Breakfast under the Alcazaba. Lunch above a gorge.
Which Caminito del Rey ticket includes the shuttle back. What a dolphin boat out of Benalmadena costs. Whether Ronda or Nerja deserves your one free day. Reviews of every tour you can book from Malaga and the Costa del Sol.
Gorge, white town or the Alhambra: spending one free day out of Malaga.
Most visitors get a single day away from the beach. Here is what each of the big trips costs to board, with the most booked of them on the left.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 12,183 reviewsCaminito del Rey Guided Tour with Transportation from $69
Caminito del ReyThe cliff boardwalk, about an hour north by coach.
Ronda and SetenilThe town split by a gorge, and the houses under the rock.
Nerja and FrigilianaCaves, sea cliffs and a white village an hour east.
GranadaThe Alhambra, once the palace slot is in hand.
GibraltarThe Rock, the apes and a border to cross.
Between them: 127 day trips out of the city, every one reviewed.
From Nerja to Estepona: the Costa del Sol, town by town.
Each town on the coast road books differently. Marbella has the yachts and the jeep days, Benalmadena the cable car and the dolphin boats, Nerja the caves and the sea kayaks.
Malaga old town: the fortress by morning, sweet wine by dark.
All of Malaga city →
Climb the Alcazaba before the sun reaches the ramparts, spend the heat of the afternoon with Picasso, and save the evening for wine poured from the barrel and a tablao in the old quarter.
The morningThe Alcazaba and the Roman Theatre1–2h· from $14· little shadeThe Moorish palace-fortress climbs the hill straight above the Roman Theatre, so one walk covers two thousand years. Go at opening; the upper patios bake by noon.
The afternoonMuseo Picasso Malaga1–2h· from $5· air-conditionedOver two hundred works given by his family, hung in a sixteenth-century palace a few streets from the square where he was born.
The eveningSweet wine and tapas3h· from $35· come hungryMalaga wine is sweet, poured from the cask and chalked onto the bar as you drink. The tapas walks start somewhere like that and end over fried fish. Malaga from the sea: dolphins, catamarans, kayaks under the Maro cliffs.
Dolphins feed in the bay off Benalmadena and Fuengirola for much of the year, catamarans slip out of the port at sunset, and east of Nerja a waterfall drops straight off the cliff into the sea.
2
3The Malaga tours that fill up first.
The full Malaga list →From the Caminito boardwalk to the Alcazaba ramparts, these are the days out more travellers book than any other on this coast.
1
Caminito del Rey Guided Tour with Transportation
Travel from central Málaga by direct bus, then walk the 7.5 km Caminito del Rey with an official local guide. Expect a three-hour guided visit, high walkways above the Gaitanes Gorge, stories about the route’s construction and surroundings, and two scheduled breaks. Spanish- and English-language groups are available.
From · $69
Read our review →
2
Caminito del Rey: Guided Tour and Entry Ticket
from $35
3
Museo Picasso Málaga Entry Ticket
from $15
4
El Chorro: Caminito del Rey Guided Tour with Shuttle Bus
from $44
5
Caminito del Rey: Tour with Official Guide and Drink
from $34
6
Alcazaba and Roman Theatre Guided Tour With Entry
from $14
7
Benalmadena: Dolphin Watching Boat Tour
from $22
8
Caminito del Rey: Entry Ticket
from $17
Three things you only find around Malaga.
Plenty of coasts have a castle and a beach. A town cut in two by a gorge, a limestone maze that was once seabed, and wine poured sweet from the barrel do not.
Ronda and the Puente Nuevo
Ronda sits on both lips of El Tajo, a gorge more than a hundred metres deep, and the bridge that joins the two halves took over forty years to build before it opened in 1793. The bullring nearby is one of the oldest in Spain. Most coaches from the coast pair the town with Setenil, twenty minutes up the road.
