Malaga is one of those cities you fly into and then for many people they head out to nearby locations.
Is this fair to the city I wondered? I was doing just that, flying in, an overnight stay in a district fairly close to the city centre, then heading out of the city, returning to it for my flight out.
I wondered in such a short visit whether I could get a good understanding of the city.
I arrived late at night as my flight had been delayed two hours and got the airport train to Maria Zambrano rail station, then jumped onto the metro at the adjacent El Perchel metro station. Three stops down the line I disembarked at El Torcal metro station, then a ten minute walk to where I was staying.
I would have preferred to stay more central, but when I looked there weren’t too many options in the city, maybe due to it being Easter.
So I found myself wandering the residential streets in the El Torcal district at 11pm. There weren’t many people around, but I didn’t have any unpleasant encounters and was able to let myself into the self-checkin apartment without any trouble.
The apartment was nice. Three ensuite rooms with shared kitchen and sitting room. I didn’t see the other guests and it was quite reasonably priced. In the morning I left early to head back to the train station to go north. The area was described as mixed working class/middle class and was quite interesting. It didn’t feel touristy at all.
Both the metro and trains were easy to navigate and buy tickets for, the machines being quite easy to operate.
So that was my experience arriving in Malaga. Coming back to Malaga, I arrived from the north again at Maria Zambrano station after being dropped off by a coach. The train line between Malaga and Antequera was blocked due to a high speed train collision in January 2026. The coach had driven through the mountains north of Malaga which was a beautiful drive.
Arriving back in Malaga, I had around 3 hours in the city before I needed to get the train to the airport. This gave me time to walk to the nearest beach: Playa del Huelin.
The streets on the way again were not touristy and this part of Malaga felt very local. Towards the beach there was a beautiful park with a lake Park de Heulin. You got a sense of Malaga’s ethnic mix and there were very few tourists around.
The beach was next to the docks to the east and stretched off into the far distance going west. It wasn’t a fantastic beach, but it was ok. If you lived in Malaga I’m sure you would have been happy to have it rather than no beach. It felt like a locals beach, more grounded and didn’t have any beach clubs or lines of sun loungers with umbrellas for tourists.
So did I get an appreciation of the city and would I return there?
Well, to be honest I’d say I didn’t really get a full idea of the city. The city centre was to the east of where I’d been and that might have been quite different. It hadn’t been touristy where I was and I hadn’t seen touristy things like the old town. That may not be a bad thing as the rest of the trip had been touristy, so it was interesting to see some more local Spain.
Would I go back? Yes, for sure. I didn’t see the whole of the city and there is more to explore. Would I go there for a week say? Well maybe not, but I’m open to a couple more days to suss it out some more. I’d probably stay more central or east of centre next time.