How far is Malaga from Marbella? Here's the quick answer if you make this quick drive without any stops. Of course, traffic is going to make a big difference so make sure you check that before leaving.
Nonstop drive: 37 miles or 60 km
Driving time: 47 minutes
Even on a short drive, it might be more interesting to stop along the way and explore the local area. You can scroll down to see the calculation if you drive with stops.
Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Marbella, Spain and Malaga, Spain. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.
Flight distance: 29 miles or 47 km
Flight time: 34 minutes
The straight line flight distance is 8 miles less than driving on roads, which means the driving distance is roughly 1.3x of the flight distance.
Your plane flies much faster than a car, so the flight time is about 1/1th of the time it would take to drive.
This is a relatively short flight in a private plane, but you might be planning to book a commercial flight. In that case, your travel time would really need to include how many minutes to get to your local airport, wait for security, board and taxi on the runway, land at the other airport, and get to your destination.
Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Malaga, and you want to stop on the way to explore. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting places along the way, or maybe eat at a great restaurant. That's what Trippy is perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.
Road trip: 1 day of driving
With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.
Travel time: 4.5 hours on the road
Itinerary
Start in Marbella.
Drive for about 14 minutes, then stop at San Pedro (Malaga) and stay for about 1 hour.
Next, drive for another 24 minutes then stop in Júzcar and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 14 minutes then stop in Serranía de Ronda and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 58 minutes then stop at Gibraltar and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 1.5 hours then stop in Ronda and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 48 minutes then stop in Mijas and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 17 minutes then stop in Santa Cruz del Comercio and stay for 1 hour.
Finally, drive for about 18 minutes and arrive in Malaga.
To see all the details on this itinerary, including recommended restaurants, hotels, and things to do along the way, check out the full road trip planner:
Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Malaga, Spain. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Malaga. Trippy has an entire Q&A community where you can post questions and get answers from expert travelers or locals who know the area. For instance, you might be interested in the answers to this question: Things to do in Marbella. A great place to eat might be Bodega Bar El Pimpi. Trippy members can suggest things to do in Malaga like Picasso Museum Málaga. Check out some of the questions people have asked about Malaga like What to do for port day in Malaga?. Click the button below to explore Malaga in detail.
The distance is the same either way if you're flying a straight line (or driving the same roads back and forth). But for a real trip, there can be plenty of differences so go ahead and check the reverse directions to get the distance from Malaga to Marbella, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.
If you happen to know Marbella, don't forget to help other travelers and answer some questions about Marbella!
More info on this route:
drive from Marbella to Malaga
road conditions
alternate routes
Google driving directions