
EATING & DRINKING INFORMATION
First, the good news. Grocery shopping here is pretty much the same as it is at home. Several of the local grocery chains are not radically different from what we use at home. The only part that will be fundamentally different, I suppose, is that you may end up walking and carrying groceries home instead of throwing them into your car (if you haven’t chosen to secure a rental car here).
We only rent cars when we absolutely must travel a long distance. Here, we immerse ourselves in the European lifestyle. The towns and cities all have much greater density than our own towns and cities at home, and hence, offer the ability to walk to do all your errands. It is one of the things that we really enjoy about living here for a couple of months.
I suppose one important bit of food information you need to know is that southern coastal Spain is a major market-garden producing area for all of Europe. I am assuming the area produces at least two crops a year because of the perfect growing weather and abundant sunlight. The net result is that when we are here in February and March we are buying and eating fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables. Awesome!
One thing the Love-goddess and I are agreed on is that virtually all the food tastes better here than at home… seriously. Practices used to grow food in Europe seem to prioritize taste rather than techniques allowing them to be shipped over long distances.
Even the potato chips taste better here! 🙂
A number of different ways exist in which you can buy necessary groceries, but let’s start with the good old-fashioned one, grocery chains.
Grocery Stores
So far, we have discovered four different large-style, grocery store chains here in Nerja. They are Mercadona, Carrefour, Mas, and Lidl. We have shopped in others like SuperCor in different towns on the Costa, and there may be others, but we simply haven’t come across them yet. In fact two Mercadonas and two Carrefours can be found in Nerja. They are each close to one another in the east and west ends of town.
I will speak briefly about all four of these chains but will focus on the two that we use most frequently, that being the Mercadona and the Carrefour. We have only been to the two on our side of town. We were going to go over to check out the others because they were clearly newer and bigger, but a friend who lives over there said the choices are exactly the same, the only difference being that the aisles are wider. 🙂
I will start with the Mercadona because it is my favourite… And I just asked the Love-goddess and she says it’s her favourite as well.
“Photo Carousel” – Once again, I am using the “Carousel” format to present the photos in the best possible manner. You click on the first photo (top-left) in a grouping to start the Carousel.
Mercadona
The Mercadona is Spanish owned and operated. It was founded in 1977 by a couple and currently operates 1,636 stores in Spain and Portugal. According to Wikipedia, in 2009 it was ranked the ninth most reputable company in the world as listed in Forbes magazine. So, a well-run and successful business.
I will explain what we like about it as you sift through the photos. But I honestly think at the heart of it all is the fact that, of all the local grocery stores in Spain, it is the one that is most laid out and operates like grocery stores in Canada.
It is also worth noting, just so you know, this store weighs and prices your produce when you check out just like in Canada. They no longer use the great European system where you do it yourself in the produce area. Bit of a rarity.
Carrefour
You will have already heard about the Carrefour company without realizing it. Carrefour is the French company that the Quebec firm, Alimentation Couche-Tard, tried to buy. The French government blocked the sale from going through. Apparently, Quebeckers aren’t French enough for the French.
According to Wikipedia:
“Carrefour is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, which as of December 2021, comprises 13,894 stores in over 30 countries.”
In general, my sense is that Carrefour is a little bit more upscale than the other chains we go to in Spain. They certainly have a wider range of store types than most of the others – from their hyper supermarkets in places like Estepona, and Fuengirola, and right down to the Carrefour Express variety stores, which can be found absolutely everywhere.
The Carrefour is definitely a close second to the Mercadona for us. In reality, we spent a lot of time shopping in both of these places, because they each fill very specific needs. For example, Carrefour is the only place I can buy Starbucks Verona, coffee. And, as you will see, their non-grocery offerings, greatly outdo all the other stores.
MAS & Lidl
We only recently discovered the MAS grocery store because some friends who were visiting Nerja told us about it. It is definitely a worthy option. They seem to have considerably more different and variety of product choices. Unfortunately, the produce is generally not great and there is only a limited amount of prepackaged meat. The meat and cheese counters seem to be smaller than in other stores and offer fewer choices.
Lidl is a German discount grocery store. It feels a bit like a warehouse more than a typical grocery store. We have been to it before in previous years but did not get up there at all this year because it was too far to walk. So, in all fairness, I really can’t comment on it with any authority.
And now, the bad news. None of these major grocery stores are open on Sunday.
Supermercados
So, if the big grocery stores aren’t open on Sunday, what do you do when you need something? Well, you go to one of the small neighbourhood Supermercados. These are small mostly mom and pop operations that stock a small variety of grocery and other items that you may find yourself in need of on a Sunday..
We have used three locally. Yes, they are a little more expensive, but very convenient.
We also occasionally popped into the Carrefour Express that is close by. It is clearly run by a big business, but still a place where you can run in to pick up a needed item or grab stuff to throw together a meal on a Sunday.
Other Alternatives
If you are wondering if there are alternatives sources for buying food here in Nerja, yes there are. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there is no year-round indoor market, but there is an outdoor market that takes place on Tuesdays. The vendors mostly sells clothes, household items, antiques, etc. But some vendors do offer vegetables and fruit.
