The Coastal Route

Route

This must the only ‘flat’ road that one can think of. There’s the coastal roads in Torremolinos that goes down the Costa del Sol, but it’s not quite straightforward to get there by bike, which leaves this road as the main (and only) option for a flat route as all other roads go up.

 

It’s impossible to get lost as you just need to follow the road eastbound to the many towns along the coast. This route goes to Torre del Mar, but you might as well continue to Nerja, which is another 20km away.

 

You leave town by following the inevitable Paseo Marítimo to El Palo and the high-end El Candado. Here begins a dual carriage way that won’t win any beauty prizes as it houses a cement factory in the tiny village of La Araña. Literally translated, ‘The Spider’, named after the ‘pez araña’, also known as the greater weever fish.

 

Take a right at the first ramp and you’ll be entering a string of villages like La Cala del Moral, Torre de Benalgabón, Rincón de la Victoria and Benajarafe. When you leave the first village, there’s a tiny climb with a gradient of maximum 7%. On the way back, you’ll obviously have to do this hill from the other way, but other than that, this is the only ‘climb’ worth mentioning. Which is odd, because even though it’s supposedly a flat road, you’ll accumulate almost 300 meters of elevation.

 

It takes a little while before the villages make way for an actual coastal road where you can see the beaches and the Mediterranean. It’s a brief intermission before you enter Benajarafe, that is famous for cars spending more time backwards trying to park than actually moving forwards. Luckily, Benajarafe is a small town and you’ll have crossed it in no time.

 

The next stretch is a dead-straight arrow to Puerto Niza and another tiny teeny bit up that launch you for the final part to Torre del Mar. In Torre del Mar, you can stop for a quick coffee, to go back on the same road to Málaga.

Fueling up

There are plenty of stops on the way. In the villages, it’s one cafe after the other so you’re spoilt for choice. If you’re hungry and it’s lunch time, there’s plenty of great ‘chiringuitos’ (restaurants at or even on the beach) in Rincón de la Victoria.

Tips

The coastal road is by no means quiet. There’s always traffic, even more so during the weekends and during the summer, and drivers tend to speed quite a bit. Tourists frequent this road too and they usually don’t have the same courtesy as the Spanish do in general. So bring a bike light and make sure you get noticed, and be aware of your surroundings.