Ten years old this year, Manifesto Design is the design and marketing company founded by expat couple Michel and Jackie Cruz, who moved to Spain some 15 years ago.

Now longstanding residents of Marbella, they have made a life for themselves, building a good name as reliable and skilled professionals, and creating a company that has weathered the recession well and is showing renewed growth and vigour. (more…)

By guest blogger Ash Bolton

I arrived in the small Spanish village of Roncesvalles in the north east of Spain late on a rather depressing looking Saturday evening in September, just as the skies turned dark with rain and released a torrential downpour.

Sprinting off the bus with a heavy backpack weighing me down, I ran to the municipal albergue (subsidised shelters along the Pilgrimage route) but got soaked to the bone within a minute and was already questioning whether this adventure was such a good idea. The plan had been to catch a taxi over the Pyrenees and into France, to reach the traditional starting point of the Camino Francés, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, but a quick look for said taxi proved fruitless, so I took this as a welcome sign that fate was telling me to start here. (more…)

Over the years I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of Andalucía and enjoy many of the exotic experiences that are unique to this southernmost part of Europe. So I like to think I know it pretty well, and travelling to Algeciras to hook up with a group of journalists and PR people I thought I had the measure of the press trip we were about to embark upon.

I hadn’t counted on the sheer enthusiasm and knowledge of organiser Manni Coe, the founder of Toma Tours and re-discoverer of the route we were about to follow. His detailed knowledge of southern Spain is born out of a passion for its culture, history and people that also shapes the fantastic tours he puts together. (more…)