Thanks to danon's thread on destination in Southern Spain, I now have my heart set on going to Malaga next Feb during my son's school vacation week (3rd week of Feb). A little about us:
I have visited Spain numerous times but only once to Andalusia in 2008 (also in Feb) where I visited Seville, Cordoba, and Granada. My son (he will be 13) has been to a number of European countries before but not to Spain. However, he has been in a dual language program (Spanish/English) at school since Kindergarten so I'm dying to take him to a Spanish country so he can practice (I'm well aware his spanish will be a bit different since he is learning Latin American Spanish)

currently I can get sub-$400 airfares from Boston to Malaga (connect in Zurich on Swiss Air). This price is too good to pass up.

I've read a couple of Andalusia guidebooks so far and read a number of trip reports, right now I'm mostly debating between 6 full days vs 7 full days (not counting travel days). I hope to do a number of day trips: 1 day to Ronda by bus. 1 day to El chorro Caminito del Rey (either DIY vs guided tour), and 1 day to Antequera (alsa bus no longer serves this? so Renfe to the Antequera AV station)

So that leaves us with either 3 or 4 full days in Malaga. My son isn't big on art museums, so probably we will only visit the Picasso museum. I know we will definitely want to visit the cathedral, Alcazaba, Gibralfaro, Roman theater, the auto museum, maybe the botanical garden. We enjoy (leisure) biking so I plan to rent bikes and bike eastward on the cycle paths. So, will 3 full days be enough?

I'm also considering a day trip to Frigiliana via Nerja. It seems a bit more complicated and I don't know if it's really "worth" it?

I also considered staying in Ronda for an overnight, but I don't want to break up our trip to visit in the middle, so the only option is go to Ronda directly on our arrival day, but that seems way too exhausting after coming off an overnight flight from the US.

Open to additional suggestions!

Yk,
I left you some notes on danon's thread about my experience on the Caminito Del Rey but didn't now how to tag you.

I vote for 7 full days! Just so that you'll know, the bus from Málaga to Ronda takes a different route from the closed 397 from San Pedro de Alcántara on the coast to Ronda, so you will be fine (that road will be open partially on July 14).

Yes, from Málaga to Antequera you´ll take Renfe from Málaga María Zambrano station. And that same train will stop at El Chorro for the Caminito Del Rey if you choose to do a ¨do it yourself.

3 or 4 days will be fine in Málaga. Make sure you go out by bus to the Automovil and Costume museum.

Frankly, Frigiliana from Málaga, to me isn't worth it. Why? While it's a very pretty white village, it's also become an expat colony, as has Nerja, as has Mijas, as has Gaucín.
Nerja´s caves are worth it, and I think that your son would enjoy them. They're very popular.

I think that Ronda upon arrival day would be do complicated, time consuming and exhausting after coming in after an overnight flight from the US

Maribel, yes I saw that post on the other thread. Thank you! I am leaning towards 7 full days; i'm sure we won't run out of things to do in Malaga and the surrounding areas. Or perhaps for once, we can travel in a slightly less hectic pace

I think 7 full sightseeing days in perfect. You certainly won't run out of things to do in the city and the surrounding areas. If you have any interest in Phoenician, Roman and Visigoth artifacts, the new Museo de Málaga is excellent. It's 2 museums in one, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Archaeological Museum that is world class. It's housed in the Almudena Palace.

I think your son will enjoy Málaga very much. And make sure to go for churros and chocolate at the venerable Casa Aranda. And market snacking is always fun at the municipal covered market, Mercado de Atarazanas.

https://visita.malaga.eu/en/what-to-...ulture/museums

And the Automobile and Fashion Museum is quite cool. Take the bus line 7 from the Alameda.
https://museoautomovilmoda.com

We are not very fluent and found there are so many Brit vacationers and expats there so English is common, along with a surprising number of fish and chip establishments. If you have time go to Gibraltar and maybe even take the ferry to Tangier, might be fun for a kid.

We spent a year living in Andalusia , coincidentally after spending a lot of time learning Spanish in various South American countries - I doubt he will find it that different from what he has learnt. We were in small town not far from Antequera and often went there for shopping or restaurants. Some wonderful churches and a great place to spend a day or two. There is a very nice Parador there, if looking for somewhere to stay. El Camnito del Rey is a great day out (as long as you are ok with heights!) . If you don't want to rent a car, a tour may be the best option. Close to Antequera is El Torcal which makes nice hard day outing for some spectacular scenery.

I second the suggestion of Mercado de Artarazanas , especially if into food. I find it hard to go past the Iberico ham there and the seafood is amazing!

I agree with the comments above re Nerja & Frigiliana . Unless you would enjoy visiting an expat retirement haven, best avoided.

Rhonda is great for the gorge and again, another nice Parador but it would be a hassle to get there and frankly, there is more than enough to do and see in Malaga.

