HYGEN Blog

Road trip from Murcia, Spain to Gibraltar

October 11th, 2010 | by admin |

Taming The Dodgy Renault Van

Murcia → Granada → Malaga → Marbella → La Linea De La Conception

Straight line distance: 510KM approx (316 Miles)
More likely distance (inc detours and curvy roads): 600KM (370 Miles)

Murcia Airport

Probably the worst airport in the world. No currency exchange, no working ATMs, no transport. Seriously, how can an airport not even have a money changer and public transport? There are supposed to be buses but it seems there are one or two a day. There are taxis, but they will cost you more than your flight at £40 just to get into Murcia town which is a mere 40KM away! We opted for car hire – the only viable solution despite the constant queue of an entire plane load of people. All they had left apparently was a huge Renault (more of a van than a car really) for 190 Euros a day with a full tank of petrol! Not exactly cheap car hire! The stress levels decreased for a while once we managed to finally hire the car, but quickly rose back up again with trepidation – I’ve never driven on the wrong side of the road before!

Murcia Town

Without GPS or any maps and a lack of road signs I decided to drive up to Murcia town hoping that a decent sized town will have signs that we can follow on or journey. Keep right, keep right, keep right! Roundabouts and turning corners were the toughest because I had to keep reminding myself to do the opposite on the road. Stopping at a few petrol stations for maps proved fruitless as they only ever seemed to cover the local area. Never mind – on to Murcia! The last thing we wanted was to get stuck driving in traffic in an unfamiliar town – in this situation you want to get in and out as smoothly as possible.

Spanish Vinyards

The plan worked and we arrived pretty quickly in the town centre. Now which way should we exit the town? Trial and error had us first drive the wrong way up towards Valencia! After about half an hour in the wrong direction and seeing the sign for Valencia the map in my head clicked in – I know Valencia is in the wrong direction so all we had to do was a U-turn and then we were back on track in the right direction!

Siera Nevada Mountains

Thankfully we did not get to see much of Murcia – no offence intended! We managed to avoid the town centre so there is nothing much to report on how Murcia looks and feels.

Siera Nevada

On The Road To Granada & Malaga

If you were to be blindfolded and then disorientated for a day before being finally allowed to see and explore your surroundings then the mountain ranges on the way to Malaga could easily fool you into thinking you are actually in Southern California! The mountain rages are really spectacular and the scenery along this part of the route is awesome. Less awesome the the roadside stops – wild west style saloons and crappy restaurants serving unrecognisable food. After stopping at a few places and realizing they are all pretty much the same with cowboy sludge on offer, we opted to survive this section of the road trip on snacks.

Spanish Castle

Once nearing Malaga finding the airport was easy enough – getting used to the town roads was more troublesome, as was finding a hotel. Most people would want to stay by the beach, but we needed to find a hotel near enough to the airport so the car can be returned the next morning. The first hotel was eliminated, purely because a prostitute came up to the car whilst parking – then comically walked off and started pretending to direct traffic instead when I reversed off! Exhausted after a long day of travel the second hotel had to do – a nice 4* place with easy parking and a more classy feel. Safety and comfort at a price – who cares, we were knackered!

Looks like malaysias kl kuantan highway

Morning! And one of the best hotel breakfast buffets I have ever had in my life, better than the Marriot even! Simply awesome – eat as much fine Serrano ham, fine cheese, breads, yoghurt, fruits, teas – everything. A huge array of the A-Z of breakfast possibilities and all delicious! On to the airport and after missing an exit 3 times due to some confusion at road works we were on track – and it took less than 15 minutes to get there.

Spanish Hills

Returning the car was a breeze with zero fuss. The surprises came a week later when my account was actually credited with £25 for unused petrol! That’s something you won’t get in Asia!

Stunning Mountain

Malaga Airport To La Linea De La Conception

Malaga airort was such a huge relief, simply because it was the opposite to Murcia airport. Malagas fine airport is huge and has everything you could possibly need and getting a bus back into Malaga towns bus station was a piece of cake.

Stunning Mountains

From the bus station in Malaga it’s just a short journey down to La Linea and mission completed!

More Stunning Mountains

Even More Stunning Mountains

Mega Mountain

On the road...

Wind Power

San Miguel Malaga

San Miguel Malaga

Spanish 7-Up

Malaga Bus Station

Malaga Bus Station - La Linea Bus On The board

Malaga To La Linea

Malaga Bunga Raya

Spanish Sex Shop

Malaga To La Linea, an Awesome Mountain On The Way

La Linea Hotel Room View Of Gibraltar