Malaga Airport is situated 16 Km outside of Malaga city. There is a train and bus connection to the city centre; the train journey is 17 minutes and costs approx €1.20; the bus is operated by EMT, line 19 and stops in Departures and Arrivals; the journey time is 35 minutes and tickets cost €1.00.

The city of Malaga

Plentiful gardens and promenades are the heritage of its Arabic past, and they fill the city with greenery. On top of that, Malaga possesses numerous architectural jewels. The still unfinished Renaissance cathedral, initiated in 1528, has three valuable sculptures: a Piety and a Triumph of the Virgin, both by Alonso Cano, and two Pedro de Mena's praying statues of the Catholic Kings, Isabella and Ferdinand. Near the cathedral there are the churches of Sagrario (16 century) and the Episcopal Palace (18 century), with a Baroque façade, and the Diocesan Museum.

Right behind the cathedral there raises the Alcazaba, a fortress with a Roman origin. On its basis, there are the terraces of an enormous 1st century AD theatre,enlarged and fortified by the Arabs in the 9th century AD. This is the best Arabic legacy in Malaga, alongside with the neighbouring castle of Gibrlafaro, which was rebuilt in the !5 century by Yusuf I, upon an ancient Phoenician lighthouse: a superb, 130 m tall landscape emerges from there.

In the Alcazaba zone there is also the Archaeological Museum, in which a valuable collection of Roman, Phoenician and Arabic pieces is shown.

Costa del Sol

The touristy seaside lying westwards of the capital is ideal for a car route of around 140 km long whose main focal points are Torremolinos, with its pedestrian borough of La Carihuela, located right besides a long beach, with hundreds of bars, restaurants and shops; Benalmádena, with several 16 century towers and a little archaeological museum; Mijas, 8 km away from Benalmadena, a little white town, with its steep and picturesque streets peppered with small little squares and lovely courts.

And Marbella, the undiscuted capital city of the Costa del Sol, one of the jet-set favourite hotspots, which in spite of everything keeps a historical city centre with several 16- and 17-century buildings. San Pedro de Alcantara: with its 3rd century thermal building and the early-chrsitian church of Vega del Mar.

The Axarquia

In the western part of the province, there is a hardly visited county, with mountains and canyons, olive-trees, steep cobbled streets and white Moorish towns.

Its capital, Velez-Malaga, is a big a monumental town, with a lot of historical sights. But the most genuine Axarquia is discovered by following the tortuous road that joins Velez-Malaga, Arenas, Daimalos, Archez, Salares and Sedella; these towns are amongst the most beautiful in the province. They have achieved to retain their Moorish structure, as the Arabs were here a majority of the population until their expulsion in 1609.

Antequera and El Torcal

Lying on El Torcal mountain range, 47 km away from Malaga, and facing the Guadalhorce river, Antequera looks like it is thinking of old tales and stories. It thinks on his history too—or better said, prehistory—with the dolmens of Menga, Viera and El Romeral. It has been a Roman—with its thermal baths—and Arabic city, and the basis for the Christian conquest of Granada. It is peppered with dozens of convents, white churches and Baroque palaces.

Ronda

A buoyant market town in Roman times, it was the capital city of a Moorish kingdom, and one of the last Muslim strongholds in the Iberian Peninsula. Ronda is, without a doubt, the most beautifully placed Andalusian city, just on the edge of a rocky plateau and divided into two halves by the river Guadalevin. No wonder that 19-century Romantic travellers fell in love with her, moved as they were by her dramatic location and the sinister reputation of the nearby mountains, historically one of the main sources of criminals in Andalusia.

• Malaga Shuttle Bus