As we are, at last, nearing completion on our holiday home in Spain we have been considering if the purchase of a car is really necessary.  So we decided, by way of a little research, that when we visited Spain at Christmas we would use public transport rather than hire a car .

We arrived at Malaga airport in the evening of 23rd December and decided that, until we obtained a bus time table, a taxi to our destination of Benalmadena would be our best option . 

For the following two weeks we walked or used local buses up and down the coast and at 1.25 euros per journey, however long or short, we are assured that for local travel the bus service is frequent and resonably priced. A couple who were also in our hotel even travelled to Granada for the day, although it meant a very early start for them. They could not adequately sing the praises of the public transport system. We  hired a car for a few hours one day because it was raining and we wished to visit our property which is in an area-Mijas Golf-served only  twice a day by  bus.

At the end of our holiday we travelled to the airport by bus from Benalmadena and had no problems at all.

The area around our property is fairly flat and the roads are good so walking is not difficult  and even cycling is an option. In time there may even be a more frequent bus service but until then it will mean a taxi to the supermarket for stocking up and to and from Fuengirola for getting to the airport.

The next time we visit Spain it will,hopefully, be to take possession of our property and of course the hire of a car will be necessary for those first few weeks. We shall also be nearer to a train station and so will be able to test the convenience and cost of it's use.

Our overall conclusion is that for our intended winter use of the property  the purchase of a car is un-necessary.  At that time of year the buses are not too hot and crowded to be un-bearable, they are frequent and the fares are reasonable.

I would appreciate any comments on our findings.

I should add that we are retired and do not need to keep our days to a tight schedule.

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Thanks for the reply Susan and for pointing out that not all of the Costa del Sol enjoys the same standard of public transport as Benalmadena. 

I did hope that others would contribute to my thread but it seems that for most people the motor car is King, no matter how efficient public transport is.

At home we run two cars,one each, which is rather a luxury now that we are both retired. Neither of us want to give up our car here and so we did the feasability study over our Christmas break and were both pleasantly assured that we could manage without one in Spain.

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If I remember correctly, the CDS has a great train service that runs from Marbella through Fuengirola, Benalmadena, Torremolinos and Malaga.  We use to catch this on a regular basis when we holidayed in Fuengirola some years back.  There was also a good bus service along the coast and places inland.

Unfortunately, on the Costa Blanca, the train service along the coast is non-existent and the bus service is OK for taking you from the centre of town to the centre of another town.  You cannot, however, get from Torrevieja to Alicante airport without going into the centre of Alicante and either taxi or airport bus transfer.  Coming the other way, if you go into Torrevieja you need a taxi to get to where you live.  In my neck of the woods, there are no buses at all (although I've been told they have put up a bus stop there so something might be coming).  If you want to go to the beach, you have walk about 2 miles to Villamartin and 2 buses a day do the round trip to the beach in the summer months only.  You can get from the beach to the centre of Torrevieja by bus and then do it the other way round.

I'm afraid I will be sticking with the car when I visit as taxi fares would probably cost more than the cost of the hire car.

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