Fruterías
The other full-time alternative is to pick up your fruits and vegetables at a Frutería. These are small shops that are open daily.
They operate much differently than a grocery store though. Typically, the vendor picks out your fruits and vegetables for you. You simply tell him or her what you need in terms of quantity, ripeness, etc. But, if you cannot communicate effectively in Spanish, you will simply get what the vendor wants to give you. 🙂
We frequent them only very occasionally. But that is not necessarily a good thing. I suspect their prices are better than the grocery stores.
Pollo Asados
You can find several Pollo Asados in every city and town all along the Costa. Nerja is no exception. Basically, they sell just one major item, “Rotisserie Chicken”. Most offer potatoes of some sort and drinks to accompany the chicken.
They are hole-in-the-wall places that are strictly takeout. There is no seating. Their hours are short and are only open around the lunch hour. The one we have frequented here closes at 4:30, and that is later than most.
It is a quick, tasty, relatively inexpensive meal to pick up and take home. At “Pollos La Sirena: we paid 8.00 € for a chicken. It was moist and flavourful.
I did a quick article last year, “In the Camera’s Eye – Take-Out in Marbella” about an upscale place which included some other thoughts on the concept.
Local Farms
If you walk just outside the built-up area of Nerja, you will see that there is a great proliferation of small farms. A few of these have stands from which they sell their crops. If you ever have occasion to bump into me, ask me about the time one of these vendors whipped out a knife when the Love-goddess questioned the suitability of her tomatoes. LOL!
PHOTOS
Adult Beverage Shopping
A few small, independent stores sell beer and liquor, but they are few and far between. I have not stumbled across one in Nerja yet… correction, stumbled upon one yesterday. Typically, you buy your wine, beer, and liquor at any of the many large grocery stores. Most have a reasonable selection on offer, but there are some that are better than others. All have weekly sales on chosen items.
When buying Rioja red wines, they use a wine classification system like the one found in Burgundy (Village, Premier Cru, Grand Cru). The classifications are Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva. Hopefully, it is obvious that the ranking improves/increases from left to right in these classifications.
I would have to say that wine and beer are incredibly cheap here compared to Canada. Most of the photos I have used show some prices. That said, the place it is most noticeable is when you buy wine or beer in a restaurant with your meal. Your drinks typically represent only a very small portion of the overall bill.
Liquor does not really appear to be much cheaper than at home. If you want to buy cheap liquor, you’ll have to go do some duty-free shopping in Gibraltar.
Now that we have exhausted all of the opportunities for buying food and beverage to take home and consume, it is time to move on to restaurants. But in this case, just one particular type of restaurant. There is more about Nerja’s many excellent restaurants to come.
One Restaurant … Type
The particular “type” of restaurant I think you should know about is one you see everywhere, “Cafeterias”. I was as perplexed about that particular naming as you probably are. They are certainly not the cafeterias we know and love/hate at home. I became so intrigued by this I asked Google what the heck “cafeteria” meant here in Spain.
This was the answer to my question… no source was identified.
“What it means: A cafeteria is about halfway between a coffeehouse and a traditional Spanish bar. Some establishments kill two birds with one stone by calling themselves a bar-cafetería! They tend to be very informal and are open all day. Many have outdoor seating and also small tables to sit inside.”
Well, that is not terribly helpful, but the informal, open all day, indoor and outdoor seating, rings true. My personal take is that they are family style restaurants, with lots of different food choices, all sold at very reasonable prices all day long.
My little photo expose here is about the cafeteria, “Mira Sol”, that is attached to our complex and one in which we have sat down at several times to eat, or simply had a couple of adult beverages on a beautiful day. We even had breakfast there one morning. Very good food and very reasonable prices as you will see.
I have to admit that the three times we had lunch there, I ordered a hamburger each and every time. That’s not something I would normally do in Europe because that’s not the place I expect to get a good hamburger… which I don’t eat all that often anyway. But Mira Sol’s were fantastic.
And there you are, most of what you need to know about eating and drinking in Nerja. I will be doing an article shortly about restaurants where we ate in town and really enjoyed, for those of you who would like to hear some suggestions.
There is only one final thing to mention. The ice cream is fabulous… even during the first week in February. And there are plenty of options available.
SERVICES INFORMATION
Which brings us to our final section for part two. A quick look at the availability of different “services”, that you may find yourself needing to access. Things you do at home on an irregular basis but will certainly have to deal with once or twice when you are here.
These would be things like attending to personal grooming, clothing alterations, mailing postcards or parcels home, getting things like tickets printed, acquiring a needed hardware item, filling a prescription or picking up an over-the-counter medication, and transportation both locally and further afield.
General Services
Let’s take a quick sift through the general services you will probably go looking for. Most of the photos are of businesses and offices we have used here this year.
Transportation Services
Yes, you will do a lot of walking while you were here, but from time to time you will need to access one mode of transportation or another. In-town and between-town buses, taxis, and rental cars are all available in Nerja. All the “bus stop” photos are from Google.
