Two hours from this beach: a gorge, a bridge and the Alhambra.
How far ahead the Caminito del Rey slots really sell out. What a sunset catamaran off La Malagueta costs. Whether Ronda or Nerja makes the better single day. Reviews of every tour you can book in Malaga.
A fortress morning, a boardwalk day, a white village, an afternoon at sea.
Four bookings that carry a first week on the Costa del Sol. What each one costs and what the people who took it say.
01The first morningAlcazaba and Roman Theatre Guided Tour With EntryThe Alcazaba and the Roman theatre on one ticket, guided. Go before eleven, while the ramparts still have shade on them.
02The big day outCaminito del Rey Day Trip & Guided TourThe boardwalk pinned to the wall of the El Chorro gorge, an hour north. Entry is timed and the walk only runs one way.
03The village dayRonda+Setenil de las Bodegas with Little TrainRonda on its cliff, then Setenil, where the houses are built under an overhanging slab of rock.
04The afternoon boatBenalmadena: Dolphin Watching Boat TourOut of Benalmadena marina to the pods that feed off this coast all year. Two hours, and the kids never sit down.
Every big day out of Malaga leaves before breakfast is over.
The coast road and the A-45 do the work. Four days out that people fly in for, what each one asks of the morning, and what it costs to get on the bus.
Malaga: the fortress hill first, the tapas streets after dark.
Everything in the city →
Climb from the Roman theatre through the Alcazaba to the castle on the ridge, then come down into the lanes behind the cathedral where the sherry casks are still on the wall. These three carry more travellers than anything else inside the city.
Alcazaba, Gibralfaro, or the pair
One ticket covers the Alcazaba and the castle above it. The walk up the ramp is the part nobody warns you about, so most guided versions take the road and let you walk down.
Picasso, the Pompidou cube, the car hall
Picasso was born four streets from his own museum. The cube on Muelle Uno holds the Pompidou collection, and an old tobacco factory west of the centre keeps ninety pre-war cars.
Atarazanas market, then the vermouth bars
Through the iron market with its Moorish arch, then a run of counters where the sardines come off a skewer and the Malaga wine is poured from a barrel with a chalk price above it.
Sweet Malaga wine, espetos off the skewer, and the market that feeds both.
The Atarazanas market at ten, a paella class that finishes as lunch, and a barrel bar where the price list is still chalked on the wall. Book the food walk for the evening; nobody eats here before nine anyway.
- 1Malaga Wine & Tapas Small Group Guided Tourfrom $83
- 2Caminito del Rey/White Village Tour & Tapasfrom $75
- 3Wine & Tapas Tourfrom $77
The Costa del Sol is best read from about a mile offshore.
Catamarans out of the Malaga marina at seven, dolphin boats from Benalmadena and Fuengirola all year, kayaks under the Maro cliffs to a waterfall you can paddle into. The coast looks entirely different with the mountains behind it.
Six places within two hours of the Malaga bus station.
A boardwalk bolted to a gorge, a town split by a canyon, a cave under a white village, the Alhambra, the Rock and its monkeys, and a hillside village of donkeys and geraniums. Six directions out, and the best day in each.
The bookings Malaga makes before anything else.
Read the whole Malaga list →More travellers take these than anything else on this coast, and what earns each one the slot.
1
Alcazaba and Roman Theatre Guided Tour With Entry
Meet your guide under the red umbrella by Málaga’s Glass Pyramid, then explore the Roman Theatre and Alcazaba in 1.5 hours. Guides such as Cristina, Salvador, Lucía, and Imma bring the sites to life in English, Spanish, or Italian. The tour ends inside the Alcazaba, so you can keep exploring and taking photos.
From · $14
Read our review →
2
Benalmadena: Dolphin Watching Boat Tour
from $22
3
Teatro Flamenco Malaga Live Flamenco Show
from $34
4
Ronda+Setenil de las Bodegas with Little Train
from $34
5
Granada Full-Day Trip with Alhambra
from $128
6
Sunset Catamaran Trip
from $27
7
Caminito del Rey Day Trip & Guided Tour
from $74
8
Ronda and Setenil Guided Tour Day Trip
from $65
Ronda, Setenil and Frigiliana are one road apart, not one trip apart.
Ronda gets the crowd because of the bridge. Setenil hides its main street under a rock shelf. Frigiliana climbs a hill behind Nerja and paints its steps. Most day trips pair two of them, and the pairing is the whole decision.
