Malaga in March Trip report

We visited Malaga for a week at the very beginning of March 2018. We are slow travellers so one week (not being able to stay for two!) in one city is about right for us and so we chose Malaga in the hope of some spring weather and the opportunity to walk along the beach and see the sea and also because it seemed a Spanish city where tourism plays an important role but there wouldn't be too many non-Spanish voices around us. Previously, in Spain we had spent ten days between Barcelona and Cambrils, a seaside resort to the south of Barcelona and had visited Tarragona, Salou and the Ebro delta.

I think we were pretty unlucky with the weather, but the rest of Europe was hit by the Burian (beast from the east) with sub-zero temperatures and snow. In Malaga it rained quite a bit but when the sun finally came out it was warm enough to sit and enjoy the sunshine in a light pullover. I never felt cold, but I felt decidedly damp some of the time and one of the reasons we enjoyed our trip was that the apartment we rented had an air-conditioning inverter which meant we had hot air and dehumidifier on demand. So bear in mind it's probably wiser to choose accommodation with some form of heating if you visit in the winter or mid-season.

We didn't eat out much because we were a ten-minute walk from the Centre where there is the Mercado de Abastos and 5 minutes from a Mercadona and so we enjoyed buying fish and fresh fruit and vegetables, all of which were very cheap by North Italy standards, and preparing our own food. Nevertheless, Malaga is full of eateries and menu del dia can cost as little as 8 or 9 euros per day.

We enjoyed just walking around the city centre, the Parque de Malaga, Muelle Uno and of course along Malagueta beach and beyond. Malaga has a large amount of churches, museums and other sights to see and visit and many of them are free at some point in the week. See my specific post for more details. So even if the weather isn't as good as you hope there are plenty of things to see and do. We particularly liked the Alcazaba and Gibralfaro and the Thyssen Museum, walking all along the sendero litoral as far as El Rincon de la Victoria and the gym facilities along the Malagueta seafront. Although we weren't out and about late at night so can't comment on the nightlife, we found it generally to be a clean and safe city. There were quite a few relaxed tourists around of many different nationalities, blending in with the Spanish and never enough to be called a crowd. One of the things we liked in particular about Malaga was the fact that local people generally seemed really friendly and kind to the tourist. Whenever we bought something at the Mercado what we had to pay was clear, correct and shown to us, people were kind and patient when we asked for information or directions. We had the impression that tourists are welcome and not seen as somebody to rip off. For example, the lady in the kiosk in Rincon de la Victoria who explained three times about bus tickets, or the man in Mercadona who observed us discussing which jamon serrano to buy and gave us free slices of each to try.

Another advantage of staying in Malaga is that you just have to get the Cercanias train to get from the airport to the City Centre, easy, quick and cheap. With the same line you can visit the coast to the west of Malaga as far as Fuengirola. We just did an afternoon trip to Torremolinos and a lot of walking and for our slow pace there was more than enough to do in Malaga for a week. However it is easy to go to Antequera for a day trip and to the east there is a bus service so you can also get to Nerja in about an hour and a half.

All in all it was an extremely relaxing and stress-free place to stay, we felt 'at home' after just a few hours! I can highly recommend Malaga and think we will definitely return at some point!