15 Malaga Hotels, from a King’s Opening Day to a Courthouse and Back
The 1926 palace hotel that spent twenty years as a courthouse, a parador beside the Gibralfaro castle, a railway headquarters called the Palace of Ink, and a Nasrid wall under glass in a hotel basement.
Málaga’s hotels were a courthouse, a railway office and a 1950s insurance tower before they were hotels, and one of them found the city wall under its foundations. This list has the Gran Hotel Miramar, opened by Alfonso XIII in 1926 and home to the Palacio de Justicia from 1987 to 2007, the Parador beside the Gibralfaro castle, the Palacio de la Tinta, the 1908 railway headquarters named for its clerks’ ink, and the Posada del Patio, with a stretch of Nasrid wall displayed under glass.
The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Where a hotel’s own site could be confirmed, its name links there; the rest are listed without one.
Grand dames and palaces
Gran Hotel Miramar · La Malagueta / Paseo de Reding
The Miramar opened in January 1926 as the Hotel Príncipe de Asturias, designed by Fernando Guerrero Strachan and inaugurated by King Alfonso XIII. Renamed Miramar under the Republic, it served as a hospital in the Civil War and from 1987 to 2007 housed Málaga’s Palacio de Justicia. Hoteles Santos reopened it in 2017 after a restoration, and it bills itself as the city’s first five-star Gran Lujo hotel.
Parador de Málaga Gibralfaro · Gibralfaro hill
The Parador stands beside the fourteenth-century Gibralfaro castle, built under Yusuf I of Granada to protect the Alcazaba below. It began in 1948 as the Hostería de Gibralfaro, a state-run restaurant and lookout, by the Paradores account, and was later enlarged into the present hotel. The rooftop pool and terraces look straight down on the La Malagueta bullring, the port and the bay.
Palacio Solecio · Centro Histórico / Calle Granada
The Palacio Solecio occupies a late eighteenth-century palace on Calle Granada, a short walk from the Picasso Museum in the Palacio de Buenavista. The hotel traces the palace to Félix Solesio, the Genoese merchant behind the royal playing-card factory at Macharaviaya. It opened in late 2019 with the restaurant Balausta, run by the Michelin-starred Málaga chef José Carlos García.
Áurea Palacio de la Tinta · La Malagueta / Paseo de Reding
The Palacio de la Tinta was completed in 1908 as the headquarters of the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles Andaluces, designed by the engineer Julio O’Brien. The name, the Palace of Ink, is said to come from the volume of ink its railway clerks consumed. After decades as the seat of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Sur, it opened in 2026 as a hotel under Eurostars Hotel Company’s Áurea brand.
Rooms over the old city
Vincci Selección Posada del Patio · Centro / Guadalmedina riverside (Pasillo de Santa Isabel)
Digging the foundations of the Posada del Patio uncovered a stretch of Málaga’s Nasrid-era city wall, now displayed under glass in the hotel’s lower floors. It opened in 2010 on the Pasillo de Santa Isabel beside the Guadalmedina, taking its name from the old posada that stood on the site.
Hotel Boutique Teatro Romano · Centro Histórico / Alcazabilla
The Teatro Romano faces the Roman theatre on Calle Alcazabilla, built in the reign of Augustus and rediscovered in 1951 beneath the former Casa de la Cultura. The upper rooms look across the theatre to the walls of the eleventh-century Alcazaba, and the Picasso Museum is two streets away.
Catalonia Molina Lario · Centro Histórico / Catedral
The Molina Lario occupies two restored nineteenth-century buildings on the street named for the eighteenth-century bishop who built the San Telmo aqueduct. Its rooftop pool and terrace face the cathedral’s single finished tower, the reason locals call the cathedral La Manquita. It opened as the independent Hotel Molina Lario in 2006 and now trades under Catalonia Hotels & Resorts.
