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Malaga / Southern Spain 7 days

Planning a first-time trip to Spain for our family, since my husband is presenting at a conference in Malaga, around 22 April. My son and I will follow the next day and plan to spend 7-10 days in the area. Looking for suggestions about how to get the most out of our time. My teen (15) is interested in going to at least one Catholic mass and he’s into sports. I would for sure like to get to Granada for a day or 2 - Alhambra for sure. We are mostly independent travelers but would be open to a couple short tours if they are engaging. We love to eat also! We lived in Germany for a year in 2019 and have travelled to a lot of other European countries and enjoy rail travel, would not really want to drive unless it makes more sense. We have ruled out Morocco for this trip (not enough time to do it properly and I’ve been there several times).

Would love to hear your ideas!

Posted by
9098 posts

Of course spend some time in Malaga, a great city, a wonderful, mostly pedestrian town center, nice market, restaurants, museums, castle, about everything you would want.

Granada is an easy trip by bus or train, worth at least two, probably 3 nights. Granada has a great tapas culture plus lots of North African inspired cuisine.

The White Towns are another big attraction for the area, not easily accessible by rail, better by bus, maybe even better by car if you want to visit several. You could do a couple nights in Ronda by bus easily.

Others will mention Cordoba and Seville, Maybe Gibraltar, but the above really fills your days. Other destinations like Cadiz and Jerez de la Frontera are just too much to try to travel to with limited time.

Posted by
2255 posts

I have to mildly disagree regarding Granada, as outside of the Alhambra and the Patio fragrance store and museum I find the place over-touristed and charmless. One full day there was ample for me.

Conversely, I love the cheesy beach towns west of Málaga (Torremolinos is great fun). Everyone has different likes and dislikes, obviously. There's okay golf along the coast, and Marbella and Puerto Banús are worth a visit.

Posted by
30032 posts

The three major destinations in Andalucia are Seville, Cordoba and Granada. Seville is the largest and for most people needs the most time. There are many other places worth seeing, including Malaga, Cadiz, Ubeda, Baeza and a lot of picturesque small towns, but with just 7 to 10 days, you'll need to be very selective. Since Malaga is a must destination for you, I wouldn't attempt more than Seville, Cordoba and Granada, and I'd want the full 10 days. Some of the small places are awkward to reach without a car--doable but with considerable wasted time, and your time is going to be tight even for the major cities.

Seville, Cordoba, Granada and Malaga are connected by express train, but service in and out of Granada isn't very frequent, so many travelers choose to take a bus. Spanish inter-city buses are very comfortable. Sometimes they're about as fast a train, because the train may follow a more convoluted route.

Rick lists his top sightseeing suggestions for some of the key destinations in Andalucia here; follow each link, then click on "At a Glance":

Cordoba: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/spain/cordoba

Granada: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/spain/granada

Seville: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/spain/sevilla

White Hill Towns (harder to reach): https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/spain/white-hill-towns