As I mentioned on danon's thread, we've stayed at the Parador in Antequera, which serves as a base camp for hikers to El Torcal, for those wanting to do the Caminito del Rey and visitors to the surrounding dolmens.
It's a very restful and pleasant Parador, but a modern not historic one. The center of town is walkable from there.
It does have a pool but won't be open in February. (It opens May 30 and closes end of September.)

Although it's on the train line from Sevilla to Málaga, the new purpose built (for the AVE) train station, Antequera Santa Ana sits 17 kilometers from the center of Antequera. We took a taxi to the Parador. There is a local bus service but we didn't want to wait for it.

The train stop for the Caminito del Rey from Antequera to Málaga María Zambrano is El Chorro. There visitors can catch a shuttle bus to the beginning of the Caminito, the north entrance. The bus service is private, not run by Renfe or the Caminito. On the Caminito web page it indicates that one can't pay for the bus with c.c. but that's not correct, as all 5 of us did.

The shuttle bus operates only every 30 minutes, and one needs to coordinate the Renfe train schedule from Antequera or from Málaga with the shuttle bus schedule in order not to waste valuable time waiting for the train or bus.

That´s why many visitors simply take the 6.5-7 hour bus excursions from Málaga that handle all the details including the Caminito del Rey tickets. Malaga South Experiences is one of the companies.

The bus service from Málaga to Ronda is provided by Damas (Grupo Interbus). The route is through Ardales and takes a minimum of 1.5 hours. See the schedule here.

Thank you everyone for all the additional information

I know this is way too in advance, but about El Caminito del Rey: if we DIY from Malaga, we need to:
1. Take the train from Malaga to El Chorro
2. Take the Shuttle bus from El Chorro railway station to El Kiosko
3. Walk ~ 1 mile to the starting point (North Entrance) of El Caminito del Rey (this will be the "admission time" of my ticket)
4. Walk the 3-mile, one-way route of El Caminito del Rey
5. Walk ~ 1 mile to the helmet return point **

** My understanding is that the helmet return point is pretty much in El Chorro so from there is a short walk back to the railway station (ie, no need to take any shuttle)?

For the tickets themselves, there are either self-guided option or guided option. I cannot find on the website in terms of how long the guided tour takes? I feel that if we are going to DIY by train from Malaga, maybe it's best to walk self-guided so we have better control of our time (we can walk faster if we need to, in order to catch the return train)

I will look forward to reading about Malaga upon your visit
I don’t know how close Valencia is but think it is magical. Good leisure biking, too.
we spent 3-4 nights, so don’t know if it is in day trip distance from Malaga.

like you, my southern Spain experience had been limited to Seville which I loved, Cordoba where I loved only the mosque, and Grenada which I liked a lot…just for a frame of reference.

Bus timetable from Málaga to Antequera bus station not far from the centre:
https://siu.ctmam.ctan.es/es/movil/h...nea=177&from=1
This was our day trip there but we had already visited previously:
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspo...quera.html?m=1

Yes, yk, you're correct about the timing for the Caminito del Rey. The return point for the helmet is after you finish the Caminito, but it's a walk from the end point, where you deposit you headset if you take the guided tour) and the point where you return your helmet. And from the point where you return your helmet, you don't need a shuttle bus to return to the El Chorro rail stop.

Some people say that it's very hard to secure tickets if you don't choose the guided tour, that the unguided tickets always seem to be "sold out". My BFF handled the ticket purchasing online for us, so I don't know if she had an option. She purchased tickets one month in advance.

For what it's worth, I was initially disappointed when I realized that we would be on the guided tour (we took the one in Spanish), as I thought it would be too fast paced for me, but our guide was wonderful, paced the walk well, stopped many times along the way to tell stories and gave us very welcomed time in the shade for a short water and snack break, Plus I learned so much more from her detailed explanations of the history of this amazing engineering project plus she pointed out all the dwellings on the original Caminito and the stories behind the families who lived there. It was both a history and a botany lesson. So if you can only purchase the guided tour tickets, don't be dismayed. The guided tour is certainly worth it!

Valencia isn't a day trip from Málaga, much too far, although it´s a wonderful city to visit.

tina, thanks for the link for the bus schedule for Antequera and for the link to your blog post. It seems pretty inspirational for them to put out a bus schedule from May 2025 through Dec 2030! What did you think of the Dolmens?

NYCMOM, Valencia is on my list but will have to be another time, plus probably not the best time to visit in Feb

Maribel, how long was your guided tour visit? Yes I did read that unguided tickets are difficult to come by. I believe they release tickets 3 months in advance so I should look into it later this Fall

I believe that the guided visit from start to finish took about 1.5 hours, but the whole experience, from arriving 1 hr in advance at the northern entrance parking lot, to reaching the El Chorro bus stop at the southern end to take the shuttle back to our car parked at the northern entrance took about 2.5 hours. But I wasn't focused on the time, just on the steps!

This is the best web site that I could find that explains well the Caminito del Rey experience in all 3 stages.https://mappingspain.com/what-you-ne...inito-del-rey/