our journey to Spain

In December 2023 we decided to organize an exploratory visit to Andalusia. In this post we’ll tell something about our trip, arrival, car renting and how we found the area around Málaga where usually Finns spend their winter holidays to escape for a while the dark and cold months.

Ari was going to turn 50, and we thought that the best way to celebrate his half century could be a trip to Spain to check out if it was worth planning our future there. We decided that, before reaching Costa Tropical, we could have spent a few days in Costa del Sol in order to fulfill our curiosity about it. Ari had visited Torremolinos with his parents when he was very young.

It’s always nice to see how places change, and maybe measure how we have changed in the meanwhile too.

Another reason why we decided to give a look around Málaga and the Southern part of the province was that: we had heard talking so much about that part of the region by our Finnish friends that we thought it was worth to pay a visit. To say it all, our plan was to investigate carefully Costa Tropical, but still we wanted to keep a sort of objective view and attitude before setting up a new home or call a final decision.

Moving a family to a new place, another country, is an important step. It requires care. We do not want to let any possibility out until we settle down. We believe, in fact, that only after a period in a place we are going to be sure about having taken the right choice or not. Considering other areas, looking at websites and searching in Facebook groups of people living all over Spain is something that we still do. We have to take into account several factors. Above all, work possibilities, and also the availability of services for our child and for us (schools, healthcare, etc.) .

We decided for a quick visit to some towns that are quite popular among Finns for spending their Winter holidays.

So, we bought our tickets for our trip in February: direct flight Airbaltic from Tampere to Málaga.

When traveling with our child we always make sure to have an experience as comfortable as possible. We mind the price, of course, and we try to avoid intermediate stops. We prefer an early departure to a night flight, even if someone might notice that the Finnish winter is dark in any case! 🙂

We left very early in the morning, and our flight lasted about four and a half hours. We reached Málaga airport in the morning, and this was very nice as we had all the first day of our trip to enjoy ourselves in the warm Spanish weather! Yes!!!

We rented a car from the airport and, by the way, we recommend people traveling during the low season to do the same. No need to book it in advance as there are plenty of companies at the airport. The price of the car – a small suv – was around 20 euros per day. We were asked only a deposit of about 100 euros from the credit card. The deposit was fully refunded when we returned the car. Another recommendation: make a good video of the car as soon as you get it. Film the eventual scratches and defects that you can find outside and inside the vehicle. It is the evidence of the condition the car is when you get it.

Once we rented our car, we went to Torremolinos where we had booked a hotel for a couple of nights. We checked-in our hotel and immediately left for a little walk along the seaside.

BEAUTIFUL! Blue sky, not even a cloud, warm, sunny and windy. People were jogging, sitting in terraces drinking bear and eating tapas. It was amazing! We were happy!

Costa del Sol for Winter Holidays

Because of its fame, we were curious to see how these towns look like. Differently than other Nordics (Norwegians and Swedes) who are scattered along the costs of Spain with slightly higher numbers in some places, the presence of Finns is mostly concentrated in a couple of towns. In Costa del Sol, there is no doubt that Fuengirola has the record as number of Finnish inhabitants. Others live in the surroundings of Málaga, as in Benalmadena, Torremolinos, Mijas, etc.

As already mentioned, Costa del Sol is one of the typical Autumn/Winter holiday destinations for those Finns who want to take a break from the darkness of those months, but not only. Actually, the Spanish Costa del Sol is the second area outside Finland for number of Finnish residents – Sweden is the first.

As we had just come from Finland we decided not to visit Fuengirola, the so called “little Finland”, but we wanter better to see a bit of the other towns.

We spent a couple of lazy days between Torremolinos and Benalmádena, walking around, having some break to eat some delicious Spanish food here and there. We visited the Sea Life aquarium in Benalmádena, I visited a hairdresser where I had relaxing and restyling moment. We had an nice evening in Málaga with a friend from the time I lived in Barcelona. Seeing Carlos has been the best of Málaga. We know it is a wonderful town, but we had two hours spent in the traffic just to try to find a parking spot.

The third day of our trip we left Costa del Sol and, full of joy and expectations we took the A7 road to Costa Tropical. A bit over half an hour drive and we were ready to see the land we had been dreaming so much about.

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