malaga
Malaga is Spain's 6th biggest city with a population of approximately 600,000 inhabitants and at the same time the capital of the homonymous province on the Costa del Sol. Malaga city is located in a natural bay surrounded by several mountain ranges and two rivers, the Guadalhorce and the Guadalmina flowing into the Mediterranean Sea.
The city depends strongly on the agriculture and the service sector, especially the tourism, due to the pleasant mediterranean climate, which offers more than 300 sunny days and an average temperature of 23ºC, making Malaga a perfect location for the cultivation of olives and fruits any many kinds tropical fruits.
Malaga city
The pleasant weather and the beautiful beaches (e.g. la Malagueta, Guadalmar, Pedregalejo) are the main cause why Malaga attracts so many tourists every year from abroad as well as from the Spanish inland. The coast of Malaga has a total of 16 beaches. Near the town of Torremolinos are the beaches of St. Julian, Guadalmar and Guadalhorce, which are semi-urban beaches with dark sand. The popular and crowded beaches of the city are La Misericordia, San Andres and Huelin, being the most popular beaches of Malaga La Caleta and La Malagueta next to the sea promenade with all kinds of services and facilities. Further east are the urban beaches Baños del Carmen Pedregalejo, El Palo and El Candado. At the edge of the city are the semi-urban beaches la Araña and Peñón del Cuervo with small coves and cliffs.
However, Malaga also offers interesting historic sites and monuments, for example the Moorish fortresses Alcazaba and Gibralfaro, the Cathedral, the prestigious street Calle Larios, various museums and the birth house of the famous painter Pablo Picasso. The Parque de Malaga is a subtropical botanical garden from 1876 of nearly one km length running parallel to the port.
The city and Malaga airport are connected by the suburban train, the bus line 19 and several intercity busses bound for the Costa del Sol. From the Train Station María Zambrano the capital is connected with some populations of the province and the rest of Spain with daily trains to Madrid, Barcelona and Cordoba, among other destinations. The high speed train (AVE) takes the trip to Madrid in two and a half hours.
The Malaga bus station next to the Maria Zambrano Train Station connects the capital with all the municipalities of the province, and the main cities of Spain and Europe. The Port of Malaga is now one of the largest cruise ports in Spain. The best choice is to use a Malaga car hire company in order to move around the city.
To the most important festivities of Malaga belong the Holy Week (Semana Santa) and the local Feria in mid-August.
