AC Malaga Palacio Hotel, Malaga

We were outside work in the car park, three of us enjoying the fresh air and sunshine and Angry Man kicking the wall and smoking a cigarette. "Malaga" he said authoritatively "is a dump." This was a view I was to hear echoed from the minute I booked the flight to Malaga and decided to stop overnight before we travelled further into Spain, right up to getting the train from Malaga Airport. Even as a kindly English lady helped us ...
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I am pleased to report that Malaga is not that bad. In fact (and I'm not saying this to be contrary) - I like it! This was helped in part by our rather well located hotel. The train journey in from the Airport twists through slum like flats, but somehow, these look better than the approach to Paddington in the rain and the 2 euro journey was the start of the holiday.
Unfortunately, our map was not to scale and the Hotel is a long-ish ... more

We were outside work in the car park, three of us enjoying the fresh air and sunshine and Angry Man kicking the wall and smoking a cigarette. "Malaga" he said authoritatively "is a dump." This was a view I was to hear echoed from the minute I booked the flight to Malaga and decided to stop overnight before we travelled further into Spain, right up to getting the train from Malaga Airport. Even as a kindly English lady helped us work the ticket machine, our decision was under question.

I am pleased to report that Malaga is not that bad. In fact (and I'm not saying this to be contrary) - I like it! This was helped in part by our rather well located hotel. The train journey in from the Airport twists through slum like flats, but somehow, these look better than the approach to Paddington in the rain and the 2 euro journey was the start of the holiday.
Unfortunately, our map was not to scale and the Hotel is a long-ish walk through town from that station. We had to get a taxi there and although we did manage the walk back to the station the following day with our luggage, it's probably not something I'd recommend, especially at night. Despite the whoops when we told the taxi drivers our destination, the taxi cost about 8 euros and this is a very good price.

The hotel itself is an imposing corner tower, a little more dilapidated on the outside than the website would have you believe, but with a reception area that wouldn't be out of place in the United Nations. The staff at the desk spoke no English on check-in and The Boyfriend wasn't ready to use his Spanish, so we settled for sign language and eventually got our keys. Weary and probably a little dirty, we attracted some stares from the suited and booted business guests and sheepishly headed straight for our room to change.

We were on the fifth floor and, stood on the balcony, we had a good view of the wall of the Cathedral to our right, the port and the sea to our left and straight ahead, a beautifully paved side street with some promising looking restaurants. The room itself wasn't overly big, but had two beds pushed together to make a clean, comfortable double. The usual desk and chair were provided, bedside tables and lamps and an impressive looking alarm-clock radio which The Boyfriend switched straight on. He has a somewhat creepy knack of getting any radio to play REM, when the first song that blared out was 'Losing My Religion', I knew we'd be happy here.

The bathroom had soft white matching towels, a black marble counter with a white basin set into it, and a huge mirror. The whole plate glass and marble thing was fantastic, but so was the selection of free gifts; shampoo, bath gel, body milk. Toothbrush, toothpaste, shoe shine kit, nail files, sewing kit, cotton buds, comb and more - the kind of selection that makes you wonder why you bothered to pack.

The freebies in the actual bedroom were even better - if you've read even one single other review on this hotel, I'm pretty sure that you've heard the legend of the free mini-bar. Either they decided it was too expensive or the other reviewers weren't looking closely, but the beer in ours was non-alcoholic. We cracked open a bottle of beer, poured out two glasses (there were chilled glasses and a bottle opener ready in the mini-bar, no mouthwash glasses for us!) and sat out on our balcony.

After soaking up the deliciously warm Spanish evening for a while, we changed and headed out for some more. The hotel is right next to shopping streets and popular restaurants, but still quiet in the evening. After a gorgeous (black pig for The Boyfriend and vegetable Ratatouille for me) and very reasonably priced dinner, we wandered around. The advantage of Malaga is that it's not touristy enough to serve egg and chips and charge the earth. It's a functional city, with building work going on and people going about their uncontrived daily business.

Back at the hotel, we checked out the rooftop pool. Smaller than expected, the pool is probably more of a venue for the business people to mingle around than somewhere to swim. Still in smart suits, they stood in groups holding glasses of wine and looking out at the view. And the view from the roof is magnificent. Up close to the top of the cathedral, you can marvel at the close architecture, the sea glittered and the cars were blurs of light though avenues of palm trees below. The fortress of the Alcazabar is remarkably close and at that height we were parallel. If common sense hadn't kicked in, almost all of our photos would probably have been taken up there.

After a comfortable night, we tried out the shower. This was good and powerful with no unexpected temperature variations, The Boyfriend emerging with a scrubbed look. I blasted my hair with the hairdryer for a minute, before deciding the Spanish heat would dry it just fine and pulled on a clean t-shirt before we headed for breakfast. The lifts took an eternity (they always did in this hotel) which gave us time to realise we had no idea where we were going. Luckily, the combination of the friendly maid and the sign in the lift gave it away that breakfast was on the second floor.

Breakfast was okay. Literally okay. We've had better, but then we've had a lot worse. There was cereal, fruit (fresh and tinned), meat and cheese. Bread rolls and fruit juice. It was all okay in a tepid kind of way, but the staff were very slow to top it up and I thought the waitress was going to hit me when I tried to get The Boyfriend a second cup of coffee. It seems you're not allowed to pour your own, but they don't really want to get it for you either. Breakfast was the only point of our stay when things felt a little sour, but then it was also our only prolonged encounter with the miserable restaurant staff. I made up for it by stuffing my handbag with sandwiches and cakes for lunch.

Checkout was easy and swift (once we'd been ignored for five minutes), and we were able to put our clinking suitcases (I'd taken the remaining Fanta, Coke, Diet Coke from the mini bar) into the luggage room. The luggage man was very pleasant and helpful, as was the English speaking man who'd suddenly appeared at the front desk. We could have done with him the previous evening to find out which floor our room was on, or when breakfast was, but here was here now with his paper map and good directions and that was enough. The location really came into play at this point. We discovered that the hotel was barely two streets from the Alcazabar, the Roman theatre, the Gibalfaro castle, the internet café and numerous small shops and we went on to have an amazing day of sightseeing (complete with the lunch I made at breakfast and the plastic bottles of water from the mini-bar) without leaving the immediate area.

Standard rooms at the Malaga Palacio can be booked from £84 per night (Rooms.net) through to £200 plus and if you get a good deal I'd recommend this hotel for a great location. On the downside, the rude staff and business atmosphere are a little trying, but a room with a view more than makes up for this.

It's worth bearing in mind that access may be an issue as the lifts are narrow and the entrance and reception desk are up stairs with no alternative route. You won't get a great deal of swimming done in the paddling size pool, but for a good night's sleep this is comfy, quiet and central. Like Malaga itself, this hotel is no disappointment.

More boardroom than boutique, but good value for money. 

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