places to see in Malaga and St. Maarten

We are taking the repositioning Carnival Splendor cruise from Rome. Two side trips that we have not booked are Malaga and St.Maarteen. Any ideas what to see/do in those areas? TIA

Not far from Malaga is Torremolinos and further up the coast is Marbella.

Torremolinos is a huge tourist area with loads of shops, restaurants and beaches. Very busy. We were a group of four and got a taxi and had a blast for the day there.

We have stayed for lengthy visits in Marbella on land resort vacations and it is very luxurious. High end and fabulous. It is too far to go for the day to Marbella IMO Near to that is Puerto Banus which has Marina docking the world's most outstanding yachts. We love dining in outdoor patios of restaurants and looking at those incredible vessels.

Malaga is okay but better to go off to the beach communities.

Sail7seas is correct. Torremolinos is only a short ride. Nice for trafic free sea front and sea food restaurants plus calle san Miguel district for shops. Marbella is possible about 45 mins. Puerto Banus maybe 55mins. I live in Marbella, happy you like it:) Mijas, a small pueblo in the hills is a possible trip too, good views.

You might want to explore the two "sides" of St. Martin on your own. You can check out the Dutch side where you will dock, and then take a bus over to the French side. You don't need an excursion to do this and it is interesting to see the strong differences on the two sides of the island.

We are stopping in Malaga in October 2009. I'm hoping to get to Grenada to visit the Alhambra one of the most perfect palaces I've ever seen.

I toured through Spain in the late '60s and it was a magical place. Of course Torremolinos was a great party town.

Another vote for the Alhambra in Granada. This was my very first tour ever. What I learned was to stay with me forever. I learned to look not only at the walls for art but the designs in the floors and ceilings. I learned to enjoy the patterns that sunlight made on the walls especially with the architectural designs over the window.

The gardens are beautiful too.

Fran

We had an extensive tour of Alhamnbra on a previous trip to Spain..... one of our favorite countries. It is a must see. Absolutely fabulous.

Moniquet..... Lucky you to live in such a beautiful place. We adore Marbella and have had three or four wonderful stays there. Really nice people; great food; excellent shopping; beautiful beaches; gorgeous weather....... What's not to like? :)

One more vote for Alhambra. I will suggest to book cruise shore excursion for this one, since it is not easy to DIY. Granada is far away from Malaga (2-3 hours). You will need to pre-book a ticket with a fixed time slot to enter the palace. It is difficult for you to estimate your arrival time. Besides, the cruise line probably has already booked all the "good" time slots.

Kestrel gives VERY good advice. I wouldn't dream of attempting that distant a shore excursion on anything but a ship's sponsored tour.

We are taking the repositioning Carnival Splendor cruise from Rome. Two side trips that we have not booked are Malaga and St.Maarteen. Any ideas what to see/do in those areas? TIA

noticed your are the the transatlantic, so am i. if you haven't already, you should check rolls calls for splendor here at cruise critic. we are planning a meet and greet on the ship for all cruise critics and you are more then welcome to sign up and let us know if you want to attend:D. it is a busy board with almost a hundred signed up for meet and greet. are you arriving early in rome? we are planning a meet there also for lunch or a glass of wine.

hope to see you on the board:p

miss pupule

I agree with seeing the French side of St. Martin. Yes, there may be tours offering both sides of the island, but the best thing to do is hop a bus or a taxi and go to the other side - after all, the whole island is only about 50 kilometers wide.

My first impression of Phillipsburg was not a good one - people pushing timeshare condos. (And my second one I didn't go into the town becuase I was part of a tour that showed both sides, an excursion that was offered as part of the cruise package we took.) So I was glad that I got to see Marigot and walk around a bit.

If you have the time, you may also want to try taking the ferry from Marigot to Anguilla, or even (if you have the money as well), a plane from Phillipsburg to Saba. I must be the only one who is secretly hoping that my western Caribbean cruise in October gets re-routed so we can do these things....

Hello,

DO NOT MISS the Cathedral in Malaga. It is one of the truly outstanding churches you will ever see. If you like to walk it is about a mile or so from where the ship will dock, or a short taxi ride to the church.

Not far from the church, is a very interesting Picasso museum. Picasso was born in Malaga.

Hope that this helps,

Fred