Area Malaga Beach
Last year, we tried to stay on an aire near Malaga in our motorhome, but there was no room at the inn… We struggled to find space and we ended up moving on. Having learned our lesson, this year we decided to book ahead with Area Malaga Beach so we would be guaranteed a space.
With the weather forecast looking promising, we headed for the coast at the end of November. We settled into a lovely little pitch on this motorhome carpark, with views of the dog-friendly beach, located in La Cala del Moral, about 10km outside of Malaga.
Area Beach Malaga (the aire) doesn’t look like anything particularly special: it is a gravel motorhome park along a main road with rows upon rows of motorhomes. The showers (€1 for 3:30 mins) are absolutely fine but don’t expect luxury; the floor is plain concrete. There is a toilet block, washing machines and a dryer, a porta-cabin reception and a bar/restaurant onsite which also sells bread. The motorhome service point is good, spacious with three service spaces. The staff are helpful and friendly, and I loved practising my Spanish with Maria and Elena.
So why is this place so popular? We quickly realised many people stay here for months at a time, which at first glance seems a bit strange for a motorhome carpark. But as we would soon experience ourselves, this aire has more going for it than the obvious ‘a place to stay and motorhome services’.
The beach side pitches are lovely. It is totally worth paying a little bit extra to have a lovely sea-view and sunny pitch, plus you get slightly more electric (6amp instead of 4amp). The aire is also very conveniently located. The main road alongside means easy access and although you can hear it a little bit, it isn’t really loud enough to be a problem.
The aire is at the very edge of a little village, La Cala del Moral. This is a small village but it has everything you could want; plenty of local shops including a bakery, butchers, green-grocers, a Rotisserie, a supermarket, boutiques, gifts shops and copy-shops.
There is a lovely village square with plenty of bars and restaurants and bars where you can enjoy a lovely coffee, a drink and some tapas or a meal in the sun. This square is the heart of the community and it gets busy in a really nice way in the evenings if the weather is good. At the top of the square is the Casa de la Cultura, a community centre with the local police office and the library.
About a 20 minute walk along the river-bed (or a 10 minute bike-ride) and you get to the the Victoria Corner shopping centre with a large Carrefour, a cinema (English spoken films most often on a Tuesday – Yelmo Cines), plenty of stores and restaurants.
There are lovely beaches in La Cala del Moral, including the dog-friendly beach right outside the aire. So many motorhomers have dogs so having a dog-friendly beach literally on the doorstep is great! It certainly got a big ‘paws-up’ from Luna who loved every second on that beach! The beaches further along are lovely too, with plenty of restaurants along the coast as well, great for a seafood lunch!
There’s an easy walk along the seafront to Rincon de la Victoria, via the old railway tunnels in the cliffs which separate La Cala from Rincon. It’s about a 20 minute walk to Rincon which is a little bit less sleepy than La Cala with lots of restaurants, bars and a shopping street.
There is a bus-stop about a 5 minute walk from the aire, with a frequent, fast connection to Malaga town centre (bus no. M160). It’s easy and quick to get to the city this way, although you can also walk it (2 hrs) or go by bike along the coast (1 hr).
This is probably the most I’ve ever written about a single aire and its surroundings and there’s probably more I could write but there really is so much in this area that it is easy to get comfortable and settled. We certainly did, but we didn’t just sit still…
