Malaga City And Costa Del Sol in Spain

Benalmádena Marina, Costa del Sol, Spain Español: Puerto Deportivo de Benalmádena, Málaga, España (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Spain has not only firmly established in world football, but as well in the cruise sector it is has a prominent position. Thus Málaga, the capital of the Costa del Sol, has become in recent years an important cruise ship destination in Spain.

Overall, Malaga has experienced in the last 15 years a rapid economic development and is representing today a meeting point of the Mediterranean Sea and an ideal city destination. Ready accessibility by sea, land and air, the climate, the historical old town with impressive buildings and the wide range of gastronomic and cultural offer, with 23 museums, such as for example, the Picasso Museum (Malaga is the birthplace of Pablo Picasso) make the city worth visiting and encourage guests to chose Malaga for a trip and combine it with a stay of one or more nights.

Since the port is a few steps away from the old town of Malaga, cruise guests can easily explore the downtown area of Malaga on their own. Also, the recently expanded Malaga airport is conveniently situated only a few kilometres from the capital of the Costa del Sol.

As a main tourist destination of the province, the Costa del Sol offers a large amount of opportunities to enjoy leisure, the beaches and the climate and to make the holiday stay eventful. All these opportunities have turned Malaga over the years into one of the most popular holiday destinations on the Iberian Peninsula for domestic and foreign visitors.

In this section of coast are the largest towns of the province which have made tourism, sun and beach their trademark: Benalmadena, Torremolinos, Fuengirola, Estepona and of course Marbella, are the most visited towns on the Costa del Sol.

In addition to these communities visitors can find the smaller villages situated next the coast, enjoying a great location between sea and mountains, such as Casares, Benahavis, Manilva, Mijas, etc., to name a few. In these places you can enjoy the fantastic surroundings of nature and an impressive view of the coast.

These places can be reached best with a car and it is advisable to reserve a car hire at Malaga airport in advance, because here the transport is scarce. Discover during your stay the other side of the Costa del Sol, which offers so many cultural, historic and beautiful natural places.

Related articles

• The popular Costa del Sol (malagaweb.wordpress.com)
• Costa del Sol sun and sea tourism deals better with the crisis (malagaweb.wordpress.com)

The popular Costa del Sol

Beaches in the Costa del Sol. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The popular Costa del Sol, considered one of the major tourist areas worldwide, is covering 160 kilometres of coastline in Malaga, southern Spain. Malaga city is situated in its centre, serving as the imaginary line between the eastern and the western Costa del Sol.

Bathed by the Mediterranean Sea, on the Costa del Sol the beaches are the main attraction. They are among the best in Europe, being annually awarded with the “Blue Flag” by the European Community. These distinctions are awarded based on environmental conditions, infrastructure, equipment, accessibility, etc. Besides its beaches, on the Costa del Sol the visitor can find many attractions for its monumental and cultural quality or impressive landscapes.

We can visit the province of Malaga at any time of year, but especially the Costa del Sol, which is guarded by a succession of mountains of considerable altitude, positively affecting its meteorology. One of the reasons that have made this stretch of coast a prime tourist destination is the mild Mediterranean climate. As the name suggests, the Costa del Sol is one of the best and sunniest climates in Spain, with over 300 sunny days and mild temperatures throughout the year.

But in addition to its beaches, tourists have more reasons to visit the Costa del Sol. Thanks to the diverse cultures that have passed through this land, every corner has historical and artistic values, archaeological sites, monuments, churches, museums.

In addition, visitors can enjoy an extensive agenda of culture and leisure whatever the time of year you visit the Costa del Sol. In the field of family entertainment can be found an amusement park, several water parks, zoos, aquariums, many sports facilities, hiking trails for outdoor sports, water sports, adventure, etc..

If you are looking for a place with night live, you will have trouble choosing in which area to stay. All coastal towns in this part of Malaga have their own nightlife district, with countless places to have a drink… or two. Boredom is banned in the Costa del Sol.

Royal Caribbean operates the only transatlantic cruise with boarding in Malaga

Liberty Of The Seas docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Malaga to San Juan, in Puerto Rico. This is the itinerary of the only transatlantic cruise that will allow the boarding of passengers at Malaga port this year, according to the Malaga port’s managing director, Sebastian Camps. The ship company Royal Caribbean has been the one in charge of programing this fifteen-day trip, that will departing Malaga on the following 3rd of November, and that’s successfully selling tickets from 750 euros.

