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On a family break to the Spanish coast, Robin McKelvie discovers Andalusia’s rich history, fine dining and luxury lodgings away from the summertime crowds
Friday 28 November 2025 13:20 GMTComments
open image in galleryMarbella's beach is a marvel out of season (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
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The late afternoon sun glints over the orange-leafed vineyards as my horse Victoria turns back towards the finca and I congratulate myself on my £40 flight from London. Just this morning, I was splashing around on a beach with barely a soul on it in a still balmy Mediterranean; tonight a Michelin-starred feast awaits in a restaurant it can be hard to snare a table at in summer. Welcome to Andalusia out of season, the best time to savour the charms of Malaga and its surrounds.
Malaga’s tourism has made headlines recently, but not the ones the city deserves. Not coverage of its remarkable transformation from grimy port in the 1990s to a city break star today, nor about the impressive pedestrianisation of much of the glorious Centro Historico. And there’s been little mention of the expanding Metro, which enhances the city’s traffic-reduction efforts. The headlines about a region where over 20 per cent of jobs are in tourism have instead screamed about “anti-tourism protests”. Or as Jorge, a waiter at Café Aranda, which has been serving Malaga’s best churros since 1932, puts it: “Some people are angry about the wrong type of tourism, bad behaviour and lack of housing for young people. It’s more ‘anti-mass tourism’ than against tourists, who are still very welcome”.
open image in galleryMalaga was the birthplace of artist Pablo Picasso (Robin McKelvie / The Independent)Coming in autumn or winter neatly sidesteps the overtourism concerns and helps bring money into the city and region at a time when the less stretched businesses appreciate it more. I’ve been to Malaga over a dozen times and you couldn’t pay me to come at the height of the (increasingly) sweaty tourist-clogged summers, with cruise ships in full flow and Airbnbs rammed.
Read more: The enchanting Spanish town that got tourism right
In summer, Malaga creaks at its Phoenician, Roman and Moorish seams and it’s hard to savour in any depth its remarkable history and rich culture as you heave from a Roman arena it looks like the Romans only surrendered yesterday, up the steps to the Moorish Alcazaba palace and Malaga’s majestic castle. Yes – the thumping nightclubs may close before the first leaves fall, but so much else stays open as the mercury drops to a much more manageable level. There are still a scarcely believable 320 or so days of sunshine a year.
open image in galleryHorse riding at Finca la Bobadilla (Robin McKelvie / The Independent)“The smart people come out of season,” smiles ex-Londoner Bart Vos, who has made a home for his family in the relaxed beachside suburb of El Palo, just east of the centre. As we savour crisp log-roasted sardines (just one of Malaga’s myriad culinary traditions), he adds: “Today, there really is no off-season when everything closes. Most things stay open, so you can enjoy Malaga just without crowds of people.” It’s hard to disagree when the beach just in front of my toes has just a couple of families playing on the sand and there is only one guy living his best life in the sea.
My hotel isn’t full either, though given its epic history and the impressive £50m revamp it has just undergone, it more than deserves to be. The Palacio Solecio taps straight into Malaga’s close-to-the-surface historical veins, vaulting me back to the 18th-century. Here, I recline like a Roman emperor amidst stone and hardwoods, dine on melt-in-the-mouth Jamon Iberico, boat-fresh fish and sweet Malaga wine. Afterwards, I lounge on the rooftop in late autumn 28C sunshine aside a pool with views of the Malaga skyline.
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Pushing down the coast, I ease along quiet roads to the most famous Costa del Sol resort of Marbella. Here, the jet set have already decamped to the likes of the Caribbean, so it’s not the usual elbows-out scrum walking around the marina. Millionaire yachts still glisten, it’s just there aren’t as many.
It’s the same with Marbella’s tour boats. I book an impromptu sunset yacht cruise through GetYourGuide just before it leaves. It’s just half a dozen of us as the breeze fills the sails, the complimentary cava flows and we fall into conversation. This is easy to do when your spirit is soaring after encountering playful dolphins. Out of season in the Costa del Sol, I can confirm the ratio of dolphins to tourists is two to one. Bliss. That our boat was switched to a small traditional yacht due to “not having many guests” makes it all the sweeter.
Understandably, the region around Malaga is often defined by sea and sun, but there is a third spoke to the triumvirate: the mountains. Brooding limestone crags soar scarlet high above our sunset cruise, beckoning me into the hinterland. I venture just half an hour by car, enough for the salty tang of the Mediterranean to be replaced by the aroma of pine and olive trees at the legendary Finca la Bobadilla.
open image in galleryEnjoying autumn leaves and sunshine at Finca la Bobadilla (Robin McKelvie)If you were to sketch your ideal luxury Andalusian hotel, it would likely be a dead ringer for Finca la Bobadilla. And that is exactly what the original Swiss owner did when he fashioned this slice of Andalusia from scratch in the 1980s. His whitewashed charmer looks like one of the starched white villages that dot the interior. Fancy yoga in the village church? Maybe a lazy ride through those vines with Victoria, or a hike off in the surrounding hills unblighted by the summer heat? There is even a Michelin-starred restaurant. I lose days playing padel tennis, swimming in their massive pool and just admiring the autumnal hues.
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I chat with Jaime from the finca, where it’s very much first name terms. He sees a “Malaga effect” spreading out. “We normally close in winter, but we’ve decided to invest in a glass wall this winter for our Michelin restaurant and things like a cosy wood fire for our bar to make it cosy right through winter next year,” he tells me. “Tourism in and around Malaga is changing.” Jaime is right – until recently, there was simply not this type of demand out of season.
As I ease back to Malaga airport, I’m bound for the Dickensian dreich and low skies of British wintertime. It’s hard to accept months of that when you know that just a £40 flight away (fares plummet out of season) lie seas you can still swim in, a horse you know the name of, layers of history, epic eats and those big Andalusian skies; all shining strongest without the summer crowds.
Getting there
A number of airlines, including easyJet, Wizz, Vueling, Ryanair and British Airways, fly to Malaga from UK airports. Flight time is around 2 hours and 45 minutes to 3 hours.
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