My first holiday this year was a short four night trip to the Spanish city Malaga. This was booked quite last minute with a friend of mine, with to be honest not many expectations. I only knew a few people, including my boyfriend, who had visited the city before and he recommended it to me. For a European city break it is definitely more affordable, the accommodation and flights were a great price and food etc. wasn't particularly pricey. It was a lovely city to explore, there were definitely some nicer areas which I will recommend to you. The city was young, lots of bars and clubs, so it's good for anyone who wants a beach break and the option to have a good night out. I was pleasantly surprised with Malaga, it was exactly the kind of holiday we were after. In this post I will talk you through each day we spent away, hopefully giving you a feel for what Malaga was like, also including any recommendations I have.
Day 1
We arrived late on our first night and got a taxi to our apartment, which had been arranged by them. I would suggest just grabbing a taxi from the airport yourself, or the bus, as it was only a 15-20 minute journey and we definitely paid more by having pre-booked it. We stayed in a living4malaga apartment, which was great especially considering the price. We were around a 5-10 minute walk from the central areas, about 25 minutes from the beach. We found the staff to be really helpful with anything we needed. The only negative was that due to arriving late we had to pay a fee. But as the price of the apartment was so good, we didn't really let that bother us. Overall I would recommend this apartment if you are not too fussy, and not bothered about being a little bit further from the coast. One of the best things was that it featured a small roof terrace with sun beds and a hot tub, which was always nice to come back to in the evening.
Day 2
We had already decided that our first proper day in Malaga was going to be spent relaxing on the beach. So we walked down there for around 11am, we actually headed straight for Playa de la Caleta which was a further 5 minutes along the coast from the main beach Playa de la Malagueta. The beach we spent the day at was much less touristy and much more relaxing. We managed to get a sun bed each with an umbrella for only €4, opposed to Playa de la Malagueta where they were charging €10 each. So it is definitely worth that extra 5 minutes walk.
Adjacent to the sun bed area was a restaurant called Chiringuito Caleta Playa, who I believe actually owned the sun beds. It was your average beach cafe, perfect for getting some lunch or a snack.
Later that day we attempted to get a bus back to our apartment, which ended up in lots of confusion. We managed to cut about 10 minutes out of our journey time using the bus, and then had about 10 minutes left of walking. This was through the shopping area, so of course we had a little browse.
That evening we ventured out into Malaga's historical district on the hunt for tapas. After reading several restaurants menus we really struggled to find somewhere that did your typical Spanish tapas. Eventually we found a bar/restaurant that had the menu we were looking for, but unfortunately the food wasn't great... so I'm not going to recommend that one to you! Weirdly Spanish tapas didn't seem to be that popular in Malaga, which I found bizarre. However, there were a lot of lovely Italian restaurants.
After our average tapas and sangria, we went to a rooftop bar on top of the Molina Lario Hotel which boasted an amazing view of the Cathedral. You'll have to excuse my below photo... the lighting was awful and I only had my phone camera with me, and I felt I had to show you some sort of photo of the view! The drinks were an average price here, it was really lively, but was definitely a small rooftop bar so we did struggle to get a seat. If I'd of had more time I probably would have gone there before dinner when the sun was setting.
Day 3
Our next day away was actually spent in Marbella. Weirdly a friend of ours was in Marbella the same time we were in Malaga, so we went and spent the night with her. We took the coach from Malaga coach station which was super easy. All the staff were helpful and spoke English. It cost €16 for a return ticket, I would recommend buying a return ticket as the queues were long at Marbella coach station. It took around 40-50 minutes which went really fast, so it's definitely worth doing if you are visiting Malaga and have some spare time. The coaches were basically the same as the national express we get here. Something to note about Marbella is that it is much more expensive than Malaga, taxi's were almost double the price as well as food and drink, so you definitely need a bit more spending money there!
Whilst in Marbella we spent most of our time in Puerto Banus, this was where our friends villa was. We spent our day at the beach club La Sala by the Sea, where four of us shared a large sun bed by the pool. It was definitely expensive, the sun bed cost €150 and drinks and food were pricey (as expected). It's a good day out if you want that glam beach club experience. La Sala was pretty relaxed, if you're looking for a more lively beach club I would say you probably would prefer Ocean Beach.
That evening we went for dinner at Puerto Banus harbour, at an Italian restaurant called Belvedere. The pizza was amazing, I would 100% recommend this restaurant. It was a lovely setting with the view and live music.
Puerto Banus most certainly lives up to it's glamorous expectations, with all the incredible yachts and cars placed along the marina. We ended our night in a bar called Astral, which was basically a giant pirate ship turned into a bar. The cocktails were lovely and very large, the prices were really good value considering how big they were and the location we were in.
Day 4
The next morning we travelled back to Malaga on the coach. After freshening up back at our apartment, we did the City Sightseeing hop on/hop off bus. Definitely book this online as it's almost half the price. I have to say it was a very hot and sweaty experience, but it allowed us to see some lovely parts of Malaga that we may not have seen otherwise. It is a much more cultural city than I first realised.
We stopped off at the port/marina where we strolled along the shops, got an ice cream and had a drink. If we had more time, I would've loved to have gone back there in the evening for dinner and drinks.
We then hopped back on the bus and travelled up to the incredible castle ruins, which we walked around for a good hour or so. This was the kind of place I could have spent hours at! The views up there were amazing, it is definitely worth visiting if you're in Malaga.
After finishing the bus tour, we of course did a bit of shopping. We went to what seemed to be the main shopping street La Calle Larios. There was a good selection of shops, mainly your typical high street stores, but there were also some lovely independent ones.
For our final evening we decided to go for dinner by the Cathedral as this was one of our favourite areas. We ate at an Italian restaurant (again) which I unfortunately cannot remember the name of, however it was quite a standard meal. It was again a lovely dinner setting, the view of the Cathedral was amazing, and we were even serenaded with opera!
Of course we couldn't visit a city and only visit one rooftop bar... So we decided to check out the well-hyped AC Hotel by Marriott, and it was pretty good. We had to wait around 10 minutes to get in as it was busy, and you buy a ticket to go up costing €8 which entitles you to a free drink. I would definitely recommend the Strawberry Mojito! It was a lovely bar and was at least double the size of the Molina Lario one, however it didn't have quite as good of a view.
Day 5
Our last morning was very cloudy unfortunately, so we had another wonder around the shops. Luckily the sun came out for a couple hours before we headed to the airport and we got to sit on our apartments rooftop. A very quiet last day... We left at 5.45pm to catch our flight home.
Malaga was a lovely city to visit, going with very little expectations meant that I could fully establish my own opinion of what it was like. Our trip was short but felt like a good amount of time to spend there. I would recommend it to anyone who wants some sun but doesn't want to spend a fortune. Malaga was pretty cheap in all aspects. The only expensive part of the trip was Marbella. If you are someone that is desperate to visit Marbella I would recommend maybe doing a few days in Malaga and a few in Marbella, not only to keep the costs down but it means you get to explore more. It seems silly when they're so close!
I hope you enjoyed hearing about my little getaway. Look out for my upcoming lookbook including everything I wore whilst there! Now for my next trip...
