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Taking a cruise

Malaga has been a port of call for Mediterranean cruise ships for many years, although it was not until the beginning of the last decade that cruise ship traffic increased dramatically in Malaga port. These days, Malaga port is one of the most important on the entire Mediterranean coastline for the cruise ship business.

The actual figures show us that Malaga occupies third position in Spain in the number of cruise ships that dock in its port, after Barcelona and Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands. A total of 270 ships made port in Malaga last year, carrying almost 200,000 passengers, while 60 per cent of all transatlantic cruise ships called into Malaga to allow passengers to visit the city or make excursions into the interior. Just a few years ago, the only excursions made by cruise ship passengers were to Granada, Seville and Cordoba, but these days they visit the entire province.

The port itself has undergone considerable renovation in recent years as well, and even the biggest cruise ships can now dock there. An example of this was seen recently in the arrival of the Queen Mary II, which docked in the new Levante pier.

Gastronomy

The Costa del Sol has the highest number of restaurants in all of Andalusia. These range from the most prestigious establishments that have been awarded Michelin stars, such as the El Tragabuches in Ronda, the Café de París in Malaga City and the Las Dunas in Estepona, to a wide range of more ordinary, but generally excellent, restaurants. Special mention must be made of Malaga’s famous fried fish, a speciality that has gained worldwide fame and is best sampled in the la Carihuela beach and Pedregalejo areas of Torremolinos and Malaga, respectively. But this delicious dish is good anywhere on the Costa del Sol, and even in most fish restaurants in the interior of the province.

There is a lot more to eat besides fresh fish in Malaga province. In fact, each of the 100 municipalities of the province has its own local specialities, and they would make too long a list for this article, but suffice it to say that preparing and cooking food is one of the art forms that the people of Malaga are most proud of. The best-known dishes are gazpacho, the cold garlic and tomato soup, Malaga salads, fish soups, stews, pork and its many products and many more. The recipes of which are handed down from generation to generation and cooked with that dash of Andalusian flair that tourists come back year after year to eat.