Costa Tropical is the name for the Mediterranean coastline of the province of Granada, Spain, in the heart of historical Andalusia.

It is also but less frequently called the “Costa de Granada” or "Costa Granadina". Its “spine” is the N-340 coastal highway that runs southwest-northeast along Spain’s Mediterranean coast, to the border with France.

driving in the direction east from Málaga, the Costa Tropical begins soon after passing the last towns in the Málaga province of Nerja and Maro, and begins with the fishing village of La Herradura on the border of the Granada province, and continues until passing the town of Castillo de Baños as you enter the Almería province.

Costa Tropical is made up mostly of agricultural zones and small resort towns and villages. What makes Costa Tropical unique in comparison to the rest of the Spanish coast is the mountains, the Sierra Nevada range among them, that fall to meet the Mediterranean Sea. The effect is dramatic, and the coastline rugged. It is (with northern Costa Brava) one of the most stunning of the entire Spanish Mediterranean coast. It was, until recently, relatively unpopulated in comparison to the rest of the Spanish coast, mostly because of the ruggedness of the terrain. Except for "la vega de Motril", there are no flat areas for large urban sprawl, unlike the Costa del Sol in the Málaga province.

The principal towns of the Costa Tropical are Motril and Almuñécar. Almuñécar is primarily a resort town and agricultural center (tropical fruits), with the summer-time vacation population more than doubling the town’s population. It is a popular destination for Spanish summer holiday makers, and a popular year-round destination for northern European visitors, retirees, and full or part-time residents. On weekends throughout the year, the Costa Tropical has always been a very popular destination for residents of the city of Granada. In the summer, it is a very popular destination for Spaniards throughout the country.

The Costa Tropical is rich with historical treasures, including pre-historic cave paintings in nearby Nerja; many Roman ruins including roads, bridges, buildings, fish salting factories, and irrigation systems used to this day; and abundant remains of the many-centuries domination of the region by the Arab conquerors. In fact, Almuñécar served as the entry point to Iberia and establishment of a power base for Abd ar-Rahman I (also called Abd al-Rahman I and Abderraman I) in 755, who came from Damascus and was the founder of an independent Muslim dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries thereafter.