Overview to Malaga: Travel Guide and Tourist Information
Many backpackers fly into Malaga Airport before immediately heading off to the grander, better-known cities of Seville and Granada. The city undoubtedly suffers from its association with both the package-deal feel and high-rises of the Costa del Sol, and through its uninspiring suburbs.
But travelers who give it a chance find that Malaga is a remarkably attractive, vibrant town. Less touristy in many ways than its more illustrious Andalucian neighbors, its atmospheric, crumbling Old Town is lined with grand houses, crooked streets and plenty of places of interest.
There’s fantastic shopping in the elegant boutiques on and around smart, pedestrianized Calle Larios and up into Calle Granada. Alternatively, for outstanding local fruit, veg, meats and cheeses, the prices at the grand old Mercado Atarazanas are enticing.
And it’s got its fair share of sights, too. The city is dominated by an ostentatious (but unfinished) cathedral and the Alcazaba, a fine Moorish fortress. Malaga was also the birthplace of Pablo Picasso, and its Picasso Museum houses some captivating pieces in a magnificent palace.
Then there’s the superb Malaga weather, of course: the sun invariably shines and winter temperatures rarely drop below the agreeable. Out to the east, a strip of scruffy but passable beaches runs from La Malagueta to El Palo and Pedregalejo (where there’s fantastic cheap seafood).
Eating and drinking features high on the list of things to do in Malaga, and charmingly shabby bars are plentiful throughout the compact Old Town. Here, wonderful seafood tapas dishes, washed down with a drop of 'Vino de Malaga', make for a surprisingly cheap night out.
In the evenings (and especially on weekends), the terrace bars that line the Plaza de la Merced spill noisily out into the square. Nearby, the bars on and around Calle Beatas, to the north of Plaza Uncibay, keep up their low-slung, grungy vibe well into the morning.
On that front, the annual Feria de Malaga in August (little known among travelers in Spain) is one of Andalucia’s biggest, wildest parties. But this is very much a constant with Malaga - surprised by the range of its appeal, the city is everything people don’t imagine it to be.
