Malaga Airport

At a time when many residents of the Costa del Sol are moaning about the recession in Spain (a downturn I would prefer to call it) and the credit crunch in the UK, vast expansion of Malaga Airport will make it one of the most modern, well-equipped airports in Spain. Once the new terminal is open in 2009 (hopefully) the airport will be able to handle thousands more passengers and fly to many more destinations. Longer haul flights will be available without having to change in Madrid or the UK, and new car parks will reduce the parking problems which now exist. So for those of you who have lived on the Costa del Sol for a number of years and have come to dread a trip to the airport to pick up friends and family, 2009 and the completion of the works is something to look forward to. As in my last blog, the Maria Zambrano Train Station, Malaga is also a modern, totally reformed building, and is a great advert for travellers arriving in the city. There are plenty of reasons to be cheerful about the Costa del Sol and Malaga in particular - check out some of the new tapas bars and restaurants in the city centre - chic, and elegant with superb food. So keep positive, stop moaning and celebrate the many positives about this fabulous coast.

Renfe - a pleasant surprise!

Having decided to brave Seville in mid-Summer, we also decided to take the train from Malaga to Seville and avoid the hassle of city driving - tempers can get frazzled in our car when we are hot and bothered and very slightly lost. Having looked on the Renfe website, www.renfe.es, I was pleased to see we could book online, and the whole operation took no more than 5 minutes. I can also get frazzled when trying to book or buy something online only to be confronted with page after page of questions to fill in -just stopping short of asking me what I had for breakfast. So it was all happy skippy with booking the tickets, then just after the credit card details had been accepted and the window pop-up was instructing me to print my tickets, my computer threw a wobbly and closed the page down. Hmm - I thought it was all going too swimmingly. Well luckily, Renfe admin had sent me a confirmation of booking with a reference so I spoke to the astonishingly helpful chap at the station (and was offered an English speaking operator if I preferred). He told me to take the booking reference to the station check in and our tickets would be waiting for us on the day of departure. Very helpful and very friendly - tomorrow we will see if it has worked! But all in all, having travelled on trains from Malaga to Seville and Madrid in the past, they are clean, cool and run on time - unlike the UK where delays and cancellations are hitting all time highs. So if you are planning to travel within Spain, consider checking out the Renfe Website - you will be pleasantly surprised by the prices too.