MÁLAGA · COSTA DEL SOL
Moorish hills, a bright coast, Andalusia at the door.
Caminito del Rey, Ronda and the Alhambra by day; the Alcazaba, the Picasso museums and the old-town tapas bars when you’re back. Catamarans, dolphin boats and the white villages of the Costa del Sol in between.
Only here
Three days you can only have in Málaga.
Beaches and boat trips line every coast in Spain. A boardwalk pinned to a gorge wall, a hill with three empires stacked on it, and the city where Picasso was born do not.
The King’s path
Caminito del Rey
A metre-wide boardwalk bolted to the wall of the El Chorro gorge, a hundred metres above the river, with a glass balcony and a caged footbridge strung across the drop. Closed for years as the most dangerous path in Spain; rebuilt, railed, and unlike anything else within reach of a beach.
- 1 From Málaga & Costa del Sol: Caminito del Rey Guided Tour
- 2 From Málaga: Caminito del Rey Day Trip & Guided Tour
- 3 From Málaga: Caminito del Rey Full-Day Tour
One hill, three empires
The Alcazaba & Gibralfaro
Climb straight out of a first-century Roman theatre into an eleventh-century Moorish fortress they call the little Alhambra, then up the ramparts to Gibralfaro castle for the whole coast at once. Roman, Moorish and Andalusian Málaga, stacked on a single climb above the port.
- 1 Málaga: Alcazaba and Roman Theatre Guided Tour With Entry
- 2 Alcazaba Malaga Guided Tour
- 3 Malaga Tour with Cathedral, Alcazaba and Roman Theatre
Born here
Picasso’s own city
Only one city gets to call itself his birthplace. The house on Plaza de la Merced where he was born, the Museo Picasso in a sixteenth-century palace, and a Pompidou on the waterfront make Málaga a place you come for the art, not only the sun.
- 1 Málaga: Museo Picasso Málaga Entry Ticket
- 2 Malaga: Picasso Museum Guided Tour with Skip-the-Line Ticket
- 3 Málaga: Picasso Birthplace Museum Ticket & City Audio Guide
Start with the standout
The single most popular day out in Málaga.
More travellers build a Málaga trip around this one than anything else here.
The classics
Málaga's Most Popular Days Out
Caminito del Rey, the Alhambra at Granada, Ronda’s gorge and a dolphin boat off the bay. The days most people come south for.
Where to begin
The days a Málaga trip is built around.
Caminito del Rey, the Alhambra, Ronda’s white villages, a sail out to the dolphins and a tapas crawl through the old town. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big decision
Which Andalusian day do you take?
Málaga is the base, and every road out of it ends at something famous. The hard part is choosing. Three of the days travellers weigh up most, and how each one runs.
After dark
When the night turns to flamenco.
Andalusia is where flamenco was born, and Málaga keeps it close. The old-town tablaos seat barely twenty tables, near enough that the guitar, the raw cante and the hammer of the dancer’s heels fill the whole room. Loud, close, and nothing like the package version.
Read the guide: the best flamenco nights in Málaga →Old-town tables
Sweet wine and a tapas crawl.
Málaga eats late and well. Start under the stained-glass window of the Atarazanas market, work the tapas bars spilling onto the cobbles, and finish with a glass of thick, dark, sweet Málaga wine poured straight from the barrel at a bodega that has done it the same way since 1840.
See the food & tapas tours →The old town
Two thousand years on one hill.
Málaga has been a Phoenician harbour, a Roman colony, a Moorish capital and an Andalusian cathedral city, and you can read all of it on the rise above the port: the Roman theatre at the foot, the Alcazaba’s gardens and horseshoe arches climbing the slope, and Gibralfaro’s ramparts running along the top with the whole bay below.
Old-town tours & tickets →East along the coast
Caves the size of a cathedral, an hour east.
Past the cliffs of the Axarquía, Nerja sits above a string of coves with the Balcony of Europe jutting out over the sea. Just inland the Nerja Caves open into vast chambers hung with one of the tallest stalactites in the world, and the white village of Frigiliana climbs the hillside behind it in a tangle of stepped, flower-hung lanes.
- 1 From Málaga: Caves of Nerja, Nerja and Frigiliana Day Tour
- 2 Nerja: Caves of Nerja Entry Ticket with Audio Guide
- 3 Malaga: Frigiliana & Nerja Tour with Local Product Tastings
By pace
Pick the speed of your day.
Málaga does lazy and full-tilt equally well. A slow crawl through the old town, a day split between the water and the streets, or an early start and a long run out to the gorges and palaces.
Take it easy
The old town, slow.A tapas-and-sweet-wine crawl through the centre, an Arab bath to follow, a flamenco table once the sun is down.
A bit of everything
On the water and through the streets.A catamaran out to the dolphins, a city loop by e-bike, a sail across the bay as the light goes gold.
Out all day
The big days out.Caminito del Rey bolted to its gorge wall, Ronda’s cliff streets, the Alhambra two hours east. Early start, full day.
The bay
Out under sail, into the blue.
The Alboran Sea off Málaga is dolphin water: striped, common and bottlenose pods the catamarans find most mornings, often with calves alongside. Sail out of the port for the afternoon, swim off the back in the open water, and come in past the lighthouse as the light turns gold.
See all 62 sailing & catamaran trips →By place
The Costa del Sol, six ways.
Málaga for the old town and the museums. Marbella for the marina. Nerja and Frigiliana for the caves and the white streets. Ronda for the gorge. Benalmádena and Fuengirola for the easy beach days.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Out to the gorge or up to a palace. A boat to the dolphins or a sail at dusk. Sweet wine and tapas, flamenco after dark, or the old town on foot.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time on the coast? A long weekend that takes in the city, the gorge and one great Andalusian day, without a wasted hour.
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