MALAGA PORT HUB
Malaga closed 2025 with record cruise numbers — 331 calls and 570,481 passengers — and its terminals A and B sit so close to the old town that the cathedral towers over the gangways.
Malaga’s cruise quays lie inside the bay a kilometre and a half from the bus and rail stations: ships up to 340 metres dock at Terminals A and B, and from the gangway it is a flat ten-minute walk across the Palmeral de las Sorpresas promenade to the cathedral and Calle Larios. It is the second-busiest cruise port on the Spanish peninsula, and traffic keeps climbing — 2025 added more than a fifth on the year before. The port is now spending on the next stage: a new cruise terminal on the Guadiaro Quay (EUR 22 million) and a rebuilt Eastern Quay passenger terminal designed to double capacity to 560,000 passengers a year.
Beyond cruise ships, Balearia and Naviera Armas each run six weekly crossings to Melilla in Spanish North Africa — about six hours at sea. For cruise visitors the maths is unusual: unlike Barcelona or Civitavecchia, no shuttle is needed, so a Malaga call genuinely yields a full day ashore — Alcazaba in the morning, Picasso Museum after lunch, Muelle Uno for the return. Independent arrivals can walk off with hand luggage only; the taxi rank and the C1 airport train at Centro-Alameda cover everything else.
THE TIO READ
A Malaga call is the rare Mediterranean port day you can run entirely on foot. Skip the ship’s transfer, walk the Palmeral straight to the Alcazaba before ten, and keep the afternoon for the Picasso quarter — the ship stays in sight the whole time.
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