Overnight stay near Malaga Airport

[telboy]

I have friends from the UK who have a late night arrival at Malaga airport. Because they not confident on night driving and especially driving on the right, they were asking me about a overnight stay near the airport and picking up their hire car at the airport the following day.

I looked into this - it seems hotels offering this overnight stay are a bit pricey and based in Malaga City, a taxi would cost around 20€, to and from the airport.

Does anyone know of any hotels nearer, especially in nearby Torremolinos providing the same service?

Terry

[Enrique]

Hi telboy,

"Because they not confident on night driving and especially driving on the right"

One thing in their favour the roads would be very quiet late at night.

[costakid]

There are 2 hotels within a 2 minute drive of the airport. I think the Ibis is the closest.

[Beachcomber]

The Ibis is certainly within a five minute drive but get a price for the journey before getting into the taxi. A friend was charged €25 from the airport to the Ibis at 12.15am by a thieving airport taxi driver.

[Campo Steve]

Three years ago a lot of our family came out for our daughters wedding. For most of them their flights came into Malaga after dark and several were worried about driving so thought about either a hotel near the airport or hiring a bus to take them to Torre del Mar.

Eventually they decided to get cars and drive. They all found it wasn't a problem as the roads were quiet and they had good directions. They said afterwards that they were glad they had driven at night from the start as it was preferable to driving during the day when the roads are much busier.

I maybe wouldn't recommend it if there was a lot of driving on tracks but, assuming it is all on made up roads, then I would be tempted to suggest to your friends that driving in the dark isn't that difficult.

[Miro]

I think the Holiday Inn Express is the nearest - possibly even walkable?

[Colinm]

It can also be quite difficult to get into the car hire area in the airport because it is in the arrivals area. You can't access the arrivals area from the normal airport access points. It seems to be necessary to go through the parking garages and into the car hire desks through the 'back door' where the security guard really does give you a 'going over'.

Ignore this comment if renting from an off-site rental company (Helle Hollis etc).

[peteroldracer]

Anyone uncomfortable about driving at night, or on the right, should perhaps question their competence to drive at all! It should be something reserved only for those who have the basic abilities, and then undertake the training to do it really well.

[Campo Steve]

Not all hire care require you to go to the desks in the arrivals hall. Some have offices on the right as you approach the airport roundabout, such as Niza cars which is right at the roundabout.

[Nimrod]

As long as you're not off the beaten track,they've got sat nav,they'd be better off late at night,roads are much quieter.
However I recall the first time I rented a villa in Spain.At the top of a mountain and I recall the driving instructions..."make sure you turn right at the big rock".'Turn left in the dark and it was a sheer drop.
Even in daylight there were crests on a track that I took not knowing what was over the brow without walking it first.
This villa was so high you could almost touch the stars.
I wouldn;t drive to this place in the dark and I've been driving nearly 50 years to a high testable(police) standard.

[ajtg1952]

The Ibis is certainly within a five minute drive but get a price for the journey before getting into the taxi. A friend was charged €25 from the airport to the Ibis at 12.15am by a thieving airport taxi driver.

He is not a thieving airport taxi driver; he is a taxi driver that has had to queue for up to two hours to get that fare. Do you expect him to charge €5 before going back to the end of the queue. This is the same at every international airport. Try Heathrow after midnight, they won't even pick you up for local hotels.

Unfortunately the airport hotels don't all have courtesy buses and those that do they tend to stop operating fairly early.

Have you thought about going to the airport and let your friends follow you to their destination; a pain, but a solution non the less.

[Beachcomber]

Even the 9km journey to Torremolinos is only €16,66 on the night time tariff. The Ibis is 3km at the most and this was about five years so he was a thieving taxi driver.

[frank]

The Ibis is certainly within a five minute drive but get a price for the journey before getting into the taxi. A friend was charged €25 from the airport to the Ibis at 12.15am by a thieving airport taxi driver.

He is not a thieving airport taxi driver; he is a taxi driver that has had to queue for up to two hours to get that fare. Do you expect him to charge €5 before going back to the end of the queue. This is the same at every international airport. Try Heathrow after midnight, they won't even pick you up for local hotels.

Agree with Beachy, he is a thieving airport taxi driver. If he has been waiting 2 hours, which I don't believe, that's tough, that's the luck of the draw, you win some you lose some. If he has to queue 2 hours for every fare, he's going to be a very poor taxi driver. Not sure what Heathrow has to do with it, the OP isn't going there.

[Campo Steve]

At a lot of airports, including Heathrow but not sure if Malaga operate the system, if a taxi driver gets a pickup where the journey is only a short one then they don't have to go to the holding bay on retirn to the sirport. They are allowed straight back to the pickup point. I know Heathrow, Glasgow and Gatwick introduced this as many taxi drivers were refusing to accept short journeys. I suspect other airports do it as well.

It would be interesting to know if Malaga have a similar system.