The capital of the province Malaga is also called Malaga. It’s a coastal city in the center of the province, which makes that there are two coasts on either site of it. Both are very different, even when they belong to the same province.
The “disadvantage” – to give it a name – of this coast is the fact that it’s less developed as the west coast. That is at the same time its largest advantage.
Mistakes or often made with new innovations and one of the mistakes when developing the west side was that the traditional ambience of the region was destroyed. Especially for towns like Fuengirola that have a massive development history with large buildings at the sea side.
Malaga’s west side has still of its provincial beauty. Developments have started later and currently the high prices on the west side have moved constructors to the east side where land is still affordable.
“The whole real estate crisis,” someone explained to me, “is due only to the excessive prices of land that were being asked and paid.”
There is no train on this coast but currently a tram has been developed which connects some of the towns with each other.
An example of a less developed infrastructure on this side is the following:
- If someone from Madrid will have to travel to Torre del Mar (TdM), on the east coast, that the journey takes three hours and a half. 2,5 hours from Madrid to Malaga (high speed train) and 1hour from Malaga to TdM by bus. The same distance to a town on the west side would do achieved in less time.
The beaches have dark sand mixed with stones. It is hard to walk on the beach on this coast without special beach-shoes. That is one of the disadvantages. The other side of it is that the sea seems to be cleaner.
The coast is more at ease. There is no busy boulevard jammed with cars and noise. The life at this coast seems more provincial than the west coast.
Another advantage is that this coast begins near the center of Malaga. A suburb “Pedralejo” for example has beautiful beaches with low build houses, a boulevard for pedestrians only which leaves you with a sense of tropical exotics.
Where space is the main problem on the west, it is not as much a problem on the east-side. Towns are built spaciously and there are enough parks and public spaces.
West from Torre del Mar a town called Nerja, ends the east coast. It connects with the Province of Granada which is personally my favorite province in the south. In one and the same province you will find this provincial coast (with a town like Almunecar) and mountains for skiing in the winter at an hours drive from the coast. But that is another story…
H.J.B.