Every village day out →
What a day out of Malaga actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A surprising number of the best days on this coast cost less than lunch at the marina.
City walks, fortress tickets, the dolphin boats and the shorter runs along the coast.
The full days: Caminito del Rey, Ronda and Setenil, the caves at Nerja, the Rock.
- 1Granada Full-Day Trip with Alhambrafrom $128
- 2Caminito del Rey Day Trip & Guided Tourfrom $74
- 3Ronda and Setenil Guided Tour Day Tripfrom $65
Private drivers, the Granada and Tangier days, and the boats you take out with nobody else on them.
Three things you can only book from this stretch of coast.
Sun and a marina exist all over the Mediterranean. A path bolted a hundred metres up a gorge wall, a waterfall you paddle under, and a town living beneath a rock overhang do not.
El Caminito del Rey
A walkway hangs off the wall of the El Chorro gorge, roughly a hundred metres above the river, on the line of a service path built for hydroelectric workers in 1905. The old boards rotted away and it was closed for years; the replacement opened in 2015 and runs one way only, north to south, on timed entry with a hard cap on numbers. High wind shuts it without notice.
- 1Caminito del Rey Day Trip & Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,117 reviews
- 2Caminito del Rey Full-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,566 reviews
- 3Caminito del Rey/White Village Tour & Tapas★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,361 reviews
The Maro waterfall
East of Nerja the coast turns into a wall of cliffs with coves cut into it and no road down. Kayaks launch off Maro beach and work along the base of it to a freshwater fall that drops straight onto the sea, and you paddle under it. The water is clear enough that the snorkel stop is genuinely worth the extra half hour.
- 1Nerja: Guided Kayak Tour Nerja Cliffs and Maro Waterfall★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,916 reviews
- 2Nerja: Cliffs of Maro-Cerro Gordo Guided Kayak Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 923 reviews
- 3Kayak & Snorkel Tour in Cerro Gordo Natural Park, La Herradura★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 649 reviews
Setenil de las Bodegas
The Trejo river cut a gorge through soft rock and the town built into the undercut rather than on top of it, so two of its streets have a ceiling of stone instead of sky. Bars put their tables under the overhang and the rock stays cool through August. It is forty minutes past Ronda, which is why the two are almost always sold together.
- 1Ronda+Setenil de las Bodegas with Little Train★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 4,115 reviews
- 2Ronda and Setenil Guided Tour Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,072 reviews
- 3Ronda and Setenil de las Bodegas Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,552 reviews
Four Malaga bookings that will not wait for you to arrive.
Most of this coast can be sorted over breakfast the day before. These four run on capped entry slots, nominative tickets and rooms that only hold so many people.
- 01Caminito del Rey Day Trip & Guided TourEntry is timed and the daily number is capped. In spring and autumn the good morning slots go weeks ahead, and high wind closes the whole gorge.
- 02Granada Full-Day Trip with AlhambraAlhambra tickets carry the visitor name and the Nasrid Palaces admit you in a half-hour window. Sold out is sold out, and no guide can talk you in.
- 03Hammam Al Ándalus Entry Ticket with MassageThe baths run in fixed sessions with a set number of bathers, and the massage slots inside each session are booked separately.
- 04Teatro Flamenco Malaga Live Flamenco ShowThese are small rooms doing one or two shows a night. The front three rows are the point and they are the first to go.
August in Malaga has an answer, and it is underground or indoors.
The terral is a dry wind off the mountains that can push the city past forty degrees while the beach two streets away stays pleasant. It also flattens the sea breeze. The move is the same either way: do the outdoor thing early, then get under a roof or a rock for the middle of the day.
By town - the city and its coast road
City, gorge, villages, caves, marina, Alhambra: the week most people end up doing.
Just added to the Malaga list.
More new reviews off the coast road →
Vip Transfer from Malaga Airport to Malaga Fuengirola or Marbella
Read our review →
Photoshooting in Malaga – Photo session by OhMyGoodGuide
Read our review →
Malaga Airport (Costa del Sol) Private Departure Transfer
Read our review →
Malaga Airport (Costa del Sol) Private Arrival Transfer
Read our review →
Ronda, Wine & Olive Oil Tasting Premium Small Group
Read our review →
Caminito del Rey – Via Ferrata & Zip Line Adventure
Read our review →
Torremolinos: Spanish horse show and flamenco with dinner option
Read our review →
