u/gumercindo1959

Wanted to share our trip with folks. We just got back after spending 8 nights in Malaga with our 9 and 4 year old. We are a family that typically like to move around and spend 2-3 nights per city and see as much as possible. This time we decided to stay put in one place and do some day trips. Our accomodation was near the alcazaba and had a great view of it from our window.

Day trips (via car rental at the train station):

- we did Frigliana/Nerja for one day trip. We loved Nerja and were there most of the day. We ate at Ayo Chiringuito and enjoyed paella there. We stayed at Burriana Beach but next time we want to hit Playa Calahonda which is very picturesque, albeit a bit smaller. The beach was a bit cleaner and a tad bit clearer than Malagueta.

- We got a very late start so we only did Cala de Mijas. We ate at Flour and just hit the beach most of the afternoon. I thought the beach was a bit underwhelming. The water had a stronger current and there was a big dropoff once you get 5 meters into the water. JMO. We ran out of time to hit Pueblo Mijas.

We wanted to do Ronda/Sentenil de Bodegas but one of our kids wasn't feeling well the day we were planning to go.

Outside of that, we enjoyed the following in Malaga:

Malagueta Beach - it gets a hard time here but I thought it was nice. I didn't mind the rocks/shells on the shoreline as it provided endless hours of entertainment for the kids looking for shells.

Muelle Uno - Really nice to walk particularly towards the end of the day/evening. I don't recommend eating a meal here as most places appear to be $$ and designed for tourists. The highlight, though, was the open air street market on Sunday that's designed for local artisans. We also did a 60 minute catamaran tour.

Museum of Music - what a nice surprise this was. We also coincided our visit with a flamenco show there that was very nice. Very nicely curated museum.

Alcazaba - quite underwhelming. From the outside, it's quite a beautiful structure, but once you're in it, I thought it was a bit meh.

Ataranzas - once you navigate the maze of meat/fish vendors, you find the stalls where you can get meals at. Really nice options here.

City center - we spent the rest of the time just strolling the city and enjoying all the tabernas/bars.

A few additional comments:

The weather was fantastic. We were there the latter half of June and we literally did not see a cloud the entire time we were there. The humidity is lowish and there was always a nice breeze (cool).

I was a bit underwhelmed by the food. Granted, the last time I was in Spain, we went to San sebastian so we were a bit tainted in this regard and I had high expecatations. Prior to the trip, I researched countless YT videos on food and came up with what I thought was a pretty darn good list. Also got a chance to talk to locals to get recs from them.

l'll list below where we went. There were some absolute gems and some meh.

Meson Antonio

Meson Iberico

Meson Mariano

Uvedoble

La Promesa

La Cosmo

Freskitto/Casa Mira

Pimpi

Er Pichi de Cai

Cortijo de Pepe

Brunch It

Desal Cafe

Los Gatos

El Refectorium

La Guernica Asador

Happy to answer any questions especially since the trip is fresh on my mind. The other thing we did not get a chance to do was to head over to Pedregalejo. Overall, we loved the trip, loved the city and were happy that we were there the night the football team won their game against Almeria to get promoted to first division next year. Quite a scene!

Looking for a recommendation for a drive from Malaga. We have a couple kids and want to hit the beach and have some good food and stroll for a couple hours. Which place is better suited for this?

We are in Malaga and plan to rent a car to check out Nerja/frigiliana. We’d like to explore Frigiliana in the AM and then Nerja the rest of the day.

Is it better to do this Saturday or Sunday?

The one thing I’m interested in is the market in Nerja on Sunday. Is it worth doing the day trip just for this?

My fear is that some places will be closed (shops/ places to eat, etc) on Sunday.

Thoughts?

Any live music venues/bars that are in or very close to city center? Any type of music - jazz, Spanish, salsa, etc.

We are headed there next month and are interested in having one nice dinner. We will have the kids in tow (9/5) so I'm trying to balance a great food experience with it being somewhat welcoming to kids. I'm considering several options - Mi Nina Lola, Tragata, Alaparte. Any experience with any of these? Any other recommendations? Not looking to break the bank, also. Thank you!

Hi there:

We will be in Malaga next month (latter half of June) for 8 days.

We will have 2 kids with us (9 and 5).

We are open to renting a car or taking a train. We are considering these options for day trips:

• Nerja/frigiliana
• ronda/sentenil DLB
• granada
• Cádiz

I am leaning to doing:

• Nerja for a nice beach day trip and dinner since there are some great places to eat there. Nice market on Saturday.

• Granada for a full day (including Alhambra)

• Ronda/SDLB

is that too much for day trips? I know Cadiz is a bit further but I have always had a fascination with it and it seems like it would be a nice chill place to see. I am amenable to staying the night if we need to.

Any thoughts are welcome!

Our flight arrives into Malaga from an int'l flight at 7:40am. I am anticipating ~1 hour to get through customs and maybe another hour to collect our bags, find a taxi. I imagine we'll get into town by around 9:30-10am. Is that a reasonable amount of time estimated?

We will be arriving from US with some of us having an EU passport and a couple of us won't. My guess is that we'll all stay together in the non-EU lines at customs.

My kids and I recently got our Spanish citizenship. We are US citizens. We are flying to Spain next month along with my wife, who is not an EU citizen. We are all US residents and flying from US.

I’ve always understood that your passport should match your destination assuming you’re traveling to your “home country.” In our case, traveling to Spain we’d use our Spanish passport and return to US using our US passport.

First question - can we all go through customs as EU citizens as a family since most of us are EU citizens? Or, since my wife isn’t, and if we want to stay together, do we have to go through the non-EU line?

Second, my wife is concerned about the current political climate (especially with Spain and US) that if we enter Europe customs with Spanish passports and return to US with US passports, that will raise some sort of red flag.

I’ve even spoken to folks at the Spanish consulate near me that there’s really nothing to worry about but I’m hoping for more concrete info online confirming this.

Thoughts? Any feedback appreciated.

For anyone that is familiar with the area, how is the street - Salinas - (off the beaten path? in the heart of everything?)

But more importantly, if we want to head to Malagueta (specifically around Cachalote Chiringuito), how long of a walk is that and is there another way to get to Malagueta besides walking?

I know chiniguitos in el Palo and Huelin get a lot of love. How about on Malagueta beach? Tropicana, Cachalote, Caleta, Oasis Playa, Picasso, etc - which one is the one with best food offerings or are they all about the same?

Ok, this has been bandied about quite a bit on this sub, it seems. I'm interested in the beach quality (sand, amenities - chairs, etc, and water). From what I've read, Malagueta tends to get polluted, the sand is gravel-like and the water has trash. Is this an exaggeration?

Are there other stretches of Malaga where the beach is better? Maybe Huelin, closer to El Palo? etc.

First time in Andalusia with the kids (10 and 5) in mid June.

We’re Looking for good day trip options either via train or renting a car. What interests me: Nerja, Frigiliana, Ronda.

Is Nerja/Frigiliana one day trip or is that two separate day trips? If Nerja/frigiliana and Ronda are considered 2 day trips and we’re looking to do a third, what would be the recommendation? Cordoba? Granada? Sevilla? West of Malaga (Mijas Pueblo, Torremolinos, etc)? All input welcome!