IF YOU live in the Fuengirola area and have young children, are holidaying there with them, or the grandkids have come to stay for the summer, keeping them entertained is key to getting the best out of the warmer months – especially as they are off school for anything from seven weeks if they're from the UK to three months if they go to class in Spain.
The front cover of the online puzzle-book, which doubles as a tourism guidebook for children, and which can be downloaded and printed (photo: Fuengirola town hall)
Luckily, Fuengirola's new 'tourist information' published is twofold: Firstly, it tells you, and young children in little-people language, what's out there for them to get involved in and visit, and secondly, it's interactive, with games and puzzles they can play during those moments when grown-ups' attention has to be elsewhere.
A complete puzzle-book with mascots and fun characters, you can find it on Fuengirola's tourism website and download it, which gives you the option to print it out if you'd rather keep your youngsters' eyes away from screens as long as you can get away with it, to protect them while their sight is still developing and sensitive.
Whilst solving puzzles such as treasure-hunts, word-searches, quizzes, and similar, kids will learn about heritage sites and cultural activities, among others, in Fuengirola, which might inspire them to want to visit.
After all, even adults are more likely to want to see a monument or piece of scenery if they've read a book or seen a film about it which they've enjoyed – author Dan Brown did this for Paris' Saint-Sulpice church and Sevilla's Plaza de España, and Game of Thrones has done this for rural Iceland and for the beach-front castle in Peñíscola, Castellón province.
“Family holidays are one of the best-known features of Fuengirola in tourism terms, so we're very focused on making our town enjoyable for children and adults alike, and this new page – which is essentially a puzzle-book – offers kids a guidebook of Fuengirola of their very own,” says tourism councillor Rodrigo Romero.
As well as a children's guidebook-cum-puzzle-book, Fuengirola's tourism department has created specific guides for holidaying with dogs, ideas for 'Fuengirola in one day' tours, and is gradually working on more and more varieties to offer inspiration to all types of visitors.
