Malaga or Seville?
They’re the two largest cities in Andalusia. So which to visit?
For me it’s not even close. It’s Seville.
I’ll go through the different reasons why Seville should be your choice (if you have to choose).
Tourist Attractions – Malaga or Seville?
Seville has the Real Alcázar (one of the top 3 highlights of Spain), the Seville Cathedral (one of the top Cathedrals in Spain), the gorgeous Plaza de Espana, the impressive Metropol Parasol, some great private palaces (Palacio de las Dueñas, Casa de Pilatos, Palacio de la Condesa de Lebrija), and lots of amazing churches (the Basílica de la Macarena, Iglesia Santa María La Blanca, and Capilla de San José are our favorites). There’s more…we spent 2 months in Seville and were constantly amazed by the highlights as well as by the overall attractiveness of the city (more on that in the next section).
Related: Seville: What to See and how to do it on a Budget
Accommodation: We stayed at the Ritual Sevilla Suites Centro on our last visit. Good value, great location.
Malaga has attractions as well: the Malaga Cathedral is very impressive, the Alcazaba is a Moorish castle overlooking the city and is worth a visit. Castillo de Gibralfaro is the absolute highlight in Malaga (in our opinion) – another Moorish castle sitting atop Mount Gibralfaro. The views over the city are fantastic and walking the walls reminded me somewhat of walking the city walls in Dubrovnik. Malaga also has a few well-known museums including the Picasso Museum.
Related: 24 Hours in Málaga (in Photos)
Accommodation: I recommend the Casual del Mar if looking for good value accommodation. Full review here.
As far as tourist attractions there is no comparison. Seville’s highlights are arguably the most impressive of any Spanish city. Malaga’s highlights are, overall, pretty average (when it comes to Spain).
Attractiveness of the city – Malaga or Seville?
Seville is a beautiful city, an old city with great architecture, lots of winding streets, and palm trees. It’s what you imagine when you think of Andalusia. The are lots of beautiful squares and neighbourhoods.
Malaga has an attractive old town as well but it’s small and you’ll see a lot of modern splashed among the old. You’ll find some pretty squares. But you’ll also see a lot of ugliness. Where Seville is about history and culture, Malaga is an industrial port city. They’ve done a lot in recent years to clean up Malaga’s port, building a pedestrian promenade (Palmoral de las Sorpresas) with palm trees right next to the port. You’ll see stores, restaurants, gardens, and museums along the way including the eye-catching Pompidou Center. But overall it’s not very attractive and the cranes and silos are always within view. Also, Malaga’s skyline and beaches are dominated by high rise apartment buildings – something you don’t see in Seville.
Seville is a beautiful city. It falls on many lists as one of the Most Beautiful Cities in the World. Malaga just can’t compete with that.
Beaches
Malaga lovers will point out that Malaga has beaches (Seville doesn’t). They make a big deal about Malaga’s beaches.
I’ll be really honest though – Malaga’s beaches suck. They’re unattractive, there’s no scenery. If a beach to you is just sand and water then fine, you’ve got a beach. But…
For some nice beaches, go 45 minutes east along the Coast to Torre del Mar. Or west to Torremolinos (which is an easy 10 minute train ride away).
Malaga or Seville? Summing it up…
Malaga is fine. It’s interesting and we’ve passed through and visited the city many times. Sometimes you need a bit of big city stimulation. But if you’re comparing the city to a supermodel of cities like Seville, there is just no competition. Seville is the obvious choice.
Related: 30 Photos that will make you want to visit Antequera (Spain)
Related: Seville (Spain). What to See – and how to do it on a budget
Related: The Most Beautiful City in the World? Our candidates…and winner
This article is like comparing apples to watermelons to tomatoes – all fruits (places in Spain) but very different types of places. A more appropriate comparison to Sevilla is Granada or Cordoba (or Toledo, Segovia, Avila, etc in the Madrid area) = similar size/ type … all worth seeing and exploring. Comparing Nerja to Malaga for beach assumes 24/7 beach as there is no comparison for off beach hours for culture, eating and entertainment places in Malaga versus Nerja. In comparing Malaga to Sevilla – I think all the museums and cultural things (music, theatre, events) available in Malaga are also overlooked in this article along with how Malaga is easily connected to so many other places (day trips to Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba, etc ). I’m not disagreeing with your conclusion about Sevilla having more interesting historical buildings (cathedral, alcazar, etc) than Malaga but places of similar “type” should be the comparative (as I listed above). All places worth seeing and a short distance from each that all should be visited – and don’t go to Sevilla in summer unless you want to melt from the heat.
I don’t necessarily agree Curtis about not being able to compare. I can compare Vancouver and Montreal for example as the best place to visit even though both are very different. But I understand your point as well. You’re basically saying lets just compare citrus fruits to citrus fruits 🙂
AH! But I do disagree about the heat. Just had the conversation the other day with a local about that exact thing. In her opinion the humidity on the coast is worse than the drier heat inland. I have to agree. We spent 2 months a few years back in Seville in the summer and coped pretty well as long as we walked in the shade. But along the coast you’re covered in sweat just walking from the bed to the couch.
Love this post. Definitely helps us make our decision. Seville is high on our list for 2022!