- 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 Tour with Scenic Train★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,895 reviews
El Torcal de Antequera
This limestone was laid down under a Jurassic sea, and wind and rain have since worn it into stacks that look like piled plates. Marked trails loop through the maze from the visitor centre, and since 2016 it has shared a UNESCO listing with the dolmens of Antequera on the plain below.
- 1Guided tour of the Dolmens and El Torcal★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 94 reviews
- 2Dolmens and El Torcal de Antequera Guided Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 80 reviews
- 3Torcal de Antequera Hiking Tour from Málaga★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 59 reviews
Malaga Sweet Wine
Malaga made its name on sweet wine from Moscatel and Pedro Ximenez grapes dried in the sun. At Antigua Casa de Guardia, open since 1840, it is still poured straight from the cask, and your tab is chalked on the wooden counter in front of you.
- 1Malaga Wine & Tapas Small Group Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,972 reviews
- 2Wine & Tapas Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,039 reviews
- 3Wine and Tapas Tour with Tastings and Drinks★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 217 reviews
Malaga on any budget: the price of a day out.
Every tour on the site, sorted into three prices. Plenty of the best Malaga days cost less than lunch on the Paseo del Parque.
Museum tickets, old-town walks, dolphin boats and the Caminito entry on its own.
The Caminito with a coach, Ronda and Setenil, wine-and-tapas evenings, canyoning.
The Alhambra with palace tickets, Tangier by ferry, private drivers and yacht days.
- 1Tangier, Morocco Day Trip from Costa del Solfrom $198
- 2Tangier Full-Day Tour by Ferryfrom $186
- 3Alhambra Guided Tour with Entry Ticketsfrom $153
Malaga bookings to lock in before you fly.
A boat trip or a tapas walk can wait until you are sitting over espetos on the beach. These four cannot: they run on capped entry slots, ferry timetables and border checks.
- 01Caminito del Rey Guided Tour with TransportationDaily entry to the boardwalk is capped and every walker gets a timed slot. Summer weekends sell out weeks ahead, and the path closes on Mondays.
- 02Granada Full-Day Trip with AlhambraEntry to the Nasrid Palaces is fixed to a half-hour slot printed on the ticket. The tours that hold palace tickets go first.
- 03Gibraltar TourGibraltar sits outside Spain and every visitor crosses a border control, so pack a passport or EU ID card.
- 04Tangier, Morocco Day Trip from Costa del SolTangier means a ferry across the Strait with a passport check at each end, and departures follow the crossing timetable and the sea.
When the terral blows hot off the Malaga hills.
A few times each summer the terral wind comes down off the mountains and pushes Malaga past forty degrees. Inland walks like the Caminito turn punishing by late morning. Book the early slot, then spend the afternoon somewhere cool: a gallery, a kitchen, or a deck out on the water.
Malaga at the counter: tapas walks, paella classes, Axarquia wine.
Malaga eats standing up. Book the tapas walk that starts at a barrel bar, the class that ends with paella and sangria, or the tasting that drives up into the Axarquia vineyards.
- 1Malaga Wine & Tapas Small Group Guided Tourfrom $83
- 2Caminito del Rey/White Village Tour & Tapasfrom $75
- 3Wine & Tapas Tourfrom $77
By place: the city, the coast, the hills
By kind of day: boat, boardwalk, bar or bike
Nerja to Estepona: the Costa del Sol along the A-7.
Benalmadena
Fuengirola
EsteponaNew Malaga tour reviews.
Fresh reviews, the full run →
From Marbella: Guided Bicycle Tour to Puerto Banús
Read our review →
From Marbella: Ronda Tour Wineries Tour with Lunch
Read our review →
From La Costa del Sol: Ronda & Setenil Free Time
Read our review →
From Malaga or Tarifa: Private Tangier Day Tour
Read our review →
From Málaga or Marbella: Private Gibraltar Tour
Read our review →
Caminito del Rey guided tour + round-trip transportation
Read our review →
