Nerja gets the visitors; Maro, three kilometres east along the cliffs, keeps its head down and grows avocados. Its patron is the Virgen de las Maravillas and her feria runs 4 to 8 September — a proper village feria rather than a town one, which means you will be one of very few outsiders in the square.
What to expect. It opens on the 4th with the pregón, given this year by the Niñas de Maro, and runs five days of music, processions, and eating and drinking in the street. The council put €113,350 behind it, which for a village this size buys a serious programme. It is designed around families and around keeping the local customs going, and it shows.
Practical bit. Maro sits above the Cliffs of Maro-Cerro Gordo natural park and the best beaches on this coast — Maro, Cañuelo, Molino de Papel — most of which involve a walk down. The Nerja caves are between the two villages. Buses along the N-340 are thin in the evening, so a hire car makes the difference, and parking in Maro during the feria means arriving early.