Totally agree with you, Seville is one of the most beautiful places I have been, all the places that you mentioned are real gems, by the way in front of Basílica de la Macarena is El Bar Plata, is a beautiful place with walls lined with white and blue tile with flowers, landscapes and forms, good place to drink something. Our plans for the April-May trip are in standby, my wife is very hesitant about it because of the new variant, I stopped making reservations and I am waiting to the last minute to cancel if the health situation worsens, however we have a 2 week reservation of a house in El Puerto de Santa Maria to have it as base to visit Sevilla, Jerez, Arcos de la Frontera, Sanlucar de Barrameda and a lot of beautiful places around El Puerto and maybe this time we could finally meet with you and Lissette. I was prevented from writing a comment last time, I tried several times even leaving the page and logging on again, it was impossible.
Thank you for the post, excellent as always, please say hello to Lissette
Nice to hear from you Carlos! Yes, it’s hard to make any plans but Covid and I’ve been hesitant as well. Waiting to get news on the booster (hope to get it in the next month) and then will I think proceed to make plans. But that’ll be within Spain so not far to go 🙂
If our plans cross would be a pleasure to meet you. By the way, if ever you have a chance (and a car) you should visit El Torcal de Antequera (on our new blog featuring Spain only).
All the places on your list also on ours. Apart from Sevilla, they’re off the main train line so we’ll wait until I have my drivers license here.
Stay safe, both you and your wife.
PS. Did you get some kind of error message when commenting Carlos? We’ve had issues with that and my IT guy asking for a clue to what it could be…
Hi Frank, we have not been to both cities. But I would always go for Seville if I had to decide between the two. We have a flight booked to Malaga for January 9th and will be in the area until 24th of January. If everything works out! We will have a car and are looking forward to meeting you – inshallah! All the best for the new year from Berlin! Natascha and Isa
Hi Natascha!
It would be great to finally meet the 2 of you. And maybe (depending on your plans) I could go on a hike with you?
I have to warn you Lissette has stringent Covid rules :). Please write us privately when have finalized your plans etc…
We’d love to meet you both.
Stay safe,
Frank
i haven’t been to Malaga, but I’m very confident you made the right choice as you know – Seville is one of my favourite cities in Europe! 🙂
Seville is easily the most beautiful larger city in Spain. I also love Valencia, for the vibe and the beaches/water, and would choose Valencia over Malaga anytime. It also have a very beautiful old town and is much less touristic than Barcelona and Madrid. Both Seville and Valencia are underrated choices for visitors to Spain.
Yes, have previously written about Valencia – totally agree with you!
Hi.
I have been following your blog, but was prevented from commenting the last time I tried.
Hopefully, I will be able to see Seville soon. Waiting for my passport renewal to come in the mail.
Thanks for your blog. Great information.
Hi. I’ve had a few people mention issues with commenting and I’m wondering what that could be.
Seville is great. You’ll love it.
And thanks for the kind words 🙂
For me it it definitely Sevilla than Malaga. More history in Sevilla then Malaga
Totally agree!
I have a clear line of sight to our own framed picture of the staircase post in the Plaza Espana, only ours was taken from the opposite side facing the water! We haven’t been to Malaga but Seville is an absolute stunner.
I hope your plans to explore more of Spain don’t get derailed again.
Hi Claudine! I hope you are well.
Funny your last line because of course nothing is clear and we can’t plan beyond next week. Initially I was hoping to do Germany and France with Lissette but then Delta shot up. So then I started to plan for a train trip through Spain…but now Omicron is the new thing and I wonder if provincial borders will be closed going into the new year. So we can’t really plan anything until things (and the government’s intentions) get clearer.
All things considered we’re fortunate…but like everyone else we’re really sick of this…
Yes, at this time last year most people were so hopeful that 2021 would start going back to normal! Hopefully, you and Lissette will be able to get around a bit more locally at least. I’ve been watching your videos of Mexico and really liked seeing all those small villages.
As for me, the last month has been really bad… I won’t get into it here but I lost my sister under terrible circumstances. She lived in the US and was single and none of us could be with her while she was ill for 3 weeks. We don’t have visas and couldn’t get one. It still hasn’t sunk in. Two years ago it seemed like the world was shrinking but now the borders are tighter than they’ve ever been.
I am so sorry to hear your news Claudine. I read your comment to Lissette and she sends her deepest condolences. This is the worst things possible, everyone’s worst fear and I don’t know how people handle it. Especially being so far away and not even being able to see her one last time.
I’m so sorry Claudine, it’s horrible.
Thanks, Frank. You never really think about these scenarios until it just smacks you in the face one day. She had wanted to visit here two years ago but had to postpone due to a job change… and then the pandemic hit. Thankfully, she had a small but very good group of friends to help and keep us in the loop 24/7.
I can’t imagine Claudine. But great that she had some friends.
I’m sorry you’re living through this.
Thanks, Frank! While we haven’t been to Malaga, I can’t imagine anywhere that could beat Seville, for all the reasons you mentioned. We’ve finally made it back here (yes, we’re in Seville now!) after missing two Christmases and New Years, and we are SO glad to be back! We’re voting with our feet (so to speak) for our favorite city.
Good for you Paul! Glad to hear you’re back in Seville.
Enjoy the holidays with family.