AC Hotel by Marriott Málaga Palacio · Centro / Cortina del Muelle, facing the Catedral and Paseo del Parque
The Málaga Palacio opened in 1966 as a fifteen-storey tower on the Cortina del Muelle, facing the cathedral and the Paseo del Parque. The Málaga architect Juan Jáuregui Briales designed it, and it was for decades the tallest hotel in the city, by the hotel’s account. Its top-floor pool and bar look over the cathedral roof to the port and Gibralfaro.
The Alameda and Calle Larios
Hotel Larios Málaga · Centro Histórico / Calle Larios
The Larios stands at number 2 Calle Marqués de Larios, the arcaded street opened in 1891 to a plan by Eduardo Strachan and financed by the Larios family. Its rooftop terrace overlooks the Plaza de la Constitución and the full length of the street. It traded as Room Mate Larios for almost two decades before returning to the Hotel Larios name.
Vincci Larios Diez · Centro Histórico / Calle Larios
The Larios Diez occupies the protected building at number 10 Calle Larios, part of the street’s original late nineteenth-century ensemble. It opened in 2018 as Vincci’s second Málaga hotel, with a rooftop terrace above the street.
Petit Palace La Equitativa · Alameda Principal, west end
La Equitativa fills the Edificio de La Equitativa, the insurance-company tower completed in 1956 at the west end of the Alameda Principal. Manuel Cabanyes designed it, and it is counted among Málaga’s first high-rise buildings. It opened as the Soho Boutique Equitativa and now operates as Petit Palace La Equitativa.
Only YOU Hotel Málaga · Alameda Principal, east end
Only YOU opened on 15 October 2021 in a restored historic building at number 1 Alameda Principal, the chain’s second hotel outside Madrid. The interiors are by Lázaro Rosa-Violán, with a rooftop pool and bar over the Alameda and the port.
Out of the ordinary
Soho Boutique Castillo de Santa Catalina · El Limonar / Monte Sancha
The Castillo de Santa Catalina is a castle-style villa built in the early 1930s on Monte Sancha, the hill above the Paseo de Sancha where Málaga’s wealthy built their villas, by the hotel’s account. Soho Boutique Hotels runs it as an adults-recommended hotel, and its terraces and pool look over the eastern bay toward the port and Gibralfaro.
Parador de Málaga Golf · Guadalmar / Churriana, west of the city by the airport
The Parador de Málaga Golf sits beside the Campo de Golf de Málaga, laid out in 1925 and the oldest golf course in Andalusia. It stands on Guadalmar beach between the mouth of the Guadalhorce and the airport, with the course running to the shore, and was the Paradores network’s first golf parador, by its own account.
Hotel del Pintor · Centro Histórico / Calle Álamos, near Plaza de la Merced
The Hotel del Pintor is a small hotel on Calle Álamos decorated throughout with the paintings of the Málaga artist Pepe Bornoy, after whom it is named. It sits a few streets from the Plaza de la Merced and the house where Picasso was born in 1881, and now operates under the Hoteles con Cultura label.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.
What made a hotel interesting enough for this list?
A story. Every entry was a grand dame or palace with a documented past, a building with a view over the Roman theatre or the cathedral, a house on the Alameda or Calle Larios with a date attached, or something out of the ordinary. Comfort alone did not qualify.
Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Where a hotel runs its own site, its name links there, so you see the current rate and book direct.
Should I stay in the old city or by the beach?
The Centro Histórico hotels put you among the cathedral, the Picasso Museum and the tapas bars, with La Malagueta beach fifteen minutes on foot. The Paseo de Reding hotels sit between the two. The Gibralfaro Parador is a taxi ride up the hill, with the view but no walk into town.
Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from Málaga run to Ronda, to Granada and the Alhambra, to the Caminito del Rey, to Nerja and Frigiliana, or to Gibraltar. The hotels around the Alameda and the Centro Histórico sit closest to the coach pickups and the María Zambrano station.