Max Milano's Blog

By Max Milano

I'm standing on the beach, but the beach is gone. Instead of miles of white sand and clear blue Mediterranean waters, there are now massive piles of debris stretching along the coast, fading into the horizon.

The debris is stacked high in mounds, separated by lower stretches of rubble. It looks like the city bulldozers, usually here at dawn to smooth the sand, came early to build a grim mountain range of broken things.

I walk up to the first pile, hardly believing it.

Yesterday, this w...

By Max Milano (Travel Writer)

Aragon is a high, arid desert stretching from the Pyrenees in Northern Spain to the Ebro Valley and southward to Teruel and the Valencia border. It's hot in summer and cold in winter, when its red desert land is coated with snow. George Orwell served in Aragon’s badlands during the Spanish Civil War and wrote about how the machine gun nests on the hills looked almost beautiful in the winter snow.

It’s summer now, and we walk along a dusty dirt track surrounding the ru...

By Max Milano (Travel Writer)

If you visit Spain on holiday, AutoEurope offers excellent rental car rates. If you’re staying in Spain for an extended period, as a digital nomad or expat, OK Mobility provides great rates for long-term rentals, up to 90 days—ideal for when you first arrive in Spain and need a car for the first few weeks.

Buying a Car

Buying a car is the best option if you plan to live in Spain. Spanish banks usua...

By Max Milano (Travel Writer & Photographer)

It's late at night, and darkness engulfs us as I drive southbound on Highway AP-7 between Barcelona and Tarragona. I am thinking of the Roman Empire because Highway AP-7 follows the ancient Roman road, the Via Augusta, which once linked Cadiz with Rome.

Traffic is light, but mosquitoes swarm the car, challenging visibility. Our windshield wiper fluid is exhausted, leaving smeared bugs obstructing the view.

Every few kilometers, electronic signs in Catal...

By Max Milano (Travel Writer & Photographer)

Food is a religion in Spain, and perfectly prepared seafood, rice dishes (paellas), and embutidos (jamón Ibérico) represent the Holy Trinity of coastal cuisine among the top-end restaurants along the Costa Blanca.

Restaurant owners on the Costa Blanca know their trade well and offer top-notch food and service, often boasting a loyal local following. However, challenges do arise when their local slice of coastal paradise becomes a haven for tourists and ...

When one thinks of Spain, the image of a steaming paella often dances through our collective minds. It's practically a culinary postcard from España—a cliché. But hold onto your forks! Upon touching down in Valencia, some of you might be shocked to discover that what we've been calling Paella all this time is actually called "Arroz a la Marinera"—a delightful mix of rice, saffron, and seafood. But how about the "real" Valencian paella? Well, that's a different dish, loaded with rabbit and snails...

By Max Milano (Travel Writer & Photographer)

Benidorm is the beach resort that put Spanish overtourism on the map before it was trendy. It has a reputation for being a cultural wasteland (think geriatric British larger louts and kebab and curry shops under the Spanish sun), so we've gone here to find out if its reputation is warranted.

Could it be that Benidorm's reputation is unwarranted? I've heard from plenty of Spanish tourists from Madrid who love Benidorm. Could thousands of Madrileños that ...

What do Michael Jordan, Paris Hilton, and Leonardo Di Caprio have in common (apart from their celebrity status)? They are known to regularly charter luxury yachts to enjoy the Mediterranean coasts of Spain and the Baleares Islands.

The fact is that all three of them have been recently spotted off the coast of Ibiza enjoying a well-earned rest (I’m sure) aboard a rented luxury yacht. And as long as A-list celebrities (and why not B-list and D-list celebrities) need to rent luxury yachts for their ...

By Max Milano

The Estero Beach Resort is the best hotel in Ensenada. It's a heaven of subdued luxury on a spot privileged by nature. It sits across the waters from a great sandbar that forms a natural lagoon with a long and wide beach on its ocean-facing side. At the tip of the sandbar, there's a deep and narrow tidal channel with the Estero Beach Resort on the mainland shore and a sandy beach claimed by sea lions on the opposite bank. Beyond the sandbank, the Pacific Ocean roars un-pacifically a...

By Max Milano

I came to Mexico City to do some research for a novel I'm writing called "Hollywood Gringo”. The story is set in the 1950s when Mexico City became a magnet for postwar Gringos on the GI bill, who then, like now, were attracted to the city's openness, culture, cuisine, and low prices. I had read William S. Burroughs's books Queer and Junkie and Naked Lunch and became somewhat obsessed with Burroughs's life story as a gringo expat in Mexico City on the run from the US law.