How would you combine Madrid, Malaga, and London?

Some thoughts:

1. Its very reasonable to use lost cost carriers such as Ryanair or Easyjet to move around Europe. We have a direct flight from our local airport to London so we almost always fly to London first, and then on to wherever else we are going in Europe from there; and then we fly back to London for a day or two on the way home. For you, fly from Chicago to wherever you can get to cheap, and then go low cost carrier from there.

2. Why do you want to avoid Stansted? Luton I can see, but Stansted has a fast and direct train service from the airport to Liverpool Street Station right in the centre of London. I would not avoid Stansted, in fact I prefer it. London City airport is also great for convenience, but there are fewer flights that go there.

3. Sorry I have no experience on the Madrid-Malaga connection, but I love to train if its even close on time, as its more scenic and sooooo much more convenient.

The first thing I'd do at this point is price out open-jaw (multi-city) flights into London and out of Spanish airports, and vice versa. From some origins Madrid is a lot less expensive than Malaga, but that might not be true for you. I'd certainly connect London to Spain by air.

From the weather standpoint I'd prefer to start in Spain and then head north to London.

I'm a bit puzzled about why you're choosing Malaga instead of Seville, Cordoba or Granada, unless it's because the weather averages in Malaga are a bit more temperate. (Seville and Cordoba will be hotter; Granada will be cooler). The other three cities are considered to have more important sights.

The fastest way to travel between Madrid and Malaga is to take the train. Flying only makes sense if you'll already be at the airport and are extremely confident that your inbound flight will not be delayed.

Thanks for the quick responses. I didn't realize Stansted was convenient by train to Liverpool Street Station I am probably remembering old information. That certainly adds to the options.

I picked Malaga on the recommendations of a friend. I'm not married to it. I wanted an area that would be relaxing, but not the dullness of the all inclusive Cancun type trip. I can speak some Spanish.

I'm only going to Madrid for the art museums, I'll keep reading guidebooks and hope other charms of the city jump out at me, but as of now, I'd be skipping it if it wasn't for the 3 big museums.

Many people love Madrid. It's very vibrant. It's not one of my favorite cities (and boy was I bored by the Palacio Real), but it is a magnificent base for day-trips: Toledo, Segovia and Cuenca are the places I liked best. Cuenca, incidentally, has two good, small modern-art museums, as well as a medieval historic district, an interesting cathedral, and hanging houses along a ravine. Toledo has an El Greco Museum, but I skipped that one and can't comment on it.

You might enjoy the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid. Rick has a good write-up about it in his "Spain" guide book. There's interesting art to be seen there. For English-speakers it's tricky to visit because you are required to take a tour but can't pre-book or even find out for sure when the English tour (probably no more than one a day) might take place. If you're comfortable with a Spanish-language tour, you can show up early in the morning and have several tour times to choose from. Perhaps the Spanish tours can even be pre-reserved??

Rick's book also has a walking tour that gets you to some of the highlights.

The botanical garden, while not spectacular, is a pleasant place to spend an hour or two outdoors on a nice day. The cost is fairly modest and it's close to the Prado and Retiro Park.

Malaga is not much to brag about, in my opinion. I recommend Seville. Madrid is great with the Prado. Also, take day trips to Toledo and Segovia.

www.skyscanner.com
This website is good for one-way fares on Europe's budget airlines. For instance, you could type in Malaga and then another country and see all the possible destinations. It links to the websites of the airlines for ticket sales.
Multi-destination itineraries are usually a good idea for trans-ocean flights. Use a multi-city search function.

I love art museums but my favorite thing in Madrid was the Royal Palace-be sure to add it to your must sees in Madrid.

Compare prices between Madrid or Malaga and London. Malaga will have lots of budget flights as southern Spain is a major holiday destination for British people - but at times these flights can have very rowdy passengers.

I'd rather get over jetlag in London with a mate than in some of the best art museums in the world. Malaga is a pleasant, pretty town with some second-tier sights and small museums. Cordoba and Sevilla have wows.

Without jetlag, I'd say 3 days in Madrid, 1 for the Prado, 1 for the Reina Sofia and Thyssen, 1 for an overview of the city and a couple hours in the Naval Museum, 1 more for a day trip to Toledo. Then 1 full day for Cordoba and 2 for Sevilla. It's hard to get away from the sun anywhere in Spain. In May the water will still be very cold - not much warmer than Lake Michigan. Toledo, Cordoba and even Sevilla are easy to relax in.

I would fly into London, visit your friend, and then fly to Spain. London should have cheap direct flights to most of the Spanish airports. I don’t love Malaga, I’d suggest Seville if it’s not too hot (fly into Seville or Madrid and take the fast train). If you want the beach, then Nerja is nice and easy to combine with Granada - fly into Granada or Malaga.

Regardless of where in Southern Spain you go, end in Madrid. Get there by train from Malaga, Seville, Cordoba and Granada depending on where you are. Madrid will have better flights to the US and I always suggest ending in the city you fly home from. Saves the whole returning to the big city and sleeping near the airport for the last night run-around.

I don't understand the prejudice against Gatwick and Luton airports.

