🇪🇸 Alicante → 🇪🇸 Málaga · 2 weeks

The Museo Picasso Málaga collection is excellent, but the unmissable thing is the Picasso Birthplace (Casa Natal) on Plaza de la Merced — a small, atmospheric museum in his actual childhood apartment, free on Sunday afternoons, and far less crowded than the main museum.

Climb the Alcazaba and Gibralfaro castle together (combined ticket €3.50) in the early morning — the hilltop Moorish fortress gives panoramic views over the city, port, and coast, and the gardens are full of bougainvillea and orange trees. Enter by 9am before the heat builds.

Eat espetos (fish skewers cooked over burning boat-wood embers on the beach) at El Tintero in El Palo district — waiters wander with plates shouting what they're carrying, you grab what you want, and the bill is counted by the plates. Lunch only, arrive before 2pm.

Take the scenic Málaga–Fuente de Piedra train (or the Cercanías to Álora) to see the inland Málaga province — rolling olive groves and white villages completely unlike the coastal strip. The village of Álora has a dramatic Moorish castle and costs €3.80 return by train.