Ultimate Guide to Malaga, Spain: What to See, Do, and Eat

After my exciting trip to Sevilla I wanted to check out one part of Andalucia's coastline. Not doing any research, I had randomly picked Malaga primarily because of the easy airport access to get from there to my next destination, Barcelona.

Later I find out from locals in Sevilla and other parts of Andalucia is that Malaga isn't really a great place for beaches. I knew that since I live in Hawaii, and coming from one of most beautiful islands around the world, I wasn't expecting top-notch beaches.

The suggested locations along the coastline included: Huelva to the west, Cadiz to the southwest, and Tarifa to the south. Of course, having already booked my Airbnb stay and Renfe train to Malaga, I couldn't change my plans.

So I arrive to Malaga, and primarily took it easy and relaxed. The city itself is a bit more modern and spread out than Sevilla, which was much more compact with narrow streets. Malaga on the other hand had wide streets lined with many palm trees and other tropical plants. Very fitting for a coastal city.

Malaga can be best described as the tourist location primarily for local Europeans who can't afford to travel far destinations such as Caribbean or Indian Ocean islands, so they contend with the closer and cheaper location of Malaga. When I was there in July, there was lots of Italians, British, and Russians. I can understand why many from the north such as the British and Russians come to Malaga, but I'm really not sure why Italians bother coming to Malaga, when they themselves have better coastline and beaches in Italy. But then again, all of that is very much subjective.

The water for me personally was a bit cold to get in and swim. I was told by locals that the coastline water temperatures around Malaga are usually colder than other areas of Spain such as Barcelona. In my head, I'm thinking it has to do with currents, perhaps the current of the cold water from the Atlantic entering into the Mediterranean via the tip of Spain.

There are other coastal towns you can go to including Torremolinos and Fuengirola. These both are easily accessible with the train line that runs from Malaga Centro to Fuengirola.

If you do visit Malaga, I wouldn't do more than 2 days. The 2 days is definitely more than enough.

Malaga is also famously known to be the place where Picasso grew up. So definitely check out the Picasso musuem.