Weekend Travels in Torrox Costa and Nerja Spain
One of my favorite ways to travel—both at home and abroad—is to visit with friends. I love having locals show me around the area where they live, because they often know the best things to do and see in their town or city. Traveling offers a great opportunity to catch up with old friends while experiencing something new and exciting. Traveling together can also quickly forge strong connections between people who are just beginning a new friendship. This was the case for my roommate (and best friend here in Spain, but for shorthand, I’ll call her my roommate in this post) and I when we visited our new friends in Torrox Costa and traveled to Nerja together.
At the orientation for auxiliares de conversación (assistant language teachers in Spain) in Malaga, I met a couple of other auxes (popular shorthand for auxiliares de conversación) who live and teach in Torrox Costa. While I (and the vast majority of auxes in Spain) teach English, my new friends actually teach German, as Torrox Costa has a large German population. After spending the afternoon in Malaga together, we developed the beginnings of a new friendship, and we discussed visiting each other in our respective towns on the Costa del Sol.
A couple weeks later, my roommate and I packed our bags and headed to Torrox Costa to visit our new friends and explore a new part of Spain.
Getting to Torrox Costa was a little difficult, because we ran into some issues with public transportation—some our fault, some not. First, the cercanías train from Fuengirola to Malaga ended up being about 40 minutes late, which we did not plan for, because train delays rarely happen. They seemed to be having mechanical issues or something. Eventually, they got it sorted out, and we boarded the train. Luckily, we still had several options for buses to take to Torrox Costa.
When we arrived in Malaga to catch the bus, we made a mistake: we didn’t realize we needed to buy our tickets ahead of time. In Fuengirola, you can buy the tickets when you board the bus, but apparently that is not typically possible for the Alsa buses. By the time we realized we needed to purchase tickets at an Alsa machine at the bus station, the bus we wanted was fully booked. Fortunately, the next bus left only thirty minutes later, so we hurriedly bought those tickets to reserve our seats. We made the most of our delay by grabbing pastries at the Granier by the Malaga Bus Station while we waited.
TRAVEL TIP: Municipalities on the Costa del Sol may have totally different bus systems, so be sure to look into whether or not the busses you’ll be taking require you to purchase tickets in advance.
We arrived in Torrox Costa around 5:00 PM, and our new friends greeted us at the bus stop. They led us to their apartment (which has an unbelievable view of the beach), and we had some snacks and chatted on their balcony.
We spent the evening near the beach. Torrox Costa has a long paseo marítimo (walkway along the beach) with lots of restaurants and shops. We grabbed dinner at one of those restaurants and sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather and ocean views. Afterwards, we walked a couple of miles along the beach. Torrox Costa has a scenic cove with a lighthouse at one end, and it’s definitely worth a visit if you’re there. I didn’t take a picture, because it was too dark to see anything, but it’s pretty cool to check it out at night.
The next day, we walked—or rather hiked—from Torrox Costa to Nerja. The journey was about five miles, and it took us a little over two hours. It’s definitely walkable—hike-able—but there were a few spots where we had to walk on the shoulder of the road, so we had to be very careful. (If you’re traveling from Torrox Costa to Nerja, I’d recommend just taking the fifteen-minute bus—that’s what we ended up doing on the way back!)
It was quite sunny that day, and the hike to Nerja wore us down a bit. We packed some sandwiches to eat on the way, but by the time we arrived in Nerja we needed a larger meal. We ate lunch at a restaurant with a spectacular view—seriously, I thought Torrox Costa had nice views, but those were nothing compared to what we saw in Nerja. The restaurant wasn’t anything to write home about, but I’d be happy to sit at pretty much any restaurant along the Nerja paseo marítimo simply because of the views.
After lunch, we headed into the center of Nerja. Still tired from the hike, we decided to snag a spot to lay out on the beach. Nerja has small beaches on either side of its famous Balcón de Europa, and even in mid-October, these gorgeous beaches were really crowded. I totally understand why the Nerja beaches are such popular spots, though—the water is bright blue and crystal clear, and the beaches sit among breathtaking rocky cliffs.
Even in October, the sun was strong on the Costa del Sol, and it didn’t take long for us to warm up enough to want to go for a swim. I don’t know if it’s always this way in Nerja, but when we swam, the water was so still that waves weren’t even breaking. This made it relaxing and enjoyable to swim all around the magnificent geological features along the coast. It also meant the water was EXTRA clear, as very little sand was stirred. I’d say it was my favorite saltwater swimming experience ever!
Eventually the coolness of the water got to us, and we went back to the beach and enjoyed the sun for a while longer. Once we dried off, we went up to the Balcón de Europa to grab some ice cream and sorbet. (On the Balcón de Europa alone, there must be at least four ice cream and/or gelato shops!)
After wandering around the town for a bit, we grabbed an Alsa bus back to Torrox Costa. For that bus, we had to buy a ticket at a kiosk (not a machine) at the bus stop. The ride took about fifteen minutes—so it was way to travel between Nerja and Torrox Costa.
Back in Torrox Costa, we had a chill night in and continued to get to know our new friends. The next morning, they made us an Austrian/Bavarian breakfast food, called Kaiserschmarrn. It’s basically like eggy pancakes with cinnamon applesauce on top. It was a wonderful way to start the day and end our trip!
To avoid unnecessary delays, we bought our bus tickets home through the Alsa app. It was much easier to buy the bus tickets to Malaga ahead of time. We bussed to Malaga, and from there we took the cercanías train to Fuengirola.
We had a wonderful trip, and we learned a lot along the way!
