The special Buy Passport Online l Malaga airport to Marbella bus station bus service provides welcome and easy access to visitors to the Costa del Sol. If you are arriving at the airport in daylight hours and would prefer to pick up your hire car in Marbella the following day or later, then the airport bus service is the way to go.

If you have flown in from an EU country you'll pick up your baggage from one of the carousels just after passport control but if you have transited in Madrid or Barcelona, flying in from elsewhere in the world with your bags checked through to Malaga from your airport of departure, you'll pick them up on the last carousel right next to Customs.

Walk out of the baggage reclaim area into the arrivals hall in T2 and you will be greeted by a sea of faces and cheerful noise. Welcome to Spain!

Turn first right out of the arrivals area on the ground floor and walk about 50 meters along the large tunnel under the departures level above. The bus stop is clearly marked and is also used by the L19 service which runs every 30 minutes into the center of Malaga taking in the Malaga bus station and the Malaga train station right next door on its route.

You will find a printed timetable above the seats. The schedule runs with greater frequency in the summer months, that's June through to the end of September on the Costa del Sol. Out of those months , you may have to wait a little longer for the next service but there's a cafeteria in the arrivals area with international newspapers available during daylight hours. At Malaga airport, you buy your tickets from the driver on the bus and when you are traveling back to the airport from Marbella, you will get your ticket at the ticket agency in the Marbella bus service. The Portillo bus company which operates all bus services on the Costa del Sol is introducing online booking for all its bus schedules but as of July 2008, it is not up and running.

The bus normally arrives about 5 minutes before the scheduled departure time and is clearly signed, "Marbella - Aeropuerto" When it pulls in and if there is a crowd waiting to get on, this is not the moment to be polite. Keep your place in the queue and don't allow yourself to be pushed aside. If two of you are traveling, one of you puts the bags into the baggage compartments under the bus and the other gets into the queue. If you are on your own, nip round to the other side of the bus which nobody ever uses, pop your suitcase into the compartment there and then come round the front of the bus and grab the handrail to get on as if you had been there all the time.

Pay the driver, try to have coins or low-value notes ready, take a seat on the driver's side of the bus for views of the sea and coast and then take things easy for the rest of the journey listening in to one of the local radio stations. The bus climbs the coastal bypass high above Torremolinos and Benalmadena then drops down behind Fuengirola taking the toll road to Marbella to Buy Passport Online.

The only stop during the 45-minute journey is for the electronic toll payment behind Calahonda. You'll pass the La Cañada shopping complex in the foothills behind Marbella and then the Marbella fire station on the right before pulling in to the Marbella bus station. The taxi rank is outside the bus station and you are ready for the next part of your adventure!

Visit go Marbella for help with travel to southern Spain and especially the Costa del Sol Make full use of my long experience and contacts to have a rich and pleasurable visit to Europe's California. Buy Passport Online for advice on hire cars, bus travel on the Costa del Sol, excursions to Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Ronda, Gibraltar, Tanger in Morocco and Malaga. Find accommodation whether camping, staying in a hostel or hotel.

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