Arriving into Grenada via the Alsa bus was the most direct from Malaga airport. We also used the…read morebus as our backup to get to Cordoba after all the high speed trains were cancelled. Arrival and departures took place on the lower level along with a restaurant, lottery ticket booth and relatively clean bathrooms. Taxis and uber rides were caught outside the upper level. Ticket counters were here as well and always had long lines. Booking online was so much better and if you created a with ALSA they also provided a discount on the fares. Buses pulled in and out of the bays on the lower level and the schedule board was handy to figure out which one had our departing bus. Arrival from Malaga airport was ahead of schedule but our bus to Cordoba was delayed by half an hour. Unfortunately the schedule board dropped the destination once the original departure has passed even if delayed. Overall convenient and inexpensive option for heading to other parts of Andalusia and Spain.

We arrived at this station, about 15 min from the historic center to get our bus to Malaga. The…read morestation has two levels, where the bus platforms are in the lower level. There is signage about arrival and departure information all over the station. We took ALSA for our trip. ALSA stands for Automóviles Luarca, S.A. and it operates bus and coach services in Spain and other countries across Europe, including Andorra, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Ukraine. It also has operations in Morocco. The bus was on time, it was clean and it was air conditioned.

I'll be the first to say, public transportation has never been my thing with the exception of the…read moreSouth Shore in and out of Chicago :) The bus station in Malaga, Spain has been a lovely first experience for me. With several trips in and leaving, I've had time to be able to fairly look at the overall experience vs a one time trip. The bus weaves through Malaga giving you time for a bit of window shopping (from inside the bus) on the way to the station. The bus we use, prefers exact coin change which is collected as one boards. The bus station appears older and as I've found typical in Spain - it is clean and they clean frequently. The train station is also there. Two public washrooms, one on each end of the building. For some reason, the cleaning team seems prefer clean the closest bathroom right during morning commuter peak and evening commuter out peak times, plan accordingly. Due to the heavy consistent traffic flow, do not expect a spotless bathroom, The hand air dryer was not functional (bathroom furthest back) when I have used it. The front washroom has never been open - constantly being cleaned - each time I have been there morning and evening. There are several little mom and pop places selling food, drinks, ice cream, one also sold hotdogs. Prices are higher than at grocery store as is expected. Staff has been friendly. One was changing a phone card for someone and accepted our coins so we wouldn't have to wait. Waiting outside there are benches with a roof overhead. Clean enough for me to still allot 5 stars. Buses have numbered slots to pull in and signage with bus arrivals/departures is prominently posted outside by benches. Bonus - dining, cig shop, wonderful malls, ATMs all a quick crosswalk, maybe two.

The bus station in Malaga is next to the train station in the center of Malaga. A bit west of the…read morehistoric center. The station can be reached by taxi, foot, ride share, buses, etc. The easiest thing is to buy a ticket online using a mobile app, that way you can add it to your iPhone wallet and show right away. There are several companies working out of here, but the main ones are ALSA and Interbus (Damas). As you walk into the main entrance, there is an information desk that will not sell tickets but tell you where to go. TV screens also show the name of the destination (or arrival) and which platform it is located. Not great options for food or shopping, but the restrooms are clean and free.

Shore excursion from Celebrity Infinity. Bused from Malaga port to Granada. Dropped off across…read morethe street from Neptuno Shopping Mall. Rest of bus passengers took taxi into city center. Instead of seeing more of what tourists see we ended up spending our 4 hours seeing what a local family might see on a Sunday. We pretty much walked and explored much of a few city blocks another definition of aimless wandering and experiencing life in part of Granada. What to do? Stepped into a pet store cuz of the cute display of toys in the window. Something for fur Bebe and grandpup? Why not? Hubs asked the Spanish speaking shop employee for a lunch recommendation. She asked, drink? I hand motioned eat. Giving us directions in Spanish we did our best at what seemed like go straight, turn left then turn right. Arrived at a pretty cafe for outdoor and indoor dining. We chose inside. We asked for English menu and hooray they had one. According to ship recommendations for ham I chose melon and ham, flan and a Coke Zero. Hubs had a generous portion of garlic pork and potatoes, dessert and regular Coke. I tried a piece of hub's pork, so moist, tasty and lots of delicious sauce. Another bus passenger returned early to our rendez vous pick up spot. He had gone by taxi with his wife into city center to a better mall. He said all he did was wait while his wife shopped. They didn't have lunch only dessert. The wife was happy with her purchases of a coat and clothing. I kinda envied her shopping escapade but enjoyed our time our way in Granada.

I decided to do a quick trip to Granada, to see the Alhambra again....with its famous gardens and…read morebuildings, it was really a beautiful landmark to visit. The city of Granada lies along the Genil River at the northwestern slope of the Sierra Nevada, 2,260 feet above sea level. The city's name may have been derived either from the Spanish granada ("pomegranate"), a locally abundant fruit that appears on the city's coat of arms, or from its Moorish name, Karnattah (Gharnāṭah), possibly meaning "hill of strangers." As the seat of the Moorish kingdom of Granada was the final stronghold of the Moors in Spain, falling to the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I in January 1492. One of Spain's most frequently visited tourist centers, Granada contains many notable architectural and artistic monuments. The city is the see of an archbishop, and at the center of the city stands the Gothic Cathedral of Santa María de la Encarnación, containing the Royal Chapel (Capilla Real) with the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella and a display of heraldic decoration. The cathedral is profusely ornamented with jasper and colored marble, and its interior contains many fine paintings and sculptures. My tour guide took the group around the tight pedestrian streets of Old Town and I enjoyed the colorful walls and gardens. The city is one of the few in Spain, where you get free tapas with every drink !

Bad weather in Granada forced us to cut short our day trip & return to Malaga early. Instead of 6pm…read moredeparture on ALSA we paid a 2.80e change fee to switch to a 5pm bus. The departure gate board indicated gate 11 for bus departing to Malaga. The Granada station looked run down although, to its credit, its has an escalator to move you to street level & there's a departure gate overhead board. We kept waiting for ALSA bus. Finally a Avanza/Portillo bus showed up at gate late. The driver quickly disappeared. We weren't even sure that's our bus! There's no ground personnel to help; tough luck if you don't speak Spanish. Large crowd of passengers amassed near the front of the bus. Thank god we finally got on board;ALSA switched us but did not tell us. Found seat numbers on overhead blue lamp. Older crowded bus. No WiFi. Bus departed at 515pm. As if making up for lost time driver moved bus at fast pace albeit skillfully. Glad to be safely back to Malaga. Station that's cleaner and newer. Avanza Portillo buses are common sights in southern Spain.

Two routes through Cordoba. Both routes start at Calahorra Tower. One is a mini bus that goes…read morethrough the old parts of town; the other is a big double-decker bus that goes through the newer parts of town. The mini bus driver was great -- he pointed out stuff because the audio guide wasn't clear about what we needed to look for. The bus stop signage is awful. When we got on near the Roman ruins, we asked half dozen locals for the location of the stop and got 6 different answers. We never saw a sign and just ran for the bus when we saw it. After lunch, we found a tiny sign for this bus inside a city bus stop and waited there. Of course, the bus blew by and didn't stop there. The driver waved, though. The timing of the bus means you spend more time waiting for the bus than on the bus. Our pamphlet said the bus comes every 40 minutes during the off season (and you get to guess what's off season and what's not). One of the staff said that by 40, they meant 60. By watching the buses at a convenient lunch spot, we determined they really meant 80.