Taxi Málaga Airport → Lanjarón and the Alpujarra

Prices by vehicle

Single journey, VAT included, on toll-free roads; the AP-46 tunnel at Las Pedrizas is optional and settled separately if you want it. A return is exactly twice this figure. Starting at the train station or the cruise port changes nothing in the price.

Drop-off

Lanjarón is essentially one long avenue, the Avenida de la Alpujarra, with hotels and the spa strung along it and side streets climbing steeply either way. The driver pulls in at your hotel or as close to your rental as the narrow lanes let him, then walks the luggage the rest of the way if a flight of steps is involved.

Inside the Terminal 3 arrivals hall at Málaga Airport, where the driver stands with a board showing your name.

What awaits you

• The spa and the water fountains
• Castle ruins above the gorge
• Gateway villages of the Alpujarra

By the coast road or through Granada

There are two ways to Lanjarón and we pick the one that suits the day. The default is the coastal A-7 to Motril, a fast dual carriageway with the sea on your right the whole way past Nerja, Almuñécar and Salobreña, then the A-44 north up the Guadalfeo gorge, past the Rules reservoir, to the Lanjarón turning near Vélez de Benaudalla. That is about 150 km and a little under two hours. The alternative runs inland by the A-45 and A-92 to Granada and down the A-44 from the north, similar in time, useful if there is an incident on the coast or if you want to combine the trip with a stop in the city.

The last stretch, the A-348 into the town, is the first taste of the Alpujarra: olive terraces, the Sierra de Lújar opposite, and a road that twists up in a way the motorway did not prepare you for. It is a normal two-lane road, nothing alarming, but anyone prone to car sickness should sit in the front for the final twenty minutes.

Spa town first, mountain gateway second

Lanjarón has been a spa town for two centuries, and the balneario is still the reason many visitors come, along with the free fountains dotted along the main avenue where locals fill bottles. The avenue itself, the Avenida de la Alpujarra, is the whole town for practical purposes: hotels, cafés, the church and the bus stop are all on it, so once dropped you can walk everything. Above the town a ruined castle sits on a spur over the river gorge, a short climb with a wide view down towards the coast. It is a calmer, older-fashioned place than the Poqueira villages further in, and popular with walkers who want a hotel rather than a rural house.

Continuing into the Alpujarra

For many customers Lanjarón is the drop, but for others it is the point where the real drive begins. Órgiva, the market town of the valley, is fifteen minutes on; the white villages of the Poqueira gorge, Pampaneira, Bubión and Capileira, are another half hour of climbing on the A-4132 with hairpins and views that make people ask the driver to slow down; Trevélez, the ham village high under Mulhacén, is further still. We quote each of these separately because the road time is real and the villages have their own parking arrangements, usually a car park at the edge and a walk in on foot. Mention the village and the name of the house in the booking form.

Night arrivals and winter in the valley

Evening flights are no problem: the A-7 and A-44 are lit motorways and the A-348 is quiet after dark. The Alpujarra villages, however, close early, so if you are heading past Lanjarón arrange the key handover before you fly. In winter the valley road stays open, though frost on the shaded bends above Órgiva makes the driver slower and heavy snow can reach Capileira and Trevélez; Lanjarón itself, at under 700 metres, rarely sees any.

Areas we cover in Lanjarón and the Alpujarra

Local tips for your arrival

• Give 48 hours' notice for Lanjarón and the Alpujarra; it is one of our longer routes and we allocate the car the day before.
• Bring an empty bottle: the fountains along the avenue each have a different mineral water and the locals compare them.
• If your final destination is a rural house above the villages, send the owner's directions or a map pin; house names are more useful than street numbers up there.
• Motion sickness is common on the A-4132 hairpins to the Poqueira villages; a front seat and a window cracked open help more than anything.
• In summer the coast road is busiest between noon and two on Saturdays, so weekend arrivals may take fifteen minutes longer.

Back to Málaga from Lanjarón and the Alpujarra

For the trip back we collect from your hotel on the avenue or from the village car park if you are in the Alpujarra, whichever point the car reached on arrival. Reckon on the drive of just under two hours from Lanjarón, more from Capileira or Trevélez, and then the airport margin: two hours for a Schengen flight, two and a half in summer or for the UK and other non-Schengen destinations. From Lanjarón that means a pickup four hours before take-off, and the driver will propose a time once you give us the flight. For the port or the train station the calculation is the same with a slightly shorter drive.

From the train station or the cruise port

The fixed price to Lanjarón and the Alpujarra is the same from Málaga-María Zambrano train station and from the cruise port. Choose your origin in the form; the driver meets you at the platform exit or outside the cruise terminal.

Other destinations in this area