Torremolinos is one of the most visited municipalities on the Costa del Sol. Although people come here for holidays all the year round, the figure rises to more than 250,000 during the high season. The development of the town over the past eighty years has been spectacular. In the 1920s, Torremolinos was a small town of 3,000 inhabitants, whose source of livelihood was farming, fishing and making flour. By the end of the 1950s, the town had already established itself as one of the principal tourist towns of the new tourist boom, and since then it has become one of the most important tourist centres on both a national and international level. It is made up of a series of barrios that include the central calle San Miguel, the barrio of El Calvario, el Bajondillo and La Carihuela, and it still has nooks and crannies that have changed little with the times. Torremolinos is home to 40% of the Costa del Sol’s hotels, the area has strong investment returns for rentals but is also a wonderful place to set up home, as many foreign residents have already done. Calle San Miguel is the heart and soul of Torremolinos, known locally as calle Europa for the huge number of European visitors that walk this traffic-free zone. Everybody knows about La Carihuela too, with its wonderful beach and chiringuitos (beach bars and restaurants).