“It’s the first time we strongly focus commercially on this product, although last year a transoceanic cruise also departed from Malaga port”, the ship company pointed out. The ship chosen for this trip is the ‘Adventure of the Seas’, that as from next Saturday and until the 3rd of November will be initiating at Malaga port a one-week cruise around the Mediterranean.

The trip to the Caribbean will be marking the end of the operation as the base port of the Royal Caribbean in Malaga, given that the ship, with a capacity for 3.800 passengers and 311.1 metres long, will carry on touring the American coasts during the winter.

Itinerary

The passengers of this transatlantic cruise departing from Malaga will be able to discover, over these fifteen days of the trip, the Funchal islands (Madeira), Lanzarote, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria and Tenerife before beginning five days of sailing. After these, the cruisers will enjoy the Caribbean islands of St. John’s, Antigua; Phillipsburg, St. Maarten and Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas until the end of the cruise in the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico. “It’s a very attractive itinerary that’s very demanded in the national market with many foreign clients. In fact, it’s expected that the vast majority of passengers are from several different countries, highlighting the UK. In Spain’s case, they have sold many tickets to groups in Malaga that have come all the way from Canarias”, explained the ship company, that also pointed out that some of the passengers plan to extend their stay in Puerto Rico, from where they’ll be returning by plane.

This ship company will be playing the star role in the cruising activity in Malaga today with the arrival at the port of the biggest ship to sail around the Mediterranean, the ‘Liberty of the Seas’, with a capacity for 4.328 passengers. This ship will be sharing the dock with  Pullmantur, that will be bringing around two thousand tourists to Malaga. In total, over 6.000 cruisers will be visiting the city.

Don’t be alarmed: This is only a drill

Malaga airport carried out a drill of an airplane accident yesterday as part of their self-protection plan. An airplane hypothetically crashed at the 12th header of the second runway during a landing manoeuvre, in an exercise that tested the ability of a fast and efficient reaction at the airport. 50 students from Malaga’s nursing university also participated.

Torremolinos, the sixth most visited city by Spanish tourists

Benidorm

Madrid was the most visited city by the Spanish tourists in 2011, closely followed by Barcelona and Valencia.

This study reflects that Andalusia is also one of the most attractive regions for the Spanish, as both Seville and Granada complete the ‘Top 5’ of the most visited cities.

Torremolinos, in Malaga, has risen to sixth place while Cordoba maintains unalterable in ninth. Marbella, on the other hand, climbed one position, up to eleventh and others like Malaga, Jerez de la Frontera and Almeria sat in 14th, 19th and 20th, respectively.

Levante also appears as one of the clear favourites for the Spanish to spend their holidays, where Benidorm, apart from having increased its hotel prices by 6%, also increased its popularity, rising from 14th right up to eighth. Alicante, on the other hand, descended to tenth, two positions less than in 2010.

Out of Spain, the city of New York was chosen to occupy first place, followed by London and Paris to complete the podium, although the European capital cities are still a great alternative with Rome, Berlin or Brussels amongst the top ten cities.

Regarding the preferences of foreign tourists, Barcelona occupy the first position, partially due to the cruise industry’s boom, which is why Madrid remains in second place and Seville in third.

Related articles

• The sun and sea tourism deals better with the crisis (malagaweb.wordpress.com)

Is denied that in Spain there is a lack of cars or availability problems

Malaga Location Map (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are still big companies which preventing the high season increase their fleet of cars before summer so there is no special danger of availability, at least in Malaga. However I always recommend to book in advance, not only your rental car but anything related to your holiday.

My own experience and I live in Malaga is from a few years ago, when I wanted to book an apartment in Benalmadena, and left it for the last minute (I was meeting a friend)…it was really a pain to find availability, but we were lucky. However we had to stay for one night in a Torremolinos hotel before the apartment was free. What if this happens to you with all your holiday planned, a lot of luggage and with children?…well, I will tell you, the begining of your holidays would become a hell.

