Things to do in Malaga

Landmark · Above the old city

A Moorish fortress palace stacked up the hillside with a castle above it, connected by a walled walkway, looking down over the port.

Local tip: Buy the combined ticket and walk up rather than taking the bus to the castle — the path through the gardens between the two is the best part and most people skip it. Go late in the day for the light over the harbour.

Culture · Old city

A collection in a sixteenth-century palace a few streets from the house where Picasso was born, covering the range of his career rather than the famous works.

Local tip: The Roman and Phoenician remains excavated in the basement during the conversion are included and are worth as much time as the paintings. Sunday afternoons in the last two hours are free.

Nature · 60 km north, in the Guadalhorce gorge

A walkway pinned to the wall of a 100-metre gorge, rebuilt after decades of dereliction and now one of the most spectacular walks in Spain.

Local tip: Book weeks ahead — slots sell out. Take the train to El Chorro rather than driving, because the route is linear and the shuttle bus arrangement at the far end confuses everyone who arrives by car.

Nature · East of the port

The city beach running east through Pedregalejo and El Palo, where the espeto boats and the older chiringuitos are.

Local tip: La Malagueta is the closest and the busiest. Walk or cycle east to Pedregalejo and El Palo, where the old fishing quarter's chiringuitos grill sardines the way they have for generations and the prices halve.

Culture · Between the centre and the port

A former run-down district reinvented as an arts quarter with large-scale street murals and the French museum's first permanent outpost abroad, under a coloured glass cube.

Local tip: The murals by Obey and D*Face are the ones people photograph, but the smaller works on the side streets between Calle Casas de Campos and the river are better and change more often.

Nature · 15 km north of the city

A pine-forested natural park in the hills directly behind the city, reforested last century to stop the flooding that repeatedly destroyed Málaga.

Local tip: Twenty minutes from the centre and almost entirely visitors-from-Málaga rather than tourists. The ventas along the road serve plato de los montes — a heavy mountain fry-up that makes no sense at the beach and perfect sense up here.