Getting to the Hollow

Train to Marlow Station, twice an hour until ten at night. From there it is twenty minutes by taxi or the wedding shuttle, the last five up the beech drive. If you drive the whole way, allow two hours from the city and park on the lawn field. The last turn is unlit on purpose; your headlights will find the gate.

Fly into Alvera

Alvera International (ALV) is the airport you want. It is a mid-sized coastal airport with direct connections to most major hubs, which means almost everyone will fly one leg to a hub and a second leg into ALV. When you search flights, search to ALV directly rather than picking a city first; the routing engines find combinations you will not.

Two timing notes. First, if you want to make Friday aperitivo at 6:30 PM in reasonable shape, land by 4:00 PM at the latest, and honestly by 2:00 PM if you are the kind of person who likes to shower before being social. Second, Sunday evening flights out of ALV are thin. Most guests will find Monday morning departures easier and cheaper, and the town is at its best on a quiet Sunday night anyway.

The coast road

From the airport, Punta Mora is 75 minutes by car. The first fifty minutes are ordinary highway. The last twenty-five are the coast road, which is the part people photograph: cliffs on one side, sea on the other, and a series of curves that reward a relaxed pace. It is a genuinely safe, well-maintained road. It is also not the place to discover your rental is a manual.

You have three ways to cover it. Rent a car at ALV, which gives you freedom for day trips and costs about what you expect, but book by early spring because June clears the lots. Take a pre-booked transfer, which we recommend for anyone who wants to start the weekend the moment they land; your hotel can arrange one, or Mar Alta Rentals runs a shared van on Fridays if you email ahead. Or take the regional bus to Alvera town and a taxi from there, which is the budget route and adds about an hour.

Do not drive into the old town

Whoever laid out Punta Mora was thinking about donkeys, shade, and the shortest path to the water, in that order. Cars did not figure into it. If you rent, park at the public lot above the old town, a five-minute walk from the market square, and leave the car there for the duration. Every stay on our list is walkable from that lot. Attempting Via del Sale by car is technically possible and socially unforgivable.

Once you are in town

You will not need wheels again until you leave. Town is ten minutes end to end on foot. For the villa events, shuttles leave from the market square and from the front door of Hotel Miramar starting 45 minutes before each event, and they loop back until the last guests surrender. The walk from town to the villa gate is 25 minutes along the upper road, pleasant in daylight, less advisable in wedding shoes at midnight.

The short version

Fly to ALV, landing Friday by 2:00 PM. Transfer or drive the 75 minutes. Park above town and forget the car exists. Let the shuttles do the rest. Leave Monday morning if you can. And if the coast road is your first view of the place, sit on the left side of the car; you will see the villa on its cliff about five minutes before town, and it looks exactly like what it is.