In the next in our series of posts about attractions that you can visit in Spain, we take a look at Fuengirola Zoo, which is located in Fuengirola on Spain’s Costa del Sol, and which is a great place to visit on a day-trip if you’re staying in the area.

Fuengirola Zoo opened in the 1970s, but was redeveloped between 1998 and 2001 in order to improve conditions for the animals and provide a “full-immersion” zoo experience for visitors. It is now home to more than 1,300 animals and is involved in a number of animal breeding and monitoring programmes.

The zoo has more than 140 species of mammals, fish, reptiles and birds, including Sumatran tigers, meerkats, orang-utans, lemurs, gorillas, gibbons, chimpanzees, pythons, crocodiles, turtles, flamingos and lorikeets. There is also a children’s play area, a gift shop and two restaurant areas.

If you are visiting the Costa del Sol during the summer, you can explore the zoo at night and watch the animals in the moonlight.

Fuengirola Zoo is particularly good to visit as part of a Costa del Sol car hire holiday. You can rent a car at Malaga airport and it will only take you about half an hour to drive to Fuengirola Zoo from Malaga and about twenty minutes to drive there from Torremolinos.

Alaska’s Seward Highway is a designated National Scenic Byway and All-American Road, which stretches for 127 miles between Anchorage and Seward, and is a great route to explore on a USA car hire holiday.

You can fly to Anchorage and pick up your rental car at the airport, but it’s worth spending a few days exploring the city before embarking upon your roadtrip. Anchorage is full of attractions, such as The Alaska Zoo, the Alaska Native Heritage Center, Anchorage Museum, the Alaska Botanical Garden and the Imaginarium Science Discovery Center. It also has some great restaurants, shops, art galleries and bars, and you’ll find plenty of hotels, motels, inns and B&Bs to choose from.

Once you’ve explored Anchorage, jump in your hire car and head through the downtown area of Anchorage in order to get onto the Seward Highway. The highway runs to the south, providing some beautiful views of the Kenai Mountains. It will take you about three hours to reach Seward, but there are a number of attractions along the way, so you may want to take a day or two to explore the route properly.

Attractions en route include the Indian Valley Mine National Historic Site, where you can pan for gold and learn about the history of the mine in the site’s museum, and the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center, where you can see black bears, brown bears, grizzly bears, caribou, deer and other animals, all of which have been rescued by the centre.

You can also take a slight detour to stop off at Seavey’s Ididaride Dog Sled Tours, where you can take a tour of the kennels and enjoy a dog sled ride. You’ll need to reserve your place in advance, so visit the company’s website for more details.

Once you’ve completed your journey to Seward, take some time to enjoy a walking tour of the town or visit some of its art galleries, coffee shops or stores. Seward’s attractions include the Alaska Sealife Center, where you can see puffins, seals, sea lions and many other marine species from the Gulf of Alaska, and the Chucagh Museum and Institute of History and Art.

You can then either explore more of Alaska or drive back to Anchorage and return your car to the airport car hire office before flying home.

Image by: Dave LaForest. Sourced from America’s Byways

The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the most beautiful scenic driving routes in America and stretches from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. It took more than 50 years to construct the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is 469 miles long.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is about 1 hour and 45 minutes’ drive from Richmond Airport, and you can hire a car at the airport for your trip. If you want to explore the route thoroughly and without rushing your car hire holiday, it can take up to ten days.

You’ll be able to see stunning scenery as you drive along the route, as it winds through some of the most beautiful parts of the USA at an average altitude of 3,000 – 4,000 feet.

There are also plenty of attractions that you can visit nearby, such as Stonewall Jackson House, The Natural Bridge, Virginia Safari Park, the VA Museum of Transportation and Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest. You’ll find plenty of places to stay in the area and a range of places where you can stop for something to eat.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is open throughout the year, although some sections may be closed during bad weather or for repair during the winter. However, the best times of year to take a car hire holiday in this part of the USA are in Spring and early Summer or in Autumn.

Image by: Brian Stansberry