We will be flying into Malaga from the UK in October and would like to head straight to Granada (we will be spending time in Malaga at the end of our trip). Our flight arrives at 11:15 which seems to be in no-mans land.

We miss the direct morning bus to Granada. Best I can tell, we need to take a city bus into Malaga. Is that the A75 express or the C19 intercity?? Do both go to the bus station directly or do we need to get off somewhere else?

From there, we can take a bus/coach to Granada but it looks like we are stuffed until 14:00, right? (16:00 arrival)

Tickets: do I buy separate tickets to Malaga and then on to Granada? We are a family of 4 (kids 14 & 11) -- any discounts? From what I can tell, the tickets are 2€ and 11.19€ respectively -- sound right?

Suggestions for spending 2 hours near the bus station in Malaga with carry-on luggage knowing we will be visiting on the back end of the trip?

Looks like a private transfer would be about 140€ -- an expensive premium to save 3 hours or so. The train times are no better and more complicated.

This website may help...I just searched this myself yesterday!

http://www.granadainfo.com/granadatravel.htm

Thanks jamikins -- not sure why my googling didn't pick that up. It is helpful.

That implies hourly buses (12:00, 13:00, 14:00) from Malaga which I wasn't seeing on the official site. Hmmm. Maybe not in October . . .

Beware. The bus schedule times are as the www.alsa.es web site and no other should be relied upon.
Is there now anything else you wish to resolve?

I have done this trip countless times. You just get the local airport bus into Malaga Bus Station. They are every 20 mins or so, no booking, just get on and pay as you go, takes around 20 mins depending on traffic. Once there go to the ticket counters (numbers 24/25 I think) and get tickets for the next bus to Granada. They go every hour on the hour. If you have time to wait, walk across the street and have a coffee at the bar opposite.

In Málaga bus station, I recommend a tapa of "Carne con tomate" in one of the two busy and perfectly fine bars/cafés at each end of the terminal. A Málaga signature tapa that always gets me in the mood, and here it has always been excellent through numerous visits the past decade. http://myspanishcuisine.com/recipes/carne-con-tomate/

... and C19 is the local bus from Málaga airport to the bus station. Leaves frequently, takes some 20-25 minutes as gertie3751 says and costs around 1€. Pay onboard, so you better have some coins or small €-notes.

Looks like the hourly schedule drops out on 12 Oct such that the 12:00 / 13:00 times are no longer available. Oh well. I'll keep a watch to see if they get added or not.

Thanks for the tips.

Do non-EU children pay full fare?

Children are children. No-one is going to ask for their passports on the bus!

indydad - your query reminded me of our experience picking up our hire car in Malaga to drive to Granada. we'd arrived at about 9pm [early in southern Spain] so we got a cab into town and enjoyed a tour of the tapas bars before turning in.

in the morning we went for an early morning stroll round the centre [loved the central market with all the bits of animals that usually get hidden in the UK displayed for everyone to see] and then caught the bus back to the airport to collect our car, when our troubles began. Firstly, there was a huge queue for the car hire company we'd picked [probably the cheapest] then we couldn't find the way out of the garage, and then we got hopelessly lost trying to find the road to Granada. Somehow we ended up round the back of a little industrial estate [this was pre-satnav days] and could see no alternative to winding down the window and asking, somehow for directions. so in my best [ie virtually non-existent Spanish I enquired "donde es Granada?" to which we received the answer in the broadest irish accents that "to be sure, you're in the wrong place"!

what were the odds on that?

if i were you, indy-dad, I'd stick to public transport!

annhig -- public transport is the plan -- thanks for the reminder though