Tag Archives: Malaga transport

Traffic tickets while driving a rental car in Spain

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traffic fine AndaluciaWe always recommend to discover Andalusia by car, it’s an unforgettable experience to drive through the country roads and discover villages that would be impossible to visit any other way, however quite often the drivers forget that they can commit traffic offenses and be notified for them.

How car rental companies pass on the cost of traffic tickets

If you drive a rental car, to the fine will be added an administrative sanction by your car hire company as they have to process the fine and identify the driver, which generates an extra cost that tends to come up to about 25 euros. We recommend to be careful to not get any speeding tickets or any other traffic offense fines as although the car doesn’t belong to you, the fine will reach you.

One of the places near Malaga where the drivers are fined the most, almost without realizing, is in the centre of Granada, where the existence of bad traffic signing, not translated into English either, vigilance cameras and radars cause that many foreign drivers get fined, which is we recommend that if you visit Granada with your rental car drive very carefully, paying special attention to the speed limits and traffic signs. Other option is to book a guided tour to Granada instead of driving a car yourself.

The most common causes for fines in Spain

A very important one to avoid a fine is always wearing the seatbelt, included those sitting in the back…If you get stopped by the police and you are carrying passengers in the backseats, it’s very likely that they’ll check if they are wearing their seatbelts too…and if they aren’t, it will all depend on the policeman or policewoman whether you get a formal sanction or not.

The speed is one of the main causes of fines in Spain, sometimes even when we think we haven’t gone over the limit we may receive fine by surprise. In Malaga there are roads of 4 lanes in both directions that would lead us to think that the speed limit is 120 km/h. when really it’s in fact 100 km/h., which is why it’s highly recommendable to always pay special attention to the road signs that indicate at what speed we must go.

The radars are signposted, and driving passed them at a higher speed than what you’re supposed to, becomes a fine automatically. We must also mention that there are mobile radars (in vehicles) too that aren’t indicated and that can give us an unpleasant surprise.

Double parking is forbidden, you may stop for less than 2 minutes to pick up or let out passengers…but never double park the vehicle, the fine in this case is pretty dear.

Final recommendations when driving in Spain

If you drive according to the traffic regulations in Spain there shouldn’t be any problems whatsoever. Always pay attention to the traffic signs and in the case that you receive a fine, don’t forget that you’ll receive a small extra charge if you’re using a rental car due to the administration process.

Holidays in Malaca for only 605.67 denarii

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This would be the advert we’d see around the year 200, had we have published it in the blog back then…Ok, Malagaweb has been around for a while, but not that long!

Around the year 200, when the Romans dominated Europe, travelling from Londinium (London) to Malaca (Malaga) took approximately 24 days over 3455 kilometres during the month of August. It was a very long journey mostly by sea bordering the coasts of France and Portugal.

If we would have lived in Londinium around the year 200, and we would have wanted to enjoy our holiday in September in Malaga, we would have had to leave on the first week of August!… however, the positive side is that we would enjoy a trip with stopovers in the great ports of the olden days situated in the Atlantic…although not for a modest price.

Imagine an advert like this: “Enjoy your holidays in Malaca for only 605.67 Denarii” (The Denarii was the Roman coin back then, and 1 Denary would be equivalent to 6.63€; so, calculating the total price of the trip, it would come up to 4028 euros / 3264 pounds)…plus, the journey of 24 days would have enough boat trips to eventually make us get quite fed up.

The prices in Denarrii, based on the use of a faster sail ship and a civil boat (if necessary), and on these options of the route:

  • Per Kilogram of wheat (by donkey): 2.4
  • Per Kilogram of wheat (by cart): 2.41
  • Per passenger by transport: 605.67

Baring in mind that one Denary is equivalent to 6.63 euros, if we do calculations, it comes up to just over 4000 euros / 3264 pounds…a luxury that not many could afford, and this without including our luggage.

On this map we can see which places we would pass through if we would have lived in Roman times:
Londinium to MalacaLuckily, if nowadays we want an affordable vacation, the prices are much cheaper now than back then…and we can reach Malaga by airplane in the blink of an eye.

If we decide to hire a car in Malaga, the prices nowadays are much cheaper than in the olden days. Just imagine an advert like this:

- Hire a car in Malaga from 1 Denarii per day, forget about horse caravans and enjoy the air conditioning!

So, do you fancy coming to Malaga these holidays? You’ll be able to enjoy the Roman theatre situated in the centre of Malaga, next to the Gibralfaro castle. In other periods, not everyone could afford it, but nowadays it’s easy to spend a cheap holiday in Malaga.

Thanks to Stanford University roman map http://orbis.stanford.edu/ I was able to calculate approximately the costs, route and distances.

Malaga transport tips: Public transport and recommendations

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With a constantly growing population in both the city itself and along the Costa del Sol, Malaga faced in recent years the need to expand boundaries and offer new services to its citizens and many visitors.

On one hand the diversification of the public transport network becomes indispensable in order to facilitate new connections between key points of the city and alleviate the current traffic density, driven by the priority use of private transport. Currently are located throughout the city of Malaga construction sites for the new Metro, which will partially start running by the end of 2011. One of the advantages of this public transport is to reduce traffic levels: The public transport user occupies 100 times less space than private transport. For example, a tram has the approximate capacity of three buses, which are themselves the equivalent of 100 private vehicles in circulation.

On the other hand, Malaga and the whole Costa del Sol have gained a lot with the opening of the new railway station Maria Zambrano in 2007 and the launch of the high speed train AVE with connections to Madrid, Cordoba and Barcelona. The train station is conveniently situated in the city centre, right next to the bus station and about 15 minutes from the historic centre of Malaga. Furthermore, it is linked to Malaga airport and the resorts along the Costa del Sol (Malaga, Airport, Torremolinos, Benalmádena, and Fuengirola) by a Suburban train which leaves every half an hour from the same station. The line C1 line is widely used by many people to go to work or by tourists going to resorts or to the airport and gets especially in summer very busy.

So far, so good. The general problem with Andalusia is that the public transport system is despite all the recent improvements still very unsatisfactory. Thus, the suburban train from Malaga runs only until Fuengirola, 30 km west along the Costa del Sol. Travelers who want to go further ahead to resorts such as Marbella, Estepona or Manilva, will have to use several means of public transport, a taxi, private transfer or a car hire at Malaga airport. The connections of the eastern Costa del Sol between the provinces of Malaga and Granada are completely underdeveloped and resorts like Nerja can only be reached by means of Bus (which takes about 1 ½ hours by the way). The same applies for other destinations from Malaga, such as the city of Almería, as there are currently no direct train connections available.

The best means of public transport, regarding the existence of services to surrounding villages and resorts are the busses. Provided that you are not taller than 1.75 metres, as they are very uncomfortable and can get very nerve-racking.

Currently, with the expansion of the airport Pablo Picasso in Malaga is being constructed a new train stop with direct access from the new terminal 3 which will provide an increased frequency of trains.
There is as well an interesting project to create an internal high-speed corridor for Andalusia. This corridor would link Malaga with Seville and Granada in 55 minutes. This service is planned for 2013.

By far, the best means of transport around Malaga and along the Costa del Sol is a car. The best and swiftest traffic network in Andalusia remains still the motorways, highways and national roads.