Gatwick is big enough and small enough and very connected. There is a train station directly below a terminal with fast and very frequent connections to Victoria for Westminster and many buses and direct access on to the Victoria, District and Circle tube lines. Slightly slower, cheaper and also very frequent Thameslink services direct to The City, London Bridge, Blackfriars and St Pancras International station and with many buses and direct access on to the Eurostar trains, the high speed trains to Kent and Sussex, trains to York and many other places, and direct access to Central, Circle, Metropolitain, Hammersmith & City, Northern (Bank Branch), and Victoria line tubes.

I find Gatwick very convenient and prefer it to Heathrow.

Luton Airport is linked (soon to be by special train, currently by short special bus) to Luton Airport Parkway station with fast frequent and cheap trains to St Pancras International station - see above - and onwards to Gatwick and Brighton.

There are lots of positives about Luton - including being the headquarters of Easyjet - which have absolutely loads of flights to many spots in Spain.

I also prefer Gatwick to Heathrow but haven't been to Luton.

I love London, don't love Madrid (except for El Prado) and also don't love Malaga. There are many places to love in Spain. If you want sights, Barcelona, Granada, Seville and Toledo are all great (there are dozens more I would choose above Madrid).

If you want beach, I personally don't like any of the Costa del Sol. It's much too developed for my taste. I'd opt for further north (roughly Valencia to the French border) or, for beach solitude with barely enough services, Costa de la Luz from Tarifa up to the Portuguese border.

Right now, I'm thinking of starting off in Malaga (staying in Torremolinos), then train to Madrid, then fly to London. However, there are no direct flights from Chicago to Malaga, so I'd have to connect in a European city and then deal with getting from Malaga airport to Torremolinos. Is this a dumb idea? I have done a flight where I flew from Chicago, connected at LHR to Manchester UK and then took an immediate train from Manchester airport to Liverpool to begin that trip, and it was fine.

I have Rick Steves Best of Spain guidebook (kindle) as well as DK Eyewitness Madrid guidebook. Should I also get Rick's Spain guidebook?

I'm thinking I will leave Chicago on 1 May to arrive on 2 May. Does that sound reasonable? I plan to leave Europe around 15 May. I must be back before the Memorial Day weekend in the USA, so I don't have too much flexibility in my dates, but I can move them around a bit.

Luton, Stansted and Gatwick all have fairly straightforward train connections into London. At Luton it’s a short bus ride to the train station then a short train ride into London, with stops at St Pancras and I think Blackfriars. Really easy. Gatwick is even easier - choice of trains either to Victoria or St Pancras. Stansted, you can either take the train direct to Liverpool Street or get off at Tottenham Hale and connect to the Tube.

Easyjet, Ryanair etc are all fine for the short hop to London. However check luggage requirements carefully. The cabin size cases tend to be smaller than for transatlantic flights and they’re very strict about your one piece of personal baggage. I was on Easyjet recently - and had paid to check luggage. One woman travelling with hand luggage only got charged an extra £47 because, although her cabin bag was the right size, she also had a large handbag as her personal item and it was too big.

Oh gawd, I’ve just seen your most recent post. l haven’t been to Torremolinos in years but I thought it was an absolute hellhole. Full of Brits (I am one, and I hate my nation on holiday), bars open all day and night, just the worst kind of packaged holiday nightmare. Certainly not a taste of Spain. More like Blackpool but with sun. If you don’t like Cancun you’ll hate Torremolinos.

Malaga itself has a small amount of appeal but if you’re a cultural sort, or someone who wants to experience Spain rather than Britain-on-sea, Seville or Cordoba are lovely and if you want coastal, go to Barcelona.

I may have to rethink this. Malaga, Torrelominos, and the Costa Del Sol area was recommenced to me by a friend in the UK. That's with the caveat that I don't like south Florida, Cancun, or the Bahamas, I just want a place to thaw out after a cold winter that has culture and decent food and that won't run me ragged.

Consider the island of Majorca by flight from Madrid for the "beach" experience.

Well, your UK friend might not know your tastes very well! I am baffled as to how they were recommended to someone who doesn’t like Cancun, Florida etc. Try doing a Google image to get an idea: you’ll see the occasional small fishing harbour but otherwise mild upon mile of big ugly hotels fringing the beach.

The Costa del Sol was most Brits’ first experience of foreign travel: in the 70s, a previously attractive part of Spain was heavily built-up with vast ugly modern hotels where British holiday makers would go for a couple of weeks, get sunburnt, get very drunk, etc.

There’s also a big British expat community (and it’s often thought of as the place where East End gangsters go to live with their ill-gotten gains). I’m sorry to say that the whole area was ruined by my compatriots.

It’s less popular as a holiday destination for Brits now, but it still remains a reliable cheap source of sunshine where you don’t need to speak a word of Spanish (in fact even some of the bar owners and cafe owners won’t speak much Spanish) and you can have a full English breakfast washed down by lager at any hour of the day or night.

It might be worth looking at the Balearics - although the Brits have also done their best to ruin Majorca and Ibiza, I understand there are still some relatively unspoilt areas but proceed with great caution.

Seville, Cordoba and Granada remain lovely, though.