If you are thinking about coming to Malaga this summer 2012…you should book now and have peace of mind. find below my recommended holiday resources for Malaga province:

• Car hire Malaga
• Hotels in Malaga
• Malaga guide
• Malaga airport

And of course….this blog, where I will try to provide with the most useful information and tips for your Malaga holidays.

Malaga airport dropped to sixth place in Spain last month

The incessant trickle of loss of passengers that Malaga airport has registered since the beginning of the year has caused a drop of positions in the national ranking and now finds itself in sixth place by volume of passengers at the end of this trimester. The figures provided yesterday by Aena show an amount of 1.9 million travellers that have passed through this terminal until March, which means a 6% decrease compared to the same period last year. This figure comes from a new descent of five points that it experienced during last month.

This evolution has caused that ahead of the Malaga – Costa del Sol airport, the order is Madrid, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Gran Canaria and South Tenerife, this last one with a 6% increase of traveller activity. However, regarding operations it’s currently in fifth position in Spain, in front of South Tenerife, with 18.447 flights until March. This figure means a fall of 8.7%.

Andalucia

The whole lot of Andalusian airports add up a total amount of 3.434.049 passengers during the first three months of the year, in other words, almost nine points less than in the same period in 2011. Almost 50.000 operations have been registered over this trimester, that also marks a downward trend in the flights of 6.8%.

The situation of Malaga and the Andalusian terminals is in keeping with the evolution registered nationally. The airports of Aena’s network have lost 5.3% of passengers in the first three months of the year, up to 37.6 million, while the downfall has been steeper in the month of March, by 7%, up to 14.2 million travellers.

The network’s main airport, Madrid-Barajas, registered a significant decrease of 8.8% in March’s traffic, until transporting a total of 3.7 million travellers, while the Barcelona-El Prat airport experienced a slight decrease of 0.5%, transporting 2.6 million travellers. During the past month of March, the Spanish airports operated 156.123 flights, 10.4% less, while the first trimester’s downfall is reduced to 8.9%.

The seasonality is still affecting the air sector, that hopes to improve in April with the launching of the high season program.

The PSOE party wins in Andalusia

A small politician

The Andalusians have chosen PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español), with the help of IU (Izquierda Unida), to govern Andalusia for next four years. This, consequently, leaves the PP (Partido Popular) occupying the opposition seat despite having won their first elections in 30 years. An explicit desire that is translated in PSOE’s 47 parliamentarians and the 12 of the IULV-CA coalition, enough to reach a vast majority beating the PP’s 50.

But, in an implicit way, the Andalusians have awarded the PSOE the bastion role, placing Jose Antonio Griñan on the top of the prop with whom they intend to demolish the PP’s hegemony all over Spain. You get the feeling that the Andalusians have been reluctant in giving the PP absolute power and have preferred that the Junta de Andalucía (the Andalusian Government) maintain as a counterweight against Rajoy’s government and the rest of innumerable town halls and delegations in Andalusia.

Politics is ruthless and Javier Arenas knows this. His opportunity has vanished with the ingratitude of a sour victory and opens in the PP an unknown succession that Arenas himself must clear if he wants to avoid the frustration taking over his party.

This legislation could become a tragedy if Griñan in Seville and Rajoy in Madrid forget that, today, the main objective is to get out of this crisis, whatever it takes.

Fuengirola and Costa del Sol social profiles to follow

Fuengirola social profiles launched in May 2011, already have almost 5,000 followers. The objective of this initiative is to bring the municipal life for all citizens through the new tecnlogies. Fuengirola social pages will allow followers to keep up with the schedule of events or know the latest news from Fuengirola.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fuengirola/103755942997247

If you like Malaga and the Costa del Sol, I recommend to follow the page below:

English:  http://www.facebook.com/Malaga.CostadelSol

Español: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Malaga/319058476593

Malagacar release new discount vouchers for car hire Malaga airport during Easter

 

Wikipedia Malagacar.com

Malagacar.com has announced new discount voucher codes for car hire at Malaga airport during Easter. If you were thinking in visiting the Costa del Sol during Easter then I recommend to check the offers discount codes from Malagacar + or Malagacar Facebook.

Malagacar.com is the leading company for car hire Malaga, if you have never used them you will not regret.

Found in the press release:

Malaga car hire discount voucher codes