Malaga is known to be the beachtown of Southern Spain. It reminds me a lot like California, you have the higher end areas like Marbella, which is very similar to Malibu, the family area called El Playo, and the main busy center, Malaga Centro. In my opinion, it’s a cool city to drive through or for some beach time, but not much to offer otherwise. I would say you could check out Malaga’s main areas in a day as well as get some beach time in. Two days is plenty.

How do you get here? You can fly in through their huge and commercialized Malaga airport, which I find to be one of the cheapest airports you can fly into for Southern Spain, take the train, or drive in. It’s very easy to navigate through the city using a car and parking is very accessible. If you do decide to go with a rental car, make sure you show up on time because they can easily cancel your reservation and most of the time they’re sold out of rental cars.

Pureto Banus Marbella Beach is a beautiful and secluded public beach. If you’re looking for some relaxing quiet time during the day, you’ll find it at this beach along with maybe some famous people, which are spotted often here. At night, everyone gets ready for dinner and a night out with modern restaurants and clubs lined up along the side. I recommend walking or taking a taxi because there is limited street parking.

El Palo Beach is a fun loving public beach. It’s very friendly for families and wheelchair accessible. Parking is very easy to find here and only for 1 Euro. There’s a lot to do on this beach as they’ve got playgrounds for kids, an outdoor workout area, massages and local casual restaurants literally right there.

MORE SITES TO SEE:

• Castillo de Gibralfaro

• More by the Crazy Tourist

FOOD RECOMMENDATIONS

• El Zagal - It’s a charcoal grill outdoor restaurant located right on El Palo beach! Espeto is what everyone eats, I’m not a fan of sardines. I loved the shrimp, the salad and the paella was definitely the best here!

• More food recs by Spanish Sabores.