We will be in Rome prior to our time in Malaga, Spain. There are few airlines which fly into Malaga (AirEurope, Vueling, Alitalia), according to www.harefares.com.

Does anyone have any suggestions for alternate transportation into Malaga? Vueling is the only airline showing seats available from Rome to Malaga. Should I snatch them? Are the other airlines really booked, or just not selling yet?

We will be renting a car for a week's stay in May 2009. What would the drive time be from Madrid or Barcelona? I live in WV, USA, so I know that 30 miles on our windy roads can take an hour to drive.

We will be flying out to London from Malaga, so would need to return our car at the Malaga airport.

You MAY be able to get from Rome to Malaga via train or bus, but it will take days of travel.
The only other way is to fly to say BCN or Madrid and catch another flight or public transport to Malaga. But again this will take time.
A list of the airlines and routes flown to and from the airport are on the website for the airport.
http://www.aena.es/csee/Satellite?pa...=1048858947193
You can drive to anywhere in Spain but why if you only have a week. Stay in Andalusia, as there is a lot to see and do. Besides driving in any city is not for the faint hearted.
For a route planner look at
http://www.guiarepsol.com/es_es/home/
or use Google maps

Vueling usually has good fares, so why not book them if the fares look reasonable to you.

If you want to be in or around Málaga, and cannot fly there directly, I'd rather use Sevilla or Granada as alternatives than going into Madrid (and definately not flying to Barcelona).

You can calculate routing, driving times, and costs at viamichelin.com

The roads are less windy and more straight motorways leading through (mostly) a rather uneventful countryside (going from Madrid to Málaga), except for the final 100km or so.

You can rent a car one-way from Madrid to Málaga, but if you get one in Málaga (pick-up/return same airport) (or one-way rentals within Andalucía) you often benefit from extremely low prices from local resellers like cardelmar.com .

Rome to Malaga?
Unless you have a couple of extra days, you definately want to fly

1. Alitalia is showing seats available in May. If you're not seeing that, there's something wrong with your browser. If you're seeing availability in May but not for the day you want, that's because they're full or don't operate that day

Air Europa's put nothing up after late April. As a matter of general principle, it's always wise to grab seats on low cost airlines like Vueling as far ahead as possible. They MIGHT have a loonie €1 a seat sale later - but they're just as likely to double or treble the cost as you get closer to takeoff. On low-cost, intra-Europe, airlines the extra cost of prevarication is always liable to be greater than the saving you'd make if they end up aggressively discounting.

Don't be tempted to do a triangular flight, changing at Milan, Barcelona or Madrid on a low cost.

If the Vueling flight is a good price, go for it. If you find you have to do it in two stages, consider going via the UK. I know it sounds crazy but there are so many low-cost airlines that you should be able to find Rome-UK and UK-Malaga flights that are well priced and reasonably convenient times. For a list of UK airports and airlines that go to Malaga, look at www.littlehotels.co.uk/flights2.php.

You have this other thread going on the same topic. You are too early, not all airlines don't commit schedules this far in advance.

At http://www.malaga-airport-guide.com/...-arrivals.html you can scroll through all arrivals, in three-hour blocks, to learn what airlines fly to Malaga and from where.

Vueling seems to be the only one that comes in directly from FCO. That may change in the spring, of course.

Thanks for all the replies, folks. I've spent all afternoon on this! Vueling offers a decent fare at 67 Euros, but the flight time is not ideal.

Dalai, I'll be patient and wait a little while longer. Maybe after the New Year, more flights will be offered.

I dont think waiting is bad, Euros are as likely to cancel a flight than to add one this far out. When I travel with my European friends, they often wait till the week of travel to get tickets.